The study addresses the following aspects: 1. Identification of the types of costs associated with biodiversity policy in the EU: both direct and indirect as well as opportunity costs. 2. A review of the available literature to find any gaps in the cost analysis – such as the opportunity costs of conversion to other uses – and to assess the extent of these gaps. 3. An estimate of the total economic costs of biodiversity policy (including opportunity costs) in the EU. 4. Information on how to systematically fill any such gap in the future and on the methodologies that can be used to comprehensively address all types of economic costs.

Under the title "Wellbeing and Equity within planetary boundaries" the biannual conference of the International Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE) took place in Reykjavik (Iceland) from 13 until 15 August 2014. Timo Kaphengst from Ecologic Institute presented a paper on "Green Infrastructure as a bridging concept between biodiversity protection and the green economy". In total, Ecologic Institute contributed three official inputs to the ISEE conference. The presentation slides are available for download.

The objectives of the report were to provide information on how inspections are currently being undertaken for selected Member States in the policy areas of water, nature protection and CITES so as to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, combined with information from other studies, the study developed options that could be taken forward at EU level to strengthen inspection and control and it assessed the impacts of those options.

The Yearbook Ecology 2015 was published at the end of August 2014. This issue's focus is on re-naturation: society in harmony with nature, which is examined from economic, social, technical and ecological points of view. Ecologic Institute is one of the institutes supporting this yearbook and contributed three articles in the 2015 edition.

The European Environment Agency's European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC-ICM) aims to support the assessment, development, and implementation of EU policies through data analysis, data monitoring, and scientific knowledge sharing. European Topic Centres are important instruments of the European Environment Agency to monitor the environment in its member countries and analyse the current as well as the future state of the environment.

Martinez, Grit and Teun Bastemeijer 2011: "Climate Change Adaptation and Water Integrity. A Global Challenge to Address Local Realities.", in: Gareth Sweeney; Rebecca Dobson; Krina Despota and Dieter Zinnbauer (eds.): Global Corruption Report: Climate Change: Earthscan, 284-288.

Wang, Tiffany; Tanja Srebotnjak; Julia Brownell and Renee Y. Hsia 2014: "Emergency Department Charges for Asthma-Related Outpatient Visits by Insurance Status". Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 25, No. 1, 396-407.

Hsia, Renee Yuen-Jan et al. 2014: "The Association of Trauma Center Closures with Increased Inpatient Mortality for Injured Patients". The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Vol. 76, No. 4, 1048-1053.

Lui, Charles; Tanja Srebotnjak and Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia 2014: "California Emergency Department Closures are Associated with Increased Inpatient Mortality at Nearby Hospitals.". Health Affairs, Vol. 33, No. 8, 1323-1329.

For a brief study, the Ecologic Institute and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy carried out a needs analysis on how actors in German civil society can help shape the process of social transformation towards a decarbonised world. By means of a screening, the project team investigated which organisations are active in climate protection, in which thematic areas they work and how the actors finance themselves. The aim of the clients is to obtain a rough mapping of the current activities and to identify white spots on this map in order to support them more strategically and effectively, if necessary, and to attract new sponsors for such gaps in funding. The short study is available for download.

Bieling, Claudia et al. 2014: "Kulturlandschaften entwickeln – Ökosystemleistungen stärken". Natur und Landschaft, Vol. 2014, No. 2, 82-84.

After the flooding of 2002, many measures for flood protection have been planned and implemented in Germany. However, the next big flooding event in 2013 showed that technical solutions are not sufficient for the protection of houses, land, and people in endangered areas. Alternatively, flood prevention with ecological protection measures should be focused.

The scope of this study is to make a progressive contribution to a better understanding of the social aspects of biodiversity as well as of the disproportionate risk of biodiversity loss to certain groups of people across countries in different world regions.

Blobel, Daniel et al. 2014: "RADOST – Regionale Anpassungsstrategien für die deutsche Ostseeküste", in: Hendrik Bieberler et al. (eds.): Wege zur Anpassung an de Klimawandel. Regionale Netzwerke, Strategien und Maßnahmen. Köln: Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln Medien GmbH, 21.