Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SELINA (Science for Evidence-based and sustainabLe decIsions about NAtural capital)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-12-31
The importance of biodiversity (BD) and healthy ecosystems and the services they deliver has increasingly been acknowledged. Policy initiatives, such as the EU BD Strategies 2020 and 2030, IPBES, IPCC and CBD were launched to address BD, natural capital and related values. Related research, e.g. within the EU-wide Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) initiative or Natural Capital Accounting, has created a substantial knowledge and data base to better understand nature-human interactions that are at the base of Ecosystem Services (ES) supply and related human and economic well-being. The key aim of related actions is to provide robust information that can be harnessed to support public and private decision-making about the protection, restoration and sustainable as well as climate-neutral use of ecosystems in the EU by 2030.
MAES has provided the concepts, the methodologies and the data base for comprehensive ecosystem assessments on different spatial scales, including the first EU-wide assessment (Maes 2020), assessments on EU member state level and additional regional assessments. Knowledge and data for different ecosystem types (including protected and marine areas) are increasingly available. The next step is to integrate the different MAES components (mapping of ecosystem types, ecosystem condition and services, ecosystem accounting) and to enable the uptake of ES in decision-making. Key challenges include the proof of concrete BD-ecosystem condition-ES relationships and appropriate reference levels and to link them to relevant EU and national policy and business decisions.
SELINA brings together experts from all 27 EU member states, associated countries (Norway, Switzerland, Israel, UK) and selected EU Overseas Regions with stakeholders from various public and private sectors. The expertise in the Consortium includes leading experts (ecologists, economists, social scientists) on ES science, ecosystem accounting and on science-policy-business interfaces from related actions (e.g. OpenNESS, ESMERALDA, MAIA, MAES, ESP, IPBES, BD Partnership). Therefore, the Project can start its actions straight-away and will successfully address the call’s challenges and provide applicable tools and models together with guidance on how to use them. The Project will deliver real cases for evidence-, ES-based and harmonised decision-making across Europe, enabling transformative change to halt BD decline and to secure the sustainable supply and use of essential ES.
MAES has provided the concepts, the methodologies and the data base for comprehensive ecosystem assessments on different spatial scales, including the first EU-wide assessment (Maes 2020), assessments on EU member state level and additional regional assessments. Knowledge and data for different ecosystem types (including protected and marine areas) are increasingly available. The next step is to integrate the different MAES components (mapping of ecosystem types, ecosystem condition and services, ecosystem accounting) and to enable the uptake of ES in decision-making. Key challenges include the proof of concrete BD-ecosystem condition-ES relationships and appropriate reference levels and to link them to relevant EU and national policy and business decisions.
SELINA brings together experts from all 27 EU member states, associated countries (Norway, Switzerland, Israel, UK) and selected EU Overseas Regions with stakeholders from various public and private sectors. The expertise in the Consortium includes leading experts (ecologists, economists, social scientists) on ES science, ecosystem accounting and on science-policy-business interfaces from related actions (e.g. OpenNESS, ESMERALDA, MAIA, MAES, ESP, IPBES, BD Partnership). Therefore, the Project can start its actions straight-away and will successfully address the call’s challenges and provide applicable tools and models together with guidance on how to use them. The Project will deliver real cases for evidence-, ES-based and harmonised decision-making across Europe, enabling transformative change to halt BD decline and to secure the sustainable supply and use of essential ES.
SELINA's main objective is to make scientific outcomes available for the support of evidence-based decision-making in diverse public and private sectors aiming at sustainable use of natural capital on different scales (from local to national). In order to fulfil these objectives, the Project is organised along three Strands: A) Engaging stakeholders, B) Understanding ecosystems and their services, and C) Informing decision. These three Strands contain the 11 SELINA Work Packages and are closely interlinked, connecting people with their environment and related decision-making.
The Project has been implemented successfully within this structure and has performed excellently during the first 18 months. All 15 Milestones (including three successful thematic Workshops, each with an attendance of between 80 - 100 people) and 15 Deliverables have been achieved. Key achievements include: the establishment of Communities of Practice in EU member states (Strand A); conceptual and methodological developments to define and map ecosystem types, review studies about ecosystem assessment model uptake for decision-support and indicators of ecosystem condition-services-accounting integration, studies on ecosystem disservices and negative externalities (Strand B); the kick-off of the 15 SELINA Demonstration Projects with their specific public and private decision-making contexts and the setting of the co-creation mechanism of the SELINA Compendium of Guidance (Strand C).
The Project's implementation and management were based on regular topic-related WP meetings, 10 Executive Board meetings so far, 1 Advisory Board meeting and 2 General Assembly meetings. Looking at the developed criteria for self-assessment and the potential critical risks in project implementation and management, SELINA is on an excellent way to achieve its objectives and KPIs.
The Project has been implemented successfully within this structure and has performed excellently during the first 18 months. All 15 Milestones (including three successful thematic Workshops, each with an attendance of between 80 - 100 people) and 15 Deliverables have been achieved. Key achievements include: the establishment of Communities of Practice in EU member states (Strand A); conceptual and methodological developments to define and map ecosystem types, review studies about ecosystem assessment model uptake for decision-support and indicators of ecosystem condition-services-accounting integration, studies on ecosystem disservices and negative externalities (Strand B); the kick-off of the 15 SELINA Demonstration Projects with their specific public and private decision-making contexts and the setting of the co-creation mechanism of the SELINA Compendium of Guidance (Strand C).
The Project's implementation and management were based on regular topic-related WP meetings, 10 Executive Board meetings so far, 1 Advisory Board meeting and 2 General Assembly meetings. Looking at the developed criteria for self-assessment and the potential critical risks in project implementation and management, SELINA is on an excellent way to achieve its objectives and KPIs.
SELINA performed excellently in the first 18 Months of the Project's lifetime and the first outcomes from the three Strands look very promising. WP2 (Strand A) provided new guidance material for the establishing of the Communities of Practice in the EU member states, including the initiation of an EU-wide collection of "Seeds of [transformative] change" projects on all possible levels. Within Strand B, the development of key ecosystem condition indicators per ecosystem type were initiated together with the definition of reference ecosystem conditions - an unsolved problem so far for most ecosystem types and condition levels (WP3). WP4 identified key gaps and key needs to improve the uptake of the ES concept and ES models in different decision-making contexts, including guidance on how to improve future ES assessments. Studies on negative externalities and ecosystem disservices are scarce, compared to studies on ecosystem services. WP5 elaborated how both can be included in ecosystem accounts, providing a solid base for future applications. The systematic literature review in WP6 collected indicators used for ecosystem condition and ES assessments and identified key gaps. Beyond the planned activities mentioned in the DoA, SELINA partners additionally defined 26 test sites, where methodological advancements from all Strand B WPs are tested, further developed, and applied before being recommended to WPs 8 and 9 for practical application in the SELINA Demonstration Projects.