Improving coherence of ecosystem service provision between scales

Everard, Mark; Dick, Jan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4180-9338; Kendall, Hazel; Smith, Rognvald; Slee, Bill; Couldrick, Laurence; Scott, Marian; McDonald, Claire. 2014 Improving coherence of ecosystem service provision between scales. Ecosystem Services, 9. 66-74. 10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.006

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.006

Abstract/Summary

High-level consensus about safeguarding ecosystem services for optimal benefits to society is not yet matched by transposition to field scale. Various ‘societal levers’ – markets, statutory legislation, common/civil law, market-based instruments and protocols – have evolved as a fragmented policy environment of incentives and constraints, influencing the freedoms of resource owners. This has produced mosaic landscapes reflecting both natural conditions and landowner aspirations. The Principles of the Ecosystem Approach serve as a framework to consider three case study sites: an English lowland estuary and two in Scotland. Societal levers today safeguard some socially valuable services, but the present policy environment is neither sufficient nor sufficiently integrated to achieve coherence between the choices of resource owners and wider societal aspirations for ecosystem service provision. The heterogeneity of societal levers protects freedom of choice, enables adaptive decisionmaking related to the properties of the natural resource, and makes allowance for changes in societal preferences. Resultant mosaic landscapes provide flexibility and resilience in ecosystem service production. However, further evolution of societal levers is required to bring about greater coherence of ecosystem service production from local to national/international scales. This paper explores how issues of scale, regulation and variability manifest in the ecosystem service framework.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.006
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Watt
ISSN:	22120416
Additional Keywords:	scale, regulation, markets, common law, civil law, societal levers
Date made live:	14 Mar 2019 15:29 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/522517

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.006

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Watt

ISSN:

22120416

Additional Keywords:

scale, regulation, markets, common law, civil law, societal levers

Date made live:

14 Mar 2019 15:29 +0 (UTC)