The relevance of the ecosystem services framework for developed countries' environmental policies

A comparative case study of the US and EU

verfasst von

Bettina Matzdorf, Claas Meyer

Abstract

The ecosystem services (ES) framework reveals ecosystems' benefits to society and presents a fundamental natural resource management approach. In the last several decades, it has gained increasing attention from the research community, and it recently reached the political agenda. However, does the concept have the capacity to cause institutional change in environmental policy? To answer this question, we developed certain criteria for an "ideal" ES-driven policy. Based on these criteria, we analyzed the main water and biodiversity acts, current policy developments, and future trends within the US and the EU. Our analysis shows that most acts cannot be explicitly characterized as ES-driven policies, but parts of the concept are already included. The ES framework, increasingly a driver in several policy fields, can be assumed to be a major future influence for shaping existing environmental policies in the coming decades. We discussed the results based on its strengths for existing environmental policy conceptually, e.g., cross-sector cooperation and ES win-win and trade-off considerations, and its weaknesses operationally, such as measurability and governance changes.

Externe Organisation(en)

Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V.

Typ

Artikel

Journal

LAND USE POLICY

Band

38

Seiten

509-521

Anzahl der Seiten

13

ISSN

0264-8377

Publikationsdatum

05.2014

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Forstwissenschaften, Geografie, Planung und Entwicklung, Natur- und Landschaftsschutz, Management, Monitoring, Politik und Recht

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.12.011 (Zugang: Geschlossen)