Ecosystems around the world are being threatened by unprecedented anthropogenic pressures. Ecosystem’s processes have lowered in service quality, or even degraded to stop serving. Biodiversity at the same time is declining at an alarming rate. To cope with the threats, it is imperative that we mitigate this trend of ecosystem degradation by taking advantage of the newest knowledge, adopting the most advanced technologies, and using an adaptive management approach and educational resources to increase ecosystem resilience.

 

    While this urgent situation is recognized by all of the East Asia/Pacific Regional LTER scientists, the KLTER Network took the initiative to set up the International Ecology School (IES) Program to protect ecosystems and their biodiversity. The Program advocate (KLTER Network) would like to work with other LTER member networks to provide an opportunity to teach and train junior scientists―including graduate and undergraduate students, the next generation of helmsmen―by holding a wide range of educational projects. This program is already endorsed and supported by many of our regional LTER member networks.

 

    We envision ecosystems that can be properly-functioning. The IES Program focuses on the mission of sustaining the services of ecosystems, maintaining ecosystem resilience, protecting biodiversity, and understanding our duty to and values in the nature world. Strategically, the IES Program stresses the importance of information management and big data analytics, adopting cutting edge technologies, valuing researches on impacts of climate change on ecosystems, and recruiting LTER scientists with specific field research skills and research sites.

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   The goals of the IES Program are to offer opportunities to junior scientists to enhance their ecological research capacity by introducing the

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