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Ecosistemas y Biodiversidad para el Bienestar Humano. Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio de España. Síntesis de resultados

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Abstract

La biodiversidad es esencial para la supervivencia del ser humano en la Tierra. Del buen funcionamiento de los ecosistemas acuáticos y terrestres españoles y de la biodiversidad que albergan, depende en buena medida el futuro social, cultural y económico de la población, ya que constituyen el capital natural de nuestro país. El bienestar humano en España estriba, de esta forma, en la capacidad de los ecosistemas para generar servicios esenciales: agua limpia, alimentos, regulación climática, polinización, actividades recreativas, etc. Por tanto, la conservación de los ecosistemas, además de ser una res ponsabilidad ética, se presenta como una necesidad crucial, y no como un lujo, para el bienestar de la sociedad española. Desde el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino trabajamos para preservar el buen estado de los ecosistemas, restaurar su funcionalidad y garantizar el mantenimiento de los importantes servicios que prestan a la sociedad. Por ello, somos conscientes de la importancia de conta r con información científica fiable sobre el valor de la biodiversidad y de fomentar su difusión y consideración en la toma de decisiones. Esta necesidad de reforzar la relación entre el conocimiento científico y la toma de decisiones ha sido reconocida también a nivel internacional. En junio de 2010 se alcanzó un acuerdo sobre el establecimiento de un órgano intergubernamental (conocido por sus siglas, IPBES) para la integración de la información sobre biodiversidad y servicios de los ecosistemas, de forma que sea accesible para la toma de decisiones técnicas y políticas. La importancia conocer y valorar adecuadamente la biodiversidad y los servicios de los ecosistemas también se ha destacado en el Plan Estratégico 2011-2020 del Convenio de Naciones Unidas sobre Diversidad Biológica y en la Estrategia de la Unión Europea sobre biodiversidad para 2020. La Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio de España (EME), promovida por la Fundación Biodiversidad del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino desde el año 2009 siguiendo la iniciativa de las Naciones Unidas, tiene la finalidad de generar información robusta, validada científicamente, sobre la relevancia de los servicios de los ecosistemas en España y su importancia para el bienestar de nuestra sociedad. Los resultados de este proyecto aportan una valiosa información sobre el estado y las tendencias de los servicios de los ecosistemas españoles y sobre las consecuencias que tienen la degradación de los ecosistemas y la pérdida de la biodiversidad de España. Este resumen del informe está especialmente dirigido a los gestores, y recoge las conclusiones iniciales alcanzadas por 6o expertos procedentes de distintos campos de las ciencias ecológicas y sociales de más de 20 centros de investigación a los que, desde estas líneas, queremos agradecer su valiosa aportación. Estamos convencidos de que servirá para tender puentes entre el conocimiento científico interdisciplinar y la toma de decisiones, mostrando los estrechos vínculos que existen entre la conservación de los ecosistemas y el bienestar humano de las generaciones actuales y futuras. Esperamos que sirva igualmente para incrementar la conciencia de la sociedad española sobre la importancia que tienen los ecosistemas y la biodiversidad para nuestro desarrollo sostenible, y que contribuya así a fomentar una mayor implicación de todos los sectores y actores sociales en el reto común de proteger nuestra rica diversidad biológica.
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... The Mediterranean basin is recognized as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, where high degrees of endemicity coexist with high rates of transformation of natural and semi-natural habitats (Myers, Mittermeier, Mittermeier, da Fonseca, & Kent, 2000;Olson & Dinerstein, 2002 Thus, concern exists that current PA schemes might not suffice to effectively conserve biodiversity in the country in the long term (Rodríguez-Rodríguez & Martínez-Vega, 2018a). Consequently, whereas enhanced protection of existing PAs is suggested (Martínez-Fernández, Ruiz-Benito, & Zavala, 2015;Rodríguez-Rodríguez & Martínez-Vega, 2018a), wider landscape-scale measures are also needed to revert negative biodiversity figures in the country (Montes et al., 2011). As a result, the Spanish Government recently approved a national Strategy on Green Infrastructure, Connectivity and Ecological Restoration (Spanish Government, 2020) in which natural and semi-natural areas outside PAs are likely to play a crucial role. ...
... As a result, Spain is one of the world's countries with the largest proportion of its territory covered under some PA category (World Bank, 2017). Nevertheless, good policy figures do not automatically translate into effective conservation, which still needs substantial improvement to stop and reverse current degradation of biodiversity, especially on spatially restricted species and habitats, such as coastal ones (Montes et al., 2011). ...
