Mainstreaming the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources across all sectors of the national economy, the society and the policy-making framework is a complex challenge.
For mainstreaming efforts, a clear understanding of the linkages is critical, i.e. of the impacts and the dependencies of human activities on ecosystems.
Society’s interdependence with nature is revealed clearly when we focus attention on ecosystem services. Examining ecosystem services can therefore be used to support mainstreaming efforts and to inform development decision making.
Yet ecosystem service assessments and valuations (ESAVs) are often commissioned, designed and conducted in ways that that do not achieve their full potential in terms of practical usefulness and policy relevance.
For this report, cases studies from literature and from various initiatives (TEEB, ProEcoServ, CSF, ValuES) were reviewed. Based on their own experience with conducting and/or accompanying
ESAVs, the authors discussed at a workshop in Frankfurt (November 2014, hosted by the ValuES
project) the requirements and options for increasing the policy impact of ESAVs.