The missing markets link in global-to-local-to-global analyses of biodiversity and ecosystem services

Abstract

Abstract While the impacts of global drivers such as international trade, population growth, technological development or climate change on local-level pricing, decision making, biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) have received strong and increasing attention over the recent decades, relatively few studies have examined how impacts on local BES due to human activities or how local responses targeted to improve BES outcomes, can propagate to regional, national and global scale. We discuss the challenges that frequently arise in global-to-local-to-global frameworks when modelling policies aimed at improving land-use change while also maximising the associated benefits from the state of biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. We present four complexities associated with case studies that describe approaches to protecting BES in diverse landscapes and contexts within the proposed framework: heterogeneity in local markets; additionality; spillover and leakage effects; and unintended consequences. Our study calls for filling these gaps in our understanding through interdisciplinary, open-source research characterizing the local-to-global biodiversity and ecosystem services linkages in future.