Institute for Economic and Environmental Policy                                                                                                       Member of network of academics

Regional Value Chains in the Context of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

Pilot use of the concept of ecosystem services to support business enterprise at regional level and to optimize their impact on the environment.

The project builds on the “Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Regional Value Chains” project and deepens the analysis of current use and future potential of using the ecosystem services concept, this time focusing on the business sector (especially in the food industry, agriculture, forestry, tourism and beekeeping). Within the project, research of companies in the border area (aiming at the Usti nad Labem region and the Liberec region) is performed with the goal to identify both the selected economic sectors, and particular businesses, where it will be able to apply the concept of ecosystem services and biodiversity within the standard activities of these businesses. A broader goal of this project is (in model companies) to integrate a system of indicators following the quality of biodiversity and the flow of ecosystem services, and to use these indicators both for nature and biodiversity protection, respectively; and to increase the additional value of the output of single companies. The research within the project will also be focused on the analysis of the potential of a cross border cooperation of subjects to increase the additional value of companies´ outputs. On this project, experts from Poland, Saxony and Bohemia will participate.

Funding Agency: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
Duration: 2015–2017
Contact Person: Jiří Louda, e-mail: louda@ieep.cz
Researchers: Jiří Louda, Lenka Dubová
In Cooperation with: NETSCI Prof. Dr. Matthias Kramer GmbH
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Leibnitz University Hannover
Saxony State Foundation for Nature and the Environment
Internationales Begegnungszentrum St. Marienthal
Wrocław University of Economics (Faculty of Economy, Management and Tourism in Jelenia Góra)