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MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling

Launching the Norwegian Green Infrastructure Network and new decision-support tools for Land Prioritization, Scenario and Impact assessment

Alternative title: Lansering av et norsk nettverk for grønn infrastruktur og et beslutningsstøtteverktøy for prioritering, scenarier og konsekvensutredninger.

Awarded: NOK 15.0 mill.

Despite a century of conservation initiatives that have largely focused on area protection, Nature is experiencing an unprecedented decline. Land use practices are the main driver for habitat loss and fragmentation. The Norwegian Environment Agency has recently developed a Green Infrastructure (GI) strategy to support sustainable land planning practices and halt the loss of biodiversity and the contributions nature makes to people (or ecosystem services). GreenPlan provides the research and development support for implementing this strategy by developing scientific methods and tools for the mapping and quantification of GI and by establishing a robust science-policy platform to ensure these tools meet the needs of their intended users. We cannot achieve sustainable land use by only protecting isolated patches of important habitat. We must also understand how organisms move within and between these areas as spatial ecological networks: the GI. We also need tools to understand how the cumulative impacts (CI) of human activities and a changing climate constrain these networks. GreenPlan builds upon a range of advances across disciplines to develop an innovative analytical framework and a suite of decision-making support tools to aid sustainable land planning. We use functional connectivity to quantify and map both GI and CI. GreenPlan initializes the Norwegian Ecological Network database, featuring the first nation-wide set of maps portraying GI for birds, mammals, insects and plants. Working together with public administration representatives, GreenPlan will develop a portfolio of decision-support technologies. These include land prioritization for conservation, mitigation, and restoration—using scenario analyses to forecast impacts from changes in land use or climate. GreenPlan establishes both a national Science-Policy arena for dialogue on sustainable land planning and Advisory Group to achieve transformative change in land planning practices.

Despite a century of conservation initiatives, largely focused on area protection, Nature is experiencing an unprecedented decline. Land use practices are the main driver for habitat loss and fragmentation globally. The Norwegian Environment Agency has recently developed a Green Infrastructure strategy (GI) to halt the loss of biodiveristy and ecosystem services by supporting sustainable land planning practices. GreenPlan provides the R&D support for the implementation of this strategy, by establishing a robust science-policy platform and by developing scientific methods and tools for the mapping and quantification of GI. For sustainable land use it is not sufficient to protect habitat patches in isolation: it is crucial to prioritize critical areas for the functionality of entire ecological networks or GI and to account for cumulative impacts of multiple drivers. However, science and technology are lagging behind. GreenPlan builds upon a range of advances across disciplines to address this critical knowledge gap, and develops an innovative analytical framework and a portfolio of decision-making support tools to aid sustainable land planning. Our approach is based on functional connectivity to quantify and map GI and CI for biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. GreenPlan develops the first nation-wide set of maps of GI for birds, mammals, insect and plants, and uses them to initialize the Norwegian Ecological Network database, for use in land planning. GreenPlan co-develops with the public administration a portfolio of decision-support technologies for multispecies Land Prioritization for conservation, mitigation, restoration, and to perform Scenario Analyses to forecast the impact of changes in climate or land use (e.g. build new infrastructures). GreenPlan establishes a broad national Science-Policy arena for dialogue on sustainable land planning and Advisory Group to increase the potential to contribute to a Transformative Change in land planning.

Publications from Cristin

Funding scheme:

MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling