Evaluation of ecosystem services production under different Agricultural Policy Scenarios

This paper presents an evaluation of the provision of Ecosystem Services. The overall aim is to contribute in understanding the value and improving valuation methods for ecosystem, in an attempt to provide an instrument that contributes to closing the gap between the ES concept, regional planning and agricultural policies. The analysis is based on the design of a framework suitable to be translated in a multicriteria evaluation process, followed by its empirical testing. It focuses on the different categories of the ES trying a set of indicators that is non-overlapping and without redundancy, and assessing different aspects of ES: the capacity of ecosystems to provide services, changes in the provision of ES, and benefits thus derived. The framework is applied in the 26 municipalities of the Province of Ferrara. To develop an applicable framework, we have chosen a set of ES from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The focus of this paper is the evaluation of the provision of ecosystem services that are currently provided by agricultural areas that evidently support provisioning services and are appreciated for their recreational value explaining their inclusion under recreation services. While existing ecosystem service metrics and indicators have many gaps and limitations, applying those existing indicators in diverse policy processes and further assessments should be a priority.