Multistakeholder perspectives on barriers and potential success factors for implementation of the ecosystem services framework in the Czech Republic
Abstrakt
Implementation of the ecosystem services (ES) framework in decision-making is still considered a major challenge, despite significant advances in the available knowledge, tools and methods. In this contribution, we present perspectives of various national and regional/local stakeholders on barriers and potential success factors for implementation of the ES framework in policy and decision-making in the Czech Republic.
The main goal of our research is to synthesize the results from various projects focused on uncovering: a) perceived barriers for implementation of the ES framework and related research results into Czech decision-making; b) potential success factors which could support implementation of the ES framework in different areas of policy, decision-making or practice. The multi-method research is based on results of several sets of semi-structured interviews and on a series of participatory workshops with a range of national and regional/local stakeholders.
Our results suggest that (a) main barriers on a general level, are insufficient knowledge and capacities, followed by missing methodologies, standardisations or regulatory frameworks for particular uses of ES framework. Also, fear of commodification or potential misuse of ES assessment results was acknowledged. In terms of particular ES research results, the main perceived barrier for implementation identified is the unavailability of good data. The most important potential success factors (b) include raising awareness for both the public and experts, but also creating methodologies and increasing data availability.
We also discuss particular reflections related to the use of selected existing methodologies which are relevant for ES assessments. We suggest that our results can pave the way for a more efficient process in building the science-policy interface in the area of ES research and its practical use, a process which is already ongoing and is leading to the establishment of the National Platform for Ecosystem Services.