The Center for Applied Ecology “Prof. Baeta Neves” (CEABN) and WWF's Mediterranean Programme (WWFMedPo) in Portugal have established a formal partnership in 2007 to prepare and develop projects on Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Fire Ecology. The CEABN has been the scientific partner of WWFMedPo on several projects such as:

HABEaS – Hotspot Areas for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which is an online geographic information system that aims to make freely available a number of geographic information on biodiversity and ecosystem services to any stakeholder in Portugal. The Center was involved on the preparation and analysis of the data included in HABEaS. This tool has been used on other projects involving landowners associations (e.g. Associação de Produtores Florestais de Coruche) and private forest producers (e.g. Altri Florestal) to map biodiversity and ecosystems services on their respective properties.

Green Heart of Cork (GHOC) Project, which aims to compensate landowners of cork oak areas that contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services such as carbon storage, soil conservation and water cycle regulation, by stimulating sustainable management practices.One of the main outcomes of this project was the creation of one the first cases of Payment for Ecosystem Servies (PES) in Portugal. This case involved “Associação de Produtores Florestais de Coruche (APFC)”, which is an association of cork oak savannas landowners, as the provider of ecosytem services and Coca-Cola Portugal as the beneficiary of the services and WWF Portugal as the broker. The CEABN was involved in the process of identification and analysis of the ecosystem services provided by APFC.

Project “Promote responsible forest management to support sustainable development in BiH “, which aims to promote the sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the devlopment of an HABEaS tool with data on biodiversity and ecosystem services for this country. The CEABN is involved on the process of preparation and analysis of the information that's going to be included in HABEaS Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Friday, 24 May 2013