Prioritizing ecosystem services for marine management through stakeholder engagement

When applying the Ecosystem Services (ES) concept for the management of marine activities it is beneficial to involve stakeholders from the start and incorporate their knowledge in the decision-making process. Doing so can help to identify key ES, to prioritize the development of human activities that positively impact those ES, and to identify potential trade-offs and win-win scenarios between sectors. On the Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS), different marine economic activities share a relatively small area where the demand for space continues to grow to accommodate emerging sectors. In order to systematically capture the stakeholders' opinions on key ecosystem services and to make the relation between specific marine economic activities and the anticipated change these bring to the ES, a stakeholder workshop was organized. Participants had to prioritize a list of fourteen marine ES relevant to the BCS and the highest-ranking ES were coastal protection, biodiversity, offshore wind energy, surface for navigation, and habitat maintenance. In addition, a conceptual diagram was co-developed linking marine activities and ES to highlight potential synergies and trade-offs, with a focus on the fastest growing activity in the BCS - offshore wind farming. The approach presented is easily transferable and can help researchers and decision-makers capture stakeholders’ perceptions regarding the importance of local ES at specific points in time, thus providing a baseline for establishing priorities during ES modeling and management.