Proceedings and conclusions

Proceedings 

The Proceedings of the Conference "The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Implications for Belgium" can be downloaded here in pdf format (3,3 Mo). This document can be disseminated free of rights. If you wish to obtain a paper copy of the proceedings (at the price of 10€ including postal costs), please send an email to CBD-NFP@naturalsciences.be or write to the CBD National Focal Point, RBINS, rue Vautier 29, 1000-Brussels.

Overview of the papers presented in the proceedings

Edwin Zaccai discusses the characteristics of the main global environmental assessments published in the last 30 years (Limits to Growth, the Brundtland report, the GEO reports, especially GEO-3, the Environmental Sustainability Index, the Living Planet reports) and analyses the factors which have determined their influence. He concludes that the MA is likely to have a growing influence because of its emphasis on the contribution of ecosystem services to human well-being. This anthropocentric approach is likely to be more successful in mediating conflicts between environmental protection and  socio-economic concerns, as decisions regarding the environment involve increasingly major policy makers.

An overview of the MA and its findings is offered by Walter V. Reid, who was directly involved in its preparation. He also summarised the impact of MA one year after the release of the core findings.

In his paper, Jean-Paul Malingreau examines critically the methodology and the framework of the MA. Its key features are multiscale analyses and integration of knowledge. The multiscale approach, facilitated by the use of GIS (geographical information systems) is needed because of the frequent mismatch between the scales of ecosystemic service provision, response options and decision making. Moreover this approach enables the detection of interactions between far and proximate causes of change, or between local ecological factors and national socio-economic parameters. In addition, it is more efficient because findings at a given scale are improved by information obtained at other scales. Integration of knowledge through interdisciplinarity is an absolute necessity in global change studies. It has been achieved in the MA through the adoption of systems analysis. The author concludes that the MA is a new approach to support good governance at various levels of decision making. It should not be a one-off event.

Patrick Meire, Stefan Van Damme, Eric Struyf, Tom Maris and Hans Backx have been using the concept of ecosystem services in protecting biodiversity in wetlands and rivers in the Belgian Scheldt estuary and Nete catchment. Human activities have produced marked changes in geomorphology, hydrodynamics and hydrology, with a deepening of the water courses, reduction of the floodplain, increased tidal amplitude, lowering of the water table, marsh erosion, polder subsidence, loss of biodiversity, increased nitrogen output to the sea, etc. The authors have set up a restoration plan based on the quantification of ecosystem services, such as reduction of nutrient loads, flood control, prevention of algal blooms. This enabled them to estimate the areas needed for marshes, tidal flats, non-tidal wetlands. The plan, including tidal control, was approved by the Flemish government and is being
implemented. The authors advocate the extension of their approach to whole basins, in compliance with the European Water Framework Directive.

Martin Hermy, Bart Muys, Kris Verheyen and Jos Van Orshoven discuss forests in Flanders in a MA perspective. In this densely populated and highly industrialized region, the multifunctional aspect of forest management must be stressed and is indeed prescribed by the Flemish Bosdecreet of 1990. Forest area (11 % of total) has been stable in the last two centuries but it is very fragmented and its spatial distribution has changed, with a concentration on wet and sandy soils. The main services of forest ecosystems are the protection of biodiversity (e.g. bird populations, which have increased due to longer rotation times) and recreation, rather than wood production and hunting grounds or carbon storage.

A comprehensive overview of forestry in Wallonia is given by Jacques Rondeux. Forests cover about one third of the land area and are expanding (plus 16 % in the last 50 years). There has been a large increase in conifer plantings which is now stopped, coppices have been replaced to a large extent by high forest stands, biomass by ha has gone up (net productivity exceeds harvesting). The primary service has been, and still is, wood production but, since the 1980’s, the multifunctional role of the forest has been recognized. A hierarchy of these functions (economical, ecological and social) must be set for each zone, rather than a specialization per zone. This is facilitated by the permanent regional forest inventory, which
now includes data on biodiversity. The implementation of the European Natura 2000 Directive involves now 30 % of the forest area. The MA methodology is applicable, provided specific, and not global, models are used and appropriate criteria and indicators are agreed.

