Landscapes and Ecosystem Services
Theme leader: Orlando Venn, orlando@treweek.co.uk, Tel: (0)1271 37 92 70
Mob: (0)7970 47 78 48
Theme focus
- How impact assessment tools can help create climate mitigation and adaptation strategies that enable landscapes which enhance ecosystem services.
- How impact assessment tools can support decision making on climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and ecosystem service provision in landscape planning and land use management
Overview for the theme
Impacts of climate change on ecosystem services and biodiversity are excessively analysed at numerous geographical locations and spatio-temporal scales. While core research focus on complex interactions between atmospheric processes, ecosystem functioning and related services, applied research deals with mitigation and adaptation strategies linked to human-environment interactions. Here, landscape level planning, management and decision making plays a fundamental role. It is at this scale where geo-bio-physical phenomena, environmental processes and economic activities interfere with socio-cultural perceptions. Also, governance structures and decision actors are most complex at landscape level.
This session will explore the use of impact assessment tools and of the ecosystem service concept for climate change mitigation and adaptation at landscape level. Contributions and discussions will address:
- how impact assessment methods and tools can support landscape level planning and decision making
- how ecosystem services may be affected by climate change mitigation and adaptation at landscape level,
- how the concept of ecosystem services can be employed for strengthening the science policy interface for climate change policy making
Session One
Challenges and opportunities in using impact assessment tools in landscape planning for climate mitigation and adaptation: 4 presentations max. 15-20 min each:
- Biodiversity and resilience against climate change (Arenda Kolhoff/Orlando Venn)
- Processes and tools for impact assessment for landuse management (Aranka Podhora, ZALF)
- Role of Natura Assessment in climate change mitigating and adaptation with special reference to maintaining and enhancing of ecosystem services (Kaja Peterson, SEI Tallinn)
- Landuse, Biofuels and Impact assessment tools - Getting to sustainable climate change mitigation options (Orlando Venn, TEC)
Session Two
Two parallel Round Tables: Facilitated discussions on how impact assessment tools can help create mitigation and adaptation strategies that enhance landscapes and support ecosystem services
- examining how impact assessment tools and landuse planning can enable the mitigation of risks of indirect landuse changes from biofuels production. (Aranka Podhora, ZALF)
- How IA tools and landuse planning can be used to support ecosystems that are resilience to the effects of climate change (Orlando Venn)
- Facilitated discussion: evidence and knowledge that demonstrate how landuse planning and management practices enable the mitigation of risks of indirect landuse change from biofuels production
- introduce the topic (max 15 min - the challenge of indirect landuse change and biofuels, the proposal to mitigate iLUC risks and the role of landuse planning and management, the role of the “Round Table on Sustainable Biofuels”)
- open discussion on iLUC, landuse planning and management (20 min)
- introduce the exercise “group discussion in round tables” (5 min)
- set up a roundtable asking participants to respond to the questions:
- what are the barriers to landuse planning and management practices enable iLUC mitigation?
- what is the role of impact assessment (strategic and project level) in delivering the kinds of landuse planning needed for mitigating iLUC risks? (30 min)
- report back to whole group (15 min)
- concluding remarks (5 min)
- Facilitated discussion: How IA tools and landuse planning can be used to support ecosystems that are resilience to the effects of climate change
- Introduce the topic (15 min) – biodiversity support and protects livehoods. A more biodiverse environment is increasing recognised as being more resilient against climate change risks and vulnerability. How can the role of biodiversity in climate change adaptation be highlighted through impact assessment?
- Open discussion on biodiversity, resilience, land use planning and management and impact assessment (20 min)
- Introduce the exercise “group discussion in round tables” (5 min)
- set up a roundtable asking participants to respond to the questions:
- In the light of inherent uncertainty about the long-term consequences of climate change, what adaptive management measures are to be promoted on the short term to enhance the resilience of ecosystems and to maintain valued ecosystem services?
- How should these opportunities for climate change adaptation provided by ecosystems be incorporated into SEA and land use planning?
- report back to whole group (15 min)
- concluding remarks (5 min)
Perspectives on the issues
- Data available for landscape planning (biodiversity data, information about agricultural systems and ecosystem services, evidence of how to achieve positive relationships between different components of a landscape)
- Processes needed for building the institutions to manage landscapes (experiences with building the capacity and institutional frameworks for stakeholders to use information to plan and adapt to changing conditions)
- How these pieces (knowledge and capacity) fit together into good policy for climate change mitigation strategies (RED) and adaptation strategies
Objectives/expected outcomes for the theme
- Appropriate IA methods and tools for climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Understand potentials and use of impact assessment tools for decision making in landscape management
- Develop research agenda to ensure that environment assessment approaches are climate-proofed in order to ensure well – informed political decision-making