Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services in the European Union (MAES) First BEES CoP-NL workshop 22 April 2014 Anne Teller DG ENV.B2
EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy Are Europe s ecosystems in good shape to continue delivering essential ecosystem services? Can we value the flow of ecosystem services from ecosystems to society? Which drivers of change increase or decrease the delivery of ecosystem services? We need to map and assess ecosystems and their services
EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy Target 2 Action 5: Improve knowledge of ecosystems and their services in the EU Member States, with the assistance of the Commission, will map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory by 2014, assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020.
Governance Common Implementation Framework Overall guidance: BD/Nature Directors Operational steering: Coordination Group for Biodiversity and Nature CGBN MAES Working Group (EC, EEA, MS, NGOs)
MAES Analytical Framework First collective output of the MAES working group Sets a conceptual framework for mapping and assessment linking human well-being to biodiversity Makes proposals for a typology of ecosystems and classification of ecosystem services (CICES) EU input to international related work (IPBES, UN Natural Capital Accounting work, UNGA AoA)
Overall conceptual framework
MAES baseline Ecosystem types (EUNIS/CLC) Terrestrial 1. Urban 2. Cropland 3. Grassland 4. Woodland & forest 5. Heathland & shrub 6. Sparsely vegetated land Freshwater 7. Wetlands 8. Rivers and lakes Marine 9. Marine inlets & transit. waters 10. Coastal 11. Shelf 12.Open ocean Ecosystem services (CICES) Provisioning services Regulating (TEEB, MA) and Maintenance Cultural services
Six thematic pilots to test the framework Nature, Agriculture, Forest, Freshwater, Marine, Natural Capital Accounting Each pilot has reviewed data available at national and EU level Each pilot is proposing indicators that can be used to map and assess biodiversity, ecosystem condition and ecosystem services according to CICES
1 Nature 2 Agricultur e 3 Forest 4 Freshwater 5 Marine 6 Natural Capital Accounting MS Lead LT BE SE PT FR FR BG EU Lead ENV JRC JRC JRC JRC EEA EU members EEA JRC EEA ENV AGRI EEA ENV AGRI ESTAT EEA ENV EEA ENV ENV ESTAT AGRI RTD MS members BG HU AT DE ES SK BG ES FI AT ES PT DE EE FR PT SK UK Stakeholders CEEweb ELO FACE ELO FACE Forest - Europe WWF Coastwatch Oceana LAGOONS ARCH WWF
MAES High-level Conference 22 May 2014 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/knowledge/ecosystem_assessment/i ndex_en.htm Opening session Janez Potočnik (EC), Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (EC), Tony Long (WWF), Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, (CBD) Session 1 Agri & Forest (AGRI-ENV) Session 2 Freshwater & Marine (JRC-ENV) High-level Roundtable discussion Pavan Sukhdev (TEEB), Julia Marton-Lefèvre (IUCN), Dacian Cioloş (EC), Hans Bruyninckx (EEA), Lisa Emelia Svensson (SE), Environment Minister (Wales), Nadia Giannakopoulou (Greek Presidency) Session 3 on NCA (EEA-ESTAT) Session 4 on ES & Cohesion (REGIO-RTD) Closing session Director-General Karl Falkenberg (ENV), Nadia Giannakopoulou (Greek Presidency), Mark Demesmaeker (MEP), Minister for Agriculture Sharon Dijksma (NL), Flemish Environment Minister Joke Schauvliege, Chief Operating Officer Peter White (WBCSD)
EU assistance to MS in 2014 - MS to join EU supporting work (EEA, JRC, MESEU) - MS training at EEA, JRC, Alterra (e.g. Quickscan) - Additional Hands On Workshops - FP7 support (e.g. OpenNESS, OPERAs) - Calls H2020 - Thematic workshops (e.g. forest, agriculture) - others
European Ecosystem Map EUNIS Habitat Land cover Reference Data Source: ETC/SIA Dec 2013; http://projects.eionet.europa.eu/eea-ecosystem-assessments/library/draft-ecosystem-map-europe
Components of Natural Capital Natural capital NCA pilot focus Sub-soil assets: (geological resources) Minerals, earth elements, fossil fuels, gravel, salts etc. Abiotic flows: (linked to geophysical cycles) Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal etc. Ecosystem capital: (linked to ecological systems and processes) Ecosystems as asset: Structure and condition Ecosystem service flows: Provisioning Regulation & maintenance Cultural services
