MEASURING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES GUIDANCE ON DEVELOPING ECOSYSTEM SERVICE INDICATORS

Abstract

These guidelines have been produced to support the development of ecosystem service
indicators at the national and regional level for uses in reporting, assessments, policy
making, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem management, environmental management,
development planning and education.

The guidance contains four key sections:
1. Introduction to ecosystem service indicators

2. Steps in developing ecosystem service
indicators
3. Mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators

4. Ecosystem indicators developed and piloted in
South Africa

Full text

MEASURING
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
GUIDANCE ON DEVELOPING
ECOSYSTEM SERVICE INDICATORS
This document has been produced as an output of a UNEP-WCMC project, funded by the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida) through the Resilience and Development Programme (SwedBio) at Stockholm Resilience Centre,
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Acknowledgements
The United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Council for
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International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) through the Resilience and Development Programme (SwedBio) at
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The authors wish to express deep gratitude to the following individuals for their help and guidance in the production of this
document: Neil Burgess, Alex Forbes, Joachim Maes, Dilys Roe and Jamie Tratalos (expert reviewers); Katherine Despot Delmonte
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implemented by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and UNEP-WCMC, whose work underpins
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Published:
Citation:
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Front cover photo: 
ISBN: 
The United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is the specialist
biodiversity assessment centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world’s foremost intergovernmental
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 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Contents

It is recognized that ecosystem services play an important role in supporting economic activity,




Measurement and communication of progress towards policy targets is primarily achieved through


community has become more aware of their reliance on natural systems-and of the signs that many
are degrading at alarming rates-ecosystem service indicators are becoming increasingly important


Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services work programme; and the tools

service indicators can support ecosystem accounting processes, natural capital reporting, and

This guidance report is underpinned by work carried out as part of the collaboration between the
United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Council for

development, use and uptake of indicators and approaches for assessing the consequences of changes
in ecosystem services and their implications for society, human well-being and poverty alleviation, at

A pilot set of ecosystem service indicators and approaches in South Africa, which move beyond


I hope that this guide proves to be a valuable resource for ecosystem assessment practitioners and

Foreword
Achim Steiner
Executive Director
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)


Ecosystem services are vital to human survival
and wellbeing, and the judicious management


increasingly recognized as a key part of assessing
whether ecosystem services are being managed

Developing ecosystem services indicators is
challenging, for example:
 
about ecosystem services is low overall,
although it varies widely among services;

services are not comprehensive and are often
inadequate to characterize the diversity and

 
of these indicators; and

lag behind provisioning services in each of the

Further, we propose that a key gap hampering
the development of useful, relevant indicators
is that many of them measure the levels of
ecosystem services provided by a particular area


gained by people (food, domestic water) and




is essential if we are to be able to assess the
consequences of changes in ecosystem services
for human wellbeing – an aim which is at the
heart of most policies and programs focused on




These guidelines have been produced to
support the development of ecosystem service
indicators at the national and regional level
for uses in reporting, assessments, policy
making, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem
management, environmental management,

The guidance contains four key sections:
 


indicators (section 2)
 
(section 3)


Executive Summary

TABLE OF BOXES
No. Title Page
1 Categories of ecosystem services 10
2 Developing ecosystem service indicators for businesses 23
3 Development of cultural ecosystem service indicators in the UK 26
4 Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) 27
5 Considerations to take when calculating indicators 31
6 Decision-support and modelling tools 34
7Datasets and sources of data used to develop indicators within Sub Global Assessments 37
8 Calculation of an indicator for Aichi Biodiversity Target 14 39
9 Using maps to present ecosystem service indicator information 40
10 Examples of denitions of mainstreaming 45
11 Tips for choosing and prioritising entry points for a mainstreaming effort 48
12 Existing networks and mainstreaming initiatives 52
TABLE OF FIGURES
No. Title Page
1 Indicator development framework 15
2 Framework for linking ecosystems to human well-being 20
3 Framework of ecosystem well-being chains 20
4 IPBES conceptual framework 22
5Red List Indices showing the proportion of species expected to remain extant in the near future
without additional conservation action for amphibians, birds and mammals
39
6 Poverty and Isolation within critically threatened and vulnerable ecoregions 40
7 National trends in river ecological condition between 1999 and 2011 57
8 Map of South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas 58
9 Land cover trends in Strategic Water Source Areas 59
10 Map of communities without access to treated and piped water, instead dependent on
rivers, streams, pools, springs and boreholes for their domestic water
60
11 Map of the proportion of households dependent on natural sources of water reporting water
quality problems in the general household survey 2011
60
12 Final indicator showing trends between 2002 and 2011 in the proportion of dependent
households surveyed reporting good quality water
61
13 Urban expansion over a 205 year period, shown for eight sample years 63
14 Expected change in potential number of livestock in the Stutterheim area as invasion by
Acacia mearnsii expands and becomes more dense
65


7
TABLE OF TABLES
No. Title Page
1 Examples of ecosystem services denitions and indicators 21
2 Indicators for provisioning services delivered by forests 28
3 Comparison between different ecosystem service data sources 35
4 Data sources for ecosystem services 36
5 Entry points for mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators at different levels 48
6 Part of South Africa’s national indicators proposed and in use 55
7Description of present ecological state categories used to describe river ecological condition 57
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ARIES Articial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services
BBN Baysian Belief Networks
BIP Biodiversity Indicators Partnership
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CDM Clean Development Mechanism
CICES Common International Classication of Ecosystem Services
CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
CSIR Council for Scientic and Industrial Research
CSO Civil society organizations
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GEF Global Environment Facility
GRI Global Reporting Initiative
IEA International Energy Agency
IEEP Institute for European Environmental Policy
IIED International Institute for Environment and Development
InVEST Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Trade-offs
IPBES Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IPM Integrated Pest Management
MA Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
MAES Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services
MDG Millennium Development Goal
MEA Multilateral Environmental Agreement
MENE Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment
MIMES Multi-scale Integrated Models of Ecosystem Services


continued
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NBSAP National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan
NDP National Development Plan
NFI National Forest Inventory
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
PEI UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative
PES Payment for Ecosystem Services
SANBI South African National Biodiversity Institute
SDG Sustainable Development Goal
SEEA System of Environmental-Economic Accounts
SGA Sub-global assessment
STAP Scientic and Technical Advisory Panel
TESSA Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessments
UBC University of British Columbia
UK NEAFO UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow On
UN United Nations
UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertication
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNEP-WCMC United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
USD United States Dollar
USLE Universal Soil Loss Equation
WAVES Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services
WDCGG World Data Centre for Green House Gases
WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council

9

1.1 Background to the Guidelines
This section presents the background to the Guidelines including introducing the concept of ecosystem
services and their importance to poverty eradication and economic development. It also presents a brief
business case for developing ecosystem service indicators.
1.2 What is the purpose of these Guidelines?
This section describes the purpose of the Guidelines, which is to help the development of ecosystem
service indicators at national, sub-national and sectoral levels for uses in reporting, policy and decision
making, environment and economic development planning, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem
management and education.
1.3 Who should use these Guidelines?
This section describes the intended users of the Guidelines, primarily those developing and using
indicators.
1.4 How to use these Guidelines?
This section describes the different contexts in which the Guidelines can be used as a decision-support
tool.
1.5 The scope and structure of these Guidelines
This section provides an overview of the scope and structure of these Guidelines (i.e. what the
Guidelines are and what they are not) and illustrates the conceptual approach adopted.






ecosystem services include basic services and
goods such as clean air, water, food, medicine

regulate our climate, protect us from natural
disasters and provide us with a rich heritage of
nature-based cultural traditions, among many



Individuals, households, businesses and
industries all rely on ecosystem services for

basic material for good life, health and security)

for poverty reduction and socio-economic
development at local and national level,
including through:
● Service delivery — delivering key functions
such as pollination and water provisioning far

● Risk-reduction — including disaster and



● Directnancialvalue — through certain

medicinal plants and animals; species attractive

● Nationaleconomicdiversication —
through habitat, species and genetic diversity


● Intrinsic and cultural value — related to
identity, tradition, social cohesion, recreation

Conversely, both poverty and economic


importance of ecosystem services, their
degradation has considerable economic, social
and political consequences especially for poor

on ecosystem services because their livelihoods
are often based on natural resources and they
are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards



incorporating ecosystem services management
into national development policy and planning at
all levels is essential to equitable and sustainable

Such policy making and planning require

which is why “ecosystem service indicators” are


communicates the characteristics and trends
of ecosystem services, making it possible for
policymakers to understand the condition, trends

ecosystem service indicators, based on reliable
metrics and measures, are critical to knowing
whether or not these essential services are being
maintained and used in a sustainable manner
(UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre;

are therefore of increasing interest and importance

Ecosystem service indicators can inform our
understanding and appreciation of the complex
relationships between ecosystem services
and their implications for society, human
wellbeing and poverty reduction (Reyers et

Box 1: Categories of ecosystem services
Supporting services: The services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services
including soil formation, photosynthesis, primary production, nutrient cycling and water cycling.
Provisioning services: The products obtained from ecosystems, including food, bre, fuel, genetic
resources, biochemicals, natural medicines, pharmaceuticals, ornamental resources and fresh water.
Regulating services: The benets obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes, including air
quality regulation, climate regulation, water regulation, erosion regulation, water purication, disease
regulation, pest regulation, pollination and natural hazard regulation.
Cultural services: The non-material benets people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual
enrichment, cognitive development, reection, recreation and aesthetic experiences – thereby taking
account of landscape values.


can serve as important tools for national and
sub-national economic development planning
that aims to achieve sustainable growth and

on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action
Plans (NBSAPs) and National Development Plans


At the international level, users of ecosystem
service indicators include Parties to multilateral
environmental agreements (MEAs) such as the
CBD, the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United

(UNCCD), Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
as well as other international processes such as
the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessments,
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and

service indicators can also be used to raise awareness
about threatened ecosystem services and motivate


