Assessing and valuing ecosystem services
Assessing and valuing ecosystem services
By bringing people with similar interests together in two workshops in 2009 and 2012, Shared Challenges has acted as a catalyst for a broad range of projects related to ecosystem services, helping to make this one of the most active areas of collaborative work across CCI.
A highly successful workshop on ‘Assessing and valuing ecosystem services’ at UNEP-WCMC on the 7th December 2009 highlighted some exciting opportunities for new joint initiatives. A discussion during this meeting led to a successful application to the CCI Collaborative Fund for a project focusing on evidence that establishes circumstances that result in synergies or ‘win-wins’ across different ecosystem services.
A meeting on 7th February 2012 gave people an overview of the results of the ecosystem services projects funded by the Collaborative Fund and to discuss potential future projects stemming from them. These projects include:
- Ecosystem service win-wins
- Ecosystem services toolkit
- Preparing teaching materials and building capacity in biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change
The focus of the morning was the presentation of results from these projects and to discuss the policy context and application of the ecosystem services approach. The afternoon focused on the future development and application of the Toolkit to measure ecosystem services at the site scale – an output developed by one of these projects.
Project Aims
This is one of the longest running Shared Challenge projects. Its original aim was to bring together people from across CCI who were interested ecosystem services to share knowledge, discuss the practical challenges involved in measuring the benefits provided by ecosystems and to explore opportunities for addressing these through greater collaboration. Interest in the ecosystem services approach has grown and over the last two years, the Programme activities in this area have involved people from all the CCI partners and departments and has brought in researchers and policy makers from outside Cambridge.
Key Activities
- A meeting hosted by UNEP-WCMC (7th December 2009) to discuss ‘Assessing and valuing ecosystem services’.
- A workshop at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (7th February 2012) focused on ‘Ecosystem Services: Past and Future Projects’.
Conservation Impact
Over 100 people have been involved in Shared Challenge activities in this area, or are known to be interested in it, forming the basis for a strong network of people across CCI for future activities.
One idea from the meeting in 2009 resulted in a successful application to the CCI Collaborative Fund to develop a ‘toolkit’ for assessing ecosystem services at a site scale. This project has forged links between a number of the CCI partners and led to a number of related collaborative projects.
The workshop in 2012 led to an additional partner being brought into a successful bid to the Collaborative Fund for a second stage of the project where the toolkit will be tested in a number of sites in Africa. This will begin in January 2012, and please follow this link to the project page for more details.
Outputs
- Notes from the workshop to discuss ‘Assessing and valuing ecosystem services’ (7th December 2009)
- Notes from the workshop focused on ‘Ecosystem Services: Past and Future Projects’ (7th February 2012)
Project Overview
Project leads
Project team
CCI partners Involved
Other Organisations Involved
- AEA Group
- Anglia Ruskin University
- The British Antarctic Survey
- CIRAD (Agricultural Research and Development)
- Conservation International
- Defra (the Department for Food and Rural Affairs, UK government)
- JNCC (the Joint Nature Conservation Council – the advisor to the UK government on nature conservation)
- Staffordshire University
- The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust
Credits
Thumbnail and Banner Images:
Kalyan Varma
Related Resources
Measuring and monitoring ecosystem services at the site scale: toolkit booklet
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