The LIFE NEEMO communications and monitoring team held a session on the impact of the LIFE programme on restoring ecosystem services at the European Ecosystem Services 2016 conference on 20 September 2016 at the University of Antwerp.
LIFE projects that have focused on various aspects of ecosystem services – from developing mapping tools to devising means of payment for ecosystem services (PES) for further restoration – were invited to give brief overviews of their aims and outcomes. A total of 17 projects were featured, and 47 participants registered for the session.
The focus on ecosystem services is a growing aspect of the LIFE programme. Since 2006, more than 50 projects addressed ecosystem services.
LIFE projects not only focus on mapping and accessing ecosystem services, they also seek to make such services marketable to ensure the continued economic sustainability of restoration and management efforts. For example, as Dr Peter Long of the University of Oxford told attendees, Naturetrade: creating a marketplace for ecosystem services project (LIFE12 ENV/UK/000473) has explored ways of, “providing the ground for these transactions.” Although the project worked with economists, he added that ecosystem services were not given a monetary value, but rather an exchange value.
Similarly, the Greek project LIFE-Stymfalia (LIFE12 NAT/GR/000275) has demonstrated how private companies can contribute to long-term financing of the management of target wetland areas through the sustainable use of ecosystem services, namely the conversion of agricultural and reed biomass into pellets and water into hydropower.
Bent Jepsen of the NEEMO Co-ordination Team concluded the session by emphasising that all the projects present were, “pioneers,” that had demonstrated, “a high degree of integration of a wide range of issues.”
A follow-up LIFE project Platform network meeting on ecosystem services is being planned for spring 2017. The event will be hosted by the Latvian LIFE Viva Grass project (LIFE13 ENV/LT/000189) that was also present at the session. It will provide an opportunity for the issues raised by the session to be further discussed. An online questionnaire would also be set up to gather suggestions for topics for the meeting.
Source: © European Union, 1995-2016