"The new book Mapping Ecosystem Services provides a comprehensive collection of theories, methods and practical applications of ecosystem services (ES) mapping, for the first time bringing together valuable knowledge and techniques from leading international experts in the field." (www.eurekalert.org).

This book aims to identify, present and discuss key driving forces and pressures on ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are the contributions that ecosystems provide to human well-being. The scope of this atlas is on identifying solutions and lessons to be applied across science, policy and practice. The atlas will address different components of ecosystem services, assess risks and vulnerabilities, and outline governance and management opportunities. The atlas will therefore attract a wide audience, both from policy and practice and from different scientific disciplines. The emphasis will be on ecosystems in Europe, as the available data on service provision is best developed for this region and recognizes the strengths of the contributing authors. Ecosystems of regions outside Europe will be covered where possible.

Some European lands have been progressively alleviated of human pressures, particularly traditional agriculture in remote areas. This book proposes that this land abandonment can be seen as an opportunity to restore natural ecosystems via rewilding. We define rewilding as the passive management of ecological successions having in mind the long-term goal of restoring natural ecosystem processes. The book aims at introducing the concept of rewilding to scientists, students and practitioners. The first part presents the theory of rewilding in the European context. The second part of the book directly addresses the link between rewilding, biodiversity, and habitats. The third and last part is dedicated to practical aspects of the implementation of rewilding as a land management option. We believe that this book will both set the basis for future research on rewilding and help practitioners think about how rewilding can take place in areas under their management.

Ecosystems are critically important to our well-being and prosperity as they provide us with food, clean air or fresh water and they maintain a livable biosphere. Consequently, ecosystem services are increasingly considered as crucial argument to support decision making in policies that affect the use or the state of natural resources. In particular, new biodiversity policies, which have been adopted at global and EU scales, have set targets to safeguard biodiversity as well as to maintain the supply of ecosystem services. Achieving biodiversity targets requires demonstrating that changes in policies affecting natural resources are beneficial to human well-being through the enhanced flow of ecosystem services. It also requires prioritizing investments and making them cost-effective based on a sound knowledge base and assessment methods. This study has contributed case studies to help exploring how such assessments might be developed at multiple spatial scale, in particular for pollination, recreation and water purification. The spatial assessment of these ecosystem services included maps displaying the potential and actual supply of these services in both biophysical and monetary units. Scenarios were used to estimate changes in the flow of ecosystem services and to estimate benefits that arise from policy changes. Our approaches show that the inclusion of the ecosystem services concept into policies would allow a systematic review of the consequences of policy measures for services beyond conventional environmental assessments.