The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) is Norway’s leading center of expertise in water, coastal and marine related issues. NIVA's competence spans a wide range of environmental issues including marine biology and ecology, chemistry and ecosystem restoration, ecosystem service valuation and socioeconomic impact assessment. NIVA has long-term experience in coastal blue forest restoration and has led many national and part of international projects on the topic, including climate change impacts on coastal waters and habitats.
NIVA leads the NBS case on blue forest restoration along the coast of Norway.
As task leader in Invest4Nature, NIVA will call on our experience in earlier H2020 projects to explore how a DS toolbox can be adopted to support investment in kelp restoration and further contribute to its scaling up in Norway and wider Europe. We will collaborate with private companies, local authorities, and other local partners to test the framework, build the evidence and knowledge of NBS’ economic performance, and co-develop the DS toolbox. We will explore potential blue forest restoration markets, policy conditions, as well as current economic performance and potential for innovative financing and payment for ecosystem measures or public-private partnerships that are feasible in the local context. Blue carbon markets will also be explored.
NIVA also contributes to mapping the business models for NBS and financing mechanisms, stakeholder needs and the tool development for economic analysis and financing methods for NBS in the project.
Blue forests such as kelp forest and sea grass are important coastal habitats, providing important ecosystem functions and services such as fishery production, carbon storage and sequestration, wave damping, nutrient regulation, and recreation. Norwegian kelp ecosystem restoration was one of the three cases for social economic analysis in the H2020 project MERCES , where both costs and benefits have been evaluated for various restoration measures, and part of the on-going H2020 project FutureMARES.
Wenting Chen
Norwegian Institute for Water Research
