Identify economic activities relevant to the Policy Issue.

Subtask Description:
Identify economic activities relevant to the Policy Issue.

Action points of the implementation:

List or map the main economic activities that have a relevant human activity and Impact within the ecosystem.
List the main ecosystem services that are relevant to the Policy Issue.
Agree on the economic indicators that are best to use relatively to the selected Policy Issue.
List the main economic drivers of change within the Coastal Zone system (relevant to the Issue).

Area:
Himmerfjärden , Sweden.

Policy Issue:
Eutrophication status and reduction.

Human Activities:
Urban sewage discharge, agriculture and industrial activity, tourism.

General Information:
Nutrient loading has caused increased turbidity, loss of biodiversity, including submerged aquatic vegetation, deep water oxygen deficiency, phytoplankton blooms and biodiversity loss. The main stakeholder concerns are connected with tourism, recreational activities and nature enjoyment, and the sustainable implementation of WFD that poses economic challenges for several activities in the area.

Example of Implementation:

Identify economic activities directly impacted and those potential economic effects including non-market impacts.

Progress

List or map the main economic activities that have an HA within, and an impact on the ecosystem.

List the main ecosystem services that are relevant to the issue.

Agree in principle some economic indicators for the issue.

List the main economic drivers of change within the CZ system (relevant to the issue).

The economic activities identified in the Design Step are tourism (camping, public beaches, restaurants etc), recreational fisheries and summer houses.

The main ecosystem services relevant to the issue are listed below.

The indicators listed in the Design Step Report (under Issue Resolution in the excel-file) are wellbeing of individuals (e.g. WTP), tourism such as camping, public beaches, etc (e.g. number of visits), recreational fisheries (e.g. number of fishing days, WTP), house prices (e.g. EURO or SEK).

The demand for agricultural products and summer houses is a main economic driver. A high demand for these will lead to increased eutrophication, and a low demand to the opposite. Another important driver is population increase and economic growth, which will have effects on the general level of economic demand.

Ecosystem services
The table below indicates what ecosystem goods and services are judged to be the most relevant in relation to the issue of eutrophication. At present, the judgments are based on earlier research in the area, the stakeholder meeting and internal discussions within the scientific team. Note that the table does not take into account non-marine ecosystem goods and services that might be affected by policy options aiming at reducing marine eutrophication, such as measures against nutrient leakage in agriculture.

The list of ecosystem services in the table is based on the typology in MEA (2005). However, it should be noted that this typology is not undisputed and alternative classifications exist. As noted in MEA (2005), the risk of double-counting should be taken into due account whenever ecosystem services are subject to economic valuation, since some services – in particular the supporting services – service as inputs in nature’s provision of services. For example, the provision of food from fish depends on the level of primary production, the existence of suitable habitats, etc. Supporting services are therefore not included in the table below.

Ecosystem goods and services in Himmerfjärden SSA
Ecosystem services	Relevance to the issue (eutrophication)	Suitable valuation methods (only stated for those services judged to have high relevance)
Provisioning services (ecosystem goods)
Food	Potentially high	Production function method
Fiber	Low
Genetic resources	Low
Biochemicals, natural medicines and pharmaceuticals	Low
Ornamental resources	Low
Fresh water	None
Regulating services
Air quality regulation	Low
Climate regulation	Low
Water regulation	Low
Erosion regulation	Low
Water purification and waste treatment	High	Replacement cost method
Disease regulation	Low
Pest regulation	Low
Pollination	Low
Natural hazard regulation	Low
Cultural services
Cultural diversity	?
Spiritual and religious values	?
Knowledge systems	?
Educational values	?
Inspiration	?
Aesthetic values	High	Travel cost method, SP methods
Social relations	?
Sense of place	?
Cultural heritage values	?
Recreation and ecotourism	High	Travel cost method, SP methods

Contact:
Ragnar Elmgren: ragnar.elmgren@ecology.su.se

MEA (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment), 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC.