A spatial assessment of ecosystem services in Europe : methods, case studies and policy analysis: phase 2, synthesis report

Ecosystems are critically important to our well-being and prosperity as they provide us with food, clean air or fresh water and they maintain a livable biosphere. Consequently, ecosystem services are increasingly considered as crucial argument to support decision making in policies that affect the use or the state of natural resources. In particular, new biodiversity policies, which have been adopted at global and EU scales, have set targets to safeguard biodiversity as well as to maintain the supply of ecosystem services. Achieving biodiversity targets requires demonstrating that changes in policies affecting natural resources are beneficial to human well-being through the enhanced flow of ecosystem services. It also requires prioritizing investments and making them cost-effective based on a sound knowledge base and assessment methods. This study has contributed case studies to help exploring how such assessments might be developed at multiple spatial scale, in particular for pollination, recreation and water purification. The spatial assessment of these ecosystem services included maps displaying the potential and actual supply of these services in both biophysical and monetary units. Scenarios were used to estimate changes in the flow of ecosystem services and to estimate benefits that arise from policy changes. Our approaches show that the inclusion of the ecosystem services concept into policies would allow a systematic review of the consequences of policy measures for services beyond conventional environmental assessments.