Launching the Norwegian Green Infrastructure Network and new decision-support tools for Land Prioritization, Scenario and Impact assessment
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2022
- End date
- 12/31/2026
- Budget
- 1,842,786 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MILJØFORSK - Environmental Research for a Green Transition | Grant | - | - | 1,842,785 EUR |
Abstract
Despite a century of conservation initiatives that have largely focused on area protection, Nature is experiencing an unprecedented decline. Land use practices are the main driver for habitat loss and fragmentation. The Norwegian Environment Agency has recently developed a Green Infrastructure (GI) strategy to support sustainable land planning practices and halt the loss of biodiversity and the contributions nature makes to people (or ecosystem services). GreenPlan provides the research and development support for implementing this strategy by developing scientific methods and tools for the mapping and quantification of GI and by establishing a robust science-policy platform to ensure these tools meet the needs of their intended users. We cannot achieve sustainable land use by only protecting isolated patches of important habitat. We must also understand how organisms move within and between these areas as spatial ecological networks: the GI. We also need tools to understand how the cumulative impacts (CI) of human activities and a changing climate constrain these networks. GreenPlan builds upon a range of advances across disciplines to develop an innovative analytical framework and a suite of decision-making support tools to aid sustainable land planning. We use functional connectivity to quantify and map both GI and CI. GreenPlan initializes the Norwegian Ecological Network database, featuring the first nation-wide set of maps portraying GI for birds, mammals, insects and plants. Working together with public administration representatives, GreenPlan will develop a portfolio of decision-support technologies. These include land prioritization for conservation, mitigation, and restoration—using scenario analyses to forecast impacts from changes in land use or climate. GreenPlan establishes both a national Science-Policy arena for dialogue on sustainable land planning and Advisory Group to achieve transformative change in land planning practices.