So you want your research to be relevant? Building the bridge between ecosystem services research and practice
Section snippets
Research that meets practitioner needs
Evaluating the impact of public and private decisions on natural capital and ecosystems is an increasing focus of public and private decision-makers, including government and business leaders (e.g., The Declaration, 2012, WAVES| Wealth Accounting And The Valuation Of Ecosystem Services, 2016, Executive Office of the President of the United States, 2015, IPBES, 2016). Practitioners in both the public and private sectors are motivated to incorporate the value of ecosystem services in decisions
Strategy 1: Use BRIs to increase research relevance
Ecosystem service research often lacks complete analysis that links policy or management actions to human benefits (Wainger and Mazzotta, 2011). Producing ecosystem services research that meets decision makers’ needs depends on the extent to which the research addresses outcomes that are both valued by people and relevant to organizational decision-making (Boyd et al., 2016). This goal can be achieved by reporting results of ecological or biophysical modeling using benefit-relevant indicators
Strategy 2: Use methods that balance quality and feasibility
Causal chains can be used to show conceptually how management actions lead to changes in ecological condition and to changes in ecosystem services that people value (Fig. 1). These causal chains are the foundation for the quantification of BRIs and associated values, and provide transparency about what steps are necessary. Yet all quantification is not equal. When quantifying changes in BRIs and values to support decisions, researchers must consider the dual goals of quality (i.e., using the
Conclusions
The growing awareness of nature’s social benefits has led to increased demand by decision-makers for decision relevant ecosystem service research. While there has been a concurrent increase in the supply of ecosystem service research published in academic journals and similar outlets, there is a lack of relevant research that practitioners can use to inform decision making in many contexts (Polasky et al., 2015). There is a pressing need for policy and management relevant research on ecosystem
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) with funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1052875 and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation in support of the National Ecosystem Services Partnership.
We appreciate the assistance of Nichole Basenback on one of the figures and would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful advice.
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