As experts of CEEweb for Biodiversity, we contributed to quantify the most important ecosystem services along the rivers Niraj and Tarnava Mica in Romania with local people so that their views can be accurately taken into consideration in the decision-making process. We worked on involving locals to understand their contribution to the main economic sectors, like agriculture, forestry, tourism, fishing and hunting and explored how local businesses relate to natural resources through questionnaires and their analysis. While valuing ecosystem services, travel cost method from the revealed preference methods as well as market price method from cost based methods were used. Together with other experts, we contributed to an extensive policy study, drew up long-term future scenarios as well as metrics to selected ecosystem services. Based on the results, we compiled recommendations for the local, regional and EU land use policies. Read more about the project and our contribution to it here.
