The EU has taken a first step towards reducing its environmental impacts on the Arctic region by investigating EU-driven pressures on the Arctic. Vice President of the European Parliament, Diana Wallis, Iceland's Senior Arctic Official, Greta Gunnarsdottir and Nicholas Hanley, Head of the International Relations and Enlargement Unit for DG Environment welcomed over 60 experts from government and civil society...Read more
An increase in the level of awareness of the value of biodiversity and the failure until now to halt its decline evoked the release of a new EU biodiversity strategy in May 2011. The strategy has been recognized for its potential to not only combat biodiversity loss, but also to support socio-economic development. Accordingly, this project provides a foundation to help ensure that the EU labor force is fully prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that the biodiversity strategy offers and provide the skills needed to fulfil the EU’s commitments for biodiversity conservationRead more
Mainstream economic indicators still dominate practical policy making. In this journal article, Lucas Porsch explains how the connection of sustainability measures and these mainstream indicators can be a tool for policy makers to understand and manage trade-offs between different sustainability categories.
The project Integrating Mainstream Economic Indicators with Sustainable Development Objectives (IN-STREAM) has analysed the similarities and differences of mainstream economic indicators...Read more
Ecosystem services and their economic valuation play a major role in the current debate about strategies for halting biodiversity loss. However, to what extent has the ecosystem service approach been taken up by relevant policies to date and what needs to be done in order to enhance the integration of the approach in policy mechanisms? These questions were discussed among others at an expert workshop on 12 November in Berlin. Timo Kaphengst gave a presentation on the integration of the ecosystem service approach in European and German agricultural policies. The presentation can beRead more
On 1 and 2 November 2012 the National Focal Points (NFPs) of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) met in Bonn in order to discuss a manual that Ecologic Institute drafted in order to help the NFPs implement the CMS. Furthermore, Ecologic Institute drafted a concept for an e-community platform that was tested by the NFPs at that meeting. The two-day workshop was moderated by Doris Knoblauch.
The focus of the workshop was to engender a conversation between the NFPs on the different parts of the handbook. To this end, participants were involved in in-depth, so-Read more
Stable and healthy ecosystems are essential for climate change mitigation and adaptation. This applies to many sectors, such as agriculture, forestry, tourism, urban planning and water resources management. Mitigation and adaptation measures using the ecosystem-based approach are becoming increasingly important as they offer a variety of benefits and are often considered to be more cost-effective solutions than purely technological approaches.
The goal of this project is to demonstrate that ecosystem-based approaches are not only conducive to nature conservation, but also can provideRead more
The international Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (also known as CMS or Bonn Convention) aims to conserve terrestrial, aquatic, and avian migratory species throughout their migration routes. All contracting Parties designate National Focal Points (NFP) as liaison officers between relevant government offices and the CMS Secretariats. Ecologic Institute is developing a manual for the NFPs and working out a concept for an NFP e-community platform.
The aim of the manual is to clarify theRead more
On 10 May 2012, Ecologic Institute and The Nature Conservancy Europe (TNC) had the pleasure of hosting a dinner dialogue with the TNC China Climate Change team. In discussing the application of the ecosystem-based approach (EbA) to date and its potential to address climate change adaptation needs, the event created a platform for exchange and provided a foundation to transfer...Read more
The aim of the EU's Natura 2000 Network is to protect Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats. This project developed a methodological framework for assessing the overall economic value of the benefits provided by the Natura 2000 network. A first estimate suggests that the benefits could be between €200 and €300 billion per year at present, which equals 2% to 3% of EU GDP. The project report is available for download.
During the summer semester 2012, the Research Group Ecosystem Services organises a course on "Ecosystem Services and Land Use" at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin). The course is geared toward Bachelor's students in agriculture and horticulture. In this context, Holger Gerdes, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, teaches a class on the economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
In total, 14 seminars in the form of lectures, discussions and presentations have been organised. The course also includes a five-day excursion to theRead more