Ecosystem services

Activities and pressures can have positive and negative impacts on the marine environment and the goods and services it provides. Many of those goods and services (‘ecosystem services’) are used and valued by society, either directly or indirectly, and may in turn influence the drivers of basic human needs. The comprehensive integrated management of human activities, in line with the ecosystem approach, requires consideration of environmental, social and economic parameters. Embedding ecosystem services into the assessment of marine environment quality status allows us to better understand and manage the causes and consequences of change, in terms of both the impact on the environment and the impact on society (human welfare). This integrated approach allows us to identify and take action on influences which are critical to the health and integrity of marine ecosystems, while achieving sustainable use of ecosystem goods and services (including natural capital assets).

In order to understand the potential impacts on society due to changes in the marine environment (the ‘I’ within the DAPSIR framework), a methodology was developed that could be applied to the relevant thematic assessments to describe the linkages between information on the environmental state changes and impacts on ecosystem services.

The list of ecosystem services that are considered in the QSR 2023 is presented in Figure I.1. These ecosystem services are considered to be representative of the goods and benefits provided to serve society’s basic human needs by a range of activities in the North-East Atlantic. Changes in the provision of ecosystem services may in turn have an impact on the societal drivers underlying the range of activities which exert pressures on biodiversity and ecological components, thus closing the DAPSIR loop. Analysis of ecosystem services therefore allows us to build in the linkages to consider the impacts on the environment, society and the economy in an integrated way.

Human activities leading to state changes covered by several thematic assessments can have impacts on the same ecosystem service. Similarly, if a topic covered by a thematic assessment has impacts on a number of ecosystem services, the chapter on impacts will describe more than one ecosystem service.

Natural capital

The work on ecosystem services can be seen as one of the contributions to the NEAES 2030 objective that by 2025 OSPAR will start accounting for ecosystem services and natural capital in order to recognise, assess and consistently account for human activities and their consequences in the implementation of ecosystem-based management. (Relates to NEAES 2030 Operational Objective S7.O3)

In 2021 a first version of these accounts was developed (Alarcon Blazquez, 2021), following the new UN guidelines on Ocean Accounting. The following accounts were prepared (see also Figure I.2):

1. Ecosystem extent account: Describes the extent or area of the various ecosystem types;
2. Condition account: Overview of status and pressure indicators;
3. Physical supply and use accounts: Describe the flows of final ecosystem services supplied by ecosystem assets, and used by economic units during an accounting period, in physical terms;
4. Monetary supply and use accounts: As above, but in monetary terms (valuation in this first version was largely based on benefits transfer);
5. Monetary asset account: Presents information on stocks and changes (additions and reductions) of ecosystem assets. This includes accounting for ecosystem enhancement and degradation and is thus a value beyond GDP.

The first version of the natural capital accounts describes the supply and use of the following ecosystem services: fisheries; aquaculture; carbon sequestration; outdoor recreation; generation of electricity from wind power; oil and gas; and minerals extraction. In 2022 a second version of the natural capital accounts will be developed including more ecosystem services and possibly also more analyses. Information from the above-described study on the link between changes in the marine environment and ecosystem services will also be included.

The 2021 report considered the compatibility of the basic structure of physical accounts in the SEEA EA framework with the changes in the State and Impact on Ecosystem Services aspects of the DAPSIR (Figure I.3). Implementing and using systemic thinking frameworks such as DAPSIR can create synergies with a Natural Capital Approach (and vice versa). Thus, the DAPSIR framework can help to build OSPAR logic chains and facilitate the connections between the natural capital accounts and the sustainable use of ecosystem services.