11th SCCS Europe
1-5 September 2026, Balatonvilágos, Hungary
Preliminary programme:
1st September (Tuesday):
afternoon, until 17:30 – Arrival at Balatonvilágos, Hungary
18:00 – 19:00 Dinner
19:30 – Evening get-together: to make this event more international, we would like to ask you to bring your local food and/or drink speciality for the get-together evening to increase the diversity of choices :)
2nd September (Wednesday): Carpathian Day
08:00 – 08:45 Breakfast
08:45 – 09:15 Opening ceremony
09:15 – 10:00 Plenary
- Tamara Mitrofanenko: Linking Biodiversity, Pastoralism and Cultural Heritage: Carpathian Convention the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026
10:00 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 12:00 Student session: People and Nature
- Magdalena Pustoszkin: Nomadic Traditions and Sustainable Tourism: Pastoralism as a Tool for High-Mountain Conservation in Kyrgyzstan
- Maciej Wydra: How Fungi Shape Our Understanding of Nature and the World - Humanities Perspective on Interconnectedness in the Age of Individualism
- Gergő Varga: Human–Brown Bear Coexistence in Eastern Europe: Local Perceptions and Social–Ecological Archetypes
- Vlăduț-George Lucan: Riding the Current: Timber Rafting as a Living Resource for Sustainable Regional Development
- Shuting Chen: Decoupling of Travel Time from Distance Increases Protected Area Exposure to Human Access
- Charlotte Needham: Socioeconomic Determinants of Tolerance Towards Coyotes in Monterrey, Mexico and the Role of Media in the Perceptions of People
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:30 Workshop
- Tamara Mitrofanenko: Carpathian Day: Developing Communication and Policy Recommendations for Linking Biodiversity and Sustainable Regional Development
14:30 – 14:45 Break
14:45 – 16:00 Student session: Plant Ecology
- Bálint Pacsai: Lessons of Patience – from a Geophyte
- Vivien Lábadi: Morphometric and Demographic Analysis of Seedlings and Juvenile Plants: It Really does Matter Whether Data are Collected Ex-situ or In-situ
- Indri Puspitasari: Scale-Dependent Patterns of Plant Diversity in Hungarian Forest-Grassland Mosaics
- Sarolta Szilágyi: Comparison of the Effects of Continuous Cover Forestry and Rotation Forestry Management on Understorey Vegetation in Hungarian Native Forests
- Giulia De Luca: Evaluating the Effect of Soil Tillage Intensity and Land-Cover Change on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi
16:00 – 16:45 Coffee break
16:45 – 17:30 Plenary
- Agnieszka Wypych: The Carpathians in a Warmer World: Climate Change and Its Environmental Consequences
17:30 – 18:00 Student session: Policy vs. Practice
- Nikita Kardash: Automated Law Enforcement and Property-Based Accountability for Ecocide: A Case Study of Forest Ecosystem Degradation
- Zsombor Székely: Spatial Analysis of Hungarian NATURA 2000 Sites’ Threats and Pressures
18:00 – 19:00 Dinner
19:30 – Beer tasting at the local brewery (free and optional)
3rd September (Thursday):
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast
09:15 – 10:00 Plenary
- Li Huan: Water from Above: How Satellites Are Changing the Way We Monitor Aquatic Ecosystems — and What Lake Balaton Can Tell Us
10:00 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 12:00 Workshop
- Li Huan: Monitoring Ecosystems from Space: An AI-Assisted Introduction to Google Earth Engine
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:45 Student session: Animal Ecology I – Arthropods
- Márton Zoltán Szabó: Can Regenerative Farming Mitigate Habitat Fragmentation? A Predatory Arthropod Perspective
- Lili Korsoveczky: Effects of Mowing and Management Heterogeneity on Grassland Arthropod Communities
- Małgorzata Śliż: Urban Lawn Management for Insect Conservation: Effects of Different Mowing Regimes on Orthoptera and Bee Communities
- Brigitta Juhász: Behavioural and Attitudinal Determinants of Chemical Insecticide Use Among Farmers and Home Gardeners: Implications for Pollinator Conservation
- Bernadett Zsinka: Wildflower Plantings Support Cavity-Nesting Bees in Agricultural Landscapes Amid High Interannual Variation
14:45 – 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 – 17:00 Workshop
- Eva Slavova: Speaking Science to Power: Communicating Science for Impact and Transformative Change
17:00 – 18:00 Poster session
18:00 – 19:00 Dinner
4th September (Friday): SCB day
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast
09:00 – 09:45 Plenary
- Raphaël Arlettaz: From Ecology to Conservation and Restoration Biology: Another Gap to Bridge?
09:45 – 10:45 Student session: Animal Ecology II – Birds
- Sandra Abele: Factors Influencing the Occurrence of the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) in Energy Wood Piles in the Vidzeme Region, Latvia
- Agnese Cecchin: Breeding Under Pressure: How Do Anthropogenic and Environmental Stress Impact Shorebird Reproductive Traits?
- Ahmed Awad: Habitat Suitability and Hotspots of Breeding Waterbirds in Central Asia Using Ecological Niche Modelling
- Gyula Szabó:
10:45 – 11:15 Coffee break
11:15 – 12:00 Plenary
- Tibor Standovár: Approaches to Assess Forest Naturalness
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:30 Workshop
- Tibor Standovár: Monitoring of The Conservation Status of Forests
14:30 – 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 – 16:30 Workshop
- Raphaël Arlettaz: Is Your Research Relevant for Practice?
16:30 – 17:30 Poster session
17:30 – 18:00 Closing and award ceremony
18:00 – 19:00 Dinner
19:30 – Dance party
5th September (Saturday):
06:30 – 07:30 Breakfast
07:30 –14:00 Optional field trip to the Kis-Balaton in the area of the Balaton Uplands National Park
The field trip will be taken by a rental bus and starts after breakfast at 7:30 and ends around 14:00 (exact details can be arranged during previous days) with a return to Balatonvilágos. Lunch is provided in lunch boxes. The impressive area of Kis-Balaton is part of the Balaton Uplands National Park, where wetland reconstruction was conducted, which led to a rich avifauna. It is a 14 745 hectares Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA), with the following bird species: Ixobrychus minutus; Nycticorax nycticorax; Ardeola ralloides; Egretta alba; Ardea purpurea; Platalea leucorodia; Anser fabalis; Anser albifrons; Anser anser etc.; See more: https://www.bfnp.hu/en/latogatohely/dias-island-fenekpuszta)
Recommended clothing: comfortable urban clothes and shoes for walking, rainy weather may occur.
See more:
Birdlife Hungary - Magyar Madártani és Természetvédelmi Egyesület: https://www.mme.hu/en
Homepage of the Balaton Uplands National Park: https://www.bfnp.hu/en
Details about the Kis-Balaton: https://www.bfnp.hu/en/tajegyseg/kis-balaton-en
Image film of the Balaton Uplands National Park with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY8ardJGHZU