TY - JOUR

T1 - The relevance of the ecosystem services framework for developed countries' environmental policies

T2 - A comparative case study of the US and EU

AU - Matzdorf, Bettina

AU - Meyer, Claas

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Social-ecological Research (SÖF) program, contract no. [01UU0911]. Funding Information: The TEEB study was endorsed by G8+5 leaders at the Heiligendamm Summit on 6–8 June 2007, hosted by UNEP with financial support from the European Commission, Germany, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Japan ( http://www.teebweb.org/ ).

PY - 2014/5

Y1 - 2014/5

N2 - The ecosystem services (ES) framework reveals ecosystems' benefits to society and presents a fundamental natural resource management approach. In the last several decades, it has gained increasing attention from the research community, and it recently reached the political agenda. However, does the concept have the capacity to cause institutional change in environmental policy? To answer this question, we developed certain criteria for an "ideal" ES-driven policy. Based on these criteria, we analyzed the main water and biodiversity acts, current policy developments, and future trends within the US and the EU. Our analysis shows that most acts cannot be explicitly characterized as ES-driven policies, but parts of the concept are already included. The ES framework, increasingly a driver in several policy fields, can be assumed to be a major future influence for shaping existing environmental policies in the coming decades. We discussed the results based on its strengths for existing environmental policy conceptually, e.g., cross-sector cooperation and ES win-win and trade-off considerations, and its weaknesses operationally, such as measurability and governance changes.

AB - The ecosystem services (ES) framework reveals ecosystems' benefits to society and presents a fundamental natural resource management approach. In the last several decades, it has gained increasing attention from the research community, and it recently reached the political agenda. However, does the concept have the capacity to cause institutional change in environmental policy? To answer this question, we developed certain criteria for an "ideal" ES-driven policy. Based on these criteria, we analyzed the main water and biodiversity acts, current policy developments, and future trends within the US and the EU. Our analysis shows that most acts cannot be explicitly characterized as ES-driven policies, but parts of the concept are already included. The ES framework, increasingly a driver in several policy fields, can be assumed to be a major future influence for shaping existing environmental policies in the coming decades. We discussed the results based on its strengths for existing environmental policy conceptually, e.g., cross-sector cooperation and ES win-win and trade-off considerations, and its weaknesses operationally, such as measurability and governance changes.

KW - Cross-sector cooperation

KW - Ecosystem capacity

KW - Environmental law

KW - Financial incentive instruments

KW - Institutional change

KW - Trade-offs

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892499841&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.12.011

DO - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.12.011

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84892499841

VL - 38

SP - 509

EP - 521

JO - LAND USE POLICY

JF - LAND USE POLICY

SN - 0264-8377

ER -