BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICE INDICATORS IN FINLAND Ari-Pekka Auvinen Finnish Environment Institute 2016 Eionet Workshop | NRCs Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Indicators and Assessments 30 June - 1 July 2016, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

Myself Researcher, Finnish Environment Institute, Oulu, 2004– Head of the conservation committee, Northern Ostrobothnian Ornitological Society, 2008 – Photographer, graphic designer, journalist… … and the team Laura Mononen, Researcher, PhD student, Joensuu Petteri Vihervaara, Senior Research Scientist, Askainen

How did it all happen? What’s good, what’s bad? What lies ahead?

Environmental Cluster Programme for indicator development Evaluation of the Finnish National Biodiversity Action Plan 1997–2005 Professor Heikki Toivonen works at the CBD Secretariat 2001–2002 Background study for indicator development in Finland The second National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2006–2016 Fourth country report to CBD

Monitoring pages for the 3rd NBSAP Official lauching of web sites Feb 19th 2010 Mid-term review of the 3rd NBSAP Project for the development of national ecosystem service indicators 2012–2015 The third National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2013–2020 Fifth country report to CBD

THREE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF 1. COOPERATION - aiming to involve all relevant actors 2. TRANSPARENCY - development open to review at all stages - all data published on the web 3. INDEPENDENCE - a shared platform belonging to all data providers

X BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS FORESTS MIRES BALTIC SEA INLAND WATERS FARMLANDS ALPINE HABITATS URBAN AREAS SHORES ROCKY HABITATS & ESKERS INVASIVE SPECIES CLIMATE CHANGE X

Rocky and esker habitats NUMBER OF INDICATORS @ BIODIVERSITY.FI (MISSING INDICATORS IN BRACKETS) Forests Mires Baltic Sea Inland waters Farmlands Alpine habitats Urban habitats Shores Rocky and esker habitats Climate change Pressures 5 4 3 1 (1) (3) (2) State 5 (2) 4 (1) 6 2 (3) 1 (3) 1 (5) Impacts (4) Resposes 3 (1) 1 (2) 2 (1) Total 18 (2) 15 (2) 15 (1) 12 (5) 17 10 (4) 4 (2) 5 (5) (11) (14) >> 96 (46)

FO10 Forest birds

AL4 State of lichen pastures

SH7 Red-listed shore habitat types

INTERPRETATION ”Neutral” matter-of-fact presentation or explicit interpretation? >> expert groups check data, presentation and discuss interpretation E.g. farmland experts: Mikko Kuussaari Finnish Environment Institute General expert Juha Helenius University of Helsinki Tarja Kortesmaa Tike (Agricultural Information Centre) Agricultural statistics Tapio Salo MTT Agrifood Research Finland Nutrients Sari Autio Pesticides Reija Hietala University of Turku Agricultural landscape Katja Raatikainen Metsähallitus (Forest and Park Service) Traditional rural biotopes Ville Vepsäläinen Finnish Museum of Natural History Birds Janne Heliölä Butterflies Terho Hyvönen Weeds Juha Pykälä Red-listed species and habitats Eero Pehkonen Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Agricultural policies

GOOD: indicators systematically used since the fourth country report > away from ”politically motivated” reporting some indicators are semi-automatically updated & some new indicators have been developed since 2010 experts have been willing, even enthusiastic to participate indicators widely accepted

BAD: plenty of ”slapping on the back”, but insuffient funding (0–40 000 € per year) constantly lagging behind the updating schedule some monitoring schemes under threat due to budget cuts no resources for mainstreaming and publicity expert groups do not meet annually

CICES x CASCADE ECOSYSTEM SERVICE INDICATORS national perspective: what are the most important ecosystem services in Finland at the moment? consultation of the biodiversity indicator expert groups and interest groups

GOOD: has helped in getting a grip on ecosystem services & making the issues more concrete exciting work because of novelty expert cooperation has worked well again national MAES now taking steps forward BAD: one-time development project: the framework now exists, but real content is often lacking coordination between es-related projects often loose political will for implementation not too strong

WHAT LIES AHEAD? the need to monitor biodiversity and ecosystem services never goes away 2020 is coming how far will MAES get us? what happens with green accounting and green GDP? what is the role of companies (e.g. ecological compensation and implementing the es-framework)?

… AND NOW GO TO WWW.BIODIVERSITY.FI THANK YOU! ari-pekka.auvinen@ymparisto.fi