Tropentag 2011 brings together prominent researchers and thinkers alike to discuss and exchange the challenges of development on the margin. Food security, rural incomes and livelihood diversification are in the core of the debate, while the conservation of biodiversity and the valuation of ecosystem services attract more and more attention. With a special invited paper on Resource use and ecosystem services by Christian Borgemeister from ICIPE, this session highlighted that the conservation of biodiversity does not have to exclude economic opportunities, but at the same time its success is vulnerable to various risks. Christian Borgemeister, ICIPE Maximilian Weigend, biologist in the Freie Universität Berlin, spoke about the potential of palms for providing important NTFPs from natural rainforests in the Neotropics. Results from the Palm Harvest Impacts in Tropical Forests project suggests that such economically important palm species are highly abundant and productive, with their trade being the most important source of cash income for families and communities. This does not come without costs, as this ‘informal’ –and obviously tolerated by the authorities- enterprise is largely based on destructive harvesting, leading to a massive and on-going qualitative and quantitative erosion of palm stands. Maximilian Weigend, Freie Universität Berlin Jan Henning Sommer from the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in the University of Bonn stressed that although biodiversity is a precondition for human wellbeing it is threatened by human-induced climate change, especially in the tropics. By citing a recent paper published in Science, he emphasized the need that comprehensive land management strategies also need to consider the status and dynamics of the biodiversity matrix in which they are embedded. Jan Henning Sommer, Center for Development Research (ZEF) Michael Curran, from the Institute of Environmental Engineering at the ETH Zurich presented a new approach for conserving biodiversity through the Polluter Pays Principal. By levying the cost of conserving a minimum set of protected areas on the economic activities that drive biodiversity loss, developing nations may achieve an ecologically benign economic development while avoiding the significant external costs of biodiversity degradation. Northern nations could express their willingness to pay for global biodiversity conservation in terms of higher prices on major commodities, thus providing a further incentive to reduce overall resource consumption – a prerequisite for environmental sustainability. “This should take place according to the relative biodiversity value of various habitats and land-use types and should engage stakeholders at the local level in order to allocate the revenues more efficiently”, said Curran. Michael Curran, ETH Zurich Fabian Haas, from ICIPE, expanded on the risks of commercialization of biodiversity and its elements. By providing examples of violation of community intellectual property rights, Haas highlighted the risks of non-transparency in the development process. When asked about what is the best way to protect community rights, he suggested that this is best done by bringing data in the public domain. Fabian Haas, ICIPE But the sessions were not only restricted on research that aims to conceptualize the valuation of ecosystem services. Kywe Tin Zar from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen presented research findings on the development of habitat suitability modeling for tigers in Northern Myanmar using remote sensing and GIS. Kywe Tin Zar, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Inter-disciplinary research on biodiversity moves to the epicenter of rural development strategies and the Tropentag recognized its significance by also hosting a number of interesting posters on the topic.