Institutional challenges in putting ecosystem service knowledge in practice

The promise that ecosystem service assessments will contribute to better decision-making is not yet proven. We analyse how knowledge on ecosystem services is actually used to inform land and water management in 22 case studies covering different social-ecological systems in European and Latin American countries. None of the case studies reported instrumental use of knowledge in a sense that ecosystem service knowledge would have served as. an impartial arbiter between policy options. Yet, in most cases, there was some evidence of conceptual learning as a result of close interaction between researchers, practitioners and stakeholders. We observed several factors that constrained knowledge uptake, including competing interests and political agendas, scientific disputes, professional norms and competencies, and lack of vertical and horizontal integration. Ecosystem knowledge played a small role particularly in those planning and policy-making situations where it challenged established interests and the current distribution of benefits from ecosystems. The factors that facilitated knowledge use included application of transparent participatory methods, social capital, policy champions and clear synergies between ecosystem services and human well-being. The results are aligned with previous studies which have emphasized the importance of building local capacity, ownership and trust for the long-term success of ecosystem service research

Eco-system Services and Integrated Urban Planning. A Multi-criteria Assessment Framework for Ecosystem Urban Forestry Projects

In the world the cities development must take place through urban sustainable interventions. This aims at promoting city economic growth, protecting citizens health and safeguarding natural and environmental components. In this perspective, forestry initiatives, raise the environmental, social and cultural quality level, as well as the income capacity of territory urban portions in joint manner. These are multiple benefits, noted as eco-systemic services, which provide regulation, support and recreational activities for population. However, the urban interventions including, also and not only, forestry—definable as Ecosystem Integrated Forestry Projects (EIFP)—are less considered as one of the main action modalities to apply within urbanized areas. This is due to the complexity both to jointly evaluate eco-system services produced by EIFP, both to develop initiatives in urban areas and provide services considering not only specific dimensional standards, but also the multidimensional effects that single initiative generates within urban context of reference. Thus, an economic evaluation methodology is defined according to multi-criteria logic based on the system of functional relationships between objectives, targets and performance indicators. The proposed methodology helps to define logical-mathematical models able to answer different evaluation questions related to EIFP. The construction of such models can be made using Linear Programming algorithms as tools for expressing functional relations between elements characterizing the problem to be solved