Predefined Project №1 - Valuation and implementation of ecosystems services (VAIES)

About this project

<p>The project shall contribute to the achievement of Objective 2 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020, which aims to maintain and restore the ecosystem services in the EU. Bulgaria has mapped and assessed the state of ecosystems and their services outside the Natura 2000 network under a previously implemented predefined project № 2 Methodological assistance for ecosystem assessment and biophysical assessment (MetEcoSMAP) financed by Program BG03 of EEA FM 2009-2014 and the projects under BG03.02 Evaluation and mapping of ecosystem services. Resulting from two seasons of fieldwork (in 2015 and 2016), a reference framework was created for 9 types of ecosystems with an assessment of their status and services. The information and data collected in Bulgaria from BG03.PDP2 and the projects under BG03.02, the awareness and experience of the involved stakeholders has been a driving force for undertaking the next step - assessing the economic value of ecosystem services and promoting the integration of these values into the accounting and reporting systems. The 2020 Biodiversity Strategy calls for "biodiversity considerations to be better integrated into society and business decision-making at all levels, including through life-cycle approaches and natural capital accountability…and they will include measuring the environmental footprint of products and organizations on the environment ”(COM (2020) 380 final - p.3.3.3). All these considerations have been integrated into the project activities with an ultimate goal of obtaining a workable methodology for valuing ecosystem services and integrating them into accounting, which eventually will contribute to the restoration and the sustainable use of ecosystem resources.</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The Ministry of Environment and Water strengthened the partnership with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) from the joint work on a predefined project № 2 Methodological assistance for ecosystem assessment and biophysical assessment (MetEcoSMAP) under Program BG03 of the FM of EEA 2009-2014, and upgraded it through the implementation of joint activities under this project. NINA has a key role in activity 2 of the project, where it is expected to report on experience and good practices in the field of valuing ecosystem services in Europe and Norway, including in the tourism sector, as well as experience in integrating natural capital in policy development, planning and business planning (for the tourism sector inclusion of companies), financial and accounting systems in the Bulgarian context at the moment. NINA also developed a peer-reviewed publication on evidence-based approaches to assessing methods for assessing green tourism under this activity. By providing foreign expertise, new knowledge for increasing the capacity of professionals was acquired.

Project partners

• The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Donor project partner· Norway