New EPA report by SEMRU researchers launched ‘Valuing Ireland’s Coastal, Marine and Estuarine Ecosystem Services’

New EPA report by SEMRU researchers launched

An EPA report on the economic value of Ireland’s marine and coastal ecosystems has just been published [EPA Research Report No 239:  Valuing Ireland’s Coastal, Marine and Estuarine Ecosystem Services]. The work undertaken by SEMRU researchers, Daniel Norton and Stephen Hynes, and John Boyd from the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, provides an assessment of the benefit values that nature provides to society in the marine and coastal zones. These benefits are known as ecosystem services and include the provision of food sources such as wild fisheries and aquaculture, the regulation of climate and waste treatment and cultural services such as recreation and the aesthetics of the Irish coastline. This initial assessment of Ireland’s marine ecosystem services and their value is an important first step in incorporating ecosystem services into policy and decision making related to Ireland’s marine and coastal zones.

The report is available to download at the following link: http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/research/water/research239.html