Fernando Santos-Martin

• Professor
• Professor (Assistant) at Rey Juan Carlos University

This report presents a synthesis and integration of the key findings of the socio-economic valuation presented in the Technical Report which was completed in 2015, which is available in Spanish at the web site (http://www.ecomilenio.es). Overall, twelve ecosystem services have been valued using three main techniques: (1) a meta-analysis of the stud...

We explored the capacity of the biological and hydromorphological indices used in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to assess ecosystem services by evaluating the ecological status of Spanish River Basins. This analysis relies on an exhaustive bibliography review which showed scientific evidence of the interlinkages between some ecosystem service...

In the EU, the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, abbreviated to MAES, is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and also to inform the development and implementation of related policies on water, climate, agriculture, forest, marine and regional planning. In this study, we present the development...

We analyzed the state of the art in research on the economic valuation of ecosystem services in Spain. A review of 150 publications was conducted and included 649 economic value estimates. The results showed an increase in the number of scientific studies on the economic valuation of ecosystem services and a dissimilar distribution across regions....

Backed by the Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 and 2030, numerous ‘Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services’ (MAES) projects have been completed in recent years in the member states of the European Union, with substantial results and insights accumulated. The experience from the different approaches is a valuable source of information for developi...

Backed by the Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 and 2030, numerous 'Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Ser-vices' (MAES) projects have been completed in recent years in the member states of the European Union, with substantial results and insights accumulated. The experience from the different approaches is a valuable source of information for develop...

Open access until 11th Feb 2024: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1iIj35Ce0rnpAJ Robust, regular and integrated evidence on the environment and its relationship with the economy and human well-being is needed to deliver effective environmental policy. This paper highlights the role the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosy...

We developed an application model based on the System of Environmental Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) framework, endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2021. This model enables mapping condition accounts for forest ecosystems using automated computation. We applied the model nationally in Spain between 2000 and...

Covering 35% of Europe’s land area, forest ecosystems play a crucial role in safeguarding biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Yet, forest degradation continues to undermine key ecosystem services that forests deliver to society. Here we provide a spatially explicit assessment of the condition of forest ecosystems in Europe following a Unite...

In this work, we use an integrated modelling approach to explore the complex relationships and interconnections in marine ecosystems among anthropogenic pressures, biodiversity loss, delivery of ecosystem services (ES), and implemented conservation and management strategies. We selected 60 indicators at regional (34), national (12) and internationa...

This paper is an output from the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting Working Group on Forest Ecosystems. It highlights the role the SEEA EA can play in delivering robust, regular and integrated evidence on the environment and its relationship with the economy and human well-being to deliver effective environmental policy. It uses forest ecosystems as a polic...

Seagrasses store large amounts of blue carbon and mitigate climate change, but they have suffered strong regressions worldwide in recent decades. Blue carbon assessments may support their conservation. However, existing blue carbon maps are still scarce and focused on certain seagrass species, such as the iconic genus Posidonia, and intertidal and...

To better manage our environment, systematic information is needed on the state of ecosystems and their interactions with society. Efforts have been undertaken to design monitoring and recording systems, notably the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). However, the diverse conceptualizations and applications on ecosyst...

Comparing the impacts of future scenarios is essential for developing and guiding the political sustainability agenda. This review-based analysis compares six IPBES scenarios for their impacts on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 20 biodiversity targets (Aichi targets) for the Europe and Central Asia regions. The comparison is based on a...

Research on methods and applications on the integration of ecosystem services flow accounts into economic reporting systems has increased in the last decades. Along with Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), Ecosystem Accounting (EA) has been increasingly considered and has been integrated into research, policy and decision-making. Following the System...

Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) has been widely applied on the European Union (EU) mainland, whereas the EU Overseas entities still bear potential for implementation. This paper presents novel applications of the MAES procedure in the EU Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories ("EU Overseas"). Eight c...

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) has evolved rapidly in recent years through substantial efforts of both international organizations and the scientific community. Water regulation ecosystem services (ES) are key elements of regulating services in ecosystem accounting, with most relevant studies strongly relying on models for ES quantification up to...

Coastal and marine ecosystems supply multiple services in which human well-being is highly dependent. However, high-resolution spatial distribution studies of marine ecosystem services are scarce, even if it is known that this information is needed to better manage and conserve these ecosystems. With the aim of filling this gap, in this study we ha...

Assessing the spatial and temporal changes in ecosystems is essential to account for natural capital contribution to human well-being. However, various methods to quantify these changes challenge the development of reliable values which can be integrated into national statistical accounts. Following the international system of environmental-economi...

