June Webinar Series: The Ecosystem Services Approach

Watch this FREE webinar to hear from Dr. Nicola Beaumont on the valuation of marine and coastal ecosystem services. PEMSEA's webinar series, together with its partner, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), aims to share knowledge about ecosystem services valuation and its application at the local level.

The term “Ecosystem Services” is increasingly used throughout the domains of both academia and management. However, it is easy to lose sight of both the meaning and purpose of this term. This webinar aims to clarify the cutting edge thinking on what Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services are, and to provide the most recent examples of their application. To provide context the origins and evolution of the ecosystem service approach will be presented, from its early definition in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, through its re-classifications and conceptual developments (including TEEB, CICES and NEA), to conclude with an analytical overview of the most recent marine ecosystem services classifications. The benefits and barriers of applying the Ecosystem Service approach in a practical management context will then be examined, including a broad range of real world case study examples. In line with the current growth in research and policy demands a focus on the spatial mapping of ecosystem services, and their use in marine spatial planning will be provided. Both successes and failures in assessment and application will be explored, and from these future recommendations will be reviewed. 

Dr. Nicola Beaumont is a senior interdisciplinary scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in the UK specialising in the assessment and valuation of marine ecosystem services. Dr. Beaumont has worked at the interface between natural sciences and socio-economics across a variety of scales from local county councils to European and Global levels, and in a variety of issues, including: renewable energy, plastics, ocean acidification, and marine planning and policy. Nicola has an extensive publication record across many domains, and was co-author on the most highly cited marine ecosystem services paper (Worm et al. 2006 Science 314:787-90). Nicola has led a wide variety of interdisciplinary projects and was the lead economist for marine and coastal margins for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA). She is currently leading the Valuing Nature Partnership funded study CoastWEB which aims to value the contribution which coastal habitats make to human health and wellbeing (1.3m FEC), and leading ADVENT (ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together), a UKERC funded study to integrate UK energy pathways with the value of natural capital (280k FEC); the Norwegian POLARPROG funded MARP3 (MARine Plastic Pollution in the Arctic: origin, status, costs and incentives for prevention) (89k FEC); and RESILCOAST, a NRN-LCEE funded study to integrate ecosystem resilience into coastal planning for the persistence of natural flood protection and wetland ecosystem services. She sits on a number of international and national committees, covering academic and policy angles, including acting as Marine Biome Lead for the International Ecosystem Services Partnership, and as a member of the Productive Seas Evidence Group (PSEG) which reports to the UK Ministerial Marine Science Group.