Investing in peatlands: Delivering multiple benefits

The new EU Biodiversity Strategyand its relevance to the

conservation of peatlands

Dr. Micheal O‟Briain

Deputy Head of Nature Unit

DG Environment, European Commission

University of Stirling, 20-22 June 2011

EU interest in conservation and sustainable use of peatlands

Many peatland habitat types of priority EU conservation concern under Habitats Directive & important for species protected under Birds Directive

Also links to other EU environmental legislation (eg EIA, SEA, WFD and Floods Directives, and Environmental Liability Directives)

Increasing recognition of value of peatlands and ecosystem services they provide, including in relation to climate change

Pressures on�peatlands in EU

EU Conservation status of active raised bogs

Habitats Directive also covers

Degraded raised bogs

EU Conservation status of active Blanket Bogs

Habitats Directive also covers

Degraded Blanket bogs

Why does it matter?

A moral duty: to conserve the sheer

variety of life on earth

An environmental asset: healthy

ecosystems play a vital role in

regulating the environment – eg a major

tool for climate change adaptation

An economic imperative: ecosystem

goods &services provide a whole range

of direct and indirect economic benefits

Enhance

implementation

of nature

legislation

Restore

ecosystems

est. Green

Infrastructure

Sustainable

Agriculture

&

Forestry

Sustainable

Fisheries

Combat

Alien Invasive

Species

Contribute to

averting global

biodiversity

loss

ACTIONS

6 TARGETS

EU biodiversity strategy

A 2050 VISION

European Union biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides – its

natural capital – are protected, valued and appropriately restored

A 2020 HEADLINE TARGET

Halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU and restore

them insofar as feasible, and step up the EU's contribution to averting global

biodiversity loss.

New EU Biodiversity Strategy 2011Target 1 - Nature conservation

To halt the deterioration in the status of all species and habitats

covered by EU nature legislation and achieve a significant and

measurable improvement in their status by 2020

100% more habitat assessments & 50% more species assessments

under Habitats Directive show improved status & 50% of species

asssessments under Birds Directive show a secure or improved status

Complete the establishment of the Natura 2000 network and ensure

good management

Ensure adequate financing of Natura 2000 sites

Increase stakeholder awareness and involvement and improve

enforcement

Improve and streamline monitoring and reporting

Continued need for good protection & enforcement for peatlands Natura 2000/protected sites

Still unresolved threats to peatlands,

including from peat extraction and

drainage

Emerging challenge to reconcile

renewable energy and protection of

peatlands

Need to ensure high standards of AA,

EIA and SEA

Key message is need for strategic

spatial planning to avoid/minimise risk

to areas of high biodiversity value,

especially NATURA 2000 sites.

Management of Natura 2000: Establishment of new biogeographic process

to enhance coherence in the management of Natura 2000 by promoting cooperation and exchange of information between Member States and all other actors involved.

focus on most pressing conservation and restoration needs

improved information flows and exchanges on conservation measures

a feedback loop between conservation measures and conservation status at biogeographical level

recommend coordination of measures where appropriate & promote good practice in management/restoration/ monitoring

recommend adaptation of conservation objectives and measures to changing conditions, e.g. climate change

Approach to new process

Regular Natura 2000 seminars chaired by the European Commission, hosted and facilitated by „Lead Member States‟

Preparatory workshops

A first round of seminars including one seminar for each biogeographical regions to be organised between 2012 and 2015 (linked to Article 17 reporting round of 2007)

a pilot seminar for Boreal biogeographical region in late spring 2012

A second round of seminars to be organised between 2015 and 2020 (linked to the Article 17 reporting round of 2013)

An internet-based Communication Platform facilitating the exchange of information and experience on management of Natura 2000

Importance of Investing in Natura 2000

Main responsibility for financing Natura 2000 rests with MS but Habitats Directive links implementation to the provision of EU co-financing

MS have provided estimates of costs (€5.8 billion/yr) and work being developed on benefits

EU financial support framework for the multi-annual financial framework has yet to be decided

It future EU co-financing opportunities for Natura 2000 will largely involve 'integration approach‟

LIFE+ is a crucial instrument to support Natura 2000 & future financing would be best served by enlarged / enhanced LIFE type instrument

a more strategic approach needed for MS to tap into EU funding for Natura 2000 – Member States being asked to develop „Prioritised Action Frameworks‟

The potential role of innovative financing instruments needs to be fully tried and tested

Determining the Benefits of Natura 2000

3 study contracts underway to

1.Examine overall Natura 2000

benefits – extending TEEB

approach to Natura 2000

2.Assess the relationship

between specific

conservation measures and

ecosystem services provided

by Natura 2000 at local scale

3. Evaluating benefits Natura

2000 offers tourism/recreation

and employment

Monetary Value

Quantitative Review of Effects

Qualitative Review

Non-Specified

Benefits

Increasing up the

benefits

pyramid

Full range of ecosystem services from biodiversity

Type of benefits; health benefits

from clean air, social benefits

from recreation, income from

products, security, wellbeing.

Quantitative: eg number people

benefiting from wood from forests,

# of avoided health impacts;

number of visitors

Monetary: eg avoided water purification

costs, avoided flood damage, tourist value,

value of medicines / pharmaceuticals from

natural products

Knowledge gaps The “known-

unknowns” and

“unknown-unknowns”

Source: P. ten Brink: presentation at March 2008 workshop Review of Economics of Biodiversity Loss, Brussels

The Benefits

Pyramid

Monetary Value

Quantitative Review of Effects

Qualitative Review

Non-Specified

Benefits

Increasing up the

benefits

pyramid

Full range of ecosystem services from biodiversity

Type of benefits; health benefits

from clean air, social benefits

from recreation, income from

products, security, wellbeing.

Quantitative: eg number people

benefiting from wood from forests,

# of avoided health impacts;

number of visitors

Monetary: eg avoided water purification

costs, avoided flood damage, tourist value,

value of medicines / pharmaceuticals from

natural products

Knowledge gaps The “known-

unknowns” and

“unknown-unknowns”

Source: P. ten Brink: presentation at March 2008 workshop Review of Economics of Biodiversity Loss, Brussels

The Benefits

Pyramid

Monetary Value

Quantitative Review of Effects

Qualitative Review

Non-Specified

Benefits

Increasing up the

benefits

pyramid

Full range of ecosystem services from biodiversity

Type of benefits; health benefits

from clean air, social benefits

from recreation, income from

products, security, wellbeing.

Quantitative: eg number people

benefiting from wood from forests,

# of avoided health impacts;

number of visitors

Monetary: eg avoided water purification

costs, avoided flood damage, tourist value,

value of medicines / pharmaceuticals from

natural products

Knowledge gaps The “known-

unknowns” and

“unknown-unknowns”

Source: P. ten Brink: presentation at March 2008 workshop Review of Economics of Biodiversity Loss, Brussels

The Benefits

Pyramid

New EU Biodiversity Strategy 2011Sub-target 2: Ecosystem maintenance & restoration

By 2020, ecosystems and their services are maintained and

enhanced by establishing green infrastructure and restoring

at least 15 % of degraded ecosystems.

Improve knowledge of ecosystems and their services in the

EU (ES mapping and assessment, valuation)

Set priorities to restore and promote the use of green

infrastructure (GI Strategy 2012)

Ensure no net loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services

(bd screening, no net loss initiative by 2015)

Green Infrastructure is about maintaining, strengthening

and restoring ecosystems – investments that often provide

multiple benefits

It should explicitly serve the following purposes:

(1) Strengthening the functionality of ecosystems for

continued delivery of goods and services.

This includes increasing the resilience and restoration

of ecosystems and the maintenance of water and

carbon cycles;

(2) Combating biodiversity loss by increasing spatial

and functional connectivity between existing natural

areas and improving landscape permeability.

The Green Infrastructure concept

Green Infrastructure Components

• Healthy ecosystems inside and outside a coherent network of

Natura 2000 & other protected areas with their buffer zones;

• Multifunctional zones where the way land is used helps

maintaining or restoring healthy ecosystems

• Natural landscape features such as small water courses, forest

patches, hedgerows as eco-corridors/stepping stones for wildlife

• Artificial features such as eco-ducts/eco-bridges designed to

assist species movement across insurmountable barriers

• Areas where measures are implemented to improve the general

ecological quality and permeability of the landscape;

• Urban elements such as biodiversity-rich parks, permeable

soil's cover, green walls and green roofs, hosting biodiversity

and allowing for ecosystems to deliver their services.

Elements for GI implementation

• Improve implementation of existing legislation,

assess new legislation possibilities, and integrate

approach into funding scheme

• guidance for Green Infrastructure implementation

and financing, based on experiences

• step up research to better understand how it work

• communication to targeted stakeholders and the

general public `

• promoting integrated spatial planning as a required

tool to implement Green Infrastructure, whilst fully

respecting the subsidiarity principle.

• EC Communication (Green Paper) planned in 2012

Links to climate adaptation agenda

Green Infrastructure could provides a powerful tool to underpin links between climate change biodiversity/healthy ecosystems & nature‟s services

Natura 2000 sites/protected sites provides critical “space for nature” in face of climate change –

Commission White Paper on Adaptation COM(2009) 147 final

Explore the possibilities to improve policies and develop measures which address biodiversity loss and climate change in an integrated manner to fully exploit co-benefits and avoid ecosystem feedbacks that accelerate global warming

Draft guidelines on dealing with the impact of climate change on the management of Natura 2000 sites

Some challenges to peatland community

Help ensure that emerging agenda on ecosystem services builds on

and complements nature conservation objectives

Engagement with the new process in sharing experience/expertise in

management and restoration of Natura 2000/protected areas

Contribution to new financial process for investment in Natura 2000

– including the „prioritised action framework‟ & thinking outside the

box in relation to innovative financing

Defining/ promoting the mutiple benefits and ecosystem services to

support investments in conservation & restoration of peatlands

Engagement with new Green Infrastructure agenda to restore and

link peatlands, and to make them permeable to wider landscape