Biodiversity Literature Repository
Published September 5, 2018 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Mapping and assessing ecosystem services in the EU - Lessons learned from the ESMERALDA approach of integration

Creators

  • 1. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany|Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research ZALF, Müncheberg, Germany
  • 2. European Commission - Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
  • 3. Fabis Consulting Ltd, Barton In Fabis, United Kingdom
  • 4. Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 5. University of Trento, Trento, Italy
  • 6. National Museum of Natural History and Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 7. Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Finland
  • 8. Bucharest University, Bucharest, Romania
  • 9. MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary
  • 10. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • 11. Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, Paola, Malta
  • 12. NINA - Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Oslo, Norway
  • 13. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 14. Kiel University CAU, Kiel, Germany
  • 15. CE3C – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal
  • 16. Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 17. Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • 18. Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands|University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • 19. Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research - BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 20. VITO, Brussels, Belgium
  • 21. University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
  • 22. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Adelaide, Australia
  • 23. MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary|Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
  • 24. CzechGlobe - Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 25. Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • 26. CNR - National Research Council of Italy, ISMAR - Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR), Venice, Italy|Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • 27. University of Patras, Department of Biology, Division of Plant Biology, Laboratory of Botany, Rio, Patras, Greece
  • 28. Ministry for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
  • 29. EEA Copenhagen, Copennhagen, Denmark
  • 30. University of Copenhagen UCPH , Copenhagen , Denmark
  • 31. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • 32. Pensoft, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 33. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 34. Regional Environmental Center, Budapest, Hungary
  • 35. Croatian Agency for the Environment and Nature, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 36. University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
  • 37. Foundation for Sustainable Development, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • 38. Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • 39. Flemish Institute for Technological Research VITO, Mol, Belgium
  • 40. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • 41. Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poznan, Poland
  • 42. IRSTEA, Montpellier, France
  • 43. MARETEC - Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 44. National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 45. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 46. Pensoft Publishers & Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 47. Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • 48. Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Joensuu, Finland
  • 49. University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
  • 50. ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 51. Salzburg University, ZGIS, Salzburg, Austria
  • 52. IRSTEA, UR RECOVER, Aix-en-Provence, France
  • 53. NINA, Trondheim, Norway
  • 54. Baltic Environmental Forum, Riga, Latvia|University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia|Baltic Environmental Forum, Riga, Latvia
  • 55. Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
  • 56. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany
  • 57. The Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubliana, Slovenia
  • 58. Nature, Biodiversity and Landscape Protection Directorate Ministry of Environment, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 59. Directorate General Environment of the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
  • 60. University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia|Baltic Environmental Forum-Latvia BEF-LV, Riga, Latvia
  • 61. University of Copenhagen UCPH, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 62. Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) , Helsinki, Finland
  • 63. European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy

Description

The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy's Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA's key tasks included network creation, stakeholder engagement, enhancing ecosystem services mapping and assessment methods across various spatial scales and value domains, work in case studies and support of EU member states in MAES implementation. Thus ESMERALDA aimed at integrating various project outcomes around four major strands: i) Networking, ii) Policy, iii) Research and iv) Application. The objective was to provide guidance for integrated ecosystem service mapping and assessment that can be used for sustainable decision-making in policy, business, society, practice and science at EU, national and regional levels. This article presents the overall ESMERALDA approach of integrating the above-mentioned project components and outcomes and provides an overview of how the enhanced methods were applied and how they can be used to support MAES implementation in the EU member states. Experiences with implementing such a large pan-European Coordination and Support Action in the context of EU policy are discussed and recommendations for future actions are given.

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