Key definitions
Measure (or measurement): Actual measurement of a state, quantity or process derived from
observations or monitoring. e.g. bird counts, total dissolved solids, biomass, runoff.
An indicator uses measures to communicate something of interest. They are purpose and audience
specic.
Metric: a set of measurements or data collected and used to underpin each indicator.
An index comprises a number of measures combined in a particular way to increase their sensitivity,
reliability or ease of communication e.g. Red List Index for birds shows changes in threat status over
time obtained through a specic formula. Disaggregation and traceability are important.
Ecosystem service indicators are information that efciently communicates the characteristics and
trends of ecosystem services, making it possible for policymakers to understand the condition, trends
and rate of change in ecosystem services.
Port Barton, Palawan, Phillipines © Mary Aileen M Delas Alas, WordFish (2011)


The purpose of these Guidelines is to help
government agencies, academia, research
institutes and/or non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), among others, with
the process of developing ecosystem service
indicators at local/sub-national and national

● policy and decision making;
● planning for environmentally sustainable
economic development;
● assessing, tracking and reporting changes in

human well-being; and
● 
These Guidelines are designed to assist in the
development of ecosystem service indicators


assessments at national and regional scales); for
national economic development planning and
decision making; or for long-term monitoring

The information in these Guidelines is not
meant to be exhaustive, as each situation will
vary according to country or region and over


process while consulting other sources for

basis of experiences in developing biodiversity
and ecosystem service indicators including by

and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa
and their partners and of many other research


The target audience for these Guidelines is
primarily those concerned with the development
of ecosystem service indicators, including
representatives of government agencies,

These Guidelines will also be useful for experts
whose work contributes to improving indicators,
data, and policy-support tools, as well as those
who will apply ecosystem service indicators to

Examples of target audiences include:
● National data gathering entities, including


the United Nations (UN) Statistical Agency and
international aid organisations that support
national and sub-national capacity for data
gathering;
● Public sector policymakers at sub-national,
national, regional, and international levels

service considerations into policy dialogue;
● Decision makers in the private sector whose
companies can use ecosystem service indicators
to inform strategic decisions;
● Policy research institutions supporting the
public and private sectors’ ability to apply
ecosystem services concepts;
● 
and propose policy-relevant indicators of

● Ecosystem assessments building on and
improving the approaches, indicators, data sets,
and policy input developed for the MA; and
● International organisations—including
environmental and development agencies—
responsible for gathering, analysing, and
disseminating data about environment and




These Guidelines should be used:
● As a decision-support tool: With the aid
of an indicator development framework, the
Guidelines provide generic steps in developing
ecosystem service indicators; information
on the types of indicators; available datasets;
communicating and interpreting indicators;
and how ecosystem service indicators can
be integrated into existing monitoring and
reporting systems of economic development
policies and plans at international, national,

● In conjunction with other guidelines: These
Guidelines should be used in conjunction
with other guiding documents on ecosystem,
biodiversity and development indicators,
data, policy-support tools and on applying the
ecosystem service approach and ecosystem

The guidelines can be used in training for
people in government agencies, academia,
research institutes or NGOs whose work involves
developing ecosystem service indicators, and to
support dialogues information-sharing networks
or learning communities on ecosystem services


These Guidelines are organised around the
‘Ecosystem Service Indicator Development
Framework’ (see Section 2), which presents
a series of key steps in successful indicator

‘Biodiversity Indicator Development Framework’
developed on the basis of the experience of
the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP),

describes steps that may be used as a guideline
for the production of an individual ecosystem
service indicator, or for a suite of ecosystem
service indicators brought together to answer a

is provided for each step, including identifying
indicator needs and key questions, gathering
and analysing data, testing results, and the

entry points and approaches and tools for
mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators
into existing monitoring and reporting systems

focus of the Guidelines is on the process aspects
of producing and using ecosystem service



Bamboo Raft, Li River Gunxi Province, China © Mikhail Nekrasov, Shutterstock.com




FRAMEWORK

produced to assist in the development and
use of national indicators within the context

Development Framework is equally suitable for

contains key steps for the development of
appropriate ecosystem services indicators and,
crucially, encourages a participatory approach
with relevant stakeholders from the start of the


The following section of the Guidelines goes


framework is an “ideal” standard and it may not

framework is presented in a logical sequence
from top to bottom, but there are other possible
directions and starting points depending

development is an iterative process, which means
that indicator developers need to consider and
allow for back and forth movement between the

indicators’ and ‘gather and review data’ are often

Figure 1. Indicator Development Framework

2 Development of ecosystem
service indicators
This section introduces the ecosystem service indicators development framework, and details the 10
steps in putting together ecosystem service indicators. The need for an open, participatory process in
collaboration with stakeholders is explained, along with how to identify, calculate and communicate
indicators for ecosystem services.
Indicator Development Framework


Step 1: Identify and consult stakeholders
and the target audience
Ecosystem service indicators should be

It is therefore strongly recommended that all
relevant stakeholders are consulted as early in
the indicator development process as possible in
order to identify the purpose of the indicator and

users of the indicator; relevant data providers; and



It is crucial to establish a dialogue between the
indicator users and the data providers, as without

Wider engagement with stakeholders will help
make the indicator clearer and reduce the threat

identify ecosystem services indicator champions;
these are people that have the technical skills to


To identify relevant stakeholders to engage in the

ecosystem services indicators, which is likely to


likely users are NGOs, media, research institutes

Ecosystem services indicators can serve as an
important tool for national development planning,

sector planning, report and decision making

watershed management plans, Payment for
Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, and district

indicators particularly, but not exclusively, to

objectives for sustainable development and

indicators to raise awareness about environmental
and conservation issues, and to hold government

indicators when reporting on environmental

other educational institutions may use ecosystem

world may produce and use ecosystem service
indicators as part of their analyses and reporting of
environmental issues, including for Environmental

indicators can also be found at the international

UNFCCC, UNCCD, Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands), as well as other international processes

One way of identifying who the relevant
stakeholders are is stakeholder mapping and


associated with participatory approaches and

of natural resources through stakeholder

details of stakeholder analysis, as it has been


Questions to ask during this step:
● Who are the relevant stakeholders, and do they all need to be consulted?
● What questions do the stakeholders want answers to regarding the ecosystem service of concern?
● How will the stakeholders want to use the indicator(s)? e.g. for decision making, for reporting, for
education.
● Have the inputs, expectations and outputs of the indicator development process been clearly dened
for the stakeholders?
● How much ownership and decision making power are different stakeholders going to have over the
choice of indicators?


Step 2: Identify ecosystem services related
policy objectives and targets
When ecosystem services indicators are
developed to support decision making and
management, the indicator developer(s) and
users should identify which objectives and

beginning by reviewing national objectives,
which all countries have, and policies with

Reporting on progress and change towards these
national objectives is a major role for ecosystem

Good places to start to identify existing objectives
and targets are:
● NBSAPs
● National Ecosystem Assessments
● District development plans
● Protected areas systems plans
● National forest plans
● Fisheries policies
● Water policies
● Land-use plans
● Agricultural plans
● Environmental impact legislation
● Endangered species legislation
● Long-term development strategies
● Five year economic development plans
● District development plans
● Adoption of MDGs at the national level
● Adoption of SDGs at the national level
National and sub-national economic
development plans and other sectoral policies

environmental policies have them either, as they


is little or no national legislation on ecosystem
services, the targets and plans in international
agreements such as the CBD (Aichi Biodiversity

sources for established ecosystem services related

7 has two tasks:
● 7a Integrate the principles of sustainable
development into country policies and
programmes and reverse the loss of

● 

A number of countries have included one of
the seven indicators that correspond to these


Some regional strategies, such as the European
Biodiversity Strategy also include ecosystem

of reporting on national progress to such
international agreements and they serve to raise
the awareness and understanding of the policy


objectives and targets this step might need to be
combined with the earlier step of “Identify and

more information to guide the development of



Step 3: Determine key questions and
indicator use
Determine key questions
We strongly recommend identifying ‘key
questions’, which describe what the user or
audience for the indicator wants to know about

the indicator, and since indicators are purpose


is that it naturally encourages people to choose
indicators that can be readily interpreted and

text accompanies the presentation of an
indicator, for example something explaining the

seen in the newly developed indicators in Section

encourages further analysis and the use of more

Key questions can be general, such as:
● What ecosystem services does this habitat

● Where are the priority areas for a sustainable

● Are the ecosystem services declining in our

To answer some of these more general key
questions several indicators and data sets might




management issues, such as:
● What are the main threats to the ecosystem

● 
● What is the status of the tourism numbers

If struggling to identify indicators, the objectives



‘Are the essential ecosystem services restored and



or complex in their scope that they may not

situations, the indicator development team may
need to build a shared understanding about the
purpose of the indicators being developed and

comprehensive approach might be needed where

detailed analyses are needed or even gathering of


to identify key questions, this step should ideally
be an iterative process where the stakeholders
and audience of the indicators are continuously

Determine indicator use
It is extremely helpful if the intended use of an

not only makes communication easier, but also
ensures a greater likelihood of the indicator

Relevant stakeholders can be asked about
how indicators will be used and this question
can be incorporated in the discussion around

the key question(s) also provides clues to who

used for: measuring progress; early-warning of
problems; understanding an issue; reporting;

be used for management decision making, will

are made or progress reported, such as an annual


education and familiarity with the subject does



Step 4: Develop a conceptual model
Developing a conceptual model can help to select
and communicate indicators in response to key

that illustrates the main issues of concern and

diagram has each issue in a box or circle and the
relationships between them are shown by arrows


A conceptual model helps to clarify this issue for
all involved and helps determine the relationship

relationship between the measure chosen as an
indicator and the purpose of the indicator needs


indicators should not be too restricted to
make them conform to a conceptual model
which might not have complete buy-in from all

Clarifying key questions
The starting point in the production of a
conceptual model is the key question(s) of the
indicator and any management objectives that



issues in addressing the key question(s) are then

are then drawn on a preliminary diagram for
discussion by the indicator development team,

The conceptual model is then reworked and




there could potentially be indicators for each of
the issues in the conceptual model and for the

What should ecosystem service indicators

One of the major challenges in developing

is not yet a generally accepted approach to
measuring the complete bundle of ecosystem

As a consequence, proxies are often used and
there is a dominance of indicators developed

biomass) as these are easier to measure and

What makes this even more challenging is
that the concept of ‘human well-being’, which
is linked to the ecosystem services concept, is

illustrates how the MA linked ecosystem services

services are generated by ecosystem functions,
which in turn are underpinned by biophysical


pleasure) which in turn can be valued in
economic terms if deemed useful (UNEP-WCMC,

service will be supported by a range of ecosystem
structures and processes, and that individual
structures and processes will support a range of

Questions to ask during this step
● What are the key questions that the intended user or audience have about ecosystem services?
● Can the key questions be made more specic or focused?
● How will the indicator be used?
● Who will be using the indicator?
● What level of education and familiarity with the subject does the intended audience already have?


Figure 2. Framework for linking ecosystems to human
well-being






ecosystem services and highlighted key strengths
and weaknesses with these frameworks (Reyers et

resulted in the development of new frameworks
which attempt to make the links between
ecosystem structures and processes and human






instrumental in simplifying the complex process
of ecosystem services provision as they provide
the logical connections between ecological
processes through to human wellbeing and

services measurements and developing
ecosystem service indicators (Figure 3) (Reyers

service indicators can be divided into four types





Figure 3.

Function*
(e.g. slow water
passage,
biomass)
Ecosystems & Biodiversity
* subset of biophysical structure or
process providing the service
(econ) Value
(e.g. WTP for
protection or
products)
Human wellbeing
(socio-cultural context)
Biophyscial
Structure
or process
(e.g. vegetation
cover or Net
Primary
Productivity)
Service
(e.g. flood-
protection,
products)
Benefit(s)
(contribution
to health,
safety etc)
IMPACTS
f. Wellbeing Contribution
d. Valuec. Good
feedbacks
feedback
feedback
b. Flow
a. Ecological
Stock
i) Ecol.
Dynamics
ii) Human
inputs
iii)
Valorisation iv) Access v) Needs
e. Share


Table 1.

Source: GEO BON Ecosystem Services Working Group
Type of services
Ecosystem Service Component
Supply Delivery
Contributions to
well-being Value
Provisioning
Amount of biomass
available for fodder
(pasture or forage,
Tons)
Biomass or
abundance of
important species
Total production
of all commercial
crops (Tons),
Caloric or
micronutrient
content of sh
landings (grams)
Volume of
harvested wood
(m3)
% caloric or
micronutrient intake
contributed by
crops, % income
or number of jobs
contributed by
aquaculture
Basic needs
satised via
ecosystem good or
service
Market value of all
livestock products
(US$)
Marginal
contribution of
irrigation to crop
market value
Change in
malnutrition rate
due to wild harvest
food
Regulating
Amount of carbon
absorbed by
vegetation from the
atmosphere (Tons
of C)
Mass of nutrients,
organic matter,
sediments, or
toxic organisms
or compounds
removed (Kg),
changes in
temperature, pH
Pollinator
abundances and
pollination rates
Water conditions
(e.g. nutrient
content, presence
of harmfull bacteria)
in relation to
standards for
different water
users at or above
withdrawal point
Marginal
contribution of
soils to agricultural,
forestry and biofuel
production
Area of avoided
ood damaged due
to regulation by
vegetation and soils
(ha)
% of population
with reduced
negative impacts
(e.g. from oods,
wind, drought)
Number of people
protected from
infrastructure
loss, ooding and
erosion from coastal
protection
Marginal
contribution of pest
control to food or
biofuel production
Market value of
carbon uptake
(US$)
Avoided water
treatment costs
(US$)
Avoided economic
loss by ood
regulation from
vegetation and soils
(US$)
Cultural
Area that provides
aesthetic views
Area that is suitable
for nature-based
tourism
Abundance of
plants
Nature based
tourism visitation
rates, collection
rates of plants used
for ritual practices
Marginal
contributions to
income or well-
being of visitors and
to local inhabitants
derived from
aesthetic views,
attendance at ritual
events, frequency of
cultural activities
Economic revenues
derived from
visits to aesthetic
areas, marginal
contribution to
real estate prices
by nature-based
tourism (US$),
strength of cultural
identity

22

● 
cycling and erosion prevention; see Box 2 for

● Overexploitation and unsustainable use
(impacting the provision of food and raw

● Climate change (impacting climate regulation

● Pollution and nutrient load (impacting

● Invasive alien species (impacting biological

Good quality of life
Human wellbeing
Living in harmony with nature
Living-well in balance and harmony
with Mother Earth
Ability to achieve a life that people value i.e. food, water,
energy and livelihood security; health, social relationships,
equity, spirituality, cultural identity
Nature’s benefits
to people
Ecosystem goods
and services
(provisioning, regulating,
cultural)
Nature’s gifts
Anthropogenic assets
Built, human, social, nancial
Nature
Biodiversity and ecosystems
Mother Earth
Systems of life
Evolution, biocultural diversity
Non-living natural resources
Intrinsic values
Direct drivers
Natural drivers
Anthropogenic drivers
Habitat conversion,
exploitation, climate change,
pollution, species introductions
Local
Global
National
Changing over time
Interacting across spatial sclaes
Baseline-Trends-Scenarios
IPBES level of resolution IPBES scope
Institutions and
governance and other
indirect drivers
Socio-politic, economic,
technological, cultural
Drivers of change on ecosystem service


In particular, it includes ‘drivers of change’ as

When identifying ecosystem services indicators
it is necessary to consider what drivers and

and create indicators that are linked to these



Figure 4


23
Questions to ask during this step:
● Which are the most important or over-arching key questions that can be examined with the aid of a
conceptual model?
● What level of detail is required for the conceptual model?
● Who should be involved in the denition of the conceptual model?
Box 2: Developing ecosystem service indicators for businesses
When developing ecosystem service indicators for businesses one approach is to focus the
development on the principle threats to ecosystems. This is called the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Framework. The key challenge is to combine ecosystem services-related data, which by nature is site-
specic, into aggregated gures that work for businesses. For example, a site-based indicator may
show the actual change in soil depth or soil pH, whereas a corporate-level indicator would show the
number and location of sites where soil degradation is occurring. The GRI has also developed a range
of example ecosystem service indicators against the ve main threats to ecosystems (for full list see
Boulter, 2011). Example indicators developed to address the key threat of habitat loss and degradation
include:
i. Location and size of land owned, leased, managed in, or adjacent to, protected areas and areas of
high biodiversity value outside protected areas.
ii. Description of signicant impacts of activities, products, and services on biodiversity in protected
areas and areas of high biodiversity value outside protected areas.
iii. Habitats protected or restored.
iv. Strategies, current actions, and future plans for managing impacts on biodiversity.
Source: Boulter, 2011


Step 5: Identify possible indicators
Identifying indicators takes a combination of

thinking may be a surprising skill in this context,
but the indicators with the greatest impact are
often produced by using and presenting data in

of data in ways that may not seem immediately

indicators that are conceptually valid and

This step is best carried out in combination with
the next step “gather and review data” as both

rely on the availability and suitability of data and



Successful ecosystem service indicators are:
● Relevant
● Understandable – conceptually how
the measure relates to the purpose, in its
presentation and in the interpretation of the

● Useable - for measuring progress, early
warning of problems, understanding an issue,

● Scienticallysound– an accepted theory of
the relationship between the indicator and its
purpose, with agreement that change in the
indicator does indicate change in the issue of
concern and that the data used is reliable and

● Sensitive to relevant change / issues
● Practicalandaordable – to ensure its
continued use and in this way improve the
rigour of the indicator as longer time series are

Indicators for provisioning ecosystem services
Most provisioning services can be documented
at national and local scale using national


production are commonly used, for example
fodder provision for livestock, grain production

Secondary indicators are often used to address
the lack of data for primary indicators (Egoh

for food production include: area (hectares) of

livestock numbers; or vegetation suitability for



Organization of the United Nations; FAO) can

Information on land cover and vegetation maps
can be accessed through continental or global



Considering the four types of indicator –
supply, delivery, contribution to well-being and

economic value indicators have been widely used
so far, because food production and market data

data on biophysical conditions so few ‘supply’
indicators have been developed so far (Reyers

focusing on contribution to well-being are still in



Indicators for regulating ecosystem services
Data needed to develop indicators for regulating
services are becoming available, often from
national statistics or remote sensing (Reyers et

these services are those suitable for supply and

of economic value are mostly linked to avoided
costs or marginal contributions to economic

indicators to measure well-being from regulating


By far the most common indicators of regulating
services are for climate and water regulation (Egoh

relate to the regulation of greenhouse gases, where
primary indicators can be carbon storage, carbon
sequestration, and greenhouse gas regulation

used to model primary indicators and the most
commonly used data is aboveground biomass and
belowground biomass but soil carbon, nutrients
and vegetation maps can also be important input

Indicators for cultural services
It is hard to develop indicators for cultural

by cultural ecosystem services are often deeply
interconnected with each other and with


the most important cultural services are co-
produced by the same ecosystem components
and human activities that produce material

example, the cultural integrity and heritage of
coastal communities is often associated with the

with the provisioning service associated with

development of cultural ecosystem service
indicators undertaken during the UK National
Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on project (UK

Walkers in Borrowdale Valley © Undivided 2012. Used under licence from Shutterstock.com


