HESP was founded in 2014 and is the Greek National Network of Universities, researchers, managers of Protected Areas (PA), decision makers and other professionals dedicated to the advancement of research into and application of ecosystem services (ES) in the Greek part of the Mediterranean Basin. It functions as a platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing and networking regarding ES in Greece.
The 1st HESP meeting took place in Thessaloniki Saturday 22/9/2016, 17:30-20:00, at the School of Biology, Department of Ecology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The members of the Hellenic Ecosystem Services Partnership (HESP) came together to formalize their cooperation and commitment to the partnership.
Attendants
ESP – HESP
- Arends Jeroen
- Drakou Valia (via skype)
Aristotle University
- Kallimanis Athanasios
- Tsiafouli Maria
- Votsi Nefta-Eleutheria
University of the Aegean
- Katsanevakis Stelios
University of Patras
- Dimopoulos Panayotis (via skype)
- Kokkoris Ioannis
- Vlami Vasiliki
University of Thessaly
- Kormas Kostas
During the HESP meeting, the way forward and concrete actions and activities regarding ES for the coming year(s) were discussed. One major decision was the establishment of a scientific-technical committee regarding Ecosystem Services.
Establishment of a Scientific-Technical Committee
The committee aims to coordinate research regarding ES and all activities towards the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (so called MAES studies) in Greece. The committee includes the following HESP members, covering a variety of object categories (natural, semi-natural, agricultural, marine etc. ecosystems), and are dispersed over Greece with the contact person acting as a link to ESP, being currently in France:
- Prof. Panayotis Dimopoulos (Coordinator) National Representative for the MAES implementation in Greece / University of Patras (Patras)
- Dr. Valia Drakou, Université de Bretagne (contact person and link to ESP)
- Assoc. Prof. Stelios Katsanevakis / University of the Aegean (Lesvos)
- Assoc. Prof. Konstantinos Kormas / University of Thessaly (Volos)
- Dr. Maria Tsiafouli / Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki)
Greek MAES research
The mentioned MAES research is an initiative of the European Union were Member States are called upon to assess and map the ecosystems and the services they provide, on their territory. Next to these biophysical assessments, Member States should also make Natural Capital accounts regarding these ES, which entails conducting economic valuations of them. Panayotis Dimopoulos from the University of Patras is the national MAES coordinator for Greece. Under his auspice, a first initiative for a Greek MAES studies was prepared by HESP for the Greek Ministry of the Environment at the end of 2014 and early 2015. Due to budgetary constraints, this first initiative was halted for the moment but HESP strives to restart this process.
To this effect, HESP aims to organize a few workshops regarding the topic of MAES for the scientific community and for decision makers at governmental level as kick start to speed up regarding ES in general and MAES in particular.