scholarly journals A State-of-the-Art Review of Marine Ecosystem Services in the Rías Baixas Natura 2000 Network (Galicia, NW Spain)

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Tubío ◽  
Pablo Pita ◽  
Carlota Barañano ◽  
Sebastián Villasante

Humans are deeply connected to the oceans, who provide us vital ecosystem services (ES) (climate regulation, control of natural threats, wealth of its biodiversity, etc.), but the oceans are the first to suffer from human activity (climate change, destruction of ecosystems, overexploitation of marine resources, pollution, endangered species, etc.). Marine biodiversity is a fundamental natural capital in the generation of marine ecosystem services (MES), fundamental elements for the maintenance of human wellbeing. The objective of this article is to empirically demonstrate the role of marine ES in natural protected areas in Nature 2000 Rías Baixas (N2RB) (Galicia, NW Spain) in order to (1) to improve the knowledge on natural capital and ES associated to conserved coastal areas, (2) to analyze the contribution of these conserved coastal areas to the provision of sustainable business opportunities, and (3) to analyze if green-oriented policies can revert the current unsustainable exploitation model by providing real opportunities for business development. By creating an inventory, we gathered detailed information collected up to October 2020 of scientific literature, research projects, press releases, information on business initiatives and public policies regulations on ES and conservation of marine biodiversity in the N2RB (Cíes Islands and Island of Ons, including the Ons–O Grove Complex). Better protection of marine natural capital needs coordinated efforts among all sectors of government, business, and international institutions. It is a priority to generate a greater degree of social and business commitment that promotes the conservation of marine biodiversity, through the design of social and business participation strategies in the planning and use of ES in the N2RB areas.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2060
Author(s):  
Elvira Buonocore ◽  
Umberto Grande ◽  
Pier Paolo Franzese ◽  
Giovanni F. Russo

The biotic and abiotic assets of the marine environment form the “marine natural capital” embedded in the global ocean. Marine natural capital provides the flow of “marine ecosystem services” that are directly used or enjoyed by people providing benefits to human well-being. They include provisioning services (e.g., food), regulation and maintenance services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage, and coastal protection), and cultural services (e.g., tourism and recreational benefits). In recent decades, human activities have increased the pressures on marine ecosystems, often leading to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and, in turn, affecting their ability to provide benefits to humans. Therefore, effective management strategies are crucial to the conservation of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems and to ensuring their long-term generation of goods and services. Biophysical, economic, and sociocultural assessments of marine ecosystem services are much needed to convey the importance of natural resources to managers and policy makers supporting the development and implementation of policies oriented for the sustainable management of marine resources. In addition, the accounting of marine ecosystem service values can be usefully complemented by their mapping to enable the identification of priority areas and management strategies and to facilitate science–policy dialogue. Given this premise, this study aims to review trends and evolution in the concept of marine ecosystem services. In particular, the global scientific literature on marine ecosystem services is explored by focusing on the following main aspects: the definition and classification of marine ecosystem services; their loss due to anthropogenic pressures, alternative assessment, and mapping approaches; and the inclusion of marine ecosystem services into policy and decision-making processes.


Author(s):  
Luis Outeiro ◽  
Elena Ojea ◽  
João Garcia Rodrigues ◽  
Amber Himes-Cornell ◽  
Andrea Belgrano ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Austen ◽  
Peder Andersen ◽  
Claire Armstrong ◽  
Ralf Döring ◽  
Stephen Hynes ◽  
...  