Box 3: Development of cultural ecosystem service indicators in the UK
In the UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow On (UK NEAFO) project, cultural services indicators
were a major component in the cultural ecosystem services chapter. The indicators developed were
designed to measure the characteristics of local areas and access to environmental spaces. Indicators
were analysed for both the supply side – which environmental spaces are available in a given area – and
the demand side – which environmental spaces people seek out and which practices they carry out
there.
Through engagement with stakeholders, the UK NEAFO found that, indicators that were focussed on
environmental spaces were more useful to environmental decision makers, especially at the local level
than those which were more distributed or dislocated. Consequently, indicators were not calculated to
measure subjects such as the consumption of cultural ecosystem services through the media or interest
in cultural ecosystem services shown through the use of social media groups (although measures of
this type are considered important by some stakeholders). The intention of the UK NEAFO was primarily
to move discussion forward on cultural services by exploring a range of possible indicators rather than
presenting a denitive set of them.
The indicators calculated are of the following types:
1. Information on the supply of environmental spaces, measured through percentage cover for
a range of types of environmental space, e.g. ancient woodland, country parks, grasslands and
mountains. Measuring the percentage cover of environmental spaces provides useful indication of
differences in the supply of cultural services at a local level.
2. Measures of accessibility to environmental spaces (these focussed on ancient woodland, country
parks, nature reserves and natural land cover as they offer opportunities for a range of cultural
practices). This type of indicator takes into consideration that access within an area will vary and
that people living within one local area may benet from access to environmental spaces outside it.
The UK NEAFO team therefore calculated measures of accessibility for each 2011 Census Output
Area in the UK (N = 181,408), for four different types of environmental space. Two methods were
used to calculate accessibility, both borrowed from the ANGSt methodology used to calculate
access to public green space (Handley et al., 2003).
3. Measures of demand for certain types of environmental spaces or practices associated with
them, such as watching wildlife or walking. This is important to measure as the degree to which
people would like to have access to environmental spaces may differ locally. To address this they
produced a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) showing the probability that a given individual would
visit environmental places of various sorts and engage in certain activities within them within a
given week. These calculations were done using the HUGIN1 Expert software and the Monitor of
Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) dataset; the work drew on a subset of 50,000
records from these which contained spatial information on the location visited, which is based on a
questionnaire of over 50,000 individuals within England.
4. Indicators which may be used to measure the quality of environmental spaces such as parks
(e.g. crime rates, noise levels, proxies for biodiversity and the availability of facilities such as play
areas). Indicators developed for these types utilise data available nationally, at least for the whole of
England. However, there is a wealth of data available at a local level, often under the custodianship
of local authorities, which allow a more in depth and richer examination of cultural ecosystem
services than is possible using national data sets. Keep Britain Tidy’s use of the Green Flag Award
for England and Scotland as a quality standard for local parks is a rare example of a peer-assessed
standard operating at the national level.
Source: UK NEAFO, 2014


27

and identifying which one of the four types of
ecosystem service indicators would be best suited to
cultural ecosystem service indicators mean that few




A very diverse range of indicators have been used

completely transformed ecosystems provide cultural
services, such suitability for summer cottages, deer


Commonly used secondary indicators are distance
to resources (such as scenic sites, water bodies, or


information data are readily available and can be
extracted from national statistics or from National

be mapped from easily accessible national or

some services, such as spiritual experience, are


Who decides which indicators to choose
The selection of the most suitable indicator or
indicators may be the responsibility of a single
institution, or it might be decided by a committee
with representatives from multiple organisations
or research groups, such as a steering or advisory


suggestions of how to approach the problem

and critique of this kind is always valuable, but
ultimately an indicator or suite of indicators
must be decided upon and an approach agreed
before the project can move forwards to the next

development step that no solution or approach
is perfect and there will probably always be some

the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems
and their Services (MAES) report presented
indicators of provisioning services delivered by


Box 4: Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services
The European Commission report ‘Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services’ (MAES)
includes a chapter on indicators that were collected in four pilot studies to measure ecosystem services
at the national scale. The report takes a traditional approach to dividing ecosystem services according
to habitat type and then outlining a number of indicators according to the Common International
Classication of Ecosystem Services (CICES) three categories of ecosystem service (provisioning services,
regulating/maintenance services, cultural services). The four habitat types that are covered are: forest
services; cropland and grassland services; freshwater services; and marine services.
For example, the forest's provisioning services (Table 2) includes those forest services related to forest
production of biomass, water and energy. In their analyses the MAES applied a trafc lights system
for the identied indicators, which can be seen in Table 2, depending on their readiness of use (green-
indicator ready to use, yellow – indicator a relatively good option but requiring further work to be
operational, red – much more work is needed to make them operational). Most of the indicators with a
green light are related to forest biomass supply and several of the available indicators use data derived
from National Forest Inventories (NFI) and from the European Forest Data Centre for European level
datasets. The report suggests that Member States use data from their NFI for mapping and assessment
of forest-related ecosystem services. They also recognise that remote sensing could be another source
of data for forest biomass provision but that these still require ground information from NFI for model
tting and validation of results.
Source: MAES, 2014


Table 2.


Division Group Class Indicators
Nutrition Biomass Cultivated crops
Reared animals and
their outputs
● Meat production (Iberian pig species)
● Meat consumption (Iberian pig species)
● Number of individuals (Iberian pig)
● Meat production (reindeer)
● Meat consumption (reindeer)
● Number of individuals (reindeer)
Wild plants, algae
and their outputs
● Distribution of healthlands and other habitats for bees
● Distribution of plants important for honey production
● Distribution of wild berries, fruits, mushrooms
(NFI plot data)
● Distribution of wild berries (modelling)
● Honey production
● Honey consumption
● Wild berries, fruits and mushroom harvest
Wild animals and
their outputs
● Amount of meat (hunting)
● Value of game
● Hunting records (killed animals)
Plants and algae
from in-situ
aquaculture
Animals from in-situ
aquaculture
Water Surface water for
drinking
● Total supply of water per forest area (modelling)
● Area of forest dedicated to preserve water resources
● Surface water supply per forest area (at river basin
level)
● River discharge
● Reservoir water (proxy)
● Population and per capita water consumption
Ground water for
drinking
None

29
Division Group Class Indicators
Materials Biomass Fibres and other
materials from
plants, algae and
animals for direct
use or processing
● Forest biomass stock
● Forest biomass increment
● Forest for timber, pulp wood, etc. Production
● Commercial forest tree volume & harvesting rates
● Trees (presence) cork oak for cork & pines for resins
● Tree species (timber trees)
● Wood consumption (industrial roundwood, fuelwood)
● Consumption of cork and resins
Materials from
plants, algae
and animals for
agricultural use
● Distribution of foraging areas in forest; estimate of
grassland shrubland (NPP)
● Marketed forage
Genetic materials
from all biota
● Distribution of plants species with biochemical/
pharmaceutical uses
● Raw materials for medicines
Water Surface water
for non-drinking
purposes
Same as for drinking purposes
Ground water
for non-drinking
purposes
Energy Biomass-
based
energy
sources
Plant-based
resources
● Wood fuel stock (fraction of forest biomass stock)
● Wood fuel production (fraction of forest biomass
increment)
● Distribution of tress for wood production
● Fuel wood consumption
Animal-based
resources
Mechanical
energy
Animal-based
energy
Questions to ask during this step:
● Are there existing indicators that can help to answer the key question(s)?
● How well does each of the potential indicators help to answer the key question(s)?
● Is the relationship between the measure used as an indicator and the indicator’s purpose scientically
supported and easy for the user to understand?
● Are potential reasons for change in the value of the indicator well understood?
● How easily will it be understood by the intended users?
● Is there suitable data for each of the possible indicators?
● Can existing data be transformed into appropriate indicators?
● What are the resources available now and in the future for producing the possible indicators?
● Who will decide which indicators will be calculated?


Step 6: Gather and review data
The gathering and reviewing of data will most



they will need to be reviewed to determine their

of the indicator may be the ability to detect
change, for which the data needs to be collected

appropriate to give the necessary sensitivity to

standardising the data to common units and
scales, and ensuring the methods used to collect

Data considerations
Ecosystem services can be considered at multiple
scales, from local to national to global, and unlike
some biodiversity indicators, there is always an

space, as does the demand for and consumption
of those services, which is why the development
of many ecosystem service indicators involves a

service must have a human consumer and the
spatial complexities of this make measuring

Services are underpinned by the associated
landscape features and their ecosystem function,
such as presence of a forest or river (natural

provision is a growing area of research and it is
often the function or the potential for a service
that is calculated or mapped, not the service

well-being) is much harder to calculate and
attempts to date are most common through

When indicators are calculated, you will need
to consider their scale, resolution, ability to
be operationalised and quality assessment

Estimating carbon stock © Daniel Murdiyarso, Centre for International Forestry Research (2009)


Box 5: Considerations to take when calculating indicators
Spatial scale
Spatial scale can vary from a specic site and a local scale, up to regional, national, continental
and even global. The decision made here will depend on the context of the intended outcome of
the indicator, the data availability, the needs of the end-user and its relevance to decision making.
Conducting a global analysis is possible for a variety of indicators but the data underlying these will
undoubtedly be coarser in spatial and temporal resolution.
Temporal scale
Daily, monthly, quarterly, annually and decadal scales can be considered. The choice of temporal scale
will depend on the intended outcome of the indicator. For example daily carbon storage calculations at
a global scale will be unnecessary and data-heavy, whereas daily values may be crucial for water run-off
models in extreme event regulation.
Baseline
Establishing a baseline value will be important for making comparisons over time and this should either
reect a relevant time period i.e. before an event such as the implementation of a new policy to enable
review of impact, or one that is accurately measurable.
Operationality
The data and methodology should be selected so that the process can be reproduced in future and by
other people.
Validation
This is an important consideration when calculating indicators as it will help to explain outliers and
identify inaccuracies.
Multiple data layers
Given the complexity of ecosystem services it is usually a requirement that several indicators be used
to more completely represent a service (Müller & Burkhard, 2012). This involves collecting, storing and
manipulating a large amount of data.
Measurement units
It is important that the data is collected or can be amended in a way that allows the units to be
compared.
Divide/aggregate to spatial unit
Data must also be to the same spatial unit and extent. For example data must be consistent to country
level or 1 degree grid cells. Data may need to be interpolated or aggregated which can introduce errors.
Raw/derived data
Data required for indicators often needs to be derived from other datasets to be useful, for example
a slope layer calculated using a digital elevation model. This can be done in a number of software
packages and will require the correct level of expertise in areas such as GIS or statistics.

