BC3. Basque centre for climate change – Klima aldaketa ikergai

A EUROpean training and research network for environmental FLOW management in river basins.

In order to secure more ethical and more effective approaches for nature conservation, social equity needs to be integrated as a key aspect in environmental governance. This involves recognizing and creating transparent and participatory mechanisms that can explicitly include the voices of the diversity of stakes and worldviews about human-nature relations. This necessarily requires that valuation of biodiversity (a shorthand for nature or any biotic system as seen by modern science, or other knowledge systems) is also an equitable process. Equitable valuation requires: recognition of diversity of worldviews on human-nature relations, guaranteeing transparent participation of stakeholders, and being mindful of the distribution of benefits and burdens of valuation-based decisions.

Freshwater ecosystems are essential to people´s economic, cultural and social wellbeing, yet are still one of the most seriously threatened ecosystems on the planet. This conflict is reflected in political regulations that ask to halt the loss of, restore and safeguard freshwaters, their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM), a holistic approach advocated to help doing so, involves an overarching regulatory framework and local solutions with trade-offs and compromises - factors that make decision processes complex and easily co-opted.

The challenges facing society in urban wastewater management cannot be solved by any one sector alone. ALICE (AcceLerate Innovation in urban wastewater management for Climate changE) will accelerate innovation by bringing together and exchanging knowledge between the key players who can, together, address the future techno-economic, governance and societal challenges arising from climate change. It will boost international and interdisciplinary skills, as well as careers perspective of Experienced Researchers, Early Stage Researchers, and the workforce of industry, water utilities and public organizations. The results will 1) benefit water utilities, 2) support political and managerial decisions in wastewater, 3) benefit wastewater equipment manufacturers, identifying new market opportunities in the EU, 4) benefit EU citizens from the improved wastewater infrastructure, the environment and job creations.

Management of marine fisheries is still far from incorporating adaptation to climate change, even though global stocks are heavily overexploited and climate change is adding additional pressure to the resource. In fact, there is growing evidence that current fisheries management systems may no longer be effective under climate change, and this will translate into both ecological and socioeconomic impacts. This research project argues that the combination of fisheries management science and socio-ecological systems thinking is necessary in order to advance in fisheries adaptation to climate change.

El objetivo principal de ESPERA es contribuir al conocimiento del impacto de los PSA (Pagos por Servicios Ambientales o ecosistémicos) sobre la equidad social y sus interrelaciones (trade-offs) con la efectividad ambiental y la eficiencia económica, desde la perspectiva socio-ecológica de los servicios ecosistémicos. ESPERA avanzará en el desarrollo de un marco conceptual siguiendo el trabajo de Pascual et al (2010; 2014) mediante la introducción de las relaciones de poder entre los actores de los PSA, una variable normalmente obviada en la literatura sobre PSA).

Para reducir la acelerada perdida de diversidad, funciones y servicios de los ecosistemas, se han iniciado multitud de estrategias y programas de restauración por todo el mundo impulsados por las iniciativas de la Convención sobre la Diversidad Biológica o la Comisión Europea. Sin embargo, se ha comprobado en humedales, ríos y otros hábitats que los ecosistemas restaurados son menos funcionales y son menos diversos que los conservados (relativamente no perturbados) durante largos periodos de tiempo (>100 años). Esto puede deberse a muchos factores, pero está relacionado con el tiempo que tardan los ecosistemas en recuperarse completamente y con los parámetros usados para medir el éxito de la restauración. En este proyecto, medimos la evolución de algunas interacciones a lo largo de una cronosecuencia de 500 años para entender el proceso de recuperación de la estructura profunda de los ecosistemas.

iSAGE will enhance the sustainability, competitiveness and resilience of the European Sheep and Goat sectors through collaboration between industry and research. iSAGE have a powerful consortium with 18 industry representatives from various EU production systems and socio-economic contexts. The sheep and goat sector will be investigated because it is sensitive to general socio-economic, demographic, and ecological and market challenges; nevertheless, the project’s approach and results will be made available and disseminated to other EU livestock industries. Therefore, at the core of iSAGE is a participatory approach centered on a multi-actor internal and external communication (WP) to build the project from the farmer level.