1. EEA marine assessments 2014-2015 State of Europe’s seas
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16th November 2016 – EIONET Marine
Presentation by EEA Water & Marine Group

2. State of Europe’s seas 2015 Objective:
To provide an integrated assessment of the ‘State of Europe’s seas’
Scope:
Provide a snapshot of the current state of Europe’s seas assessing whether they can be considered healthy, clean and undisturbed, and productive
Establish a ‘baseline’ fit for informing on present and future EU policy implementation
Put forward an overview of the availability and quality of relevant marine information
Explore what ecosystem-based management means in practice
Evaluate if the way we use European marine natural capital is sustainable

3. State and Outlook of the Environment
Policies, legislation, networks – where to begin?
2010
EU Strategy on adaption to Climate change
EIONET
A resource efficient Europe – Flagship initiative
Birds Directive
Data Collection Framework
Europe 2020 strategy
7th Environmental Action Programme
Regional Advisory Councils
Maritime Spatial Planning Directive
State and Outlook of the Environment
Common Fishieries Policy
Regional Sea Conventions
Integrated Maritime Policy
Biodiversity Strategy to 2020
Water Framework Directive
Common agricultural Policy
Marine Strategy Framework Directive
ICES
Habitats Directive

4. Making sense of assesssment concepts – analytical demand
2010
EU Strategy on adaption to Climate change
Transistions
Resource-efficiency
Sustainable development
Data harmonisation
Ecosystem-based approach to management
Living well within ecological limits
SDGs
Geographic area?
Report once, use many times
DPSIR
Maximun sustainable yield
Ecosystem services
Blue growth
Natural capital
Good Ecological Status
Science & producing policy advice
Good Environmental Status
For our food, our country side, for our environment
MDIAK
Favorable Conservation Status

5. Conceptual framework for EEA marine assessments
Spatial approach
Multiple objectives
Central for EEA marine assessments are our conceptual framework. It is built around a holistic understanding of an ecosystem-based approach to management that on one part realise it is a
Spatial approach, 2) its about recognising connections, 3) addressing cumulative impacts and 4) about handling multiple objectives.
Its main building blocks include marine ecosystems, socio-economic system as well as drivers of changes – the individual componets of the circles can be linked directly to EU policy documents and/or key scientific references.
Obviously, MPAs as a measure for halting loss of biodiversity fits nicely within this conceptual framework. It is fully described in the State of Europes seas report.
Cumulative impacts
Recognising connections
State of Europe’s seas Link

6. Marine Strategy Framework Directive
Informing the EU policy implementation agenda
Birds Directive
Integrated Maritime Policy
Habitats Directive
Maritime spatial planning Directive
Marine Strategy Framework Directive

7. Marine information – having to use all possible (available) information
MSFD reported information:
High quality information only available for app. 1-5% of the area covered by Europe’ seas
Significant differences and big gaps in what Member States reported at the EU-level...
For example, 80% of marine biodiversity assessments and 100% of ecosystem assessments showed that their 'overall status' is 'unknown‘
Little harmonisation of reported information within and across marine regions and subregions – e.g. no harmonised spatial information reported
As a result, the report:
Uses information compiled from numerous sources, incl. (other) EU policy-linked reported information, EIONET data flows/EEA indicators, EU research projects, EU & regional scientific references, etc.
Has significant gaps for individual themes and/or the geographic coverage

8. Main findings
Marine biodiversity shows patterns of degradation indicative of a poor state for many species and habitats across all seas
Multiple pressures from a wide range of human activities continue to impact Europe’s seas, but some pressures are being reduced, such as from fishing and nutrient loading in some areas
Climate change brings additional disturbance to marine ecosystems
The EU maritime economy is a thriving economic engine and job creator, and maritime activities and exploitation of marine resources continue to increase
Information made available at the European level is often of poor quality and has significant gaps
Europe’s seas are not healthy nor clean and undisturbed, even if they are productive; and marine natural capital does not appear to be used sustainably

9. Focus on marine natural capital and ecosystem services (1/3)
‘The sea's natural capital’, including marine ecosystem capital, is defined in Chapter 2
Marine ecosystem capital is the (biotic) part of the sea's natural capital, and that which most directly supports our daily lives because of the capacity of marine ecosystems to deliver ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are the final outputs or products from marine ecosystems that are directly consumed, used (actively or passively) or enjoyed by people - we get many benefits from doing so!
EEA, 2015, ‘State of Europe’s seas’

10. Focus on marine natural capital and ecosystem services (2/3)
‘Assessing marine ecosystem services’ as a way ‘to better manage our use of the sea's natural capital’ is discussed in Chapter 7, which concludes:
The ecosystem services concept is still not a 'common language' across the EU with which to communicate about all the benefits people get from marine ecosystems in an EU-policy and management context
Having such a common perspective should help us to better manage all human activities using the natural capital of Europe's seas in order to prevent its misuse
EEA, 2016, ‘Seafood in Europe — A food system approach for sustainability’

11. Focus on marine natural capital and ecosystem services (3/3)
Main findings
The way we use the natural capital of Europe's seas does not appear to be sustainable, i.e. we may be mismanaging this use. Thus, the self-renewal of marine ecosystem capital, its biotic constituent, may be at risk because of the significant degradation and loss of marine ecosystems and biodiversity reported across Europe's seas
All the ecosystem services that can potentially be delivered by Europe’s marine ecosystems are under threat, i.e. their delivery may not be sustained/continued over time
Managing the above risk across Europe's seas is difficult when we don’t know very much about the state of marine ecosystems and biodiversity overall (e.g. how to prevent deterioration of ‘unknowns’?)
Management should acknowledge that marine ecosystem assets and services could be more at risk indirectly, from human activities using/sourcing marine abiotic natural capital, than by activities using them directly
There are possibilities for better EU-level assessment of the potential of marine ecosystems to supply services than the one provided in this Report. However, these possibilities have not completely materialised as yet

12. Our life insurance, our natural capital
How do we know all this?
Through work done since 2010 contributing to the EU-level support to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, in particular Action 5 under its Target 2 and the ‘MAES process’
Target 2: Maintain and restore ecosystems and their services
Action 5: Improve knowledge of ecosystems and their services in the EU
‘5) Member States, with the assistance of the Commission, will map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services (MAES) in their national territory by 2014 (ongoing), assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020’
Our life insurance, our natural capital

13. Why did we want to know all this? (1/2)
To improve EEA marine assessments and relevant EEA processes by introducing an ‘ecosystemic dimension’ into them, which is what is provided by the marine natural capital and ecosystem services concept/approach
EEA, 2015, ‘State of Europe’s seas’
EEA, 2016 => EEA support to the mid-term review of the Biodiversity Strategy
EEA, 2016, ‘Seafood in Europe — A food system approach for sustainability’

14. Why did we want to know all this? (2/2)
To support others as per the EEA mandate, e.g. contribution to development of EU-level guidance on MAES (which is very terrestrially-driven…)
Maes et al. (2013) = MAES guidance no. 1 providing the following assessment elements:
Conceptual framework for the MAES assessment
Ecosystem typology
Ecosystem services definition and typology (CICES (*))
Maes et al. (2014) = MAES guidance no. 2 providing the following assessment elements:
Common MAES assessment framework
Indicators for ecosystem services assessment
Nevertheless:
Both state that their marine component needs further development (!!)
They don’t provide an EU-level MAES assessment methodology
(*) CICES = Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (version 4.3)

15. Other material on marine natural capital and ecosystem services
We’ve (therefore) also been working towards:
Improving the different marine assessment elements provided in the MAES guidance 1 and 2
Coming up with a framework and methodology to be able to put all these elements together in a way that delivers an EU-level assessment of marine ecosystem service capacity (*) that is one-to one relevant to EU policy. This approach:
Is based on the link between ecosystem condition and service supply
Uses information on ecosystem condition available at the EU-level from the implementation of EU water, nature and marine directives (and other) to assess capacity for service supply
Some of the outcomes from this work have been included in the EEA publications shown earlier but the ‘background material’ has not been released (yet)
(*) Supply-side approach for services assessment based on ecosystem condition, no quantification of service use and neither valuation of service benefits
EEA, 2015, ‘State of Europe’s seas’

16. Reflections... State of Europe’s seas:
First ever EU-level picture integrating information from 24 countries across 4 European regional seas
A challenging, ‘though rewarding, assessment to produce; enabling better future assessments
Efforts are still needed to produce more marine information, and enhance its coordination across and between regional seas to improve our knowledge base
EIONET:
Data flows provide a very valuable source of information (but rather limited in terms of thematic scope)
Comments on EEA draft reports are much appreciated as they help not only improving the reports, but also ‘securing’ a buy-in to our work across Europe
Natura 2000 and Common Database on Designated Areas reporting flows allow for EU-level response to Aichy target 11

17. Thank you Eva.gelabert@eea.europa.eu Johnny.reker@eea.europa.eu
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