Antarctic ecosystem services are rich and diverse and include global climate modulation, biodiversity and habitat protection, cultural heritage, scientific knowledge, education and recreation as well as the extraction of marine living resources. However, environmental protection studies have rarely examined the full complement of Antarctic values r...

This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes througho...

This report presents the current state of the art of ecosystem services research in the EU Overseas, with focus on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy Taget 2, Action 5. Data collection took place through a scientific literature review (published in Sieber et al., 2018) and a co...

Sitas, N., Z. V. Harmáčková, J. A. Anticamara, A. Arneth, R. Badola, R. Biggs, R. Blanchard, L. Brotons, M. Cantele, K. Coetzer, R. DasGupta, E. Den Belder, S. Ghosh, A. Guisan, H. Gundimeda, M. Hamann, P. A. Harrison, S. Hashimoto, J. Hauck, B. Klatt, K. Kok, R. M. Krug, A. Niamir, P. J. O'Farrell, S. Okayasu, I. Palomo, L. M. Pereira, P. Riordan,...

Scenarios are a useful tool to explore possible futures of social-ecological systems. The number of scenarios has increased dramatically over recent decades, with a large diversity in temporal and spatial scales, purposes, themes, development methods, and content. Scenario archetypes generically describe future developments and can be useful in mea...

Context European agricultural landscapes are facing contradictory phenomena in that some areas are experiencing unsustainable land-use intensification while others are being abandoned. Specifically, agricultural intensification is increasing resulting in numerous negative environmental impacts on European soils, water and biodiversity; increased cr...

Context European agricultural landscapes are facing contradictory phenomena in that some areas are experiencing unsustainable land-use intensification while others are being abandoned. Specifically, agricultural intensification is increasing resulting in numerous negative environmental impacts on Euro-pean soils, water and biodiversity; increased c...

Mapping and Assessment Ecosystem Services Special Issue: Editorial

A thorough understanding of long-term temporal social-ecological dynamics at the national scale helps to explain the current condition of a country’s ecosystems and to support environmental policies to tackle future sustainability challenges. We aimedcto develop a methodological approach to understand past long-term (1960-2010) social-ecological dy...

A thorough understanding of long-term temporal social-ecological dynamics at the national scale helps to explain the current condition of a country's ecosystems and to support environmental policies to tackle future sustainability challenges. We aimed to develop a methodological approach to understand past long-term (1960-2010) social-ecological dy...

A broad array of methods have been developed and applied to map ecosystem services and their values at various geographic scales. For example, the ESMERALDA project developed methods for ecosystem service mapping across Europe. This paper describes how different methodological interlinkages can be used in ecosystem service mapping and assessment an...

Land-use intensification is occurring worldwide and is impacting the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. We developed an approach to understand land-use change in relation to ecosystem services synergies and trade-offs at a national level. We test the proposed approach for Spain by mapping the spatial distribution of 14 high-resolution indicat...

The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network cr...

Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (MAES) is a key EU initiative to synthesise vital environmental information and facilitate balanced policy decisions. As MAES integrates across many scientific and policy domains, the development of a common language and shared concepts is essential. Here we present a comprehensive MAES Glossa...

Identifying and applying the appropriate method for ecosystem services mapping and assessment is not trivial. To provide guidance in this task, this paper describes the creation of a database for existing studies on mapping and assessing ecosystems and their services, which records relevant information to the ecosystem studies (e.g. methods used, t...

Deliverable D3.3 EU Horizon 2020 ESMERALDA Project, Grant agreement No. 642007. The aims of The Report are: 1) to gather the latest knowledge of biophysical mapping and assessment of the ecosystem services, including methods, data, tools, and software commonly used; 2) based on the above findings, to suggest a harmonised methodology describing ho...

Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) are central to the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. Action 5 of the Strategy’s second target asks all EU member states to map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territories. Such comprehensive mapping and assessment builds on several individual task...

Priorities for future sustainable development within Europe and Central Asia are formulated in visions by governments and societal actors. Integrated scenario and modelling studies enable the assessment of impacts on nature, nature’s contributions to people, and a good quality of life resulting from these priorities, and help to co-design and co-de...

This report provides an overview of the main social methods for mapping and assessment of ecosystem services. It addresses the challenge of improving the applicability of these methods with specific examples, particularly with respect to the MAES process and the ESMERALDA case studies. In this context, the term “mapping” is used to mean the descrip...

This report provides an overview of the main economic methods for mapping and assessment of ecosystem services.

El 25 de septiembre de 2015, los máximos dirigentes mundiales aprobaron en una cumbre histórica de las Naciones Unidas los 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible. Estos objetivos marcan el peso de la agenda internacional en los próximos 15 años y los retos a abordar hasta 2030. Para alcanzar estas metas, todo el mundo tiene que hacer su parte: los g...

