Biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Nordic coastal regions

The current list of pressures on the coastal areas of the Nordic countries is long, including increasing exploitation which leads to loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. In order to address these challenges, this Nordic collaboration aims to provide credible information to support policy development and decision making in the Nordic countries. This Nordic IPBES-like assessment focus on the coastal areas including wetlands close to the coast. We will illustrate nine case studies (Fig. 1) of which three are emphasizing the indigenous local knowledge (ILK) aspects. The assessment concentrate on similarities and differences between the Nordic countries, and follow the IPBES chapter outline to cover various aspects and scales of biodiversity, ecosystem services and their governance. Existing knowledge and data held by global, regional, Nordic and national institutions are used, such as scientific literature and other information including citizen science, indigenous and local knowledge. The assessment is developed across different scales such as local, national and Nordic. For some aspects national or local division in accordance with political and management systems are appropriate, for other aspects biogeographical regions might be more appropriate to capture cross-border and interconnected issues relevant for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Common drivers in the Nordic countries are identified, for example land use change along the coast that might affect biodiversity and ecosystems in the whole region, and common cultural/behavioral aspects. In addition, specific Nordic governance aspects will be studied.

Figure 1: Nine case studies of the Nordic IPBES like assessment.