Ecosystem services: concepts, methodologies and instruments for research and applied use

The ecosystem services (ES) framework opens the door to common ground between ecology science and economics in facing the challenge of planetary sustainability. Application of the available methodologies and instruments reveals both the high potential and the controversies related to this new socio-ecological management approach. Feeding on the research, reviews and testimonies presented at the XV International Summer School on Environment (ISSE) of the University of Girona (2015), this proceedings book displays the main concepts related the ES approach and outcomes from case studies dealing with its operationalization. However, the ultimate goal of this crosswalk language remains; changing mentalities and raising awareness to the point of installing new socio-ecological values, leading society to economic models in which ES conservation is understood as subsistence premise and therefore an intrinsic component of profits.