PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
One of the biggest threats to the global environment is land-use change. It is estimated that some 1 500 ha of ecologically-rich land is lost every day to development in the EU. The sale and subsequent development of such land by private and public landowners can have significant environmental costs. The value of ecosystems to humans and the wider environment has been given the name, ecosystem service. For example, the role that forests and peatlands play in regulating and absorbing atmospheric CO2 is an ecosystem service. EU environmental policies to address the wider issue of land-use change are increasingly focused on ecosystem services and in developing financial incentives for conservation. This would effectively make ecosystem services a tradable commodity. However, although there are some models, there are no simple tools or mechanisms to assess the value of ecosystem services at the landscape scale. There is also a lack of any international, transparent, trading platforms where sellers and buyers can directly trade in multiple ecosystem services. As a consequence, the conversion of ecologically-rich land to other uses will continue to be the easiest and most profitable option for many landowners.
OBJECTIVES
The objective of LIFENaturEtrade was to bridge the gap between academic research and policy on ecosystem service provision, by creating a novel suite of easy-to-use tools and mechanisms to identify, map and create a marketplace for ecosystem services in Europe. The project aimed to demonstrate an approach for enabling landowners to quickly assess the ecosystem services that their land provides, and to trade the associated ecosystem services. Specifically, the project aimed to develop an automated web-based tool for uploading information on land parcels and determining their ecological potential, based on the following ecological services: i) pollination; ii) flood regulation; iii) soil erosion protection; iv) carbon storage; and v) cultural services. The tools and technologies automatically generate landscape-scale maps, indicating key ecosystem services and their spatial configuration. The project also aimed to establish a web-based trading platform, called NaturEtrade, for the secure trading of the ecosystem services associated with their land parcels.
RESULTS
The LIFENaturEtrade project beneficiary developed a web-based tool for trading ecosystem services that demonstrates the potential to reduce loss of biodiversity in Europe. The system was built and tested in four countries. The underlying mapping, for the whole of Europe, was uniquely developed using satellite imagery with an algorithm capable of producing land classification to a resolution of 30 metres. This innovative algorithm produced within the project was not initially foreseen, but represents a major achievement. In addition, the land-registry database for the UK has been included in the web-tool so that the ecosystem potential of each individual land parcel can be calculated; though making assessments in other European countries where the land registry databases are not readily available requires land parcels to be drawn by hand using a mapping tool developed for NaturEtrade.
Furthermore, the beneficiary conceptualised and developed five new algorithms to quantify the following ecosystem services: water regulation, pollination services, recreation, carbon stored above ground, and soil erosion. These themed algorithms were robustly tested for accuracy using scientifically recognised methods. By the end of the project, the web-tool could produce a report within seconds for any transcribed parcel of land for all ecosystem services and for two time periods (2010 and 2017). This clearly demonstrates the ease-of-use of the system, the ecosystem services mapping and assessment, and the ability of the system to directly compare between two time periods. Finally, the beneficiary developed a trading platform which allowed landowners to calculate the ecosystem potential of their land, put those services up for sale and have buyers bid against each other to purchase the services. The web-tool was tested in four countries with different ecosystem types across Europe and found to be fully functional.
The project is relevant to a number of EU policy areas, including the Biodiversity Strategy, Water Framework Directive, and the Floods Directive. For example, the mapping tool could help formulate the next round of Flood Risk Management Plans in 2021.
The project beneficiary conducted trials to assess the use of the trading platform to increase the ecosystem service provision of land parcels in the Somerset Levels in England, an area significantly affected by flooding in 2014, with farmers taking part in a reverse auction by bidding on-line for public money for land management activities to reduce downstream flood risks. The feedback from the farming community was positive. NaturEtrade could provide a new potential source of income through a new asset class for landowners the ecosystem service value of their land. Once this asset is formally and quantitatively recognised, it will be easier for landowners to lever income off this asset. Another source of value would be the internalisation of the social benefits of ecosystem service provision at local, national and global levels, including water cycle regulation, cultural amenity, wildlife conservation, ecosystem resilience, carbon sequestration, and pollination.
The innovation in this project comes first from the development of a quick, efficient and easy method of assessing ecosystem services; secondly from the ability to monitor land cover change (and hence changes in ecosystem services) on a quarterly basis, using satellite imagery, to detect change; and thirdly in the development of an open and transparent platform for trading ecosystem services.
A constraint is getting landowners involved in the trading system, showing them what is in it for them and giving them the right level of understanding to use the system effectively and efficiently. More work is also needed to identify and develop the applications for the trading platform. So, by the end of the project the web-based tool was established but the market was not. However, there is no doubt that it has the potential to be a 'game changer' in terms of a European-level model that can determine Payment for Ecosystem Services, and how these payments are made in the future. The system can be used to influence policy, as a tool to assess biodiversity, or as a trading platform (or all three simultaneously).
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
