Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices
Ebook900 pages11 hours

Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices covers scientific input, socioeconomic considerations, and governance issues on ecosystem services. This book provides hands-on transdisciplinary reflections by administrators and sector representatives involved in the ecosystem service community. Ecosystem Services develops shared approaches and scientific methods to achieve knowledge-based sustainable planning and management of ecosystem services. Professionals engaged in ecosystem service implementation have two options: de-emphasize the ecological and socioeconomic complexity and advance in the theoretical, abstract field, or try to develop research that is policy relevant and inclusive in an uncertain environment. This book provides a wide overview of issues at stake, of interest for any professional wishing to develop a broader view on ecosystem service science and practice.

  • Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ecosystem services community
  • Includes contributions from several backgrounds, providing a broad, multidisciplinary view
  • Offers recommendations to develop a thorough understanding and management of ecosystem services based on tools and research in larger territories as well as on local scales
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 11, 2013
ISBN9780124199804
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices

Related to Ecosystem Services

Related ebooks

Environmental Science For You

View More

Related articles

Related categories

Reviews for Ecosystem Services

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    Ecosystem Services - Sander Jacobs

    10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01497.x.

    Introduction

    Hendrik Segers¹, Dimitri Brosens¹, Hans Keune²,³,⁴,⁵, Sander Jacobs⁷,⁸, Nicolas Dendoncker⁹ and Patrick Meire⁶

    ¹Belgian Biodiversity Platform, Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO)

    ²Belgian Biodiversity Platform

    ³Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

    ⁴Faculty of Applied Economics – University of Antwerp

    ⁵naXys, Namur Center for Complex Systems – University of Namur

    ⁶University of Antwerp, Ecosystem Management Research group (ECOBE)

    ⁷Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

    ⁸University of Antwerp. Department of Biology, Ecosystem Management Research Group (ECOBE)

    ⁹Department of Geography, University of Namur (UNamur). Namur Research Centre on Sustainable Development (NAGRIDD). Namur Centre for Complex Systems (naXys)

    Ecosystem services connect biodiversity with human well-being. The potential of this perspective to inform and produce sustainable development is recognized by researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. However, being a relatively young concept, it invokes many debates and often crucial concerns that impact effective application and implementation. Scientific debates often seem distant from policy and practice, and real-life challenges often stay under the research radar. This book presents contributions from the community of science and practice on ecosystem services in Belgium, mostly co-authored and/or reviewed by international contributors. This introduction tells the story of how the book, and this community, came about.

    The book provides a snapshot of ongoing debates globally and locally. It is the product of continuing exchange between the Belgian community of practice on ecosystem services and international networks. Initially, independent papers from local research projects evolved toward a larger number of collaboratively and interdisciplinary written chapters and contributions from practice. In this sense, the book is in itself proof of the concept of inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation: Challenges met in local practice relate to global debates and refocus them, while, equally, theoretical issues percolate to the practical level and foster common understanding of concepts and implementation.

    Often, seemingly insurmountable differences between theoretical approaches and viewpoints dissolve when people cooperate in practice and semantic barriers are removed: For instance, when nonmonetary and monetary valuation experts reviewed each other’s papers and agreed on terminology, they concluded that their main challenges were very similar after all and neatly mirrored the concerns of practitioners who contributed to the book.

    A Short History: Emergence of the Bees Community of Practice

    The first research projects related to ecosystem services (ES) in Belgium emerged in the early 1990s, and, following the mainstreaming effect of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the number of ES research initiatives in Belgium grew exponentially (Figure 1), in line with the global trend.

    FIGURE 1 Ecosystem Service research activities in Belgium. Results from queries in the BioBel database (Belgian Biodiversity Platform, http://biobel.biodiversity.be, accessed in August 2010).

    While interdisciplinarity seemed common in these projects (with over half the projects involving both natural and social scientists), the focus was mostly on a single habitat and a few services. As ES analyses aim to serve sustainable resource use and land management decision support, this limitation was considered to be an important one, to be tackled in a network

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1