Ecosystem service assessment in European Coastal and marine policies

We provide an overview about the present state of the art and discuss the possibilities and limits of ecosystem service assessments in the implementation of various European coastal and marine policies, such as Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Water Framework Directive, Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, Habitats-Directive (Natura 2000), and Integrated Coastal Zone Management. Ecosystem Service approaches have many strengths, but usually also suffer from weaknesses, for example, a limited reliability, oversimplification, a heterogeneous approach, a weak scientific basis, a merely anthropocentric view on nature, and a very strong scale dependence. Despite these limitations, the ecosystem service concept can play an important role in policy implementation: as supporting approach to establish a link between humans and nature and introduce a socio-ecological-economic view on nature protection, preservation, and sustainable use; to support communication with and information to the public; to offer new possibilities for a mobilization and a guided, active involvement of stakeholders; to allow the comparison of different ecosystem states in the past, presence and future and across regions; and to enable a more comprehensive definition of targets and policy objectives. Further, it enables the comparison and prioritization of different environmental measures, conservation and restoration approaches or management concepts.