32
Types of data
Data relevant for developing ecosystem service


databases, statistical compendia, spatially

The most common sources of data for ecosystem
service indicators can be divided into four
categories:
 
2. In-situ observations
 
 
National statistics
Census data is readily available for several



Examples of indicators calculated using national
statistics:
 

 
related disease per year and area of sloping

 
as a protected area and number of people

Global databases of ecosystem services held by
FAO2 are a good starting point for information

the amount produced and extracted (delivery),
traded and the monetary value for many crops

some services, the data are updated annually and

others are only updated infrequently and by a


Be aware that data accuracy varies in national

a country’s monitoring infrastructure which is

gaps across years are thus common in poorer
countries and FAO use estimates to compensate

care needs to be taken when using this type of
data and uncertainty analyses are recommended

In-situ observations
In-situ observations can be data gathered from

monitoring and local/household surveys of

based estimations is important for validating

Examples of indicators calculated using in-situ
observations:
 


 


 


There are several challenges with collecting


Second, methods and information from



Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessments





2 
ecosystem-services/en/

33
One reason is the lack of appropriate methods
and tools for ecosystem service assessment that
do not require substantial resources or specialist
technical knowledge, or rely heavily upon existing

Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment
(TESSA) which provides practical guidance on how
to measure and monitor a number of ecosystem
services at the site scale with limited time and
resources, and how to assess the potential impacts

helps the user to decide which services to include in
the assessment, what methods to use, and how to

Community monitoring of ecosystem services
enables year-round, low cost generation of local

of this data gathering technique are that it: provides
information for local-level decision making;
generates local jobs; raises interest in conservation;
allows for the incorporation of traditional ecological
knowledge; and helps maintain cultural heritage

gathering tools now exist to facilitate communities


by Google are two of the major tools that local



Remote sensing
Remote sensing consists of data collection from

the height in which data is recorded; ground
level, airborne level such as aircraft and balloon;
space borne such as satellites and space stations

to estimate both terrestrial and ocean primary
production, enabling the measurement of
production of crops, feed, wood, biofuel and the
regulation of climate through changes in carbon

for monitoring inland and marine water quality,

as Global Forest Watch3, where changes in
forest cover can be detected in real time, opens
opportunities for much more frequent data

Examples of indicators using remote sensing:
 

 
carbon and global loss of annual net

 
Using remote sensing for indicator development
has many advantages, some of the key ones are: it
is a relatively cheap and rapid method to acquire
up-to-date information over a large geographical
area; it provides a continuous, repetitive and large
scale synoptic view; it is a practical way to obtain
data from inaccessible and dangerous areas; and
these data are easy to manipulate with a computer
and combine with other geographic coverage in

some disadvantages that it is important to be
aware of, these are: high uncertainty in remote
sensing data as they are not direct samples of the
phenomenon; it is expensive to build and operate

to interpret remote sensing data, unless the person
has a good knowledge of how the instruments
work, the measurement uncertainties and the

Numerical Simulation Models
Often data is not collected or cannot be obtained
through the methods described previously, for
example because the service is complex, such as

instances numerical simulation models are able

Examples of indicators using numerical
simulation models:
 
unit area and potential annual agricultural

3 


 

Modelling software, such as WaterWorld and
the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), allow
numerical modelling of an area to establish

to understand the hydrological and water resources
baseline and water risk factors associated with

under scenarios for land use, land management



used to guide conservation planning, assess soil
erosion for conservation policy development, and

A wide range of models exist for monitoring
ecosystem services, and these are useful to
understand how ecosystem services respond
to changes in biophysical or societal conditions

these models also describe how the supply, delivery,


inputs needed for these models can be gathered


software tools available to help calculate ecosystem
services, for example tools such as the Integrated

(InVEST) and Co$ting Nature provide platforms
for users to analyse data and produce values, maps

common modelling platforms used for monitoring




7 

9 
biosphere-water-modelling/lpjml
Box 6: Decision-support and modelling tools
InVEST5 has been widely used to assess multiple ecosystem services in one geographical region and
show the workow of implementing the tool. It uses ecological production functions to model the provision
and demand for services, i.e. how changes in inputs (ecosystem service supply or potential) affect outputs
(services) (Nemec & Raudsepp-Hearne, 2013). Ecosystem processes and services that can be modeled
by InVEST so far include: wave energy, coastal vulnerability, coastal protection, marine sh aquaculture,
marine aesthetic quality, sheries and recreation, marine habitat, terrestrial biodiversity, carbon storage and
sequestration, reservoir hydropower production, water purication, nutrient retention, sediment retention,
timber production and crop pollination (Nemec & Raudsepp-Hearne, 2013).
Co$ting Nature6 calculates the spatial distribution of ecosystem services for water, carbon, hazard
mitigation and tourism and combines these with maps of conservation priority, threatened biodiversity
and endemism to understand the spatial distribution of critical ecosystems. The tool identies the
potential and realised services. These data are combined with analysis of current human pressures and
future threats on ecosystems and their services in order to assess conservation priorities.
ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES)7 maps and values ecosystem services and
assesses the impacts of land use on them. ARIES is a software application that supports ecosystem
service assessment and valuation. It builds models of supply and demand for ecosystem services from
stored component models, and simulates the dynamic ow of benets spatially.
Multi-scale Integrated Models of Ecosystem Services (MIMES)8 is a suite of models for land use
change and marine spatial planning decision making. The models quantify the effects of land and sea
use change on ecosystem services and run at global, regional, and local levels. Access to the SIMILE
software is required.
Lund-Potsdam-Jena Managed Land model (LPJmL)9 is designed to simulate vegetation composition
and distribution as well as stocks and land-atmosphere exchange ows of carbon and water, for both
natural and agricultural ecosystems.



can be useful in choosing the types of indicator

potential sources of data described here,
availability of data is one of the major challenges

Table 3.
The Statistics Division of FAO¥


National
statistics Remote sensing
Field
estimations Models
  High
resolution
Low
resolution
TESSA Natura
2000
InVEST LPJmL ARIES MIMES
Ecosystem service component
Supply  ✓✓  ✓✓✓✓
Delivery ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Contribution
to well-being
✓ ✓ ✓
Value ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Spatial scale
Local/
landscape
✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
National ✓✓  ✓✓✓✓
Global ✓
¥
Source: GEO BON Ecosystem Services Working Group
Data sources
Ecosystem service indicators often require
information from a variety of sources, including
environmental, social, economic, political

government departments, health charities and
NGOs, tourism bodies and the general public
are all possible sources of useful information


and tool might be useful when calculating
indicators for a range of ecosystem services and
Box 7 presents datasets and sources of data that
were used to develop indicators with sub-global



Table 4. 

Agency, provides information on land cover by biofuel crops, CDM: Methodologies developed by


Gases, IPCC: Standards for measuring carbon stocks and uptakes developed by the Intergovernmental


Service
National
statistics
Remote
sensing
Field
estimations Models
Additional data sources
and comments
Provisioning
Crop FAOSTAT ✓TESSA ARIES, LPJml,
MIMES
Fodder  ✓ MIMES
Livestock FAOSTAT  MIMES
Aquaculture FAOSTAT ✓ INVEST
Fisheries FAOSTAT ✓ ARIES, MIMES Only subsistence sheries from
ARIES
Wood FAOSTAT ✓ INVEST, LPJmL,
MIMES
Biofuels FAOSTAT ✓ MIMES IEA, CDM, ISO14040/44
Game meat FAOSTAT ✓MIMES
All harvested wild goods ✓iNatura ARIES, MIMES
Water  ✓iTESSA INVEST, LJPml,
ARIES, MIMES
Hydropower energy ✓iINVEST, MIMES
Regulating
Climate regulation (Carbon
stocks and uptake)
WDCGG ✓TESSA INVEST, LJPml,
ARIES, MIMES
IPCC, National statistics available for
selected countries. Carbon uptake
needs monitoring through time
Regulation of marine and
freshwater quality
✓Natura INVEST, MIMES Only nutrients-freshwater for Natura.
Highly patchy data availability. Quality
dened with respect to users.
Regulation of soil fertility   MIMES Multiple local survey methods
Regulation of soil erosion  ✓iNatura INVEST, ARIES,
MIMES
Marine/coastal and terrestrial erosion
models from INVEST
Flood regulation  ✓i ARIES, MIMES
Coastal protection  ✓i INVEST, MIMES
Contribution of coastal
habitat to sheries
✓i INVEST, MIMES
Pollination  Natura INVEST
Pest control  Natura, IPM 
Cultural
All non-tangible benets MIMES Chan et al., 2012; Klain & Chan, 2012
for eld protocols.
MIMES models differential
user demand
Aesthetic views  ✓i INVEST, ARIES
Nature-based tourism  ✓iNatura, TESSA 
Source: GEO BON Ecosystem Services Working Group

37
Box 7: Datasets and sources of data used to develop indicators within Sub-global
Assessments
For developing ecosystem service indicators, Sub-Global Assessments (SGAs) used data from
national statistics, government databases, regional and international agencies (e.g. FAO, Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species; CITES, World Travel and Tourism Council; WTTC and
National Aeronautics and Space Administration; NASA), databases from university and research
institutes, as well as literature review and expert assessments. Additionally, original research including
eld observations and measurements, monitoring data and expert assessments also provided valuable
information for developing ecosystem services indicators.
The majority of assessments used data from national statistics and government databases, government
ministries and departments (e.g. forestry, water, natural resource, land and agriculture ministries),
regional and international agencies (e.g. FAO, CITES, WTTC and NASA) and databases from university
and research institutes (e.g. University of British Columbia (UBC) Fisheries Centre Sea Around US
project).
Data and information used for developing indicators of provisioning services such as food provisioning
and in particular of capture sheries (e.g. annual sh harvest, real USD value of sh harvest and catch
per unit effort) were obtained mainly from institutions such as FAO, global and regional sh datasets
from FISHSTAT and UBC Fisheries Centre, Sea Around Us Project 2006 and government databases.
Institutions such as CITES also provided data used to develop provisioning services indicators such as
traded species products.
Data used for developing indicators of regulating services was principally obtained from literature
reviews, national statistics (e.g. statistical datasets on land-use change and satellite image), remote
sensing data (MODIS), NASA, and government ministries of forestry, water management, natural
resources management, land and agriculture, eld measurements and expert assessments and regional
institutes (e.g. the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology).
Data for developing indicators of cultural services was obtained mainly from WTTC, interviews with
local experts, protected area managers, data from local authorities and protected areas, literature
review, eld counts, reports of the hunting control service in Altai-Sayan Ecoregion, expert assessments,
household views, literature review and national statistics from forestry and environment and tourism
ministries.
Supporting services data sources included national statistical datasets on land-use change and
satellite images. As for indicators fullling more than one ecosystem service, data sources included
literature reviews, national statistical datasets on land-use change and satellite images, various
research reports, UN World Statistics Pocket Book, government departments and ministries, FAO’s,
Forest Resources Assessment Division and Landsat ETM+, Earth Trends and Global Land Cover
Facility.
The analysis found out the datasets used had a variety of shortcomings, which therefore present key
challenges in developing sound ecosystem service indicators. Most of these data are often patchy
and in some cases based on one-off or ad hoc studies, rather than ongoing monitoring. Some of
the data are not comparable over a number of years. As a result, integrating existing data sets and
making them comparable to produce time-series statistics is a key challenge. Improving the data
collected at different scales by these agencies could be essential to the development of robust
ecosystem service indicators.
Source: UNEP-WCMC, 2011

