Joint EurAqua-WssTP Workshop on Water-related ecosystem services

The European technological platform on water WssTP in co-operation with the European network of freshwater research organisations EurAqua and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) hosted a workshop titled ‘Water-related ecosystem services: Increasing the relevance of the concept for operational management on various scales’

on 18th and 19th of November 2014 at Oslo Science Park in Norway.
The key conclusions of the workshop are the following:
Ecosystem services approach should be considered as a framework to guide policy makers in selecting measures that maximize environmental benefits, taking into account also environmental externalities;
Ecosystem Services are not adequately taken into consideration by Decision/Policy Makers, due to the lack of quantification and a large degree of confusion and misunderstanding. Many researchers claim to work on ecosystem services but instead keep working on ecosystem functioning;
A common understanding and a sort of baseline guidance must be setup for practitioners and policy makers. A strict "code of practice" is not well accepted by authorities, that would prefer a set of indicators to be applied and adapted according to local physical and political peculiarities.
Here is the link to the workshop programme.