Worldwide marine ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from competing human-usages,such as aquaculture, sea transport, energy production, conservation, fishing and recreation. This interdisciplinary project MarES rooted in economics, with contributions from natural and other social sciences, aims to investigate how global changes in climate and human activities affect the usage and importance of ecosystem services (ES) spatially and across groups of people. Illustrative examples from the north of Norway and the northwestern and southern coasts of Portugal are considered. In particular, four case studies covering economic sectors of present and potential economic importance in the two countries, namely related to aquaculture, marine fishing tourism, mining, sea transport, and oil spills are selected. Based on the results obtained from these comparative studies, this project aims at contributing to improving policy design regarding marine ES both at the Norwegian and EU levels, where expectations regarding Blue Growth and the marine bio-economy are high.

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Partners: University of Tromsø,University of Stavanger, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Funded by: Research Council of Norway and Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

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