Denis Bailly UMR-AMURE, European Institute for Marine Studies University of Brest

1. A participatory integrated assessment of seagrass meadows ecosystem services in the Gulf of Morbihan Denis Bailly UMR-AMURE, European Institute for Marine Studies University of Brest

2. VALMER project • Apply the ecosystem services framework (MEA) to assess ecological, economic and social values of ecosystems services • to support the development of public policies (nature conservation, resources exploitation management, planning of offshore or impacting on-shore activities development) • With an integrative and participatory approach engaging regulators, managers, stakeholders, the public and scientists from social and natural sciences • Partnership between research, management and regulatory bodies (6 in South West England and 5 in France) • 6 study sites (coastal areas of Western Channel and South Brittany) • Funding : France-England transboundary inter-regional fund (Interreg IVA)

3. The ecosystem services ‘cascade’ Adaptedfrom Haines-Young, R. and Potschin M., in Raffaelli, D. and Frid C. (Eds.): EcosystemEcology: a new synthesis, Cambridge U. Press, 2010

4. Valmer perspective on assessment of ecosystem services values Ecosystem services translate into : • easy to identify wellbeing benefits derived from natural capital (commercial or not, reflecting market structures and cultural preferences) • known benefits that are difficult to quantify, • others that are highly hypothetical • and claims based on moral values Such different values cannot be resumed and aggregated as monetary equivalents, they rather call for extensive documentation and multidimensional metrics They are useful only if communicable in policy-making arenas and for awareness raising, including uncertainties

5. South West England VALMER study sites Gulf of Morbihan study site Brittany - France The Gulf of Morbihan is part of a Regional Natural Park project covering an area of 500 km², 35 communes, 170 km² of coastal waters, 500 km of coastline

6. Zostera meadows : key habitats for the ecosystem of the Gulf ? • Two species in the Gulf of Morbihan : Zostera marina and Zosteranoltei • Zosterabeds are remarkable habitats protectedunder the OSPAR convention and the Habitat Directive of the EU. • A global degradation trend isobserved but locallyhigh temporal variability in coverage, density and plant condition leading to contradictory conclusions. • Pressures and impacts that influence the ecologicalstatus of zosterabeds are not all clearlyunderstood. So the policycommitment to protectseagrassbedsis not straightforward • Seagrass beds are not emblematic habitats but they have their “natural” defenders like bird conservation NGOs • Seagrass beds functional roles are rather well recognized but not much quantified (they support productivity and biological diversity of coastal seas, they contribute to water quality, they stabilize the sediment,...)

7. To be cared about • The Good Ecological Status of a seagrass bed is difficult to attest as there is much spatial and temporal variability in the distribution and density of seagrass beds. Monitoring observation vs modelling can help to determine the potential for seagrass develop in a given place, but such information not available • There are many direct extractive and non extractive uses of seagrass beds and associated resources (commercial and recreational wild shellfish gathering, bird watching, shellfish farming, boat mooring, ...) • Contradictory observations about interactions between seagrass and oyster culture (bags on trestles) are not known : negative, positive, neutral ? But regulations says that aquaculture permit should not be renewed when they end to protect seagras • Mooring on seagrass bed has clear impacts, but temporary mooring by recreational boats is very difficult to control • Bird (bernacles feeding on seagrass beds) is the main argument calling for seagrass bed protection, sea horse is an emblematic species of the area, mainly seen in seagrass but almost extincted • Other functional roles in depuration processes, trophic chain, biodiversity , recruitment for main fishing stocks (commercial and recreational use), water depuration as the ecosystem is under strong pressure from land (nutriment, microbiology, chemicals,...) are for most of them recognized. But none is quantified • So need to develop a coherent management and monitoring strategy under any kind of applicable planning or regulatory instrument (SMVM, WFD, MSFD, Natura 2000)

