2.4.2.7 Lesson Learned 7: Added value of using the Ecosystem Services approach for marine management

Why

Ecosystem Services Assessment provides clarity with regard to the numerous benefits received from a given ecosystem and improves transparency regarding trade-offs.

How

In the VALMER project, the Ecosystem Services Approach was successfully used to engage a wide range of stakeholders, who in most cases had minimal prior knowledge of ecosystem services.

An incomplete Ecosystem Services Assessment was also recognised to be very useful.

Detailed ecosystem services terminology was not helpful to communication (for example in the Parc Naturel Régional du Golfe du Morbihan ecosystem services vocabulary was deliberately avoided), but the ecosystem services concepts were excellent for illustrating the nature of shared use of a given case study area. This alone was a major success of the approach.

Talking about functions (with ecological vocabulary) and services (with socio-economic vocabulary) enabled scientists, managers and stakeholders to gather around the table and to find the common denominator to engage in a renewed dialogue about a management issue, for example the management of kelp forests in the Parc Naturel Marin d'Iroise.

What next

Recommended areas for future research include:

• resilience and thresholds;
• cultural services;
• moving from bounded marine areas to include connectivity to adjoining marine systems and terrestrial/freshwater interactions;
• consideration of disparity between locations of service supply and location of beneficiaries, and how value of services is affected by proximity to beneficiaries, and distribution of beneficiaries and “losers”;
• finally need to improve communication of what marine ecosystem services are, ideally through case study specific illustrations.