Mapping and assessing ecosystem services in the EU - Lessons learned from the ESMERALDA approach of integration
Creators: name: Burkhard, Benjamin
name: Maes, Joachim
name: Potschin-Young, Marion B.
name: Santos-Martin, Fernando
name: Geneletti, Davide
name: Stoev, Pavel
name: Kooperoinen, Leena
name: Mihai Adamescu, Cristina
name: Adem Esmail, Blal
name: Arany, Ildikó
name: Arnell, Andy
name: Balzan, Mario
name: Barton, David N.
name: Van Beukering, Peter
name: Bicking, Sabine
name: Vieira Borges, Paulo Alexandre
name: Borisova, Bilyana
name: Braat, Leon
name: Brander, Luke M.
name: Bratanova-Doncheva, Svetla
name: Broekx, Steven
name: Brown, Claire
name: Cazacu, Constantin
name: Crossman, Neville
name: Czúcz, Bálint
name: Danek, Jan
name: De Groot, Rudolf
name: Depellegrin, Daniel
name: Dimopoulos, Panayotis
name: Elvinger, Nora
name: Erhard, Markus
name: Fagerholm, Nora
name: Frélichová, Jana
name: Gret-Regamey, Adrienne
name: Grudova, Margarita
name: Haines-Young, Roy
name: Inghe, Olga
name: Kallay, Tamas Kristof
name: Kirin, Tamara
name: Klug, Hermann
name: Kokkoris, Ioannis P.
name: Konovska, Iskra
name: Kruse, Marion
name: Kuzmova, Iliyana
name: Lange, Manfred
name: Liekens, Inge
name: Lotan, Alon
name: Lowicki, Damian
name: Luque, Sandra
name: Marta-Pedroso, Cristina
name: Mizgajski, Andrzej
name: Mononen, Laura
name: Mulder, Sara
name: Müller, Felix
name: Nedkov, Stoyan
name: Nikolova, Mariana
name: Östergard, Hannah
name: Penev, Lyubomir
name: Pereira, Paulo
name: Pitkänen, Kati
name: Plieninger, Tobias
name: Rabe, Sven-Erik
name: Reichel, Steffen
name: Roche, Philip K.
name: Rusch, Graciela
name: Ruskule, Anda
name: Sapundzhieva, Anna
name: Sepp, Kalev
name: Sieber, Ina Maren
name: Smid Hribar, Mateja
name: Stasová, Simona
name: Steinhoff-Knopp, Bastian
name: Stepniewska, Malgorzata
name: Teller, Anne
name: Vackar, David
name: Van Weelden, Martine
name: Veidemane, Kristina
name: Vejre, Henrik
name: Vihervaara, Petteri
name: Viinikka, Arto
name: Villoslada, Miguel
name: Weibel, Bettine
name: Zulian, Grazia
Publisher: name: Sofia : Pensoft Publishers
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020
subject: ecosystem services
subject: mapping
subject: assessment
subject: project
subject: Dewey Decimal Classification::500 | Naturwissenschaften::570 | Biowissenschaften, Biologie

description: The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network creation, stakeholder engagement, enhancing ecosystem services mapping and assessment methods across various spatial scales and value domains, work in case studies and support of EU member states in MAES implementation. Thus ESMERALDA aimed at integrating various project outcomes around four major strands: i) Networking, ii) Policy, iii) Research and iv) Application. The objective was to provide guidance for integrated ecosystem service mapping and assessment that can be used for sustainable decision-making in policy, business, society, practice and science at EU, national and regional levels. This article presents the overall ESMERALDA approach of integrating the above-mentioned project components and outcomes and provides an overview of how the enhanced methods were applied and how they can be used to support MAES implementation in the EU member states. Experiences with implementing such a large pan-European Coordination and Support Action in the context of EU policy are discussed and recommendations for future actions are given.