Suchergebnisse

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit. The EU ecosystem assessment analysed the following ecosystems: urban ecosystems, agroecosystems (cropland and grassland), forests, wetlands, heathlands and shrubs, sparsely vegetated lands (beaches, dunes, rocky areas in mountains), rivers and lakes, and marine ecosystems. The boundaries between ecosystem types are often more difficult to draw than this simple classification suggests. For instance, peatlands are considered wetlands but often used and classified as forests or agroecosystems. The EU ecosystem assessment used the Corine Land Cover information system to classify (based on EUNIS habitat classification) and map ecosystems but for wetlands, floodplains and urban areas also dedicated boundaries were drawn. The different ecosystems cover the full EU territory [...]. Ecosystem services are the contributions of ecosystems to economic, social, cultural and other benefits that people derive from ecosystems. For instance, pollination, the provision of food, timber and clean air, water filtration, carbon sequestration and storage or nature-based recreation are all ecosystem services. The above definitions are set in the EU Directives mentioned above (for ecosystem status) as well as in Regulation (EU) 2020/8522 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment.

In its third edition, the EU Blue Economy Report continues to analyse the scope and size of the Blue Economy in the European Union. It aims at providing support to policymakers and stakeholders in the quest for a sustainable development of oceans, coastal resources and, most notably, to the development and implemen-tation of polices and initiatives under the European Green Deal in line with the new approach for a sustainable Blue Economy. For the purposes of the Report, the Blue Economy includes all those activities that are marine-based or marine-related. Therefore, the Report examines not only established sectors (i.e. those that traditionally contribute to the Blue Economy) but also emerging (those for which reliable data are still developing) and innovative sectors, which bring new opportunities for investment and hold huge potential for the future development of coastal communities. Analyses are provided for the EU as a whole and by sector and industry for each Member State. The European Green Deal and the European Strategy for data will necessitate reliable, accurate and centralised data for its initiatives. This Report intends to serve as a useful input to assessing the potential of oceans and coasts for shifting to more sustainable economy and to supporting the development of policies in line with the strategic approach for a sustainable blue economy at all levels of governance. The third edition of the Report seeks to include new elements, which have an impact on the Blue Economy, including challenges like climate change, new sectors such as Submarine cables), enablers such as Maritime Spatial Planning, new areas of analysis such as Ecosystem Services or potential solutions like Multi-purpose platforms. The Blue Economy established sectors include the follow-ing seven sectors: Marine living resources, Marine non-living resources, Marine Renewable energy, Port activities, Shipbuilding and repair, Maritime transport and Coastal tourism. The analysis of these sectors is based on the data collected by the European Commission through Member States and the European Statistical System. Fisheries and aquaculture data were collected under the EU Data Collection Framework (DCF). Analyses for all other established sectors are based on Eurostat data from Structural Business Statistics (SBS), PRODCOM, National Accounts and tour-ism statistics.