Limited practical application of the concept of ecosystem services in river restoration - REFUSE

Restoring landscapes and habitats through the lens of their utilities. Limits and alternatives. The ecosystem services frame is often used as a reference to justify public actions or policies, or to assess their outcomes. However, its utilitarian approach, like that of nature-based solutions, raises questions and has limits.

Approaches

REFUSE participants presented and discussed 10 case studies of wetland or watercourse restoration projects, which were cross-analysed using a typology of biases and issues not taken into account in restoration projects framed by an ecosystem services approach. These biases, shortcomings and blind spots were discussed. This work led to the drafting of an article (submitted). 

Results

Over the past several decades, ecosystem services have undergone significant conceptual developments and have been incorporated into numerous methodological frameworks to support international strategies and supranational or national policies aimed at preserving or restoring biodiversity. However, the role that this concept can play in the practical implementation of ecosystem restoration projects remains relatively unexplored.

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach to examine the case of French aquatic environments (wetlands and watercourses), REFUSE contributes to a better understanding of the scale mismatch between, on the one hand, the proliferation of references to ecosystem services in national and international public policies and, on the other hand, their limited capacity to guide choices regarding local biodiversity management. The hopes that ecosystem services have embodied in academic fields related to ecology and economics since the 1990s at the international level, as well as the promises they have represented since the 2000s for international or national (French) public policy, have been analysed. The case of France has allowed for an in-depth analysis of how, and why, the lack of scientific data in ecology and land tenure regimes considerably limit the practical applicability of the concept of ecosystem services. Our results show that restoration or conservation actions depend heavily on the emergence of specific ‘windows of opportunity’, which bear no relation to ecosystem service assessments.

Participants

INRAE units involved

• UMR LISIS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Sociétés
• UR RiverLy
• UR GESTE - Gestion Territoriale de l'Eau et de l'environnement - ENGEES
• UR EABX - Écosystèmes aquatiques et changements globaux
• UMR BIOGECO - Biodiversité, gènes et communautés
• UMR CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux
• UR ETTIS - Environnement, Territoires en Transition, Infrastructures, Sociétés

Partners

• OFB - Office français de la biodiversité