Stakeholder involvement in ecosystem service decision-making and research

Introduction and State-of-the-Art The rationale of stakeholder involvement Stakeholder involvement refers to participation of interest groups (i.e. representatives of locally affected communities, national or local government authorities, politicians, civil society organizations and businesses) in a planning or decision-making process. To define ‘stakeholders’ in the context of OpenNESS, we propose to use the definition of Hein et al. (2006: 213), a ‘stakeholder’ being “[a]ny group or individual who can affect or is affected by the ecosystem’s services”. Four main stakeholder groups who – in different ways – relate to the biological or physical resource(s) and its ecosystem (dis)service can be distinguished (Demeyer and Turkelboom, 2014): a) stakeholders who directly benefit (= beneficiaries); b) stakeholders who are negatively affected (burden); c) stakeholders who directly impact on ecosystem (services) (e.g. land owner, resource manager); and d) stakeholders who indirectly influence on ecosystem (services) (e.g. decision maker, civil society organisation). In reality, one ecosystem service usually has most of these stakeholder groups involved, while one specific stakeholder group could fulfil several of these ‘roles’. The levels and forms of stakeholder involvement are manifold. The US Environmental Protection Agency for example refers to the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2), who suggests five levels of engagement (see figure 1). The first level of participation is to keep the stakeholders informed. On the consultation level (second level), feedback by the public on analysis, alternatives or decisions is obtained. On the third level, the involvement level, the idea is to work directly with stakeholders and consider their input throughout the decision-making process. On the fourth level, the collaborative level, the goal is a process that allows for effective partnering and engagement in all key activities and decisions. Last but not least, there is the fifth level of empowerment, where the public makes an informed decision, which is implemented by the responsible agency.