8. Engaging scientists and stakeholder in the development • of a Knowledge Sharing Platform • Gathering of scientific knowledge (and knowledge gaps) • Interviews with stakeholders (people knowledge) • Sorting of socio-ecological system components (uses, pressures, ecosystem services) • Mapping of interactions (impacting and benefiting uses) • Mapping of interactions (ecosystem services cascade) • Populating the knowledge base (narrative, drawings, resources)

9. Des espèces sensibles Zostères marine et naine Marine flowering plants in the world • They are not algea • About 60 species in the world including 10 Zostera UNEP-WCMC, 2004, document from Canadian Secrétariate for Scientific Consultation

10. Regulations Suivi OSPAR Convention Red List IUCN Water Framework Directive Habitat Directive Bern convention National EuropEAn International Land planning code Coastal Law SMVM REBENT network SCA Natura 2000 1979 1986 1989 1998 2000 2003 2006 2012 2013

11. Existingmaps of seagrassbeds in the Gulf • Cette carte est une compilation de données ! • Il existe des limites techniques d’acquisition et de traitement des données • Plus des coûts humains et financiers importants « Sources diverses 2002-2007; Produit numérique REBENT multi-source Bernard & Chauvaud, TBM et CEVA » Source: R. Mahéo, d’après l’observatoire départemental de l’environnement (56)

12. Gathering people knowledge about Seagrass in the Gulf of Morbihan (representationsfrom cognitive maps) Interactions withfishing (cuttlefish, eel, seabass,…) Plant biology/ecology Location of seagrassbeds in the gulf A system view of interactions

13. Gathering people knowledge about SeagrassEcosystem Services in the Gulf of Morbihan (representationsfromdiscourseanalysis) Weseejuveniles in the seagrass… sozostera serves as nursery grounds (seabass, eel and cutlefishmentioned) Cuttlefish and othermolluscslaytheireggs on seagrass In the seagrasswefindperiwinkle, shrimps, eels, anemons, littorinasnail, … Seagrassbedsprobably have differentfunction : hatchery, nursery, water oxygenation, stability of sediment It isdifficult to say how muchseabass and cutlefishfisheries in the Gulf and outsidedepend on seagrassbeds If seagrassdisappearthenwe’llseelessthings in the water bernacleseatseagrassfrom octobre to décembre

14. Mapping of the socio-ecological system (brownpaper, Cmap)

15. Producing and organizingknowledge (narratives, drawings)

16. Des espèces sensibles Zostères marine et naine Zostera in the gulf There are two types of zostera. They are flowering plants living in the marine environment and more specifically on soft grounds... [ know more …] Sensitive species Zostera are vegetalspeciesvery sensitive to variations of theirenvironmentoriginatingfromhuman action or natural. [ know more …]

17. Sorting the components of the socio-ecosystem

18. Mapping interactions in sub-systems → Choix d’une représentation détaillée des sous-systèmes par usages → Difficulté de mettre en avant des services ecosystémiques assez indirects et de ne pas être toujours en représentation d’impacts des usages sur les zostères → Les deux zostères, marine et naine, fonctionnent différemment (haut et bas de l’estran, interactions différentes avec les usages) d’où un dédoublement des représentations

19. Next steps • Stakeholder group discussions (focus group), introduction to ecosystem services and need for protection, scenario building • Survey of public preferences for conservation (choice experiment) • Synthesis of scenarios and multiple stakeholder group discussion, setting of the “vision” • Feeding the policy processes (revision of planning document and regulation setting) with the outcomes

20. The VALMER team in the Gulf of Morbihan Monique Cassé, Ronan Pasco, Juliette Herry, Matthias Urien, David Lédan Intercommunal Syndicate for the Management of the Gulf of Morbihan (SIAGM) Denis Bailly, Manuelle Philippe, Johanna Ballé-Béganton, Bérengère Angst, Michel Lample, Louinord Voltaire, Julien Hay, Jean Boncoeur UMR-AMURE / University of Brest

21. Merci de votre attention Merci de votre attention www.valmer.eu