LIFE-IP 4 NATURA at the ESP Regional Conference
In the frame of the ESP Regional Conference that was held in San Sebastian from 15th to 19th October 2018, Mr. Panayiotis Dimopoulos presented a study that forms part of the Action A.3 of the LIFE-IP 4 NATURA Project, as well as an outline of the project as a whole.
Mr. Dimopoulos explained how the outcomes of the study, entitled: “A multidisciplinary critical review of ecosystem services studies in Greece: approaches, shortcomings and the pathway to implementation”, will facilitate the efficient implementation of ecosystem services assessments in Greece.
He also pointed out that the implementation of MAES in Greece started in 2014 and since then an impressive progress has been made, with Greece now being among the countries with the most rapid progress. However, there are still major knowledge and data gaps on ecosystem services in the country; know-how on specific methods, tools and practices is still to be developed. This poses obstacles in integrative efforts to identify and/or interpret the various co-variates affecting ecosystems and their services in space and time and hinders the incorporation of the ES generated information into the decision-making process.
Making the first steps towards overcoming these hurdles, the above-mentioned study aims to (i) synthesize the ecosystem services literature relevant to the ES implementation in Greece, (ii) validate and classify each literature source to the relevant ecosystem services categories, (iii) identify shortcomings in terms of ES assessed and data available, and (iv) critically review the variety of approaches to ES assessments that are followed.