The second Policy Brief of RESTORE4Cs "Unlocking potential of coastal wetlands in Europe: Integration into National Restoration Plans", highlights the critical role of National Restoration Plans (NRPs) under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation in enhancing the restoration and resilience of coastal wetlands
This sectoral brief explores how transitioning to a Nature-Positive Economy requires transforming marine industries from drivers of biodiversity loss to forces for ocean restoration. It was developed under the EU research project GoNaturePositive!
This report published under the EU-funded GoNaturePositive! project offers a comprehensive baseline assessment to support the transition toward a nature-positive economy. The report provides an in-depth analysis of EU policy instruments and co-operative initiatives, identifying their alignment with nature positive principles and opportunities to reduce environmental harm, restore ecosystems, and foster systemic change.
This review explores the potential synergies between marine conservation and climate adaptation strategies, which are critical for addressing climate change impacts in European coastal and marine areas. The article, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, identifies and evaluates integrated approaches that support both marine ecosystem protection and climate adaptation.
Plastic pollution has become a severe global crisis, posing grave threats to the environment, human health, and sustainable development. Driven by unchecked plastic production, the problem worsens through the entire lifecycle of plastics—from creation to disposal—releasing not only large debris but also microscopic particles, monomers, and thousands of chemical additives. These pollutants travel worldwide via air and water currents, damaging ecosystems and wildlife, including marine species that suffer from entanglement, ingestion, and toxicity. This editorial is part of a Special Issue "An effective plastic treaty for marine life".
The environmental crises caused by humans do not stop at the oceans. To effectively tackle these complex challenges, new forms of scientific cooperation are needed. This impulse paper argues in favour of strategically strengthened cooperation between the natural, technical, social and cultural sciences. It presents five key areas of development that should pave the way for more socially relevant marine research in the future - from reforms in education to structural outreach to society. Dr Grit Martinez from the Ecologic Institute, who has been committed to combining social science and humanities perspectives and environmental research for many years, contributed to this impulse paper.
The first policy brief of the EU-funded RESTORE4Cs project highlights the importance of European coastal wetlands in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere, promoting their restoration as a climate change mitigation solution.
The poster ‘Synergies and Strategies for Marine Protection and Climate Adaptation’ presents key results and approaches of research on the integration of marine protection and climate adaptation. It shows how these two areas can be linked in order to effectively meet the challenges of climate change in marine and coastal ecosystems.
This report focuses on the assessment of the status of the marine environment, the definition of environmental objectives and the development of programs of measures to achieve good environmental status. It provides guidance to Member States on the assessment of marine waters, identifies key pressures and pressures factors and offers approaches for setting environmental targets. It supports the development of monitoring programs and the implementation of measures to reduce pollution and conserve biodiversity. The technical assistance aims to promote cooperation between Member States and create a coherent framework for maritime policy in the EU.
This UNITED project business brief discusses the legal framework and environmental implications of a project in the Greek Aegean combining aquaculture and tourism, including laws and regulations, particularly in relation to marine conservation, permitting and marine spatial planning.
This UNITED project business brief discusses the legal framework and environmental impacts of a project in the German North Sea that combines offshore wind energy and aquaculture, including the laws and regulations that apply to offshore installations in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
This Business Brief of the UNITED project examines the legal and environmental aspects of a project that successfully combines offshore wind energy production with innovative tourism activities.
This UNITED project business brief examines the legal and environmental aspects of a Belgian project using offshore wind farms in the North Sea for the cultivation of flat oysters and seaweed. Particular attention is paid to environmental benefits, such as improved water quality and biodiversity, as well as potential challenges, including permitting procedures.
This policy paper addresses the restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems. It advocates for synergies among UN decades and underscores the need to integrate various approaches to restoring marine and coastal ecosystems.
The Mission Ocean and Waters service portal is now live and serves as a comprehensive one-stop-shop for stakeholders, offering essential tools, contacts, knowledge, matchmaking, financing, and support for the successful execution of the EU Mission "Restore our ocean and waters by 2030". The service portal ensures access to knowledge for all citizens while extending support and technical assistance to Mission Partners actively involved in the Mission Ocean and Waters implementation.
