WPs

MARBEFES is structured around eight WPs implementing Tasks instrumental in meeting the project objectives:

WP1 (Stakeholder involvement and governance rules) will inventory the views of stakeholders regarding perceptions of the social ecological systems of BBTs, present needs and future requirements and rules and regulations on biodiversity and ecosystems services in BBTs. It will also engage stakeholders to contribute to the tasks, and to test and evaluate project outputs in a series of workshops.

WP2 (Broad-belt transects across European seascapes) will establish the BBTs be used as test areas for a toolbox of integrated biodiversity, ecological and socio-economic assessment.

WP3 (Biodiversity and ecosystem tools) will develop:

• tools to assess ecosystem biodiversity, structure, function and ecosystem services, to enable prediction of the impacts of human pressures, future environmental scenarios and management actions and
• indicators and methods to better monitor seascape biodiversity and function.  

WP4 (Ecological, social and economic valuation) will develop and apply a handbook for ecological and economic valuation of biodiversity, ecosystem services and societal goods and benefits.

WP5 (Integration and scenarios) will adopt climatic and socio-economic scenarios to project future trends and assess their possible impacts, will integrate BBT data to synthesise large-scale patterns and will analyse knowledge gaps emerging from synthesis to allow for supplementary tests at BBTs.

WP6 (Upscaling and outscaling outputs for governance and stakeholders) will upscale the project outputs to provide a set of customized guidance and a Marine Biodiversity and Valuation Toolbox targeted to emerging needs, and pilot test the tools in two broader geographies (the Black Sea and Antilles (Martinique)).

WP7 (Project coordination and outreach) is a cross-cutting and coordinates the MARBEFES activities and manages its resources. It ensures smooth running of the project, timely submission of Deliverables and Milestones, communication within and outside of the project, financial management, quality assurance, data and risk management, ocean literacy and outreach activities.

WP7 is the interface of the project with the outside world. The interrelationships of the WPs are demonstrated in the Pert Diagram.

Detailed description of each workpackage below!

8 working packages