For the assessment of ecosystem services and their contribution, we screen how policies have adopted ecosystem services already and we establish a baseline ecosystem map to see what we have in the region. We also identify what ecosystem services really provide and how we can quantify them exactly. With the involvement of locals, we will develop scenarios to see how locals perceive ecosystem services in the future. Based on the priorities of the locals and the scientific data, we will compile policy recommendations to integrate ecosystem services into decision-making - at regional, national and EU level and also the sectorial level.
- Policy analysis to assess current Romanian legislation in terms of ecosystem services integration.
- Baseline ecosystem map to evaluate the ecosystems within it to work out spatially explicit habitat quality indicators (maps) based on the environmental and biotic data.
- Based on the results above, identify key ecosystem services
- Methods to quantify key ecosystem services most relevant for the study area will be developed at this stage. Five major ESs will be selected. Key ES will be matched to methods for producing mappable indicators at the second (capacity) and third(actual use) levels of the ES cascade framework.
- Generating scenarios. We will initiate a participatory scenario planning process for valuing ecosystem services through the comparison of land-use alternatives. Key drivers for the local scenarios will be identified. Based on the outcome two participatory scenario and land-use planning workshops will be held, where scenarios will be fully worked out.
- Using collected data and models, all indicators will be quantified to the whole study area. All indicators will be mapped for the baseline and indicators will also be calculated for the established scenarios, creating a map of ecosystem services.
- The results will be evaluated to understand how different economic sectors depend on ecosystem services.
- Best cases will be collectedto see how businesses internalise ecosystem services.