Abstract
Ecosystem services (ES) are defined as the interdependencies between society and nature. Despite several years of conceptual discussions, some challenges of the ES concept are far from being resolved. In particular, the usefulness of the concept for nature protection is questioned, and a strong critique is expressed concerning its contribution towards the neoliberal commodification of nature. This paper argues that these challenges can be addressed by dealing more carefully with ES as a boundary concept between different disciplines and between science and society. ES are neither about nature nor about human wellbeing, but about the mutual dependencies between nature and human wellbeing. These mutual interdependencies, however, create tensions and contradictions that manifest themselves in the boundary negotiations between different scientific disciplines and between science and society. This paper shows that approaches from Social Ecology can address these boundary negotiations and the power relations involved more explicitly. Finally, this implies the urgent need for more inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration in ES research. We conclude (1) that the social–ecological nature of ES must be elaborated more carefully while explicitly focussing on the interdependencies between nature and society; (2) to better implement inter- and transdisciplinary methods into ES research; and (3) that such ES research can—and to some extent already does—substantially enhance international research programmes such as Future Earth.
Highlights
The concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) has been created to address the interactions between nature and society
The paper builds upon inter- and transdisciplinary research and conceptual discussions conducted at the Institute of Social Ecology (SEC) in Vienna (Austria) and the ISOE—Institute for Social–Ecological Research in Frankfurt/Main (Germany)
We argue in this paper that inter- and transdisciplinary research is needed to improve the societal relevance of the ES concept and the link to human wellbeing
Summary
The concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) has been created to address the interactions between nature and society. It describes the relevance of ecosystem functions for human wellbeing [1]. Ecosystem services are about how both processes mutually depend on each other, i.e., about the interdependencies between society and nature Such mutual interdependencies require a specific inter- and transdisciplinary research, which can be provided by Social Ecology [3,4,5]. An analysis from a social–ecological perspective serves as a better starting point to explain the expectations of the concept and its application For this reason, the theoretical underpinnings and practical challenges of ES as a boundary concept are introduced (Section 3). We showcase the requirements and implications for an application of the concept in social–ecological research
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