Project Overview
Between 2012 and 2017, OpenNESS translated the concepts of Ecosystem Services (ESS) and Natural Capital (NC) into operational frameworks that provide practical and tailored solutions for informing sustainable land, water, and urban management in different locations and scales. Working closely with decision makers and stakeholders, the project scrutinized the potential and the limitations of ESS and NC in relation to wider EU economic, social and environmental policy initiatives.
Objectives
- To advance conceptual understanding of ESS and NC and provide operational frameworks for application of the concepts in real-world management and decision-making situations
- To examine how existing and forthcoming EU regulatory frameworks can enhance or restore the benefits derived from ESS and NC using multi-scale scenario approaches
- To develop and refine approaches for mapping and modeling the biophysical control of ESS that can be used to assess the effectiveness of mechanisms, instruments and best management practices for sustaining ESS delivery in the face of multiple uncertain drivers whilst conserving biodiversity
- To develop hybrid methodologies that address trade-offs, synergies and conflicting interests and values in the use of ESS through a combination of monetary, non-monetary and deliberative methods within multi-criteria and Bayesian approaches to decision support
- To apply the concepts and methods developed and refined in the project to concrete, place-based case studies in a range of social-ecological systems with stakeholders and analyse the implications of local, regional and EU level decisions on the ESS flows and use in other parts of the world
- To translate the results into policy recommendations and integrate the outputs in a Menu of Multi-Scale Solutions and associated datasets that are available for ESS users and managers as well as decision-makers
To disseminate the results and to promote and maintain science-policy dialogue on the use of the concepts of ESS and NC in sustainable land, water and urban management.
Outcomes
OpenNESS consolidated, refined, and developed a range of spatially-explicit methods that identified, quantified and valued ecosystem services, to develop hybrid assessment methods. It explored the effectiveness of financial and governance mechanisms, such as payments for ecosystem services, habitat banking, biodiversity offsetting and land and ecosystem accounting. Finally, OpenNESS assessed how current regulatory frameworks and other institutional factors at EU and national levels enable or constrain consideration of ESS and NC, and identified the implications for issues related to well-being, governance and competitiveness. OpenNESS analysed the knowledge that was needed to define ESS and NC in the legal, administrative and political contexts relevant to the EU. The work delivered a menu of multi-scale solutions to be used in real life situations by stakeholders, practitioners, and decision makers in public and business organizations, by providing new frameworks, data-sets, methods, and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts.
Project Conclusion
The key message emerging from the case studies is that ecosystem services knowledge is most effective, and operational, when decision-makers, practitioners and key stakeholders have been closely involved in the assessment process to ensure that they find the information relevant and reliable, and are ready to act upon it.
Funding
The project was funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ENV.2012.6.2-1) under grant agreement EC-308428.