... Thus, concerns exist that meeting existing policy targets may not suffice to improve the status of biodiversity (Noss et al., 2012;Wilson, 2016). Actually, despite Spain's high degree of policy compliance, the status of Spanish biodiversity and ecosystem services keeps deteriorating (Montes et al., 2011;Rodríguez-Rodríguez & Martínez-Vega, 2018a). The same occurs elsewhere to a larger or lesser extent (IPBES, 2019), which raises concerns on the ambition and effectiveness of political targets (Noss et al., 2012). ...
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... Spain is a Euro-Mediterranean country rich in biodiversity (Araújo, Lobo, & Moreno, 2007;Médail & Quézel, 1999;Montes, Santos & Benayas, 2011) that expands across four biogeographic regions: ...
... Its geological, geographic, climatic, and relief diversity determines extraordinary biodiversity figures in the European context, with 75% of all European vertebrate species and 50% of all endemic plant species of the continent (Spanish Government, 2008). On the other hand, Spain has experienced enormous socio-economic changes in recent decades leading to intense LULC changes and landscape transformation (Jiménez, 2012;Montes et al., 2011;Stellmes, Röder, Udelhoven, & Hill, 2013). Residential, industrial, and infrastructural development along the 1990s and, especially, early 2000s has expanded the Countries' artificial areas hugely, with widespread impact on territorial sustainability and wildlife (García-Ayllón, 2015;Jiménez, 2012;Torres, Jaeger, & Alonso, 2016). ...
... Residential, industrial, and infrastructural development along the 1990s and, especially, early 2000s has expanded the Countries' artificial areas hugely, with widespread impact on territorial sustainability and wildlife (García-Ayllón, 2015;Jiménez, 2012;Torres, Jaeger, & Alonso, 2016). Actually, LULC changes towards rural abandonment, agricultural intensification and land development, especially along the coast, are the main pressures leading to biodiversity loss in Spain (Custodio et al., 2016;de Andrés, Barragán, & García Sanabria, 2017;Montes et al., 2011;Rey Benayas, Martins, Nicolau, & Schulz, 2007). LULC change has been largely studied in Spain, across its whole territory (Jiménez, 2012;Stellmes et al., 2013), inside and around PAs (Hewitt, Pera, & Escobar, 2016;Martínez-Fernández, Ruiz-Benito, & Zavala, 2015; Rodríguez-Rodríguez & Martínez-Vega, 2018a), across biogeographic regions (Martínez-Fernández et al., 2015), and on specific environments such as the coast (Jiménez, 2007(Jiménez, , 2012Jiménez, Prieto, Riechmann, & Gómez, 2005). ...
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... Different studies have evaluated the current status of the ES provided mainly by perennial rivers at regional (e.g., [148]), national (e.g., [149][150][151][152]) and international (e.g., [153][154][155][156][157]) scales. However, specific works that focus on ES in non-perennial rivers are missing, except for two recent studies that have analyzed the ES provided by IRES throughout their different hydrological phases (i.e., flow, non-flowing and loss of surface water) [64,158]. ...
... Different studies have evaluated the current status of the ES provided mainly by perennial rivers at regional (e.g., [148]), national (e.g., [149][150][151][152]) and international (e.g., [153][154][155][156][157]) scales. However, specific works that focus on ES in non-perennial rivers are missing, except for two recent studies that have analyzed the ES provided by IRES throughout their different hydrological phases (i.e., flow, non-flowing and loss of surface water) [64,158]. ...
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... En el informe se hacen algunas sugerencias, pero habría que implementarlas la recogida desagregada de datos nacionales (mujeres/hombres; rural/urbano). Fig. 6 Wangari Maathai (1940-2011, bióloga, ecologista y premio nobel de la Paz. © Antônio Cruz/ABr -Agência Brasil Fig. 7 2012 h. ...
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... Canarian SAs have the singularity of belonging to the Macaronesian region, a small biogeographic region rich in endemic biodiversity (Santamarta, Naranjo, & Arraiza, 2014). Moreover, in the Canary Islands, over 75% of the species of conservation concern are in unfavourable or unknown conservation status ) and ecosystem services are deteriorating (Montes, Benayas, & Santos, 2011). These figures underline the importance of sustainability of LULC changes, not only in Canarian NPs and their peripheral areas, but across this entire biodiversity relevant Spanish region. ...
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... From the 1990's, various landscape architects have developed their approaches to planting design, incorporating ecological criteria focused on the design of the groundcover of extensive areas, often looking to promote biodiversity and reduce the maintenance costs of urban green spaces. This has been helped in recent decades by a growing concern about the continued loss of biodiversity and increased interest among the population in ecology (Ecosystems and Biodiversity, the role of cities, 2005; Montes et al., 2011). Each of these landscape architects has their particular approach. ...
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