pdf Mapping and assessing ecosystems and their services in Finland - MAES for Finland Popular

Petteri Vihervaara
Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)

Mononen, Laura, Finnish Environment Insitute (SYKE), Joensuu, Finland;
Kopperoinen, Leena, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Finland;
Viinikka, Arto, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Finland;
Auvinen, Ari-Pekka, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Oulu, Finland;
Jäppinen, Jukka-Pekka, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Finland;
Niikkonen, Kristiina, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki, Finland.

Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (MAES) has been a key initiative of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, Action 5 in particular. The EU Biodiversity Strategy sets the requirement for an EU-wide knowledge base designed to be: a primary data source for developing Europe’s green infrastructure; resource to identify areas for ecosystem restoration; and, a baseline against which the goal of ‘no net loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services’ can be evaluated. Finland has contributed in EU wide cooperation to design harmonized, flexible methodology for quantification, mapping and modeling of ecosystem extent, condition and the ecosystem services. Assessment methods include biophysical, social and economic methods. In this poster, we will show how Finland has contributed to MAES, and what are the future needs and options.

MAES work is closely related to development of Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, and it bridges the importance of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human well-being. MAES for Finland covers the biomes of boreal forests and arctic tundra. In addition climate change is expected to influence also ecosystem services, and to monitor these changes we need better spatial information of the current status of ecosystems.