We landed in beautiful Cape Town, ‘The Mother City’, and the air is filled with excitement of all the social-ecological system discussions to come. Our preparations for PECS have so far included exploring Old Biscuit Mill market, visiting the resident penguins of Boulders Beach, taking in the views from Cape Point, and experiencing the best of Bree and Long Street.

Today and tomorrow we will change residencies to Stellenbosch and dive deeper into the conference mode. My will participate in the pre-conference SAPECS learning event on participatory action research in social-ecological systems. We will give a report back tomorrow on all the most interesting ideas and opportunities that came up.

The main event kicks off with welcome drinks and snacks on Monday to set the stage for the coming days of science, socializing and Spier wine. It will be fun to see who is here and start to get to know new people and catch up with some familiar faces.

We are both checking out the program to try and decide our schedules for the coming days. The young scholars’ session on Wednesday, ‘’What does it mean to be a place-based social-ecological systems researcher?’’, should be a highlight. We also know that the conversations outside the sessions will be just as important. It is going to be a busy few days. We are already looking forward to the relaxing walks around Spier to digest it all!

Twitter: @MySellberg & @meganmeacham