This report elaborates the main challenges faced by water management institutions in implementing e-flows in EU Member States, presents country progress in developing relevant good practices and presents relevant implementation examples.
As competition for, and interest in, use of ocean space increases, a need for management arises to optimize activity in marine areas. This policy brief provides a comprehensive consideration of the economic efficiency of marine multi-use (MU) by weighing the pros and cons of individual use options against potential MU combinations.
This article illustrates the communication strategies that were successfully applied in the citizen science program Plastic Pirates in Germany. The program engages schoolchildren, teachers and youth groups in plastic pollution research. A variety of communication strategies have been implemented and continuously revised and adapted since the start of the program in 2016.
This article, co-authored by Mandy Hinzmann and Linda Mederake from Ecologic Institute, assesses the potential of the EU "Single-Use Plastics Directive" (SUPD) to reduce litter pollution in the environment with three scenarios. The scenario analysis revealed that the success the current SUPD can be an important first step, yet further legislative actions are needed to effectively prevent plastic waste pollution - bans alone are not sufficient. The success of the Directive is therefore highly dependent on implementation and enforcement.
This policy brief explores the potential and benefits of marine restoration, as proposed in the regulation. Marine and coastal ecosystems are immensely important for biodiversity and human well-being. Restoring marine areas can enable the respective ecosystems to (once again) perform their natural functions, improving their overall health and resilience.
Since we learned how to produce plastic, humans have manufactured more than 8.3 billion tons of it – most of which ended up as waste somewhere on the planet. This leads plastic waste to enter the landscape, rivers, beaches, and eventually ocean. We asked our listeners what, in their opinion, is the issue with plastic pollution. The answers ranged from negative impacts on human health and the environment to lack of recycling infrastructure and the global dimension of the plastics problem.
This study analyses the objectives, targets and activities of the EU Mission 'Restore our ocean and waters by 2030'. It proposes a draft set of indicators for measuring the Mission's progress, maps major stakeholders and networks, and offers recommendations for the future implementation of the Mission.
This policy brief investigates the gaps in the existing international treaties on marine plastic pollution and proposes components that need to be considered in a new treaty. These proposals will complement the G20 work on plastic pollution. Furthermore, since the G20 summit will be held in Indonesia in 2022, the focus of this policy brief will not only be relevant to G20 countries but also to Southeast Asia as the biggest contributor of marine plastics.
The case study provides an overview of the Alaskan marine Arctic environment in terms of: 1) the state and status of its ecosystems and their biodiversity; 2) the drivers and associated pressures that impact marine ecosystem health, as well as 3) the policies in place to protect the marine environment, in particular through marine protected areas.
This report contains one of six case studies of the ArkMPA, including five on marine policies in states bordering the Arctic Ocean, and one overarching regional report. The case study provides an overview of the Canadian marine Arctic environment in terms of: 1) the state and status of its ecosystems and their biodiversity; 2) the drivers and associated pressures that impact marine ecosystem health, as well as 3) the policies in place to protect the marine environment, in particular through marine protected areas.
This policy brief surveys the current state and recent development of the Arctic blue economy in the five Arctic coastal states (Canada, Denmark, USA, Russia and Norway), as well as the Arctic High Seas, to understand potential impacts on Arctic marine biodiversity. It also analyses the driving factors behind these developments.
The priorities of the German chairmanship of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) from 2020 to 2022 included strengthened ocean governance in the Baltic Sea region, updating the Baltic Sea Action Plan and measures on biodiversity, climate, eutrophication, pollutants, ammunition dumps, underwater noise and marine litter. The ten-year Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), which was adopted by the environment ministers of the Baltic Sea states and the European Union in Lübeck in 2021, provides for around 200 measures. Specific programs and strategies complement these measures. The goal: a healthy and sustainably used Baltic Sea. This flyer, conceived and designed by Ecologic Institute, provides an overview of the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the work of the Helsinki Commission.
