Annex I Part B Description of Work

Transcription

1 Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) COOPERATION Theme 6 ENVIRONMENT (INCLUDING CLIMATE CHANGE) Call ENV Increasing the integration of biodiversity research results into policy making Annex I Part B Description of Work Gravur "Le Christ" am Mont Bégo Project full title Resilience of social and natural systems in the Southern Alps - How to evaluate trends, to develop sustainable adaptation strategies and to manage biodiversity for a better future? Project acronym: Rosy future? Duration: 7 September September 2011 Preparation of Annex 1: Uta Fritsch, Dagmar Schröter

2 Table of Contents 1. Project Summary Objectives Study Area Detailed Implementation Plan Work Packages Tutors - Scientific Advisors Stakeholders Milestones and Deliverables Glossary Project Summary Biodiversity reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms in an ecosystem. Besides its ethical value, biodiversity plays a vital role in ecosystem function and, thus for ecosystem services. Depending on the geographical location, Europe s biodiversity is under pressure from mass tourism (affecting coasts and mountains), intensification of agriculture (grasslands and wetlands), deteriorating water quality (freshwater and coastal ecosystems), forest management geared towards economic forests or clear cutting for housing, transport, and energy policies (coasts, major rivers, and mountains). Coastal and marine ecosystems are habitats for an enormous number and range of species, including millions of birds. Many of Europe s remaining marine and coastal sites of ecological importance have no protected status. In France, for instance, natural coastal areas are being lost at a rate of 1% a year; 90 % of the French Riviera is now developed. Facing the current status of sustainability and livelihood in this region, the future development has to be managed carefully. Increasing pressures arising from changes in socio-economic conditions, land-use and landmanagement practices, resource exploitation, increase in traffic on transit routes and increased tourism aggravate the current situation. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) divides the overwhelming abundance of different ecosystem services into four categories: providing, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services. Human well-being depends notably on material welfare, health, good social relations, security, and freedom. All of these are affected by changes in ecosystem services. As biodiversity contributes to ecosystem services this opens up a number of unresolved research questions. How much biodiversity is necessary to maintain which ecosystem service? How to protect biodiversity in a changing world? How can we link biodiversity with policy and the public? The current project Rosy future? (Resilience of social and natural systems in the Southern Alps - How to evaluate trends, to develop sustainable adaptation strategies and to manage biodiversity for a better future?) seeks to provide information that best supports a multi-stakeholder dialogue towards sustainable decision-making in environmental management. Within the project we identify critical ecosystem properties to sustain ecosystem services within the region of Alpes-Maritimes in Southern France. We assess the vulnerability for the most important sectors under the social, biophysical and economic point of view. We want to evaluate the resilience of the human- 1

3 environment system, using ecological and socio-economic modeling. We address biodiversity in a broad sense and use the concept of ecosystem services and follow the economics of ecosystem services and biodiversity (TEEB) approach for the assessment: 1. Identify and assess the full range of ecosystem services affected and the implications for different groups in society. 2. Estimate and demonstrate the value of ecosystem services. 3. Capture the value of ecosystems services and seek solutions. The project does not seek to amass new data, but to use existing studies and experiences to develop new management strategies and gain insight into how research discoveries can better inform policy-making processes. 2. Objectives We analyze the current status of the area and develop multiple plausible scenarios for future changes in socio-economy, land-use and climate. The different scenarios for the specific region will be delineated based on two of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) scenarios, as a basis for further development. The sectors agriculture/forestry, nature conservation, tourism and renewable energy are among the most important topics in the Alpes-Maritimes area. Ecosystem services on which these sectors rely will be identified and their inter-relations will be disclosed. For all four sectors the impacts of the expected changes under different scenario conditions will be identified and discussed with stakeholders, such as municipal planners, policy advisors, and farmers. The outcome of this assessment will be used to develop adaptation strategies to provide and sustain services for all users. In addition to the sectoral working groups an integration and synthesis group is set up with four permanent members and four members delegated by the other working groups. The integration and synthesis group will collect and discuss the most important questions and issues for the study region, paying close attention to possible interactions between sectors. This group will provide a project summary especially for stakeholders and policy-makers, including the main conclusions integrated across the region and all sectors. The final results will include a set of potential management practices which safeguard human wellbeing and biodiversity for the Alpes-Maritimes region in Southern France. 3. Study area Fig. 1: Département Alpes-Maritimes The French Département Alpes-Maritimes is the most eastern administrative unit within the Provence-Alpes- Côtes d'azur region (better known in English speaking countries as the French Riviera), in the south east of France. Although it is the smallest department in France, it has the greatest variety ranging from the sea to the mountains as high as Mt. Gelas at m. The department is surrounded by the French departments of Var, Alpes-de- Haute-Provence, Italy and the principality of Monaco to the east, and the Mediterranean to the south (see Fig. 1). Alpes-Maritimes includes the famous French Riviera coastline on the Mediterranean Sea with the important towns and cities like Cannes (71 000), Nice ( ), and Antibes (77 000), as well as Grasse (50 000) inland. 2

4 The region Alpes-Maritimes has a surface area of 4299 km² and about 1 million inhabitants. This region is characterized by the highly populated coast, with a focus on provisioning of services and tourism, and remote areas in the back, with less tourism, nature conservation and problems that are connected with secondary residences. The main land use in this region is forests (about 70% of the area). Agriculture in this area is currently declining although there is pasture livestock and olive cultivation with a DOC certification. The department tries to develop more and more in different sectors such as flowers, fruit, wine and vegetables. Livestock farming is mainly sheep and goats. But the area under use is very small with low intensity. Grasse is a center for the perfume industry. About 20% of the area is under protection of the National Parc Mercantour (see Fig.2). The park was founded in 1979 and includes 28 towns. The massif Argentera Mercantour is cut in two by the French-Italian border. There is the Parco Naturale Alpi Marittime that protects the other side of the massif, with which the Mercantour is twinned since The most important flora within the park show a nation-wide diversity with plant species, 200 rare species and 30 endemic species. The fauna is characterized by 58 mammal species - the 7 wild ungulates that can be found in France and the wolf and about 153 bird species (Tengmalm's Owl, Eurasian Scops-owl...). The climate at the coast of the Alpes- Maritimes region is a Mediterranean one i.e. hot temperature, especially in summer. This is one of the reasons for its international reputation. In the mountainous region the temperature is more alpine with dry summer and cold and snowy winters. The region main economic resource is tourism. Several ski areas attract not only people from the coastline to spend their holidays in the mountains. The area has experienced a strong population growth during the last years. The Fig. 2 National Park Mercantour portion of second houses is in the country side very high with all consequences for the remote communities. The project Rosy future? wants to evaluate future impacts and to develop adaptation strategies and to manage biodiversity for a sustainable future in this region. 4. Detailed Implementation Plan The final product of the vulnerability assessments will be a presentation to the stakeholder and short summary with advices for policy makers. The students should largely design and compile these products themselves. The results will be: 1. a 15 min presentation by the working groups in plenum in the final project meeting. This presentation should include introduction, scenarios, results, discussion and conclusions. 2. and included in a written summary of 1-2 pages in the Summer School Book. The summary should focus on the results and the synthesis of each topic and include adaptation measures as bullet points for policy makers. The results should include the crucial elements of the assessment, such as: analysing historical and prospective quantitative and qualitative data as far as possible assessing the three pillars of sustainability such as the social, the biophysical and the economic point of view 3

