Iulie Aslaksen

About Iulie Aslaksen

ECONOR - the Economy of the North

A research project supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nordic Council of Ministers publishes a new version of the ECONOR report The Economy of the North, based on contributions from a national and international network of researchers and statisticians. The purpose of the ECONOR project is to strengthen the social science and economic perspective in Arctic research, in connection with interdisciplinary research on climate change impacts and sustainable development.

 

CLIMATE-LAND

The project CLIMATE-LAND will contribute to knowledge on ecosystem services associated with carbon sequestration in forests and the semi-natural cultural landscape. Extensive planting of trees has been suggested as a climate policy measure in Norway. There is lack of knowledge about the actual climatic benefit of tree planting in semi-natural areas of the cultural landscape, and more scientific knowledge is needed. Studies worldwide indicate that soils and vegetation of grasslands represent a large potential reservoir for storing carbon, but this potential depends on regional environmental differences. The project will contribute with pilot studies for Nordic conditions of carbon sequestration from semi-natural cultural landscapes. Climatic benefits of tree planting depend on differences in albedo between coniferous forests, deciduous forests and the open areas of the cultural landscape. The semi-natural areas of the cultural landscape provide multiple ecosystem services - in addition to carbon sequestration - including biodiversity, landscape qualities, input to food production, grazing resources, fodder, pollination, potential for sustaining diverse farming systems, local economy, recreation, appreciation of landscape, and tourism. The project will enhance the knowledge basis for identifying trade-offs and synergies between climate policy and policy for biodiversity. The framework proposed by the UN in the recently developed SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA) will be applied. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway. Several Norwegian and international research partners participate. The project has contact with the Norwegian Environment Agency.

 

Urban environment and ecosystem services (URBAN-EEA)

The URBAN-EEA project demonstrates synergies between experimental ecosystem accounting (EEA), recently developed by the UN for the national system of economic and environmental accounts (SEEA), and municipal level mapping of urban ecosystems and their services to the population. The project is managed by the Norwegian institute for nature research (NINA) and funded by the Research Council of Norway. The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) is research partner, and several Norwegian and international scientific advisers contribute. Mapping and valuation methods are tested in the Greater Oslo region aimed at identifying potential trade-offs and synergies in ecosystem services from green infrastructure and urban development. The project will have close cooperation with municipal authorities in order to obtain updated knowledge on land use. Spatial mapping databases are developed that are compatible with standards for national accounting, that can be accessed and updated by land use planners and policy makers, and that provide periodically updated information to the public on the status of urban ecosystems. The project will apply land use data from Statistics Norway and will contribute to research on ecosystem services and biodiversity in the context of indicators for sustainable development.

 

BIOPOLICY: Biodiversity and Nature Index - understanding, adaptive planning, and economic policy means for management of open lowlands and forests

The purpose of the BIOPOLICY project is to identify appropriate economic policy means for biodiversity protection in open lowlands and forests, in the context of the Nature Index for Norway. BIOPOLICY is a highly interdisciplinary project where a common basis for understanding threats to biodiversity, interpretations of targets for biodiversity conservation, and challenges for biodiversity policies will be developed through cooperation between natural scientists and social scientists, with an economic policy application of the Nature Index for Norway. Targets for biodiversity protection, specified in terms of the Nature Index, will be combined with economic models of environmental impacts of agriculture and forestry. These two economic models will be augmented by measures of biodiversity. The BIOPOLICY project will contribute to enhancing the basis for adaptive planning by economic policy means, where adaptive planning is understood as iterative implementation of policy means towards reaching a given policy target. In particular, the project addresses how various elements of biodiversity can be expressed and interpreted in terms of diverse disciplinary and societal perspectives, so-called narratives, that illustrate how different parts of society, interest groups, sector interests, lay people and politicians express their understandings of biodiversity threats and policies for biodiversity protection. The project comprises 15 research partners nationally and internationally.

 

Sustainable development and the precautionary principle

The research contributes to further development of the indicators for sustainable development compiled by Statistics Norway. The goal is to develop precautionary strategies in the context of sustainable development, in situations with uncertain and potentially irreversible environmental impacts. New indicators should include "early warnings", pointing to the need for immediate action. The project includes social evaluation of environmental risk, use of quantitative measures of biodiversity, environmental ethics and corporate social responsibility. The project contributes to development of the research field of ecological economics.