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How to understand the effects on natural capitals and actual and potential state changes of individual sites important in promoting decisions to support both biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision? Or how to evaluate all those benefits that sustainable ecosystem provide to humans, influencing and promoting social development? 

The TESSA methodology and the Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-Based Assessment (Toolkit for the evaluation of ecosystem services, in situ) can help us. 

To promote and disseminate this methodology and related toolkit, Vania Statzu, vice president of MEDSEA and environmental economist, spoke in a video of BirdLife International to tell how the evaluation of ecosystem services can be useful in promoting sustainable practices in the management of wetlands and protected areas and how this methodology can help the territory promote sustainable practices in the sectors of agriculture, fishing and tourism such as those carried out in and within the Maristanis project in the lagoon of international importance RAMSAR S'Ena Arrubia, in the Municipality of Arborea, in Sardinia

In Arborea, a municipality of Oristano, where 1000 local employees are involved in the agricultural sector alone, plus about 6000 people from all over Sardinia, the TESSA methodology was applied within the Maristanis project, with satisfactory results. 

"With the TESSA methodology - says Statzu - we can evaluate the services offered by the wetlands: for example, the reduction of floods that seriously affected the area or the purification of the water, which was important to analyze because it allowed us to understand that the amount of nutrients that flow from agricultural and livestock farming activities, including through the aquifers, is currently sustainable”. For Statzu, the TESSA assessment is "fundamental to preserve not only the quality of the water, but also the fishing activities and the beauty of the landscape to which people are culturally linked, demonstrating to local stakeholders the importance of preserving the territory also for greater benefits to people ". 

Thanks to the TESSA methodology, information can be collected, even where official data is lacking and with a multidisciplinary approach. A step-by-step guide to be able to make a monetary and non-monetary assessment of the spiritual and cultural benefits of the territory (read the piece on the topic How much is nature worth?). 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE? 

In addition to the toolkit, designed to provide practical guidance on how to identify which services may be significant in a site of interest, which data are needed to measure them, which methods or sources can be used to obtain the data and how to communicate the results, you can follow the next webinar, organized by BirdLife International, in collaboration with Wetlands Based Solutions and Vertigo Lab, on the topic Tuesday 14 June 2022 at 14:00 CET. 

Register here   

The online webinar (in English) on the topic "The economy of nature-based solutions: opportunities for coastal wetlands of the Mediterranean" will explore the methodology for the socio-economic and environmental assessment of NbS - Nature based Solutions. It will also present the results of research on NbS economic opportunities to foster the involvement of policy makers and businesses. 

Pics Credits (c) Livio Mura Laguna di S'Ena Arrubia