This brochure summarizes the most important key messages from 20 joint research projects and seven cross-cutting topics of the German research focus "Plastics in the Environment". The brochure is structured along the life cycle of plastics and includes five sections: Green Economy, Consumption, Recycling, Fresh-water Ecosystems, and Saltwater Ecosystems.
The publication summarizes the key messages from all 20 joint research projects and the seven cross-cutting topics of the German research focus "Plastics in the Environment". Structured by main topics, the central results are presented in order to derive recommendations for various addressees. More than 70 researchers and practitioners from across the research focus have jointly co-authored the key messages.
The Ecologic Institute designed and developed the theme day website "Plastic in the Environment". It contained the event documentation and programme information.
This paper presents the results of a rapid review of the literature on gender and coastal climate adaptation conducted for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6). The findings highlight the lack of data on gender as a social dimension of adaptation and the gaps in current indicators for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal for gender (SDG5). The paper emphasises the need for gender-disaggregated data on coastal adaptation efforts to fully capture both positive and negative gender dimensions of climate adaptation.
The UNITED project report "Business Analysis of UNITED Pilots" provides a detailed business analysis of the various pilot projects. This analysis includes an assessment of the economic viability, SWOT and PESTEL analyses as well as a review of the financial aspects of the projects. The aim of the report is to assess the financial attractiveness and feasibility of multi-use concepts in European marine areas, with a particular focus on the synergies and challenges arising from the combination of different maritime activities.
On 21 May 2022, the Ocean Literacy Festival hosted numerous activities organised by the EU4Ocean Coalition members. The festival connected ocean literacy actors from Europe, and showcased the wide diversity of ocean literacy initiatives already in place. Ecologic Institute developed a social media video trailer to give the festival more visibility.
Cleveringa, J., Kampa, E., 2021. Intercomparison of ecological potential for Transitional and Coastal waters (TraC). Amersfoort, Berlin: Arcadis, Ecologic Institute.
This research report studies the Asian perspectives on a global plastic pollution treaty against the background of a growing momentum for the establishment of a negotiation process during the second part of the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) in February 2022. It identifies solutions already pursued by Asian countries to tackle marine plastic pollution, describes the challenges and needs expressed by government officials from the region, and discusses possible treaty elements taking into account experiences of countries in the Asian region.
Everybody who loves the sea has a story to share. In the podcast "If Oceans Could Speak", scientists and experts from different fields, scholars and sailors, artists and activists share their stories about the oceans around us, their value and vulnerability.
Forests and the ocean are vital for climate, biological diversity, and human communities, but they are degraded and their ecosystem services are seriously impaired, mainly because financial, economic and governance structures are misconfigured. The authors of this T20 policy brief propose that G20 help strengthen the REDD+ climate instrument for forests and extend it to Blue Carbon from coastal and marine ecosystems. Scaled up to cover the Earth's two largest, most diverse and most productive ecosystems, these two approaches can deliver significant economic and climate benefits. The T20 policy brief is available for download.
Coasts and seas both are characterized by intense social-ecological interactions, recently the industrial appropriation of coasts worldwide and oceans as a waste disposal site for port industries and land-based production facilities. In September, White Horse Press' transdisciplinary history journal Global Environment published a special issue dedicated to Coastal Cities and their struggle for coping mechanism to the recent crisis. The special issue was edited by Ecologic Institute and starts with an introductory chapter on the more-than-ever-growing need to consider different ideas, narratives and power relations of coastal and maritime actors and groups in order to shape a coastal management that is ecologically and socially sustainable.
This UNITED project report deals with the development of an environmental assessment framework to determine the ecological feasibility of multi-use platforms. This assessment framework is based on the practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and applies an integrated cumulative effects assessment (iCEA) in the scoping and identification phases of key impacts. The report aims to assess the added environmental value ("benefits") of multi-use in the marine environment.
This fact sheet for the project INNOVA illustrates a literature review on the effects of climate change on beach wrack landing on the German Baltic Shore. Beach wrack consists mainly of bladderwrack and seagrass and it is likely that climate change will have various effects on these plants. Aspects like rising water temperature, erosion, changes in salinity, eutrophication or oxygen deficiency are all affected by climate change. This will have direct effects on the composition and amount of beach wrack landing on the Baltic Sea shores.
