About the project

WP1 aims to ensure that the project adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation and the EU ethics for researchers’ guidelines. It establishes the technical and organisational measures that will be implemented to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the research participants, including informed consent procedures with regards to the processing of personal data.

In order for natural capital and ecosystem accounts to become a part of the regular national accounting systems in the EU, it is important that they are well connected to specific policy priorities in each country. MAIA is assessing these priorities in a total of 9 EU MS (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain), as well as in Norway. Continuous interactions with stakeholders developing or using accounts in the participating countries is achieved through a series of activities carried out in WP2, such as workshops, surveys, as well as collaborations with statistical agencies and users of accounts (including business partners).

The objective of WP3 is to ensure mainstreaming of NCA and alignment with the identified policy needs (from WP2) within the ten participating countries (nine in the EU and Norway). This will be done on the basis of concrete pilots, where available methods are tested, applied and evaluated jointly by a range of relevant partners in each participating EU MS. This WP is conducted in very close collaboration with statistical agencies and other government offices in charge of or working on natural capital and ecosystem accounts (ministries, state agencies, research organizations with access to data, etc.). Accounts are developed based on existing large-scale reference data as well as new, additional datasets to be created through data inter- and extrapolation, combining existing datasets and applying spatial and other models available in the consortium.

WP4 aims at developing new insights, in order to fill a number of key knowledge gaps in NCA. These activities build upon the knowledge base of the SEEA EA, KIP INCA and the working group of DG Environment on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES). Specifically, the project will: (i) examine how water regulation including flood control services of ecosystems can be analysed at the scales and accuracy required for NCA; (ii) (ii) test how big data from internet applications (photo uploading tools, tools for recording hiking and cycling pathways and achievements) can be used to assess cultural ecosystem services; (iii) analyse how valuation approaches and methods can capture diverse values, including non-market values of ecosystem services, ecosystem assets and linkages to welfare values (as opposed to the accounting values based on exchange prices considered in the SEEA EA) ; (iv) analyse how biodiversity can be included in an accounting context; and (v) examine how marine accounts can be produced.

This WP involves the development of guidelines and best practice documents, as well as the creation of a website for exchanging information and providing user-friendly access to datasets and produced pilot accounts, exchanging experiences among countries and with other communities (businesses, ecological modelling, environmental economics) and other communication and dissemination actions.

WP6 is led by Wageningen University who coordinates activities including planning, monitoring, reporting and fund disbursement and communications between partners, supporting agencies and with the European Commission. This is completed in close collaboration with all other WP leaders (CSIC, EVINBO, NINA, SYKE, LUH, URJC, WCMC). The project’s management structure comprises an Executive Board (all WP leads), a General Assembly (representatives of all partners in the consortium) and an Advisory Board.