 Step 7: Calculating indicators
The actual calculation of indicators through
the use and presentation of data is an iterative


creative process, in many ways this step overlaps
with the previous ones to identify possible
indicators and review the data, as well as the

The starting point for calculating an indicator


an indicator will depend on the rationale,
the intended use and the ecosystem service


each term means and to whom, so as to establish

We now consider a hypothetical example

question has been chosen to be “What value does

case, an environmental agency reports water,


data sources available are interview responses
conducted with a subset of inhabitants who


To be able to calculate indicators these data must


subset of inhabitants were interviewed and the
water dataset has blank values for one year as the

Considering these two data sets it is likely that
extra data sets will be required to provide a more
suitable range of indicators, such as tourism,


and understood, then methods of calculating


changed over time, or a series of pie charts used

data could be introduced to show the impacts
on water provision following an event such as

to show the spatial relationship between water

calculation could use a method to produce an
index value, such as the Living Planet Index, for
example the calculation of the overall ecosystem




Questions to ask during this step:
● Are the methods of data collection and analysis scientically valid and defensible (considering the
conceptual model)?
● Have all the steps for calculating the indicator been documented so that someone without prior
experience of the indicator can follow them?


39
Box 8: Calculation of an indicator for Aichi Biodiversity Target 14
The Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP) brings together over 40 international data providers in order
to produce a suite of global indicators. These indicators are used to track progress towards the Aichi
Biodiversity Targets, a framework for monitoring implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
2011-2020, adopted by the CBD Conference of the Parties in 2010.
Within the BIP suite of indicators, the indicator ‘Biodiversity for Food and Medicine’ has been used as a
proxy to measure progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Target 14.11 This indicator comprises of a Red List
Index for amphibians, birds and mammals used for food and medicine, the Accessibility Index to track
the changes of affordability of wild sourced products (Figure 5), change over time in the conservation
status of animals used for food and medicine and a baseline for the conservation status of medicinal
plants.
Figure 5. Red List Indices showing the proportion of species expected to remain extant in the near
future without additional conservation action for amphibians, birds and mammals.
Source: IUCN & BirdLife International, 2008 & Chenery et al., 2013

livelihoods and well-being, are restored and safeguarded, taking into account the needs of women, indigenous and local



Step 8: Communicate and interpret indicators
Indicators as communication tools
Indicators can be seen as a communication tool

therefore need to be presented and interpreted


question is that it naturally encourages the
selection and communication of the indicators

this key question with stakeholders also means
that the presentation and communication
methods are more likely to be appropriate for
the intended audience, in terms of language,

Visuals such as graphs or maps can be much
more appealing to the end user and often
portray the key message more succinctly than


Maps identify spatial patterns, overlaps and
gaps and also provide a focus and context to
facilitate discussion and support decision making

to a key question to accompany these visuals
will facilitate the reader’s understanding of the


surrounding it and should include the purpose of

Box 9: Using maps to present ecosystem service indicator information
The MA (2005) gave increasing prominence to the role played by ecosystems in providing for the health
and well-being of humans. The ‘Health and well-being of communities directly dependent on ecosystem
goods and services’ indicator is an attempt to develop an associated metric that reects such important
and complex linkages. The indicator demonstrates the link between poverty and vulnerability to the
loss of biodiversity. It builds on the statement in the MA that it is the poorest members of society
whom suffer most greatly from such loss, and looks to raise awareness of this fact to decision makers.
The indicator is an overlay of (i) the health status (using subnational infant mortality statistics) of (ii)
the numbers of people that are highly dependent on their environment – dened as living more than
six hours from urban areas of at least 50,000 people – against (iii) the threat category assigned to
ecoregions. The indicator information is displayed as a ‘heat map’ (Figure 6), with the most badly affected
areas displayed in dark red. This aids the easy interpretation of the indicator, and communicates the
important message in a powerful visual manner.
Figure 6. Poverty and Isolation within critically threatened and vulnerable ecoregions
Source: BIP, 2012


Using indicators to communicate stories
Overall we recommend that the communication
of indicators be designed in the form of a ‘story’
or narrative about the subject, in response to the

indicator is essential, as indicators by themselves
provide only a partial understanding (indication)

interpretation of why they are changing and how
those changes relate to the system or issue as a

put the indicator in context and see how it relates

and explain the indicator should therefore be

It is important to know your audience when


how you present the information, for example
scientists and technical experts will require a


and experience in technical methodologies
and data and are likely to want to see a range of

generally respond well to the presentation of
single indicators which clearly communicate the
message, using as few indicators as possible with

Questions to ask during this step:
● Is the indicator presented appropriately to facilitate communication?
● Does the indicator communicate a story to the intended audience?
● What kind of media do I want to use to communicate the indicator storyline?
● Have I tailored the indicator outputs to the intended audiences?
Step 9: Test and rene the indicators with stakeholders
A key step in the production of successful


indicators which involve the development of new
methods, or new combinations of datasets, this


The presentation of draft or preliminary
indicators is useful for both indicator developers

them to see how the indicator is progressing,
whether it answers their questions and how

producing and presenting the indicators should
be ready to make changes in response to this


If the development of the indicator involves a

expectations of the degree to which they are
expected to be involved in ongoing review

ecosystem service indicators at the watershed


communities and resource users may be mainly
interested in just the resulting indicators and
interpretation of the issues, to empower them in

involvement in the development of the indicator
will be crucial in understanding resource use,

Policy makers and regulators may be primarily
interested in the end results of the process as it
provides them with background information on

management and research institutions, who are


actively involved in the indicator development
process, may use it to build their own capacity

interested in the process as much as in the end-
product, seeing it as a possible way of enhancing
the participation of the wider community in


if it will inform potential payment for ecosystem

Even though the opinions, or needs, of stakeholder

limits to the extent to which indicator developers

important for the organisation or group leading
the development of the indicator to manage these
expectations, and to co-ordinate the review of
the indicator in such a way so that stakeholders
provide appropriate input and review it in a

Questions to ask during this step:
● Does the indicator answer the users’ key question(s)?
● Is the indicator t for purpose?
● Is the indicator understood in the intended manner by the users?
● What improvements could be made to the indicator and its presentation?
Step 10: Develop monitoring and reporting systems
A lack of suitable data, especially data with
comparable time series, is often given as a barrier

If valuable ecosystem service indicators are

an investment is required in the monitoring
systems to produce trustworthy and accessible

of ecosystem service indicators also requires
establishing the institutional and technical

exist within a single agency, and may involve
both NGOs and government agencies working in
partnerships to generate indicators and collect



Therefore, teams with diverse backgrounds and




documentation of the work done and data

management of data and associated metadata is a

fact sheet is a powerful way to guide and support
all stages of indicator development and its

and reporting of an indicator over time requires
one institution to have this responsibility,
although it is not necessary for this to be the
same institution as that which produces and uses



One way to promote the sustainable production
of an indicator is for it to be recognised and

endorsement and demand for its regular
calculation provides a strong case for the

This investment must include the maintenance
of a monitoring system to produce reliable data


communicated, the greater the likelihood
that resources will be found for its continued

Questions to ask during this step:
● Is there sufcient institutional technical capacity and resources to produce the indicator now and in
the future?
● Is there a clear institutional responsibility for the continued production and reporting of the indicator?
● Do data collection and monitoring systems or agreements need to be strengthened?

Coffee plantation, Colombia © David Persson, Shutterstock.com





Mainstreaming biodiversity is one of the
priorities of high level international policy and
processes, for example, the CBD, UNCCD, IPBES,



institutions with the values and practices of



3 Mainstreaming ecosystem
service indicators
This section describes the process of mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators into existing
monitoring and reporting systems of policies and plans at international, national, sub-national and
sectoral levels. It explains the why and how of mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators with a
particular focus on the entry points, enabling factors and approaches and tools for mainstreaming.
Finally the section describes approaches that are available to support mainstreaming ecosystem service
indicators as well as key success factors for mainstreaming.
Box 10: Examples of definitions of mainstreaming
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED): Mainstreaming can be thought of as
“inclusion or integrating a set of actions that have traditionally been seen as marginal issues into broader
development policy” (Dalal-Clayton & Bass, 2009).
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): mainstreaming is the “integration of the conservation and
sustainable use of biodiversity in both cross-sectoral plans such as sustainable development, poverty
reduction, climate change adaptation/mitigation, trade and international cooperation, and in sector-
specific plans such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining, energy, tourism, transport and others”
(CBD, 2011).
The African Leadership of the NBSAPs 2.0 Project: Mainstreaming is the “the integration of
biodiversity concerns into defined sectors and development goals, through a variety of approaches and
mechanisms, so as to achieve sustainable biodiversity and development outcomes” (African Leadership
Group, 2012)
Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF):
Biodiversity mainstreaming is “the process of embedding biodiversity considerations into policies,
strategies and practices of key public and private actors that impact or rely on biodiversity, so that it is
conserved and sustainably used both locally and globally” (Huntley & Redford, 2014).



characteristics of mainstreaming:
 
 


 
across multiple levels of government as well as

The overall desired outcomes of mainstreaming
ecosystem service indicators are that:
● chosen indicators are formally incorporated
into monitoring and reporting systems of
development and environment policies and

and global levels;
● indicators are updated on a regular basis, so
that they can be used to track change over time;
● indicators are actually used to support policy and
decision making, whether this be in reports on
progress towards targets, analysis of important


ecosystem service indicators” as the integration
of ecosystem service indicators, that are

existing monitoring and reporting systems of
economic development and biodiversity policies
and plans at global, national, sub-national and
sectoral levels, through a variety of approaches

