In the Republic of Moldova, the application in practice of the concept of ecosystem services is largely hampered by the lack of adequate methods for assessing their value, as well as the complexity of information support associated with the absence of a monitoring system for ecosystem services, said representatives of the International Association of River Keepers "Eco-TIRAS", who implemented an international project together with partners from Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Ukraine. This is the project "Ecosystem Services and Hydropower: piloting the European instruments in the river basins of the Eastern Partnership countries", which is being completed. The experience of assessing ecosystem services, implemented within the framework of the project, confirms the feasibility of using this concept to solve environmental and economic problems of the development of hydro-construction, including such as economic substantiation of alternatives for the territorial development and substantiation of additional costs for environmental protection measures, which, together with the environmental, have a large economic effect.
In a news conference at IPN, Executive Director of the International Association of River Keepers "Eco-TIRAS" Ilya Trombitsky, who is the project coordinator, noted that the assessment of ecosystem services should become the main tool that should be used to objectively assess the consequences of the impact of hydropower projects on river and near-water ecosystems, because for decision makers and for the population it is not at all obvious that the profit received from the energy production of river water is the result of the loss of those services that were used by the country as a whole and by individuals.
Olga Cazanteva, an expert from "Eco-Tiras" Association, said that within the European Union, territorial modeling and mapping of ecosystem services for local business planning have acquired the greatest interest.
Calculation of ecosystem services and their practical implementation in the form of compensation for ecosystem losses due to the activities of hydropower entities should serve as a means for the restoration of river ecosystems and subsequent support of the potential of ecosystem services.
Ruslan Gavrilyuk, Head of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine, said that it is necessary to apply European approaches, which provide for several main stages: identification and mapping of ecosystems, assessment of their condition, identification and assessment of ecosystem services, summary assessment of ecosystems. To define ecosystems, the MAES typology is used, and for ecosystem services - the CICES V5.1 classification, according to which ecosystem services are divided into resource ones, regulating ones and supporting ones, cultural ones, which are biotic and abiotic in nature. For assessing ecosystem services, a number of software products was developed, the application of which requires detailed data on the state of ecosystems.
The project is being implemented thanks to the Regranting-2020 scheme of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum with the financial support of the European Union as part of supporting the civil society in the region. Its content is the sole responsibility of the International Environmental Association of River Keepers Eco-TIRAS and of the project partners and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
