The EU Horizon 2020 project ESMERALDA (Enhancing ecosystem services mapping for policy and decision making), coordinated by the PhyGeo, dealt with assessments and mapping of ecosystems and their services. Such complex assessments require transdisciplinary approaches, integrating besides biophysical (ecological) values also social and economic values. “I am an ecologist and would be happier if people were convinced just by having nice nature and lots of species – but this is not the way the world works at the moment, and usually the most convincing argument is money” says Benjamin Burkhard in a recently published interview in the EU Research & Innovation Magazine “Horizon”.
The full article by Gareth Willmer can be read here: https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/business-biodiversity-can-we-put-value-nature.html
