Mapping and assessing ecosystem services (ES) projects at the national level have
been implemented recently in the European Union in order to comply with the targets
set out in the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 and later in the Strategy for 2030.
In Hungary this work has just been accomplished in a large-scale six-year project.
The Hungarian assessment was structured along the ES cascade with each level described
by a set of indicators. We present the selected and quantified indicators for 12 ES.
For the assessment of cascade level 4, human well-being, a set of relevant well-being
dimensions were selected. The whole process was supported by several forms of involvement,
interviews, consultations and workshops and in thematic working groups performing
the ES quantifications, followed by building scenarios and synthesizing maps and results.
Here we give an overview of the main steps and results of the assessment, discuss
related conceptual issues and recommend solutions that may be of international relevance.
We refine some definitions of the cascade levels and suggest theoretical extensions
to the cascade model. By finding a common basis for ES assessments and especially
for national ones, we can ensure better comparability of results and better adoption
in decision making.
