Valuing Marine Biodiversity for use in Decision Making (ValMaB - DM)
Lead Research Organisation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Department Name: Plymouth Marine Lab
Abstract
Vision: To determine novel and policy relevant pluralistic values for marine biodiversity and apply these values to co-develop green investment options, leading to a transformative shift in our understanding and utilisation of the economics of biodiversity.
There have been significant developments in understanding how economies are embedded in nature and how biodiversity can be integrated into economic models and decision making. This has included growth in environmental valuation, ecosystem service assessments, natural capital approaches, and green investments. Despite these advances biodiversity is only sporadically integrated into decision making and remains external to our economic systems. The result is continuing biodiversity loss with negative implications for our society, economy, and fundamental wellbeing. Key challenges include: i. a nascent understanding of how biodiversity provides benefits resulting in a lack of decision grade data; ii. hesitance of users to apply values due to low confidence, poor understanding, and a negligible definition of the beneficiaries; iii. uncertainty regarding routes of green investment.
To address these interconnected challenges ValMaB-DM brings together expertise in marine ecology, human geography, environmental and ecological economics, governance, and finance. The team includes academics, consultancies, and NGOs coupled with an extensive partner network of government, industry and commerce representatives.
To drive a meaningful shift in the understanding and utilisation of the economics of biodiversity our partners highlighted a need for state-of-the-art theoretical development to be coupled with practicable representations. As such ValMaB-DM takes a twin track approach. One track will develop innovative, internationally applicable approaches whilst a parallel track will ground the research in key coastal habitats identified as priorities for net-biodiversity gain at the Solent and the Moray Firth, showcasing potential ecological, social, economic, and financial benefits. To address a critical evidence gap and inform the net zero agenda we will focus on the regulating services: bioremediation of waste and carbon sequestration.
To tackle the stated challenges ValMaB-DM will first substantiate the interlinkages between marine biodiversity and carbon sequestration and bioremediation through the combination of new and existing data to assess how the condition of biodiversity affects the quantity, quality, and resilience of the services. Collaborating with international expertise we will develop consensus on scaling these findings from local to national and generic.
Building on current understanding robust, generically applicable, monetary valuations of carbon sequestration and bioremediation will be further developed and applied to support natural capital accounting frameworks, and also coupled with novel ecological understanding at the case studies. As singular monetary valuations may not align with community aspirations participatory mapping initiatives will be advanced and deployed to engage real world communities in mapping the social values and trade-offs associated with biodiversity and Natural Capital resources. The ecological, monetary, and social values of biodiversity will be connected to decision-making through the co-design and implementation of green investment to maintain and enhance coastal habitats.
Communication and capacity building are at the heart of ValMaB-DM. Strategic stakeholder engagement will be choreographed through the co-development of research, stakeholder mapping, the Programme Steering Group, and sharing of outcomes (e.g. policy briefs, trade shows, social media). We will also run a training programme for practitioners, collaborators and external stakeholders, enabled by Natural Resources Wales and the Coastal Partnership Network, and develop of an MSc course module and capitalise on links to the SuMMeR Centre for Doctoral Training
There have been significant developments in understanding how economies are embedded in nature and how biodiversity can be integrated into economic models and decision making. This has included growth in environmental valuation, ecosystem service assessments, natural capital approaches, and green investments. Despite these advances biodiversity is only sporadically integrated into decision making and remains external to our economic systems. The result is continuing biodiversity loss with negative implications for our society, economy, and fundamental wellbeing. Key challenges include: i. a nascent understanding of how biodiversity provides benefits resulting in a lack of decision grade data; ii. hesitance of users to apply values due to low confidence, poor understanding, and a negligible definition of the beneficiaries; iii. uncertainty regarding routes of green investment.
To address these interconnected challenges ValMaB-DM brings together expertise in marine ecology, human geography, environmental and ecological economics, governance, and finance. The team includes academics, consultancies, and NGOs coupled with an extensive partner network of government, industry and commerce representatives.
To drive a meaningful shift in the understanding and utilisation of the economics of biodiversity our partners highlighted a need for state-of-the-art theoretical development to be coupled with practicable representations. As such ValMaB-DM takes a twin track approach. One track will develop innovative, internationally applicable approaches whilst a parallel track will ground the research in key coastal habitats identified as priorities for net-biodiversity gain at the Solent and the Moray Firth, showcasing potential ecological, social, economic, and financial benefits. To address a critical evidence gap and inform the net zero agenda we will focus on the regulating services: bioremediation of waste and carbon sequestration.
To tackle the stated challenges ValMaB-DM will first substantiate the interlinkages between marine biodiversity and carbon sequestration and bioremediation through the combination of new and existing data to assess how the condition of biodiversity affects the quantity, quality, and resilience of the services. Collaborating with international expertise we will develop consensus on scaling these findings from local to national and generic.