Ecosystem service indicators can be both a
tool for mainstreaming ecosystem services into
policy processes (for example, ecosystem service
indicators can play an important function in
supporting the incorporation of biodiversity
and ecosystem service values into policies such
as NBSAPs), and can also be mainstreamed
themselves into existing monitoring and
reporting systems of policies and plans at global,



into existing monitoring and reporting systems of

service indicators into existing monitoring and
reporting systems of policies and plans at global,
national, sub-national and sectoral levels denotes
that the chosen indicators for ecosystem services
are, for example, incorporated into mandates of
data-gathering and monitoring and reporting

Furthermore, it will also ensure that monitoring
and reporting systems gather ecosystem service


to track changes at a rate appropriate to the
“characteristic scale” of ecosystem processes and



Ecosystem service indicators are generally
missing from standard monitoring and reporting
frameworks of national and sub-national

a result, ecosystem service impacts have the
potential to be overlooked in planning and

service indicators will help to enhance the
recognition of the importance of ecosystem
services to humans and the importance of

In doing so, it is anticipated that the business
case for ecosystem service indicators will become
more self-evident and, consequently, will draw






The mainstreaming process entails
strengthening and adapting the existing
national monitoring and reporting systems

process will build on existing institutions and
sources of information as well as adapting

The ultimate objective of mainstreaming of
ecosystem service indicators is that national
and sectoral monitoring and reporting systems
include consistent data over time on the status
and trends of ecosystem services and enable

can be helped by having databases that can
store information for ecosystem service metrics
and indicators and integrate those data with
information on human well-being, direct and
indirect drivers of ecosystem change, and

Union makes indicators on natural resource
management publicly available online (Eurostat)
and the Global Reporting Initiative standards
for corporate sustainability reports require

service indicators are to be mainstreamed,
they need to be produced regularly and with
consistent and accessible data, so adequate
investment in monitoring and reporting systems

mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators, like
many other mainstreaming processes, requires a




SERVICE INDICATORS
This section outlines a set of key tasks which will
help to mainstream ecosystem service indicators
into monitoring and reporting systems of policies

indicators is not a mechanical exercise which

it will occur irregularly within and across sectors
and levels of government with some sectors being

change process, ecosystems service indicators


undertaken as far as possible in the process of

These tasks are based on mainstreaming

Biodiversity and Development Project being


It should be noted that these basic tasks are
not sequential, and are to be used as part of an

3.4.1 Identify and engage a broad range of
key stakeholders
This involves initial discussions about associated
institutional, governance and capacity changes
required to achieve the overall desired goal of
mainstreaming, in order to identify who should

achieve mainstreaming of ecosystem service
indicators are likely to be the same people or



have monitoring and reporting systems that
you want to insert ecosystem service indicators

key stakeholders, you need to ask yourself who
knows what; who controls what; who can support


org/featured-projects/integrating-biodiversity-and-development


3.4.2 Identify entry points
Identifying, understanding and prioritising
national, sectoral, sub-national or local level
entry points for mainstreaming ecosystem service

There is no single way to choose entry points for
mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators,
and no one factor that promises success

important to choose and prioritise entry points

to mainstream everywhere, at once, may be

Box 11: Tips for choosing and prioritising entry points for a mainstreaming effort
Some criteria for choosing and prioritising entry points can include the monitoring and reporting
systems of policies and plans for which:
● The links between ecosystem services and human well-being are most easily demonstrated and
communicated.
● The links between ecosystem services and human well-being are the most direct.
● There is a potential “champion” to take on the cause and/or where there is substantial interest in
sustainability.
● Their timing creates an opportunity.
Source: adapted from CBD, 2011


Table 5. 

Level Entry point
Global The United Nations Statistics Division, the World Banks’ World
Development Indicators, United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) Human Development Statistics and FAOSTAT
National
National government National Statistical Ofces, National Accounting System
Development assistance
agencies
Monitoring and reporting systems of UN Development Assistance
Frameworks, Bilateral Country Assistance Strategies and County
Programmes, etc.
Non-governmental and civil
society organizations (NGO/CSOs)
Programmes and projects monitoring and reporting system
Sectoral
Sectoral ministries Monitoring and reporting systems of sector policies and plans (e.g.
agriculture, forestry, wildlife, tourism)
Private sector companies Environmental monitoring and reporting systems of private companies
and businesses
Sub-national
Local government Monitoring and reporting systems of district development plans and
decentralised sector policies
Area-based management
initiatives (e.g. watersheds,
marine areas and coastal zones)
Monitoring and reporting systems of initiatives such as integrated
marine and coastal area management, integrated watershed
management, and integrated oceans management


Particularly important entry points for ecosystem
service indicators are those at the national


mainstreaming at this level may be the most

based plans are relevant and useful to the extent
that they can motivate and serve as model for

3.4.3 Develop a business case for
mainstreaming ecosystem service
indicators

prioritised, the next step entails developing

mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators in

To help your case, identify the most important


from using ecosystem service indicators (see Step



monitoring and reporting on ecosystem service

with the key policy priorities of the government

might include the role of ecosystem service
indicators in national planning, reporting and
decision making on job creation, health, food
and water security, growth and equity, and rural

The arguments for investing in ecosystem service
indicators should focus on their importance
for tracking and communicating trends in the
quantity and quality of provisioning, regulating
and cultural services, and their supply and
contribution of ecosystem services to human

or not these services are being appropriately
managed and sustainably used or lost, and how
sustainability-related policies and management
decisions should be designed to ensure the

wellbeing and poverty reduction, and maintain


multilateral processes such as the CBD, UNCCD,

for each audience because the same messages

3.4.4 Identify enabling factors for
mainstreaming ecosystem service
indictors
There may be particular catalysts or enabling
factors that can make best use of entry points
from national to local and sectoral levels,

enduring or rather ephemeral, depending upon

factors that need to be worked with might
include:
● 
● Media and public perception and awareness of

● 
● 
● Transparent, accountable and inclusive

● 
● 
Identifying which enabling factors are absent
should also inform the approaches and tools you
choose for mainstreaming ecosystem services



3.4.5 Shape a communication strategy

about the changes in policy, norms and behavior
of institutions needed for mainstreaming

strong communication throughout the ecosystem

vital during stakeholder engagement and making

must identify who needs to change, what needs
to change, and what decisions, methods and

3.4.6 Tools and approaches for
mainstreaming ecosystem service
indicators
Several practical tools can be used to support

These help to ensure ecosystem service indicators
are built into the monitoring systems, and there
is close collaboration with the national statistics

● Ecosystem and ecosystem services
assessment: Assessments can inform decision
making processes, such as national and local
plans like NBSAPs, NDPs and sector plans, of
the value of ecosystem services and biodiversity
by highlighting the links between healthy
ecosystems and the attainment of economic

ecosystem assessment approach is stakeholder
engagement designed to achieve core values

means that assessments can form not only a

action, but also develop information which is
directly relevant to policy, as well as practical
and useable tools to inform better decision
making and mainstream biodiversity and

● Ecosystem service mapping: Mapping
provides an important opportunity for
mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators as
it is generally used to assess status and trends
in ecosystem service provision and human


service mapping is also used in the context of

● Economic and non-economic valuation of
ecosystem services: Valuation of ecosystem
services provides useful and reliable information
for decision making, when applied carefully

reliability of economic valuation tools has led
governments and other stakeholders to apply
them more frequently and to give increasing
weight in decision making to the estimates

economic value of ecosystem services is just
an additional way of assessing the role and


● Natural capital accounting frameworks:
Accounting can provide detailed statistics for

land and water accounts can help countries
interested in increasing hydro power capacity
to assess the value of competing land uses and

accounts can help biodiversity rich countries
design a management strategy that balances

subsistence livelihoods, and ecosystem services

● Legal instruments: Ecosystem services and
ecosystem service indicators may be integrated



economic activity with stipulations on reporting
on ecosystem services and ecosystem service

have provision for data gathering organisations

ecosystem services and their indicators in their



● Spatial Planning: Spatial plans determine
where economic activities and infrastructure


undertaken within them and provide for the


integrate environmental and sustainability
objectives into spatial plans opening a door

were once the exclusive domain of national
governments, they are now also used in sub-

● Guidelines on how to mainstream
ecosystem service indicators: Making
guidelines on how to mainstream ecosystem
services and their indicators and ecosystem

CDs and hard copies can help the process

workshops on developing and mainstreaming
ecosystem service indicators also help with

situ support to users of the tools, usually over

● Establishing a network for monitoring
ecosystem services at local to global scales:
Setting up multi-stakeholder network for
monitoring ecosystem services at local, nation
and global scales can also help to augment


create mechanisms by which local stakeholders
can provide input and feed into the national

help facilitate the engagement with local
stakeholders, and help assess the status of

scale monitoring could dovetail into existing
ecosystem services research and monitoring

Stakeholder workshop © Uzbekistan Society for the Protection of Birds (2014)


Box 12: Existing networks and mainstreaming initiatives
Existing networks:
● The Ecosystem Service Partnership (http://www.es-partnership.org/esp)
● The International Long-Term Research (http://www.ilternet.edu)
● MIMES (http://www.ebmtools.org/mimes.html)
● The Natural Capital Project (www.naturalcapitalproject.org)
● The Program for Ecosystem Change and Society (http://www.pecs-science.org)
● The Sub-Global Assessment Network (http://www.ecosystemassessments.net/)
● The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (http://www.teamnetwork.org)
Existing mainstreaming initiatives:
● The WAVES initiative: Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services
(www.wavespartnership.org)
● The System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA)
(SEEA; http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/seea.asp)
● Project on Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ; www.proecoserv.org)
● Eco taxation in forestry sector and accounting of ecosystem services in Senegal.
● Economic valuation of ecosystem services for estimating ‘Gross Domestic Product’ (GDP) of the
Poor', Southern Sudan (www.ese-valuation.org)
● Implementation of ecosystem accounting: Inclusive Wealth Report (with IHDP)
● Establishing the linkages of macroeconomic policies and ecosystem services with the help of
scientic evidence in selected countries (Valuation of ecosystem assets in Morocco and Kazakhistan)
● The UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI; www.unpei.org)


3.4.7 Key success factors for mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators
The tools and approaches discussed here provide
an essential foundation for mainstreaming


from mainstreaming poverty–environment and
biodiversity and ecosystem services show that a
range of “soft” factors are equally important for


these less tangible aspects include:
● Paying close attention to policy,
institutional and practice context:
Mainstreaming ecosystem service indicators
into monitoring and reporting systems of policy
and plans requires an intimate understanding
of the policy, institutional and practice context
in that sector, which can be developed only
through substantial contact and careful

● Building ongoing relationships:

a process, which can be achieved only
through building ongoing long-term working
relationships with key individuals in the

● Providing in situ support: No matter how
user-friendly mainstreaming guidelines are,
mainstreaming can never be achieved simply
by handing guidelines over and expecting


mainstreaming requires in situ support to users
of the tools, usually over an extended period

● Convening regular forums for co-
ordination and lesson sharing among those
involved in mainstreaming in a particular
sector, and strengthening networks of

forums can take the form of, for example,

time and resources in such processes can be
invaluable for developing shared objectives and
understanding across sectors and disciplines,
thereby helping to embed mainstreaming

● Online access to information: Making the
mainstreaming guidelines freely available
online is essential for facilitating their use and

● Create champions: One way to promote
the sustainable production of ecosystem
service indicators is for it to be recognised

This endorsement and demand for its regular
calculation provides a strong case for the

● Synergies with other conventions: A
synergistic approach to implementation,
monitoring and reporting to the CBD,
UNFCCC, UNCCD, CITES and Ramsar
Convention can also help the process of



Drakensburg Gardens, South Africa © Jonathan Gill (2014)



developed in South Africa
In South Africa the concept of ecosystem services
is becoming well embedded in environmental
policy, mainly due to the country’s engagement
in the South African Millennium Ecosystem




outcomes have been used to set performance
agreements with all national departments and
an opportunity to develop ecosystem service
Environmental assets
and natural resources that are well protected
and continually enhanced


depicts part of these indicators related to the
water resources, where they have made it clear
which type of ecosystem services category the
ecosystem service indicator addresses and if the

Table 6. Part of South Africa’s national indicators proposed and in use

Outcome/
Policy
objective
Indicator Unit Ecosystem
service
category
Benefit flow to
human well-
being explicit?
Currently
measured
Source
Water resources
are protected,
with quality and
quantity enhanced
Number of wetlands
rehabilitated per year
(100 per year)
Number of
wetlands
rehabilitated
All No No Outcome
10
Number of wetlands
under formal
protection (Ramsar
sites)
Number of
wetlands formally
protected
All No No Outcome
10
Number of major
rivers with healthy
ecosystems meeting
resource quality
objectives
Number of rivers
with healthy
ecosystems
All No No Outcome
10
Enhanced fresh water
quality (eutrophication
levels)
Phosphorus and
Chlorophyll A
concentration
Provisioning No Yes DEAT
Ground water quality Total dissolved
solids in mg/l
Provisioning/
Regulating
No Yes DEAT
Fresh water
availability
% demand of
available water
Provisioning No Yes DEAT
Access required per
person/household
Provisioning Yes Yes DEAT


In addition to the national level performance
targets, the country’s NBSAP also includes policy
targets for ecosystem services and describes
indicators needed for assessing progress towards


indicators and found that most indicators are not in


of indicators still focus on the provisioning services
and supply side of measures, indicating that


Seven new ecosystem service indicators, developed
by CSIR to address these weaknesses, are now


QUALITY FOR DOMESTIC AND AGRICULTURAL USE
4.1.1 Rationale
Globally the supply of good quality water
depends on a variety of social and ecological

treatment infrastructure may be poorly
maintained, the condition of the underpinning


supply of good quality water usually only provide
an indirect measure of water quantity and quality
and do not assess the consequences for human

The indicator developed here integrates data set
states of river ecological condition relevant to
ecological functions necessary for water quality

data and enables trends in ecological condition

This information can then be used for national

4.1.2 Development
Data were supplied by the Directorate of Water
Ecosystems in the national Department of Water

● Present ecological state 1999
and 2011
These data provide an assessment of river
ecological condition by estimating the extent



drivers of ecological functioning were included:

condition, introduced instream biota and

criterion was assessed per river reach by local


● River condition from the National Freshwater
Ecosystem Priority Areas projec




assessed large rivers, which tend to be more


were obtained from the river condition of the
National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas
project, which tend to be in good ecological



GIS layer used by the national DWA for strategic

in the Good, Fair and Poor conditions (Table
7) were then calculated at a national level and

Water Management Areas are administrative
units based on catchment boundaries used
to implement integrated water resource



Table 7. 
For this study, A and B rivers can be considered to be in a “Good” condition, C rivers a “Fair”

Ecological
category Description
A (Good) Unmodied, natural.
B (Good) Largely natural with few modications. A small change in natural habitats and biota
may have taken place but the ecosystem functions are essentially unchanged.
C (Fair) Moderately-modied. A loss and change of natural habitat and biota have occurred
but the basic ecosystem functions are still predominantly unchanged.
D (Poor) Largely-modied. A large loss of natural habitat, biota and basic ecosystem functions
have occurred.
E (Poor) Seriously-modied. The loss of natural habitat, biota and basic ecosystem functions
are extensive.
F (Poor) Critically/Extremely-modied. Modications have reached a critical level and the
system has been modied completely with an almost complete loss of natural habitat
and biota. In the worst instances the basic ecosystem functions have been destroyed
and the changes are irreversible.
4.1.3 How to interpret the indicator
A decline of rivers in good ecological condition
indicates loss of biodiversity, while an increase
in poor ecological condition indicates a loss
of ecosystem function and hence a decline in
the capacity of the ecosystem to regulate water

condition is a particular concern in areas lacking

4.1.4 Assessment
The proportion of rivers in good ecological condition

the proportion in poor ecological condition has

rivers in good condition is in the arid interior and
north-eastern portions of South Africa while the
largest increases in poor condition are in Greater

rivers in good ecological condition has decreased
in all of the nine Water Management Areas
except Berg-Olifants, where there has been active

Figure 7. National trends in river ecological


0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1999 2011
% river length
Good
Fair
Poor



AREAS FOR WATER SECURITY
4.2.1 Rationale
South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas
supply disproportionately high amounts of the





Deterioration of water quality and quantity in

the functioning of downstream ecosystems and
the sustainability of communities, appropriate
land and water management is therefore critical

This indicator focuses on land cover-land use
data as a measure of the drivers of change that are
relevant to water quality and quantity: pollution;
erosion; invasive alien plants; land use; and water

for assessing the condition and trends in key
areas of water supply and for the communication

Figure 8.

Mean Annual
Runoff (mm/year)
0 - 25
25 - 60
60 - 135
135 - 220
Major Towns
220 - 420
Major Rivers
> 420
Strategic Water
Source Areas


4.2.2 Development

resolution for the Strategic Water Source Areas of
South Africa originally mapped by the National
Freshwater Ecosystem Project were superimposed




South African National Biodiversity Institute

cultivated, plantation, urban and mining land
cover were extracted due to their known impacts

then expressed as a percentage of the total

The indicator excludes data on some important
drivers of change in condition, including water
quality, invasive alien tree infestation, soil health

become available it can be incorporated into the

4.2.3 How to interpret the indicator
A decline in natural land cover implies a decline
in the healthy functioning of the Strategic
Water Source Areas, while a rise in either the
cultivation, plantation, urban or mining land
cover classes would imply expansion of that class

4.2.4 Assessment
No clear trends in the proportion of the Strategic
Water Sources with natural land cover can be









0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1996 2000 2009
% of Strategic Water Source Area
Natural
Cultivation
Plantation
Urban
Mining
Figure 9. Land cover trends in Strategic Water
Source Areas


recent assessment of prospecting and mining
licenses showed that there is large potential

the National Strategic Water Source Areas in
Mpumalanga under some sort of mining licence

4.2.5 National Use
Although South Africa’s Strategic Water Source
Areas have only recently been mapped (Nel et




Strategic Integrated Project on investing in





4.3.1 Rationale
Water quality is declining in many regions
of the world as the result of a combination of

pollution, as well as declines in the extent
and condition of natural ecosystems, such as


by these water quality problems will be those
without access to piped and treated water, who
instead depend directly on the water provided
by natural ecosystems such as rivers, springs,

There is a need to develop an indicator of water
quality that focuses on these communities
in order to better maintain and enhance the
ecosystems and services that are key to their

captures trends in the quality of water available
to dependent communities using data from

4.3.2 Development
Measuring progress towards water quality and
security targets is complex, requiring data on: the
health and wellbeing of dependent communities,
the quality of their water, the condition of the
ecosystems purifying and regulating the water
supply, and trends in drivers of change of these

preliminary indicator is still under development


piped and treated or from natural sources) was
extracted from South Africa’s general household



Survey results related to water quality were then
extracted so that the proportion of households
dependent on natural water sources reporting
water quality problems could be calculated

by plotting this information over the period
over which the household surveys have been

Figure 10. Map of communities without access
to treated and piped water, instead dependent on
rivers, streams, pools, springs and boreholes for


Figure 11. Map of the proportion of households
dependent on natural sources of water reporting
water quality problems in the general household


Dependent households (%)
0 - 20
20 - 40
40 - 60
>60
Dependent households reporting water
quality problems
0.04 - 0.18
0.18- 0.33
0.33 - 0.47
0.47 - 0.62


4.3.3 How to interpret the indicator
A decline in the graphs represents a decline in
the proportion of households reporting good
water quality available for use, both at a national

on more vulnerable communities, the decline in
water quality will have implications for health

4.3.4 Assessment
Within South Africa, communities dependent on
ecosystems for their domestic water are mostly
found in the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal,
with some in the Northern Cape and Limpopo

high proportions of the households surveyed

for example in the Eastern Cape over the past 9

using rivers and other natural sources of


households reported water quality problems

Figure 12.


While the national trend appears relatively
stable with a slight improvement of water
quality reported, the provincial trends are highly

survey, it is unlikely the same household would
be surveyed twice and thus the variability of
the provincial trends may be more the result of

It is important to note that water quality changes
shown in the indicator can be the result of
changes in the ecosystem services related to

in the sources of pollutants overwhelming the

condition it would be possible to disentangle

0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Prop of households reporting water quality issues
Year
Western Cape
Eastern Cape
Northern Cape
Free State
KwaZulu-Natal
North West
Gauteng
Mpumalanga
Limpopo
National
Dependent households reporting water
quality problems