Marc Mormont’s paper is focussed on the ecosystemic evaluation approach for rural and agricultural areas in a country like Belgium but it includes also general considerations on the MA. Three important features are discussed: the global evaluation of biodiversity, which posits the existence of common interests in its protection; the anthropocentric character of ecosystem services, and the economic language used in this respect, even though there is no common instrument to compare the various types of service; the accent put on trade-offs rather than on rules and regulations.

With regard to agricultural systems in Belgium and in Europe in general, the global MA analysis, as it was carried out, does not appear too useful. Rural systems here are complex and evolve less rapidly than in other parts of the world. Moreover there are already incentives and regulations to protect neighbouring ecosystems. However, the MA conceptual framework, applied at the right scale, could be put to good use, through re-examining the reference states for biodiversity in various environmental and agricultural policies and helping in the integrated implementation of these policies. It would also be useful in converting the European agricultural policy into a rural policy and in improving governance of the rural
environment.

Magda Vincx, Sofie Derous and Steven Degraer discuss the coastal ecosystems of the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS). These provide various services, some of which can be monetarised, others not: fishing, sand and gravel resources, bioremediation of waste and nutrient cycling, biologically mediated habitats, cognitive benefits, cultural heritage and recreational opportunities. Landings of cod, herring, sole and plaice have decreased over the years but serious attempts have been made to achieve sustainability, particularly for the demersal species (sole and plaice). In this respect, marine reserves proved to have beneficial effects, in addition to their main function of nature protection. The numerous shipwrecks of the area have created special biotopes of high biodiversity. Vincx and her team have produced a decision support system in the form of biological valuation maps for the whole BPNS.

In his presentation, Jurgen Tack attempts to list what was perceived as research needs for Belgium and the EU in order to improve ecosystem assessments. They cover the whole gamut from ecosystem functions to impacts of ecosystem services on human well-being.

Emmanuël Sérusiaux, in his intervention in the panel reflects on the conditions of a humanistic approach to conservation and development. One of the points he stresses is the fact that often the preservation of biodiversity will represent a cost. In the MA approach the flow of goods and services from ecosystems to the users are considered to be sustainable if they don’t compromise the renewal of the resources, but this approach does not guarantee that biodiversity would be maintained.

Marianne Schlesser, who was involved in the preparation of Belgium’s National Biodiversity Strategy (NBS), in application of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, is showing that the ecosystem approach is used as one of the overarching principles which should guide the implementation of the NBS, while this Strategy is also referring to the classification of ecosystems services proposed by the MA, which in a way leads to a significant widening of the original biodiversity concept.

Conclusions

The Conference provided a useful opportunity to discuss, in concrete terms, the implications of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and how its results could be applied in Belgium.

In particular, the MA approach, by focusing on the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being, may be considered as a useful aid in decision making in the context of sustainable development.

In general, the papers presented reveal that, even if the approach of treating simultaneously the different ecosystem services, from purely economic functions to various ecological aspects, is well grounded in the research that was reported, more specific references to the concepts introduced by the MA are still not widespread.

Inasmuch as these concepts should be applied in future for specific ecosystems in the
Belgian context, the conference has also stressed the importance of such key points as interconnected scale questions and the relationship between the specific protection of biodiversity and economic exploitation.

The various contributions have also shown how the protection of ecosystems is interlinked to existing local (or European) strategies and policies. In addition, they have brought out the significant influence of the MA for the recently approved Belgium's National Biodiversity Strategy 2006-2016.

It is hoped that specific MA-type projects may be carried out in Belgium in conjunction with the EU- wide assessment prepared by the European Environment Agency for 2012 and that they will be supported by research funding authorities at federal and regional levels as well as through EU multi-partner projects.

Citation

Bourdeau, Ph. & E. Zaccaï (Eds). 2007. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Implications for Belgium. Proceedings of a Conference held in Brussels on 27 October 2006. Royal Academies of Sciences and the Arts of Belgium and Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 132 p.