EU ecosystem assessment : summary for policymakers

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit. The EU ecosystem assessment analysed the following ecosystems: urban ecosystems, agroecosystems (cropland and grassland), forests, wetlands, heathlands and shrubs, sparsely vegetated lands (beaches, dunes, rocky areas in mountains), rivers and lakes, and marine ecosystems. The boundaries between ecosystem types are often more difficult to draw than this simple classification suggests. For instance, peatlands are considered wetlands but often used and classified as forests or agroecosystems. The EU ecosystem assessment used the Corine Land Cover information system to classify (based on EUNIS habitat classification) and map ecosystems but for wetlands, floodplains and urban areas also dedicated boundaries were drawn. The different ecosystems cover the full EU territory [...]. Ecosystem services are the contributions of ecosystems to economic, social, cultural and other benefits that people derive from ecosystems. For instance, pollination, the provision of food, timber and clean air, water filtration, carbon sequestration and storage or nature-based recreation are all ecosystem services. The above definitions are set in the EU Directives mentioned above (for ecosystem status) as well as in Regulation (EU) 2020/8522 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment.