WP4: Ecosystem services & valuation

Protecting the Baltic Sea is about more than safeguarding wildlife and habitats—it’s also about understanding the benefits people receive from nature. 

Work Package 4 (WP4) focuses on ecosystem services, the many ways marine ecosystems support human well-being.

This work is led by Lois Watt at the HELCOM Secretariat.

Other partners involved: SYKE, AAU, SwAM, SLU, VSTT, UTARTU, and AKTiiVS.

The work unfolds step by step:

• Identification and mapping
  A matrix is being developed to link species → traits → functions → ecosystem services. Expert workshops on fish, benthic organisms, birds, and marine mammals provide data to strengthen these links.
   
• Quantification
  Regional maps reveal where services are produced, how strongly they flow, and how resilient they are to the loss of key species.
   
• Valuation
  Social and economic methods show the importance of these services, while avoiding double counting and making trade-offs transparent.
   

Together, these steps highlight priority areas for ecosystem service production and make the socio-economic case for strengthening the MPA network.

The work doesn’t stop at today’s knowledge—the final phase is a gap analysis that will highlight:

• Where scientific evidence is strong, and where uncertainties remain. 
• Which data are still missing—such as under-studied species, overlooked traits, or underreported pressures.
• Methodological areas that could be refined to better connect ecological, social, and economic perspectives.
   

The outcome will be a clear overview of needs and priorities for future ecosystem service assessments in the Baltic Sea. 

This will guide where additional data collection, research, or methodological work could make the biggest difference.

By identifying what we know—and just as importantly, what we don’t—the work being done in the project will help to lay the groundwork for more robust assessments in the years ahead, including the potential identification and use of trait information in HELCOM's holistic assessment work (HOLAS 4) for all ecosystem components in the Baltic Sea.