EEA Outlook 2014 Ecosystems mapped Drivers and pressures mapped and assessed (indicators) Assessment of conditions (qualitatively) need for more data on trends (fragmentation, land use) need for quantiative functional relationships between drivers/pressures and impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity Integration: stacks of multiple drivers/pressures/impacts Link to ecosystem services outlined and tested Data availablity according to reporting timelines of Directives First examples of natural capital accounting Biophysical baseline end of 2014
Ecosystem Services maps as tool for supporting policy and land management Agricultural policy: Enhancing the contribution of wild pollinators to crop yield Regional and urban policy: Mapping urban green to assess micro-climate and air quality regulation Water policy: Novel ways to use data collected under the WFD Sustainable urban development: Mapping cultural ecosystem services to support urban planning Sustainable forest management: Using ecosystem service maps to determine priorities for land use
Agricultural policy Greening package of the new Common Agriculture Policy (2014-2020): At least 5% of the arable area of holdings with an arable area >15 ha must be allocated to Ecological Focus Area. How to enhance crop pollination through smart spatial implementation of Ecological Focus Areas which delivers pollination services?
Mapping pollination gaps in agricultural landscapes
Regional and urban policy Green urban areas deliver recreation, air quality and micro-climate regulation. Trees reduce summer temperatures in cities by evaporating water and they remove air pollutants and particulate matter via their leaves through dry deposition.
Urban Atlas: Munich NDVI: Munich Adrienne Grêt-Regamy, MESEU workshop, Ispra
Water policy How to use WFD data in novel ways to inform water managers on the sustainable use of lakes and rivers so that these ecosystems deliver multiple ecosystem services
OpenNESS urban case study: Planning of a new housing area called Sibbesborg Copyright of pictures: The municipality of Sipoo Sibbesborg is located in Southern Sipoo, about 30 km east of Helsinki, the capital of Finland High development pressure from the Helsinki metropolitan area The planning area covers about 26 km 2 Strengths: scenery and nature forming a unique entity Vision: from a sparsely populated mainly agricultural landscape with about 3,000 inhabitants to an urban center housing 70,000 100,000 people The planning targets at a unique sustainable community 1. Unique transport 2. Unique habitation and lifestyle 3. Unique environment and landscape 4. Unique eco- and energy-efficiency 5. Unique jobs and services Subtargets for unique environment and landscape: (1) natural and landscape values and (2) ecosystem services shall be safeguarded and developed 23
Sustainable forest management Fostering multifunctional forest ecosystems supporting different services Identification of key ecosystem services and synergies for synergies for designing management strategies and legitimating governmental subsidies (Switzerland, Alpine valley)
Figure L4. Simultaneous provision of different ecosystem services (law = avalanche protection, erhol = recreation, CO2 = carbon sequestration, hab = habitat provision, holz = timber production) across the forest in the case study area indicating priority ecosystem services and ecosystem services trade-offs. (Bebi et al., 2012). 26
Opportunities MAES will provide reliable, consistent and high quality information on the status of ecosystems and their services (baseline) in Europe and build the evidence base needed to link biodiversity with long-term human well-being; MAES will ensure strong linkages with biodiversity and related policies and actions at national, EU and international level.
Challenges Create broad support and ownership at all level Have the science community on board EU to provide assistance to Members States Common methodology, typology, indicators, models Training, Hands On workshops Member States to provide local data, maps, knowledge To get political support (22/5)
Conclusions Ecosystem services is a function-based approach complementing structure-based approaches (e.g. Habitats Directive) MAES can support better integrated European and global environment targets as well as the needs of other common policy sectors It can also allow for comparison across scales and countries, ensure groundtruthing of EU action and support mutualisation of effort It will be publish on BISE http://biodiversity.europa.eu/
Thanks for your attention! More about MAES Europa http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/knowled ge/ecosystem_assessment/index_en.htm BISE http://biodiversity.europa.eu/ The author bears full responsibility for the content of this presentation, which does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission.