🌳 OPENNESS Project Summary: Operationalising Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services
The OpenNESS project’s overall objective was to translate the concepts of ecosystem services (ES) and natural capital (NC) into operational frameworks that provide tested, practical, and tailored solutions for informing sustainable land, water, and urban management at various scales.
🔬 Conceptual and Methodological Advances
OpenNESS focused on advancing the science of ES to a mature phase, ensuring concepts could be rigorously applied by practitioners.
Key Conceptual Tools
- Glossary and Reference Book: Created a comprehensive Glossary of over 200 terms and an Ecosystem Service Reference Book (compiling 27 Synthesis Papers) to promote common understanding and consistent terminology.
- Cascade Model: Promoted the application and customization of the Ecosystem Service Cascade Model
as a framework to link society and nature, acting as a common reference point and a tool for “awareness-raising” with non-specialist stakeholders.
- OpenNESS Conceptual Nexus (ONEX): Developed ONEX as a digital “working environment” (utilizing social media tools like TRELLO) to support deliberative processes among stakeholders and help structure decision-making around the four key societal challenges: human well-being, sustainable ecosystem management, governance, and competitiveness.
Assessment Methods and Guidance
- The project tested 43 biophysical, socio-cultural, and monetary methods across its case studies.
- Results led to the development of an integrative ecosystem service assessment framework and a set of decision trees and a Bayesian Belief Network to guide users in selecting methods that are “fit for purpose”.
- A classification translator tool was created (using HUGIN) to help users cross-reference different ES classifications (MA, TEEB, UKNEA, CICES) rigorously.
🗺️ Operationalization in Case Studies
The OpenNESS approach was highly empirical, basing its work on real-world application and refinement.
- Place-Based Application: The concepts and methods were applied in 27 real-life case studies covering different social-ecological systems in 23 European and 4 non-European countries.
- Stakeholder Involvement: The key finding from these applications is that ES knowledge is most effective and operational when decision-makers, practitioners, and key stakeholders are closely involved (a participatory action research approach) to ensure the information is relevant, reliable, and actionable.
🏛️ Policy Impact and Dissemination
- Policy Analysis: Analysis of key EU regulatory frameworks found that the ES concept is not yet mainstreamed across all policy sectors, being largely confined to biodiversity, forestry, and agricultural policies. Policy messages were summarized in briefs on various sectors.
- Scenarios and IPBES: Developed four EU level scenario storylines to assess future impacts on ES. These OpenNESS scenarios have since been used in the IPBES regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia.
- Knowledge Platform: All project results, guidelines, and conceptual tools are synthesized into Oppla (www.oppla.eu), a joint knowledge platform established with the OPERAs project, ensuring the project’s long-term accessibility and perennity.
- Outreach: The project produced 99 scientific articles and engaged in over 200 local outreach events.
