The effectiveness of environmental protection measures is based on the early identification and diagnosis of anthropogenic pressures. Similarly, restoration actions require precise monitoring of changes in the ecological quality of ecosystems, in order to highlight their effectiveness. Monitoring the ecological quality relies on bioindicators, which are organisms revealing the pressures exerted on the environment through the composition of their communities. Their implementation, based on the morphological identification of species, is expensive because it requires time and experts in taxonomy. Recent genomic tools should provide access to reliable and high-throughput environmental monitoring by directly inferring the composition of bioindicators' communities from their DNA (metabarcoding). The French-Swiss program SYNAQUA (INTERREG France-Switzerland 2017-2019) proposes to use and validate the tools of environmental genomic for biomonitoring and aims ultimately at their implementation in the regulatory bio-surveillance. SYNAQUA will test the metabarcoding approach focusing on two bioindicators, diatoms, and aquatic oligochaetes, which are used in freshwater biomonitoring in France and Switzerland. To go towards the renewal of current biomonitoring practices, SYNAQUA will (1) bring together different actors: scientists, environmental managers, consulting firms, and biotechnological companies, (2) apply this approach on a large scale to demonstrate its relevance, (3) propose robust and reliable tools, and (4) raise public awareness and train the various actors likely to use these new tools. Biomonitoring approaches based on such environmental genomic tools should address the European need for reliable, higher-throughput monitoring to improve the protection of aquatic environments under multiple pressures, guide their restoration, and follow their evolution.

Recent advances in molecular biomonitoring open new horizons for aquatic ecosystem assessment. Rapid and cost-effective methods based on organismal DNA or environmental DNA (eDNA) now offer the opportunity to produce inventories of indicator taxa that can subsequently be used to assess biodiversity and ecological quality. However, the integration of these new DNA-based methods into current monitoring practices is not straightforward, and will require coordinated actions in the coming years at national and international levels. To plan and stimulate such an integration, the European network DNAqua-Net (COST Action CA15219) brought together international experts from academia, as well as key environmental biomonitoring stakeholders from different European countries. Together, this transdisciplinary consortium developed a roadmap for implementing DNA-based methods with a focus on inland waters assessed by the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). This was done through a series of online workshops held in April 2020, which included fifty participants, followed by extensive synthesis work. The roadmap is organised around six objectives: 1) to highlight the effectiveness and benefits of DNA-based methods, 2) develop an adaptive approach for the implementation of new methods, 3) provide guidelines and standards for best practice, 4) engage stakeholders and ensure effective knowledge transfer, 5) support the environmental biomonitoring sector to achieve the required changes, 6) steer the process and harmonise efforts at the European level. This paper provides an overview of the forum discussions and the common European views that have emerged from them, while reflecting the diversity of situations in different countries. It highlights important actions required for a successful implementation of DNA-based biomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems by 2030.

The modern concept of 'ecosystem services' has progressed significantly in recent decades. Conceived primarily as a communication tool in the late 1970s to explain societal dependence on nature, it now incorporates economic dimensions and provides help to decision makers for implementing effective conservation policies which support human wellbeing and sustainable development. The founding work appeared in the late 1980s led to the conducting by policymakers of a more systematic assessment of the net monetary value associated with the preservation or restoration of natural areas. Following this work, many case studies have highlighted that ignorance of the value of natural capital into decisions on land use and resources allocation most likely results in degradation and destruction of this natural capital and eventually prove very costly for society. In this paper is presented a research project that investigates the methodological links of the two concepts (Ecosystems Services Approach (ESA) and Water Framework Directive (WFD) -economics). Its main academic innovation will be on assessing the potential "added value" of using the ESA approach and results in Integrated Water Resource Management policies decision and implementation processes, and the related communication and stakeholders' participation, with a specific focus to WFD.

Économie, géographie, politique, droit, sociologie Vol. 2, n° 3 | Décembre 2011 Varia Évaluation des services rendus par les écosystèmes en France

The chemical industry is a major component of Lyon's heritage. Its birth and development are rooted in specific socio-economic features of this area. Nevertheless, the growth of this industrial system and its location have resulted in pollution and hazards. For certain local officials these represent an unacceptable risk, especially as direct employment in this branch and its long-term viability are questioned. However, concerted action between industrialists and local authorities may allow the integration of environmental issues to the greater efficiency of the productive system and its better interaction with the local socio-economic system.