Ecosystems provide a broad range of goods and services for people. These services form the basis of subsistence and well-being for humans. Thus, there is urgent need to safeguard the biological functions of ecosystems. 

The concept of ecosystem services has been introduced to integrate the protection of biodiversity and use of nature. It is gaining political momentum in natural resource management. Yet little research is available on the economic, social and cultural values of ecosystem functions or on the integration of ecosystem services approaches to land use planning and management decisions, its implications for legal systems and everyday practices of natural resource use.

ALTER-Net has launched a process to identify and prioritize interdisciplinary research needs linked with ecosystem services. The main aim is to support the formation of active research teams by bringing together researchers with different disciplines within and between ALTER-Net partner institutes, and stakeholders from policy making, management, livelihoods, civil society and science donors.

This aspect of ALTER-Net's work is led by staff at the Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE, who maintain a set of web pages about the work.

Find out more

• Visit SYKE's web pages for this project
• Read our policy brief on biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Learn about our related bioenergy pilot project
• Contact for more information:
Taru Peltola, senior researcher
Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
[email protected]  [taru.peltola]