Ecosystem Services: Bridge or Barrier for Marine and Coastal Management

Across disciplines, the concept of ecosystem services has become an accepted concept through which the complexities of the natural world and its relationships with human society are explained and embedded into global... [ view full abstract ]

Across disciplines, the concept of ecosystem services has become an accepted concept through which the complexities of the natural world and its relationships with human society are explained and embedded into global environmental policy.  At a time when global ecosystems are continually under pressure due to anthropogenic influences and interactions, it aims to provide policy makers, practitioners and scientists with a common language.  In spite of this widespread acceptance, the concept of ecosystem services is in its very nature complicated and full of complex, and sometimes, intangible interactions. As the field of ecosystem service research has grown, the ecosystem services framework has developed, most recently through the Follow on to the UK’s National Ecosystem Assessment (2014), to encompass: four different categories of ecosystem services, various ecosystem processes and characteristics, and many associated benefits.  While stakeholders have, for the most part, adopted this language and terminology, questions remain as to whether the ecosystem services concept provides the common language it promotes.  There are concerns that the complexities associated with ecosystem services as a concept make it inaccessible.  Through a questionnaire survey, this presentation examines the perceptions of UK marine and coastal stakeholders, researchers and policy makers towards the concept of ecosystem services.  The study evaluates respondents’ views about its role as either a barrier or a bridge, or both, within the marine and coastal science-policy-practice interface.  Finally, the presentation sets out a series of recommendations to support the future use of the ecosystem services concept in UK coastal and marine management.