Description
This project meets the Objective 2 of European Biodiversity Strategy, Action 5. It consists in the mapping and assessment of the ecosystem services in Divici-Pojejena wetland through the customized use of EU recommendations for Romania. The project will help to improve knowledge on the state and benefits of ecosystems. By adapting the existing methodologies related to the mapping and assessment of the ecosystems services, to the particularities of the wetlands in Romania, assessing also their services contributions to the economic sectors. Target groups: - Public authorities/administrative bodies - Research and development institutions - Public land management agency The donor partner is NIBIO, from Norway who will support the proposed activity by estimating the economic value of the wetland’s ecosystem services. INCDPM will gain the know-how of estimating the economic services value of ecosystems and NIBIO will achieve information on ecosystem services in Romania, and will evaluate them.
Summary of project results
The project had as general objective the adaptation of the methodology for mapping and assessment of wetland ecosystems in Romania by using customized recommendations of European Union, provided in reports Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services (MAES), for achieving the objectives of Action 5 from the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. The methodology obtained at national level was applied locally, using as case study the Divici-Pojejena wetland, located in the southwestern part of Romania, Caras-Severin County. The implementation of the project offers the possibility to apply the obtained results for the mapping and evaluation of ecosystems and their services at local level in other Romanian wetlands, contribute to the awareness of the entire values offered by wetlands ecosystems through dissemination of the obtained results to the stakeholders (central, regional and local authorities, researchers, etc.), offer the possibility of decision-makers to use the project's results for the sustainable development of the managed territories including wetlands, provide support for future research with the purpose of accurate assessment and mapping of the ecosystems and their services, respectively for evaluation and implementation of appropriate measures for sustainable development. The project's information and publicity actions included a series of activities that contributed to informing target groups and all stakeholders involved in the conservation and protection of ecosystems in the area under study (local and regional environmental authorities, universities, agencies and educational institutions, research and development centers, NGO’s, private organizations and companies). Through awareness campaigns, in which advertising materials were distributed, both relevant authorities and the population in the area of interest, received information on the importance of protecting wetlands and the benefits to be gained from their proper management. On the other hand, the information and publicity action of the project aimed to raise the awareness of the general public about the existence, objectives and impact of the Financial Mechanism, as well as on cooperation with the partner from the Donor States (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research). Dissemination activities have been finalized by publishing a good practice guide both in Romanian and English, which includes the project results and represents a useful tool for carrying out future studies
Summary of bilateral results
The project was implemented in partnership with the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), As, Norway. Within the project, the Norwegian partner (Partner 1) was responsible for the implementation of Activity 4, called Economic assessment of ecosystem services provided by the studied wetland. The Norwegian partner participated to the implementation of the project activities, participated to all workshops, carried out study visits to Divici-Pojejena wetland together with the project promoter, interviewed local decision-makers, participated to international conferences for dissemination of project results. At the same time, the Norwegian partner participated to the elaboration of the Good practice guide regarding the contribution of wetlands from Romania to the main economic sectors, having as a case study the Divici-Pojejena wetland. The guide, written in both Romanian and English language, had the purpose to disseminate the obtained results to the general public, at national and international level. Also, the Norwegian partner organized a workshop within the project as well as the closing conference, during which the final results were discussed, the difficulties encountered during the project activities and the importance of their continuation were discussed, including the organization of information and awareness campaigns for the population and local authorities. During the project’s implementation, the Norwegian partner has distributed the intermediate results within an internal organizational platform to which more than 700 researchers from Norway's NIBIO subsidiaries have access and which is used at the institutional level to distribute the research results. As a conclusion, this partnership has strengthened the cooperation between Romania and Norway in the research field, taking into account the fact that this partnership will continue in the future calls for projects under the EEA Grants.