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The idea that nature provides services to people is one of the most powerful concepts to have emerged over the last two decades. It is shaping our understanding of the role that biodiverse ecosystems play in the environment and their benefits for humankind. As a result, there is a growing interest in operational and methodological issues surrounding ecosystem services amongst environmental managers, and many institutions are now developing teaching programmes to equip the next generation with the skills needed to apply the concepts more effectively.
This handbook provides a comprehensive reference text on ecosystem services, integrating natural and social science (including economics). Collectively the chapters, written by the world's leading authorities, demonstrate the importance of biodiversity for people, policy and practice. They also show how the value of ecosystems to society can be expressed in monetary and non-monetary terms, so that the environment can be better taken into account in decision making. The significance of the ecosystem service paradigm is that it helps us redefine and better communicate the relationships between people and nature. It is shown how these are essential to resolving challenges such as sustainable development and poverty reduction, and the creation of a green economy in developing and developed world contexts.
About the author
Marion Potschin is a Principal Research Fellow and Director of the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Roy Haines-Young is Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Environmental Management, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK.
Robert Fish is Reader in Human Ecology in the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent, UK.
R. Kerry Turner is a Professorial Fellow in the School of Environmental Sciences and former Professor of Environmental Economics and Management at the University of East Anglia, UK.
Summary
This handbook provides a comprehensive reference text on ecosystem services, integrating natural and social science (including economics). Collectively the chapters, written by the world's leading authorities, demonstrate the importance of biodiversity for people, policy and practice.
Report
"This handbook, written by world class academic and policy experts, is long overdue, and provides a much-needed guide to address this challenge. It is an authoritative reference text written in easy to read sections that is essential reading for academics, decision-makers and civil society." - from the Foreword by Sir Robert Watson, Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK
"Marion Potschin and her co-editors have succeeded to get an interesting combination of contributors to this book, including highly distinguished scientists from various disciplines to younger scholars who are presently carrying out seminal research in the field of ecosystem services and beyond." - Professor Eeva Furman, SYKE, Finish Environment Institute and Coordinator of OpenNESS
"At 630 pages, it is a Handbook for people with big hands. It is a weighty tome too. This is not merely in terms of its mass (a fraction over 1.3kg) but in the range and depth of topics pertaining to ecosystem services that are covered, and the globally renowned authors who have contributed. Following a foreword by Bob Watson and an opening chapter by Bob Costanza, the Handbook is broken into four major sections addressing ecosystem services from the perspectives of: concepts and frameworks; methods and techniques for decision support; applied contexts; and linking and informing agendas... Each of the chapters mines the now voluminous and growing literature around its selected topic. This alone is a valuable resource for students, scholars and those seeking to implement ecosystem services... students, researchers and those seeking to grasp and implement the emerging, integrative concept of ecosystem services will benefit from dipping into it as a reference book to glean current thinking, areas of debate and practical illustrations." - Mark Everard, for the The Institution of Environmental Sciences (on-line Resources, June 2016)
"The clearly written and presented chapters make this book highly accessible to a wide range of readers from students to specialists. I am sure this book will become a key text in this field and that I'll return to it frequently as a point of reference for future work on ecosystem services". - Rob Brooker, in The Bulletin of the British Ecological Society (October 2016)
"The Routledge Handbook of Ecosystem Services is an eminently useful handbook for experts, researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and students who deal with the topic of [ecosystem services]. Written by international leaders in the field, the book has a clear structure that will help the readers find answers to their theoretical or practical questions. This piece of work will be an important reference in ES science and practice for decades, and it is a good standard for those preparing similar handbooks or textbooks in other disciplines." - Marton Kiss, Ildiko Arany and Agnes Vari, in Conservation Biology (November 2018)
