MaCoBioS Toolbox
This Toolbox aims to support decision-making and management by bringing together the evidence base for Nature-based Solutions in marine and coastal ecosystems developed through the MaCoBioS project
It is increasingly evident that the integrity and health of marine and coastal ecosystems is crucial for people’s wellbeing. We benefit from the wide variety of goods and services these ecosystems provide. For instance, marine and coastal ecosystems provide food and raw materials, can act as nurseries for fish species we harvest, attenuate the intensity of storms thereby reducing their devastating impacts on coastal infrastructure and people, and act as pollution buffers and water purificators. They also contribute to carbon sequestration and storage, and offer benefits to tourism, recreation, education, and research. But despite their importance, marine and coastal ecosystems are degrading or disappearing altogether in many places around the world, mostly as a result of direct or indirect human pressures. MaCoBioS worked in six marine and coastal ecosystems (mangrove forests, coral reefs, kelp forests, maërl beds, seagrass beds, and salt marshes) across three ecoregions (Northern Europe, Northwestern Mediterranean, and the Lesser Antilles) to better understand their ecological condition and how this affects the ecosystem services they provide. To learn more about our work in each ecosystem please explore the following StoryMaps:
Credit images: Ewan Trégarot (Mangrove forests, coral reefs, kelp forests, seagrass beds, salt marshes); Andrea Cabrito (Maërl beds)
Nature-based Solutions (NBS) aim to provide societal and ecological benefits by recognising the vital role of nature to help address societal challenges, including biodiversity loss and climate change. The concept provides a framework for protection, restoration, and more holistic management of marine and coastal ecosystems to tackle human activities and impacts that degrade them. You can learn more about them through our blog “What are Nature-based Solutions”
MaCoBioS has been working at the forefront of research to advance knowledge and develop tools that can support practitioners and researchers to design and implement effective marine and coastal, or blue NBS. These tools use a variety of evidence-based techniques to help answer questions like ‘what happens to an ecosystem and its services if…?, will a community be able to adapt to change and how can we help?’, ‘when, where, and how could we act?’. These tools have been designed to be complementary but can also be used as standalone procedures. If you are interested in knowing a bit more about these tools click on any of the graphics.
Because healthy ecosystems are essential for ecosystem services provision, comprehensive and integrated monitoring is required to make informed decisions regarding management. A summary of the methods used by MaCoBioS, including the key advantages and constraints of each, are provided below to inform future monitoring programmes.
When implementing a blue NBS it is important to remember that the main focus should be on recognising and managing human activities that cause ecological degradation, not on managing the ecosystems themselves. It is of utmost importance to see people as a critical part of the natural world. The drivers of ecological degradation are profound, complex, and systemic. They are deeply connected with how we produce and consume, and how we interact with the environment. NBS cannot address all these drivers, but they have the potential to change the rhetoric on how we engage with nature, valuing its great contribution to our daily lives and the opportunities that arise from a more respectful interaction with the natural environment.
During our research, we found that people interested in our coasts and oceans, whether as a private citizen or as a practitioner or policy-maker working in marine and coastal management, strongly value nature and support nature-based approaches in the management of these ecosystems. However, there are key barriers to their uptake, for instance the lack of institutional coordination, insufficient financing, or narrow understanding of the social-ecological systems in which marine and coastal ecosystems are embedded. Involving people at all stages of planning, implementing, and managing blue NBS is critical to make sure they are effective at delivering their objectives.
To inform the integration of blue NBS into policies and practices, MaCoBioS has prepared a series of short, policy-relevant briefings with accompanying guidelines (coming soon):
Policy Brief
Outline
Related documents
This policy brief provides an overview of blue NBS for halting biodiversity loss and mitigating and adapting to climate change together with a series of recommendations for integrating blue NBS into complex social-ecological systems.
- Deliverable 4.3 ‘Nature-based solutions policy guidelines’
This policy brief provides recommendations and strategies for promoting policy coherence and cooperation, strengthening governance arrangements and funding mechanisms, and mainstreaming NBS across policy frameworks.
- Deliverable 4.3 ‘Nature-based solutions policy guidelines’
This policy brief provides guidance on what common features those designing and implementing blue NBS should consider, taking an integrated social-ecological approach, to help advance their development and implementation.
- Deliverable 3.4 ‘Nature-based solutions implementation, the do’s and don’ts’
- Deliverable 4.3 ‘Nature-based solutions policy guidelines’
This policy brief provides research orientations for the implementation of blue NBS based on policymaker, practitioner, and researcher perspectives.
- Deliverable 4.3 ‘Nature-based solutions policy guidelines’
- Scientific paper ‘Embracing Nature-based Solutions to promote resilient marine and coastal ecosystems’
We hope you find this collection of material interesting and useful. If you have any comments or questions please contact us at info@macobios.eu
Acknowledgements
MaCoBioS was financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869710 “Marine Coastal Ecosystems Biodiversity and Services in a Changing World” (MaCoBioS).
Content coordinators: Bethan O’Leary, Gema Casal, and Catarina Fonseca
Content for the toolbox has been produced by the various project partners of the MaCoBioS consortium. As such, the toolbox reflects some of the scientific and engagement work of MaCoBioS and draws key messages and information from the various project outputs. Specific credit to lead authors has been provided on each toolbox page however work has generally been conducted as a collaborative activity across the project consortium.