5 the three elements of vulnerability: exposure to multiple stresses, sensitivity and differential adaptation within and between population consider the coupled human-environment system: social and natural systems are no separate entities, but one tightly interwoven evolving system taking the stakeholder perspective the design of practical adaptation strategies, complete with appraisal of risks and opportunities of the implementation of these strategies 4.1. Work Packages Working Group Tutor Topic and Content 1 Agriculture & Forestry 2 Nature Conservation Martin Wildenberg Nicolas Dendoncker Trends in the agriculture and forestry sector: What changes will be likely to impact this sector? How can we guarantee food security and provide livelihoods and biodiversity in a changing environment? Trends for nature conservation: How to conserve the natural and cultural ecosystem services? How to solve conflicting interests? 3 Tourism Fabien Quétier Trends in regional tourism: What changes will be likely to impact this sector? How to develop tourism sustainably, safeguarding local livelihood and biodiversity? 4 Renewable Energy Uta Fritsch How will energy supply differ in the future? What will be the challenges to cope with in the study area? How can we use renewable energy and sustain livelihood and biodiversity? 5 Synthesis and Integration Brooke Wilkerson Synthesis for Policy Makers: Integration of the findings of all sectoral working groups into management and adaptation strategies to sustain livelihood and biodiversity in the study area Tutors - Scientific Advisors Five tutors who act as scientific advisors to the project will guide the five work packages of the project. These scientific advisors will facilitate and moderate the working group sessions. They will help to understand what is expected from each group, they can answer questions about the organisation of the summer school and about its content. Each of the scientific advisors has scientific experience and experience from previous summer schools. They want to play a proactive role and give support to the working groups. Scientific advisors are: Nicolas Dendoncker, Uta Fritsch, Fabien Quétier, Martin Wildenberg and Brooke Wilkerson Stakeholders A stakeholder is a person, group, organization, or system who is interested in the topic or who might be affected by the outcome of the research. Stakeholders are essential for this type of environmental assessment by providing special, often practical expertise about the humanenvironment system, and specifying their needs for scientific information. The stakeholders of the current project are impersonated by the summer school tutors and not real stakeholders because of the language barrier. Each tutor has a double role and acts as (1) scientific advisor to the project, 4

6 and (2) stakeholder of the project. The stakeholders have commissioned the project and have a vital interest in its outcome. The specific roles of each tutor (e.g. planner, farmer ) will be announced and further elaborated during the summer school. 5. Milestones and Deliverables Deliverable Title Due Nature Nr. 1 Kick-off meeting Day 5 Meeting 11/ 09/ 2011 Nr. 2 Final Meeting Day 10 16/ 09/ 2011 Nr. 3 Summary of the results Day 10 Presentation of the final results Written Summary 16/ 09/ Glossary Reference: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007: Fourth Assessment Report Working Group II, Appendix I. Adaptive Capacity The ability of a system to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damages to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences Climate change scenario A plausible and often simplified representation of the future climate, based on internally consistent set of climatological relationships and assumptions of radiative forcing, typically constructed for explicit use as input to climate change impact models. A climate change scenario is the difference between a climate scenario and the current climate. Ecosystem services Ecological processes or functions having monetary or non monetary value to individuals or society at large. There are supporting services such as productivity or biodiversity maintenance, provisioning services such as food, fibre or fish, regulating services such as climate regulation or carbon sequestration and cultural services such as tourism or spiritual and aesthetic appreciation. Resilience The ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basis structure and ways of functioning, the capacity for self organisation and the capacity to adapt to stress and change. Scenario A plausible and often simplified description of how the future may develop, based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about driving forces and key relationships. Scenarios may be derived from projections, but are often based on additional information from other source, sometimes combined with a narrative storyline. 5

7 Sensitivity Sensitivity is the degree to which a system is affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate variability or change. The effect may be direct (e.g. a change in crop yield in response to a change in the mean, range or variability of temperature) or indirect (e.g. damages caused by an increase in the frequency of coastal flooding to see-level rise). Stakeholder A person or an organisation that has a legitimate interest in a project or entity or would be affected by particular action or policy. Sustainable development Development that meets the cultural, social, political and economic needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Vulnerability Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is susceptible and unable to cope with adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity. 6