Supporting the Management of Ecosystem Services in Protected Areas: Trade-Offs between Effort and Accuracy in Evaluation

Abstract

Integrating ecosystem services (ES) into the management of protected areas, such as European Natura 2000 sites, can improve biodiversity conservation and human well-being; yet, the assessment and application of ES remains challenging. In this study, we propose a roadmap to guide managers in the assessment of ES at multiple levels, including a non-monetary valuation in qualitative and quantitative terms, as well as a monetary valuation, and suggesting the appropriate applications related to ES mapping, communication and planning. The roadmap proceeds through four steps and along a gradient of accuracy and effort required in the assessment methods, with different levels of spatial scale, to effectively support managers. Together with the description of the roadmap, this paper provides insights from its application to terrestrial Natura 2000 sites in Italy.