How the assessment of ecosystem services at sites can act at the science-policy-society interface: the example of the TESSA toolkit.

Abstract

Management decisions and the development of appropriate conservation policy require scientifically rigorous and accessible information. Biodiversity conservation has been and continues to be a complex issue; more recently the field of ecosystem services has become more prominent. This provides both risks and opportunities for nature conservation. Risks, because the provision of ecosystem services may be prioritised over, and conflict with, nature conservation. Opportunities, because ecosystem services may support arguments for conserving the natural environments that provide them.

Decision- and policy-makers require robust evidence regarding the provision of ecosystem services at sites where alternative management decisions may be considered, and there is a demand for tools that can produce that evidence. Many of these are GIS-based, operate at the regional or landscape scale, and require considerable expertise to apply. TESSA (Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment) has been developed by a collaboration of academics and practitioners from several organisations, including partners of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (Peh et al. 2013). It is designed to be used at the site-scale by non-experts, focuses on the net differences in ecosystem service provision, and explicitly incorporates communication of the results. In this way, it operates at the science-policy-society interface, providing a framework for researchers to gather information and disseminate it to decision-makers, and the general public.

TESSA is widely used throughout the world (for example, it is approved for use in the EU’s LIFE program), and supports local decision-making across varied contexts. Its application has been published in a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles. In December 2017, a new version was released, which introduced three new modules: coastal protection, pollination, and cultural services. The cultural services module in particular expands on TESSA’s existing commitment to connect science, society and the natural world with policy-makers and stakeholders. I will present examples of uses of TESSA in societal decision-making, and discuss its future potential.

Peh, K.S.-H., Balmford, A., Bradbury, R.B., Brown, C., Butchart, S.H.M., Hughes, F.M.R., Stattersfield, A., Thomas, D.H.L., Walpole, M., Bayliss, J., Gowing, D., Jones, J.P.G., Lewis, S.L., Mulligan, M., Pandeya, B., Stratford, C., Thompson, J.R., Turner, K., Vira, B., Willcock, S. & Birch, J.C. (2013) TESSA: A toolkit for rapid assessment of ecosystem services at sites of biodiversity conservation importance. Ecosystem Services, 5, 51-57.