Tailoring ecosystem services assessment to stakeholder needs in the framework of consultations with key actors in Natura 2000 sites in the Czech Republic
Abstrakt
Stakeholder participation has been considered an increasingly important element of ecosystem services assessment on various levels (national, regional, local). In this contribution, we present a comprehensive approach of consultations with stakeholders on the national level which we apply in the Integrated project LIFE for the Natura 2000 network in the Czech Republic "One Nature".
Designed to support the national MAES process, consultations aim at prospective development of a well-functioning science-policy interface for ecosystem services research and its implementation. The main goals of our research are to: a) advance the implementation of the ecosystem services concept and related research results into Czech decision-making; b) systematically integrate Czech stakeholders in ecosystem services research; c) facilitate the establishment of the National Ecosystem Services Platform in the Czech Republic, which will provide a unique environment to continuously work on building the science-policy interface concerning ecosystem services in the future.
We employ a stakeholder engagement framework based on systematic stakeholder analysis and participative methods. Systematic stakeholder analysis enabled analytical stakeholder identification and their prioritization for integration into research - we focus on stakeholders who have the potential to implement the research results and/or who significantly affect the ecosystem services provision or flow in Natura 2000 sites.
The set of participative methods (semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops) applied in the next step helps us to iteratively translate the state-of-the-art knowledge to stakeholders, to facilitate knowledge co-production and also to support social learning among participating stakeholders (including researchers). Preliminary findings from this ongoing research suggest that comprehensive and iterative stakeholder consultations on national level are a vital precondition for co-production of knowledge, but also for co-creation of better-informed expectations and prospective needs concerning ecosystem services research and its implementation.