"The Centre for Responsible Societies (CRiSis)"

The Centre for Responsible Societies (CRiSis) is a new interdisciplinary research centre, hosted by Aberystwyth University's Business School. CRiSis will be working in collaboration with researchers from IBERS and Geography and Earth Sciences to explore how people, organisations and governments might best conduct themselves in a responsible way to ensure the sustainable future of our planet and its people. CRiSis aims to explore innovative solutions for society to act responsibly to deliver a sustainable future for our planet and people, exploring the economic value of ecosystems services and its importance to humanity. The Centre aims to focus its research around the Ecosystem Services assessment conceptual model, which links changes to natural resources to change in provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services, and then to value these services in economic and socio-cultural terms.

The CRiSis team is currently developing research links with Malaysia [National University of Malaysia (UKM) and Taylor's University] and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Cote d'Ivoire (CSRS) in The Ivory Coast to create tools to give forests and ecosystems services an economic value. The research project aims to develop research programmes focussing on the value and management of forest ecosystem services with particular interests considering nature’s contribution to people. These projects will assess how local people value forests and how this value can be fed into government policy, in order to protect these important ecosystem services.