The main aim of this publication is to highlight the current thinking in ecosystem service valuation for the marine environment. Valuation of the benefits stemming from marine ecosystem services, including often unnoticed benefits to society, can help to assess the long-term sustainability of blue growth, support policy development and marine management decisions, and raise awareness of the importance of the marine environment to society and in the economy. Recommendations are made on how to incorporate outputs from valuation studies into the traditional analyses used in resource and environmental economics and into the European marine policy landscape and related management and decision making choices. The publication is primarily aimed at stakeholders interested in valuation of marine ecosystem services and natural capital accounting, spanning diverse roles from commissioning, managing, funding and coordinating, to developing, implementing, or advising on, marine ecosystem service and natural capital programmes. Such programmes will have strategic and policy drivers but their main purpose may vary from predominantly research driven science to provision of valuation data and reporting to legally-binding regulations or directives. The main focus is on European capabilities but set in a global context with the various actors spanning a variety of geographical scales from national to regional and European. Key stakeholder organizations include environmental or other agencies; marine research institutions, their researchers and operators; international and regional initiatives and programmes; national, regional and European policy makers and their advisors. It will also be of interest to the wider marine and maritime research and policy community. The publication recommends:1.Marine ecosystem valuation should be used to support policy making, regulation and management and decision making;2.The quality and availability of monetary and non-monetary valuation data should be improved and increased through research, development and implementation actions;3.The spatial and temporal dimensions of ecosystem valuation need to be mapped and their implications for policy and management decisions assessed;4.In order to strengthen the use and derivation of ecosystem service values to support policy, regulation and management, underpinning research and development actions should be undertaken:a.To improve understanding of the role of marine biodiversity and ecosystem processes in providing services and benefits;b.To improve modelling approaches to support ecosystem valuation and decision making;5.Systems to enable and use marine natural capital accounting and enhance the experimental ecosystem accounts should be further developed and implemented including:a. A natural capital portfolio approach utilising existing marine data sets and assessment results and addressing scale and aggregation as well as ecosystem degradation;b.Valuation methods for both ecosystem services and assets that can be standardised and are compatible with National Accounting;c.Payment for marine ecosystem services and other financing mechanisms to restore marine natural capital and improve its sustainable use.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13353
Author(s):  
Ying Wang ◽  
Keyuan Zou

The research on marine ecological compensation is aimed to protect the marine environment and sustainably utilize marine ecosystem services, and is an important institutional instrument for coordination of the relationships among environmental, economic and other social interests. The legal mechanism of marine ecological compensation should be an important way to effectively deal with the contradictions (for examples: the value loss of marine ecosystem services, destruction of marine biodiversity, etc.) in marine eco-environmental protection. This paper firstly introduces the case of the “Sanchi” ship accident, which is regarded as the first collision case of a tanker carrying gas condensate in world shipping history, and also provides a detailed analysis of the “Tasman Sea” ship case which is regarded as the first compensation claim for marine ecological damage in China, and makes some related discussions on marine ecological compensation concerning the two cases. Then, the paper probes into the research theme from four aspects: China’s legislative deployment, the legal connotation of marine ecological damage (including the current legal status of compensation claims, subjects of compensation claims, the compensation scope and the evaluation system.), major challenges in legal practice, and remediation of marine ecological damage in China. Finally, the paper provides some suggestions on marine ecological damage compensation for the final settlement in the “Sanchi” case, and tries to explore the future trend of the research theme based on the China’s marine strategy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Marcelli ◽  
Sergio Scanu ◽  
Francesco Manfredi Frattarelli ◽  
Emanuele Mancini ◽  
Filippo Maria Carli

Coastal marine areas are characterized by the highest values of ecosystem services and by multiple uses that are often in conflict with each other. Natural capital analysis is claimed to be a valid tool to support space planning. In the context of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) of the European Union (EU), the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC) Scientific and Policy Report 2014 defines the monitoring of specific descriptors and their possible use, based on an ecosystem-services approach. Mediterranean marine ecosystems are characterized by high biodiversity and the presence of relevant benthic biocenosis that can be used as a tool to support coastal planning, conservation, and monitoring programs. In this study, we considered the Mediterranean benthic biocenosis, as classified by Pérès and Picard, as a working tool and propose a basic spatial unit for the assessment of marine ecosystem services. Focusing on a high-resolution local-scale analysis, this work presents an accurate identification of the different biocenoses for the coastal area of Civitavecchia in the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy, and ecosystem services, as well as a benefits assessment, of the Posidonia oceanica meadows.


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 1321-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Ning Suo ◽  
Xu Bin Pan ◽  
Jian Hua Zhao ◽  
Yong Hai Yu

Since 1988, great changes of primary production, pollutants loading, coastline and sea area have happened in the Bohai Sea in China. These environmental changes increased the value of marine ecosystem services value from 529.42 billion RMB in 1988 to 558.83 billion RMB in 2010. The ecosystem services values of recreation, food and materials production, O2 supply, climate regulation and primary productivity were raised. However, other marine ecosystem services value, including biological control, pollutant purification, knowledge broaden and biodiversity protection were lowered. In addition, value of ecosystem services increased in Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay, but decreased in middle Bohai and Bohai strait, and it no change in Laizhou Bay,.This spatial difference of ecosystem service function value was mainly caused by the change of recreation function, O2 supply function and climate regulation function.


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