Key findings Regional, sub-regional and national similarities and differences currently exist in the capacity for scenario development and modelling for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Human resources and the technical skills required for biodiversity and ecosystem services scenario development and modelling are not evenly spread across region...

Markus Erhard , Anne Teller , Joachim Maes , Andrus Meiner , Pam Berry , Alison Smith , Ric Eales , Liza Papadopoulou , Annemarie Bastrup-Birk , Eva Ivits , Eva Royo Gelabert , Gorm Dige , Jan-Erik Petersen , Johnny Reker , Marie Cugny-Seguin , Peter Kristensen , Ronan Uhel , Christine Estreguil , Marco Fritz , Patrick Murphy , Nicholas Banfield...

The mapping and assessment of ecosystems is a key component of the MAES initiative. It is essential to analyse the effects of pressures on ecosystem condition, which will impact the ability of ecosystems to deliver multiple services in the long run. The present report provides an overview about available information on ecosystem condition and is pr...

The aim of this report is to illustrate by means of a series of case studies the implementation of mapping and assessment of forest ecosystem services in different contexts and geographical levels. Methodological aspects, data issues, approaches, limitations, gaps and further steps for improvement are analysed for providing good practices and decis...

The ecosystem services (ES) framework opens the door to common ground between ecology science and economics in facing the challenge of planetary sustainability. Application of the available methodologies and instruments reveals both the high potential and the controversies related to this new socio-ecological management approach. Feeding on the res...

http://www.revistaambienta.es/WebAmbienta/marm/Dinamicas/secciones/articulos/EMEpesca.htm

Resumen de los grupos funcionales de los vertebrados marinos (peces, cetáceos, aves y tortugas), de los hábitas marinos que ocupan, y de sus categorías de conservación internacionales, nacionales y regionales.

El proyecto de investigación aplicada que aquí se presenta se enmarca, conceptual y metodológicamente, en la Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio de España (http//www.ecomilenio.es) que ha evaluado el estado de los servicios de los ecosistemas y su incidencia en el bienestar humano a escala estatal en los últimos 50 años. Este proyecto que se...

The aim of this report is to illustrate by means of a series of case studies the implementation of mapping and assessment of forest ecosystem services in different contexts and geographical levels. Methodological aspects, data issues, approaches, limitations, gaps and further steps for improvement are analysed for providing good practices and decis...

The Spanish National Ecosystem Assessment (SNEA), supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Environment, is the first analysis conducted on the status and trends of ecosystem services in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of Spain. The results of the SNEA are expected to help build bridges between interdisciplinary scientific know...

The Spanish National Ecosystem Assessment (SNEA), supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Environment, is the first analysis conducted on the status and trends of ecosystem services in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of Spain. The results of the SNEA are expected to help build bridges between interdisciplinary scientific know...

The second MAES report presents indicators that can be used at European and Member State's level to map and assess biodiversity, ecosystem condition and ecosystem services according to the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES v4.3). This work is based on a review of data and indicators available at national and European...

National ecosystem assessments provide evidence on the status and trends of biodiversity, ecosystem conditions, and the delivery of ecosystem services to society. I this study, we analyze the complex relationships established between ecosystems and human systems in Spain through the combination of Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework and...

Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services An analytical framework for ecosystem assessments under action 5 of the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 : discussion paper – final, April 2013 Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 calls Member States to map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national t...

Un Programa científico para evaluar el esta-do de los servicios de los ecosistemas del Plane-ta. La Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio (MA, 2005) (www.maweb.org) fue un Programa inter-nacional promovido por una Alianza de Agencias de Naciones Unidas, Convenios Internacionales y ONGs. Fue lanzado en 2001 por el entonces Secretario Ge-neral Ko...

Un Programa científico para evaluar el estado de los servicios de los ecosistemas de España. La Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio (MA, 2005) (www.maweb.org) fue un Programa internacional promovido por una Alianza de Agencias de Naciones Unidas, Convenios Internacionales y ONGs. Fue lanzado en 2001 por el entonces Secretario Ge-neral Kofi An...

Ecosystem service assessments have increasingly been used to support environmental management policies, mainly based on biophysical and economic indicators. However, few studies have coped with the social-cultural dimension of ecosystem services, despite being considered a research priority. We examined how ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs...

Main characteristics of sites included in this study. (PDF)

Summary statistics of socio-economic characteristics of polled people for each case site. (PDF)

Summary of the variables obtained from the questionnaire and used for the different analysis performed in the study. (PDF)