Abstrakt
In response to the increasing popularity of the ecosystem services concept among scholars and policy makers on the international level, it has become time to analyse the current state and possibilities for national policies and decision-making in reflecting this concept. The aim of this research is to assess the level of implementation of the ecosystem services concept in various national policies and decision-making in conservation sector.
The content analysis method is used to scan the documents for specific keywords in order to answer the question whether existing policies use the ecosystem services concept or related ecosystem-based approach. A secondary question - how has the level of implementation of the concept in a policy changed in time? - is applied to the cases where it is possible to compare an existing and valid policy with its previous, outdated version.
Semi-structured interviews with decision-makers are used to analyse their knowledge and/or use of the ecosystem services concept. Furthermore, areas with a potential to use the ecosystem services concept are identified, including various opportunities and barriers for implementation.
Implications of the results and a broader context of the research are discussed in respective sections.