Building on current understanding robust, generically applicable, monetary valuations of carbon sequestration and bioremediation will be further developed and applied to support natural capital accounting frameworks, and also coupled with novel ecological understanding at the case studies. As singular monetary valuations may not align with community aspirations participatory mapping initiatives will be advanced and deployed to engage real world communities in mapping the social values and trade-offs associated with biodiversity and Natural Capital resources. The ecological, monetary, and social values of biodiversity will be connected to decision-making through the co-design and implementation of green investment to maintain and enhance coastal habitats.
Communication and capacity building are at the heart of ValMaB-DM. Strategic stakeholder engagement will be choreographed through the co-development of research, stakeholder mapping, the Programme Steering Group, and sharing of outcomes (e.g. policy briefs, trade shows, social media). We will also run a training programme for practitioners, collaborators and external stakeholders, enabled by Natural Resources Wales and the Coastal Partnership Network, and develop of an MSc course module and capitalise on links to the SuMMeR Centre for Doctoral Training
Organisations
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory (Lead Research Organisation)
- Blue Marine Foundation (Project Partner)
- Southern Water (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- UNIVERSITY OF EXETER (Project Partner)
- University of Portsmouth (Project Partner)
- Natural England (Project Partner)
- World Wide Fund for Nature WWF (UK) (Project Partner)
- Deakin University (Project Partner)
- Associated British Ports (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Dept of Agri, Env & Rural Affairs DAERA (Project Partner)
- Natural Resources Wales (Project Partner)
- University of Cambridge (Project Partner)
- Port of Cromarty Firth (Project Partner)
- Marine Management Organisation (Project Partner)
- University of St Andrews (Project Partner)
- Environment Agency (Project Partner)
- Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Project Partner)
- Colorado State University (Project Partner)
- UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY (Project Partner)
- Scottish Wildlife Trust (Project Partner)
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Project Partner)
Description | Discussions with the Marine Directive |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Expert Economics Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The Sea the Value project focusses on the ecosystem services of carbon sequestration and bioremediation, and their quantification and valuation in the UK for application in financial instruments. The aim of this workshop is to bring together a small, but highly skilled group (as below), to advance our understanding of the valuation of these services and recommend a way forward. The outcomes of the meeting will inform a position piece/publication on the derivation and utilisation of these values and provide the project with state of art values to apply to case studies. Workshop was held in person in London on the 23rd and 24th January 2024. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Panel Speaker at TurningTheTide Webinar - Blue Carbon: The role of coastal ecosystems in climate change mitigation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This webinar was organised in collaboration with the UK Blue Carbon Forum. The UK Blue Carbon Forum is a community of leading experts and stakeholders working together to promote blue carbon conservation and restoration in the UK. Their goal is to channel emerging blue carbon evidence into policy, and raise the ambition of blue carbon in the UK. The Forum hosts quarterly meetings, which provide an opportunity for members to share blue carbon updates and best-practices, and discuss the latest research and areas of work in the field. Find out more about the Forum on their website: https://www.ukbluecarbonforum.com/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-2_oT7A8nM&ab_channel=TheInstitutionofEnvironmentalSciences%28IES%2... |
Description | Participatory Mapping Training |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Delivered the Participatory Mapping training course at the University of Aberdeen on Wednesday 10th May for Sea the Value researchers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Participatory Mapping, Workshop 1 at Cromarty Firth |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Workshop 1 out of 3: Participants collectively identified and mapped the natural, modified/managed, and mandmade features around the Cromarty Frith and the benefits which they associate with these features. All project outputs, including maps, data and reports will be provided back to stakeholders for future use. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Participatory Mapping, Workshop 1 at The Solent |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Workshop 1 out of 3: Participants collectively identified and mapped the natural, modified/managed, and mandmade features around the Solent and the benefits which they associate with these features. All project outputs, including maps, data and reports will be provided back to stakeholders for future use. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.pml.ac.uk/science/projects/Sea-the-Value |
Description | Participatory Mapping, Workshop 2 at Cromarty Firth |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Workshop 2 of 3: Reviewing the outputs from the first Participatory Mapping workshop and investigating trade-offs under two future scenarios |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Participatory Mapping, Workshop 2 at The Solent |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Workshop 2 of 3: Reviewing the outputs from the first Participatory Mapping workshop and investigating trade-offs under two future scenarios |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Presentation at Saltmarshes Specialist Forum |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation with approx. 40 attendees. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Priority Setting Exercise for Scaling Blue Carbon and Nutrient Bioremediation Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Engaged with experts to supoort understanding of blockers and opportunities to scaling blue carbon and nutrient biobioremediation values. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |