Frontiers in Marine Science (Jun 2014)
Natural capital and ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods in Costa Vicentina, Portugal
Abstract
The OpenNESS project, funded by EC FP7, aims to translate the concepts of Natural Capital (NC) and Ecosystem Services (ES) into operational frameworks that provide tested, practical and tailored solutions for integrating ES into land, water and urban management and decision-making, while promoting local stakeholders well-being. Central to the project is a multi-scale case study approach, designed to ground concepts and theories on real world observations and analysis. This paper presents one of the project case studies, located in the Portuguese southwest coast – Costa Vicentina. This case study is focused on the use of NC and ES concepts to design instruments for sustainable management of living resources (algae, shellfish and fish) and to promote a sustainable nature-based tourism. The research aims to (1) identify the linkages between marine natural capital stocks (e.g. bottom algae, shellfish populations,...) with ES provision; (2) explore the perceptions and importance of ES to local stakeholders’ wellbeing and their economic value; and (3) evaluate the use of ES in land-use planning and conservation, and the potential of different policy instruments and governance arrangements to ensure the delivery of ES and to promote local stakeholders well-being. The combination of methods such as ES mapping, monetary and non-monetary valuation of ES, and system dynamics modelling, will ultimately be used to inform and support decision makers and policy instruments design. The research is rooted on a participatory process involving the main stakeholder groups, thus fostering dialogue and social learning.
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