Abstract
The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) sets out a plan of action relating to marine environmental policy and in particular to achieving ‘good environmental status’ (GES) in European marine waters by 2020. Article 8.1 (c) of the Directive calls for ‘an economic and social analysis of the use of those waters and of the cost of degradation of the marine environment’. The MSFD is ‘informed’ by the Ecosystem Approach to management, with GES interpreted in terms of ecosystem functioning and services provision. Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach is expected to be by adaptive management policy and practice. The initial socio-economic assessment was made by maritime EU Member States between 2011 and 2012, with future updates to be made on a regular basis. For the majority of Member States, this assessment has led to an exercise combining an analysis of maritime activities both at national and coastal zone scales, and an analysis of the non-market value of marine waters. In this paper we examine the approaches taken in more detail, outline the main challenges facing the Member States in assessing the economic value of achieving GES as outlined in the Directive and make recommendations for the theoretically sound and practically useful completion of the required follow-up economic assessments specified in the MSFD.
Highlights
Various anthropogenic pressures have caused severe deterioration of marine environments globally (Smith 2003, Diaz and Rosenberg 2008, Rockstrom et al 2009)
There are other forms of economic analysis required in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) that go beyond CEA and CBA
This paper has discussed the key role of economic analysis in the implementation of the EU MSFD
Summary
Various anthropogenic pressures have caused severe deterioration of marine environments globally (Smith 2003, Diaz and Rosenberg 2008, Rockstrom et al 2009). In Europe, the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) addresses this challenge by aiming to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of the European marine waters by 2020 (EC 2008) (Figure 1). Each cycle starts with the definition of the environmental objectives and an assessment of the present environmental status of the EU regional seas which include the Black, Mediterranean, North and Baltic Seas as well as EU territorial waters in the Northeast Atlantic (Figure 1) This phase requires the economic analyses of the use of marine waters and an analysis of the cost of degradation. The WFD requires an economic description of the use of the river basins, cost recovery of water services, the application of the polluter pays principle, and costeffective Programs of Measures Experiences from these analyses show that once reliable estimates of the effectiveness and costs of measures are available, a CEA is straightforward, in theory (van Engelen et al 2008, Balana et al 2011). D1 occurrence of habitats and the distribution and abundance of species are in line with prevailing physiographic, geographic and climatic conditions
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