This article gives an example of how to use Segrass in a sustainable way. "Using Seagrass as Insulation Material" by Nico Stelljes is published in the "Baltic Stories Magazine" that is devoted to promoting cooperation around the Baltic Sea, joint initiatives and projects of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR). The article is available online.
A comparative study indicates that the collective memory of the 1872 storm is related to the background knowledge about floods, the damage extent, and the response to the storm. Flood marks and dikes help to remember the events. In general, coastal flood defence is to the largest degree implemented in the affected areas in Germany, followed by Denmark, and is almost absent in Sweden, corresponding to the extent of the collective memory of the 1872 storm. Within the affected countries, there is local variability of flood risk awareness associated with the collective memory of the storm.
Wehrmann, Dorothea et. al. 2021: Wie können wir die Ozeane retten? Die Bedeutung der transdisziplinären und kollaborativen Meeresforschung. Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE): Bonn.
Plastic waste, plastic parts and microplastics can be found everywhere in the environment. Plastic particles are also detected in living organisms. But what exactly is the situation? To find out, the German Ministry of Research is funding the research priority "Plastics in the Environment" with around 40 million euros. Some of the results of the 20 funded research projects are presented in this video. Further results of the research projects as well as information on the activities of the research focus are available on the website.
Germany's Polar research activities contribute to numerous initiatives and include links to climate and biodiversity protection. To prepare for future challenges and address the most pressing issues, the federal government launched a process to develop a new polar research agenda. On 19 May 2021, the steering group of the process including Ecologic Institute's Arne Riedel, handed over the concept paper on the "Changing Polar Regions" developed by over 100 experts to the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.
The report addresses training and capacity building to ensure safe and efficient ocean multi-use operations, with a focus on societal engagement and educational objectives.
This paper deals with how culture is expressed through the interplay of socially, politically, and economically driven processes and practices in place-based biophysical contexts as well as the role played by narrative expressions in the formation of coastal risk management, knowledge and action. It draws upon ethnographic, comparative, and historical approaches to understand how culture frames what we know and how we respond differently to risks.
Plastic pollution in the environment is a global problem with unforeseeable ecological consequences. Despite numerous activities and approaches, there are only a few reliable findings on the input and distribution pathways and the effects on humans and animals. In order to close these knowledge gaps, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research established the major research focus "Plastics in the Environment - Sources - Sinks - Solutions" in summer 2017 and funded 20 innovative collaborative projects. The aim of the research was to obtain an overall picture of the environmental impact of plastics along their entire life cycle, from production and use to disposal. The aim is also to identify opportunities for improvement as well as options for action, thus creating the scientific basis for holistic strategies and measures. This conference proceedings present the research of the joint projects and work results in the cross-sectional topics.
Ecologic Institute designed a programme flyer as part of the visual identity for the project "Plastic in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions." The programme flyer was developed and designed to provide relevant content on the conference agenda in a concerted way to participants.
This UNITED report provides an economic assessment framework aimed at guiding the evaluation of multi-use platforms in European seas. It focuses on assessing financial costs, revenues, and the economic efficiency of integrating various maritime activities. The goal is to understand the viability and added value of combining different uses, such as aquaculture, renewable energy, and tourism, within the same marine space, emphasizing sustainability and economic growth.
A team of experts from the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine Waters (ETC-ICM) including Ecologic Institute's Dr. Ulf Stein published a study on the "Combined effects of human pressures on Europe's marine ecosystem". The paper was issued by the Journal for environment and society "Ambio". The central objective is to assess the extent to which human activities exert pressures on marine environments and where these pressures lead to degradation of the ecosystem.
Recent and historic high-impact events have demonstrated significant flood risks to many coastal areas in Europe and across the globe. Understanding the behavior of humans in relation to risk management poses grand challenges for both natural and social sciences and humanities. The study analyzes the cultural aspects of coastal risk management and illustrates path-dependencies of concrete disaster risk reduction measures in relation to local contexts in European coastal regions in Northern and South Western Europe. Dr. Grit Martinez from Ecologic Institute co-authored the journal article.