LandValUse: Integrated welfare assessment of climate and biodiversity impacts of land use: From promise to policy solutions

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2021

End date

12/31/2025

Budget

1,464,438 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

Norwegian natural and semi-natural areas are important for biodiversity, carbon sequestration/storage and a many other valuable ecosystem goods and services (EG&S) - some with a market price and some without. Many sectors of society request land use changes increasing the pressure on natural areas and causing a sharpening of trade-offs between considerations of biodiversity, climate and the production of other EG&S. There is therefore need for improved knowledge on how to weigh different considerations and arrive at solutions that benefit society as a whole. The LandValUse-project contributes to improve this knowledge. The project crosses sectors, industries and disciplines and connects social sciences (economics, sociology) with natural sciences (climatology, biology, landscape ecology, GIS), and focuses thematically on issues related to climate and biodiversity for land-based wind power, forestry and recreational cabin construction. The project uses available research and data on impacts of land use on biodiversity, net greenhouse gas emissions and several EG&S to develop indicators and scenarios for changes. The project will perform innovative studies of methods and applications to evaluate and value the welfare effects of changes in the supply of important EG&S because of land use changes. The project uses map-based tools and cost-benefit analysis to analyse compromises and synergies between land uses; and results from studies of acceptance of potential political solutions in public and private sectors, to form the basis for recommending instruments that will stimulate innovative, scalable, and readily implemented land-use solutions. The project is carried out by Statistics Norway (project manager), the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Menon Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics in collaboration with public, private and voluntary organisations, and a scientific advisory committee. The project formally commenced 1 May 2021. Both a digital start-up meeting for project collaborators and a digital start-up meeting for the project partners from the Norwegian research institutions were held digitally on 9 September 2021. Immediately before the start-up meeting, project collaborators were also invited to a digital research seminar (for the Valuehchange project financed by The Research Council of Norway). Several of the project collaborators participated and the feedback was quite good. A digital meeting with the project's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) was held on 22 November 2021. Here, the project was presented and plans for future collaboration were discussed. A website for the project will be established December 2021. The post-doctoral position on the project has been filled by Anders Dugstad from 1. September 2021.