PEER initiative to build a European digital atlas of ecosystem services
21 June 2010, Biodiversity and Land Use, PEER
The PEER institutes have combined their expertise on biodiversity and ecosystem services into a new initiative. The initiative is designed to deliver innovative scientific research products with policy relevance. It is also meant to facilitate interaction with national and European stakeholders from all relevant policy domains, through a multi-scale assessment that links different governance levels. Furthermore, if financing is secured on the long-term, one of the objectives is to build a European digital atlas of ecosystem services.
The project is designed to strengthen the scientific understanding of relations between biodiversity and ecosystem services and improve impact assessment tools by linking mapping of ecosystem services and policy evaluation approaches through illustrative case-studies. It will deliver tests of models, evaluation of associated uncertainties and a guideline for mapping of ecosystem services. The products of the project will include a European digital atlas or information system of ecosystem services and the assessment of potential trade-offs and synergies, to fully assist the agenda of the policy process. All these products are connected to the stakeholders as input for their process of setting the research agenda for the coming decade.
The initiative is called the PRESS project, which stands for PEER Research on EcoSystem Services. It began in March 2010, with a project group consisting of experts of all member institutes, and the first workshop was held in May. The first results will be shared with EU DG Environment, as input for its process of Post 2010 Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Target setting.
Leon Braat, senior researcher at Alterra and one of the initiators of the project: "This is a unique opportunity for us as PEER partners to prove the added value of our expertise as a consortium – at a moment in time when the European Union is deciding on the Post 2010 Biodiversity Action Plan, which shall be binding to the Member states, and thus determine to a large extent the policy needs and research agenda of both EU and Member states for at least the next 10 years."
Contact:
Giovanni Bidoglio, Project leader JRC - IES, Tel.: +39 0332 789383, giovanni.bidoglio@jrc.ec.europa.eu
Leon Braat, Deputy project leader, Alterra, Tel.: +31 317 486473, leon.braat@wur.nl
Downloads:
A presentation on "Spatial mapping of ecosystem services for evidence based decision making" also illustrating the PRESS project was given at the Green Week event in Brussels in June.
Green Week presentation by Giovanni Bidoglio
create
print
send
share