During an international capacity-building workshop for participants from Central and Eastern Europe which was convened from 29 September to 1 October 2005, Nicole Kranz discussed the application of a valuation of ecosystem services for the implementation of the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).

Her presentation addressed the economic aspects and requirements of the WFD and referred to different methods for valuing ecosystem services. Examples of their application in different European countries, as well as an assessment of the relevance of valuation methods for the ecosystem approach of the Convention on Biological Diversity are covered in the second part of the contribution. Currently, the valuation of ecosystem services only plays a minor role for WFD implementation. The international participants discussed a further development and application of this concept in the European as well as the respective national settings.

The presentation of Nicole Kranz is available for download [pdf, 258 KB, English].