Workshop for the production of the Ecosystem Overview of the Faroes Ecoregion (WKEOF)

The Workshop for the production of the Ecosystem Overview of the Faroe Ecoregion (WKEOF) has performed a risk-based ecosystem assessment of the Faroese Ecosystem. The assessment will be used in the Ecosystem Overview for the Faroese Ecosystem, due to be completed by the end of 2023. The main goal of the workshop was to build the wire diagram that compiles the effect of human activities on the ecosystem. Relevant human activities, pressures and effects on the ecosystem were identified and scored in an Excel file and this was performed in plenum where all participants were present. The most important human activities on the ecosystem were fishing, by the extraction of species and seabed disturbance, in addition to shipping, and affecting mainly fish and benthic habitats and seabirds. There were also methodical advancements achieved by the realization that spatial, temporal and impact factors needed to be assessed independently of each other, i.e. that the impact scores should not be evaluated by their spatial coverage and/or temporal occurrence. Another methodical point was that the total absolute sum of Impact Risk Scores should be provided together with the Sankey diagram facilitating direct comparisons between ecoregions.