Demonstrating and promoting natural values to support decision-making in Romania

Project facts

Project promoter:
National Environmental Protection Agency
Project Number:
RO02-0002
Target groups
Non governmental organisation,
Public and private organizations, including not-for-profit organizations and NGOs, responsible for the organization and delivery of education and training at local, regional and national levels
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€3,386,122
Final project cost:
€2,841,499
From EEA Grants:
€ 2,415,274
The project is carried out in:
Romania

Description

PROJECT AIMS: improving decision-making and the problem of biodiversity loss. It contributes to achieving the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE national mapping and biophysical assessment of selected ecosystems and Ecosystem Services in accordance with the 2020 EU Biodiversity Strategy OUTCOMES Increased stakeholder cooperation on development and natural capital management issues; Improved access to and use of available scientific and socio-economic information; Enhanced replication and national promotion of the MAES process. OUTPUTS Functional Steering Group; functional MAES Consortium; workshop with MAES Consortium; country Specific Assessment Maps and National Ecosystem-ES Assessment report, decision Support System; national dissemination activities, media training and press conference, mailing to regional offices/institutions; closing conference with participants from donor and neighboring countries and from the EC/MESEU project. TARGETS Government bodies (policy and decision makers), scientific institutions, NGOs and civil society/public networks, individual practitioners and expert, media, large public

Summary of project results

Through this project, successful implementation of the first expected BIODIV priority program of the European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism has been ensured: "Increased awareness and education in biodiversity and ecosystem services, including the degree of awareness and education on the link between biodiversity and climate change and economic assessment of ecosystems "and" developing a national database of ecosystems and their services, with a primary focus on key ecosystems and their services that need to be aware of. " The result was a Collection of Ecosystem Maps and SE together with a National Ecosystem Assessment and Ecosystem Assessment Report developed and a Computer System that worked as a national database of their ecosystems and services, and highlighting key ecosystems that need better targeted policies. This project has made it possible for Romania to take a leading role among the Balkan countries / countries of Eastern Europe by implementing the mapping process and assessing the ecosystem services of the country that shared the same difficulties and who have not yet started / -a comprehensive approach at national level. The unitary approach involving a large number of beneficiaries (project partners + scientific group members + members of the steering group): - developing an institutional framework - agreeing the methodology of analysis by the members of the scientific group Benefits from a scientific point of view: - mapping of ecosystems at national level - identifying the matrix of indicators - evaluation of ecosystem services - the development of evaluation maps Benefits in terms of dissemination and publication of results: - the report on the implementation of the MAES process in Romania - the national assessment report of ecosystems and ecosystem services Benefits of developing the first national decision support system: - implementation of MAES decision support system (RO-MAES-DSS)

Summary of bilateral results

Into the N4D project, one of the partners was NINA. The representatives of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) had an active and significant presence: - to carry out the basic economic assessment of ES and to support the development of the Catalog of the evaluated data sources; - they asured technical assistance on how to consolidate / adjust management and data access / sharing at the national level, in particular those envisaged by the project, and also on how to use and future integraate the results into the public policies and decision-making process Into the project, the Norwegian partner has carried out 2 studies on the economic evaluation of the ecosystem services and data management and access to information specific to the MAES process: ”Pilot cases of ecosystem services valuation in Romania " and "Environmental Data management: Policies and their implementation in Norway ". Mutual understanding and improvement of knowledge has increased due to bilateral cooperation and benefited from significant media coverage. Collaboration with NINA has allowed us to establish new relationships with other institutions in Norway (Norwegian Environment Agency, Norwegian Biodiversity Information Center), in particular as a result of the study visit and collaboration in developing the document "Environmental data management: Policies and ex of their implementation in Norway ", attended by a Norwegian Biodiversity Information Center (NBIC) representative.