ALFAwetlands’ Work Package 5 focuses on the benefits and costs of wetland restoration. We use three separate surveys to acquire this information:
- the first is PPGIS survey, will focus on the recreational use of the wetlands
- the second one focuses on the benefits and value of the biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by the wetland restoration
- and the third one on landowners’ perceptions of wetland restoration and their monetary compensation requests to restore wetland habitats.
The surveys will be carried out in six ALFAwetlands partner countries: Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Spain.
Exploring the recreational use of wetlands
The survey focusing on the recreational use of wetlands will be targeted at inhabitants of the regions around the project’s Living Lab sites in the six partner countries. The survey aims at recognizing features of wetlands that increase their use for recreation. The respondents will mark the wetlands they use for recreation on the map and respond to some questions on the specific qualities of these places and activities they do there.
In addition to this map-based task, the survey is looking for respondents’ views on the wetlands and the wetland restoration activities in general. Data collection for map-based survey is carried out during April and May 2024.
Photo: Hannu Nousiainen
Nationwide perspectives still to be studied
Later this year, we will carry out the national scale citizen survey on value of ecosystem services that the wetland restoration provides. The survey will use a choice experiment method to study the preferences for and the value of different ecosystem services that the wetland restoration could provide. The survey questionnaire will utilize the information produced in other work packages of ALFAwetlands on, for example, current state of the wetlands in different countries, and ecological impact of restoration activities.
Costs and socioeconomic impact will be analysed next year
In 2025, the focus will be on the costs of the wetland restoration and specifically on the compensations requested by the landowners for implementing the restoration activities on privately owned land. The latter part of the Work Package 5 analyzes the climate change mitigation potential and other socioeconomic effects of wetland restoration at the EU level with the GLOBIOM model, and together with input from other ALFAwetlands work packages, we will provide policy recommendations on wetland restoration that would entail the largest amount of benefits for the society.