Venue

The conference will be held at the Galmont Hotel at the edge of Galway City, overlooking Lough Atalia, an estuarine lake on the northern shore of beautiful Galway Bay.

Galway is a vibrant, friendly and colourful city, recognised worldwide for its welcoming atmosphere, historic streetscapes, beautiful coastal views and thriving arts and cultural scene. The charming and lively character of Galway’s streets, shopping and nightlife make it one of Ireland’s most popular destinations for families and lovers of nature and culture. The City is home to the University of Galway, part of the National University of Ireland and one of Europe’s leading universities studying the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of biodiversity, including Ireland’s first research centre for One Health.

Galway Bay forms part of several designated nature conservation areas, protected under international agreements (including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands), European Union directives and national legislation. The rich complex of habitats within and around Galway Bay have supported communities and livelihoods for millennia and are an intrinsic part of the regions’ rich maritime heritage. To the north of Galway City, the River Corrib and Lough Corrib and their associated canals and tributaries support ecologically important fisheries, whilst to the west and north west Connemara National Park supports a mosaic of montane, grassland, wetland, woodland, limestone pavement and aquatic habitats, and thousands of sites of archaeological importance which bear witness to the intimate relationships between people and landscape in this region dating back to the Neolithic period.

Galway also sits within Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, one of the longest defined coastal scenic routes in the world, running more then 2,500km along Ireland’s west coast, making Galway a perfect base for exploring the culture, nature and history of Ireland’s Atlantic coast.