Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MARBEFES (MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-03-01 bis 2025-08-31
The European citizens have a fundamental need to understand how biodiversity and ecosystem functioning must be maintained to ensure that they deliver ecosystem services, goods and benefits, which in turn must be sustainably used by society. Central to this the Member States (MSs) need to value these natural and social capital aspects of ecosystems. MARBEFES aims to use unified system to assess the value of European marine biodiversity in terms of natural goods and services, seen as economic, social, cultural/spiritual and biological phenomena.
We will progress beyond the current state-of-the-art understanding of the causes and consequences
of the maintenance, loss and gain of biodiversity and ecological and economic value and the repercussions of this for the management and governance of European seas. Involving 23 highly experienced partners, the project outputs and outcomes are based on developing and validating a set of ecological, economic and socio-cultural valuation tools using existing and new information and data in 12 Broad Belt Transect (BBTs) case studies. These cover the breadth of European marine biodiversity, from the Arctic to semi-tropical areas, across dominant habitats and iconic species, and from shallow to deep areas and encompass a range of socio-economic contexts. As such, and through stakeholder co-creation for policy relevance, MARBEFES shows the tools to value different natural capital resources and inform planning from financial allocations to management and with monetary and non-monetary benefits. In this, the project advances our knowledge through linking marine biodiversity and its ecological structure and functioning to ecological and economic valuation.
We will progress beyond the current state-of-the-art understanding of the causes and consequences
of the maintenance, loss and gain of biodiversity and ecological and economic value and the repercussions of this for the management and governance of European seas. Involving 23 highly experienced partners, the project outputs and outcomes are based on developing and validating a set of ecological, economic and socio-cultural valuation tools using existing and new information and data in 12 Broad Belt Transect (BBTs) case studies. These cover the breadth of European marine biodiversity, from the Arctic to semi-tropical areas, across dominant habitats and iconic species, and from shallow to deep areas and encompass a range of socio-economic contexts. As such, and through stakeholder co-creation for policy relevance, MARBEFES shows the tools to value different natural capital resources and inform planning from financial allocations to management and with monetary and non-monetary benefits. In this, the project advances our knowledge through linking marine biodiversity and its ecological structure and functioning to ecological and economic valuation.
For the four regions and 12 BBTs, available information on marine biodiversity (species and habitat distribution) was compiled and harmonised. Guidelines for valuation were prepared, and an extensive set of socio-economic interviews was collected from all regions. Results from the specific case studies are being prepared for publication, with several already published. Across the 12 BBTs, 278 stakeholders were interviewed or surveyed. Stakeholders identified Nature, Biodiversity, Economy, Large-scale Tourism and Pollution as the most important factors shaping their socio-economic and ecological environment. A clear north–south gradient was observed: in northern and southern Europe, conservation, protected areas, and iconic or exotic species were perceived as more important, while in central Europe industrial activities such as large-scale fisheries, harbour operations, infrastructure and transport were prioritised. In contrast, small-scale local economic activities (local fisheries, small-scale tourism) and socio-cultural aspects (community integrity, heritage) were considered more significant in northern and southern regions. Technical progress included drafting guidelines for assessing geochemical/physical parameters and ecosystem organisation in BBTs, developing a protocol for a habitat function metric, and preparing guidelines for ecological and economic valuation of biodiversity, societal goods and benefits. Valuation activities are ongoing across the BBTs, and initial mapping of ecosystem service priorities has been completed. The project also produced and approved the Quality Assurance/Risk Management Plan, the Data Management Plan, and the Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Strategy, all delivered to the EU Portal.
For the first time, representative set of European coastal marine waters will be presented in an unified method that allows to compare different aspects of marine ecosystem valuation, including biological, economic and socio-cultural aspects. The current dataset shows importance of case-to-case analyses and shows how the same biotic element may reach different values even in neighbouring areas.