TRans-national EUropean Ecosystem VALUEs of grasslands
Informations
- Funding country
Europe- Acronym
- TREUEVALUE
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 10/1/2011
- End date
- 9/30/2013
- Budget
- 297,933 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP7 - Seventh Framework Programme | Grant | 10/1/2011 | 9/30/2013 | 297,933 EUR |
Abstract
The ecosystem services approach is emerging as the dominant framework within which policies targeted at halting the degradation of the natural environment are developed. As attempts to place a monetary value on ecosystem service provision become the norm, there is a danger that the preservation of biodiversity may become substantially less important for policy-makers and the general public. However, biodiversity has an intrinsic value in and of itself. This cannot be ignored in Europe, where the cultural values and well-being gains associated with the natural world carry great weight for European citizens. Based on current evidence, it is unlikely that there are many win-win scenarios where both ecosystem service provision and biodiversity conservation can be maximised. Understanding how the values attributed to biodiversity and ecosystem service provision trade-off against one another is therefore fundamental if appropriate policies are to be implemented. The fellowship will take European grasslands, the continent’s most biodiverse habitats, as a focus and perform: (i) ecological surveys of biodiversity and ecosystem service provision; and (ii) state of the art non-market valuation techniques in order to: (1)Estimate the willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services enhancements within European grasslands. (2)Examine trade-offs between the economic valuation of biodiversity and other ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, food production and the maintenance of cultural landscapes. (3)Understand how both the values attributed to services and the trade-offs between them vary across international borders and with increasing distance from the study sites. (4)Integrate field-gathered data from the natural and social sciences across three EU member states (including two in Eastern Europe) to generate directly comparable valuation estimates.