A new special issue "Ecosystem services: building informed policies to orient landscape dynamics" was recently pulished in the International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management as an outcome of the Symposia "Ecosystem Services: Building Informed Policies to orient Landscape Dynamics" and "Land system change impacts on European landscapes" at the 2013 IALE European Congress - Changing European Landscapes.

In reaction to the failure of traditional environmental management approaches grounded on the paradigm "control change in systems", Ecosystem Services (ES) have emerged as a novel way of understanding ecosystem and landscape dynamics, including change, interactions and flows between human and natural systems.

ES can be interpreted as the result of a process of knowledge building and design, which has to be set according to some variables, as follows: (i) domain: identification of the territorial and temporal area of assessment and its boundaries according to landscape characteristics; (ii) potential: identification and calculation of ecosystem functions that such area can provide; (iii) beneficiaries: the end-users who will profit of the ES; (iv) providers: individuals or agents, as farmers, who are in charge to support and manage ES provision.

ES are currently being investigated with respect to the potential and the capacity of ecosystems to supply them, but the link to decision-making processes is related to another phase. Thus, the aim of the Special Issue is to discuss opportunities and challenges of applying ES in the dialogue between science and policy. This is especially relevant with regard to the European Biodiversity Strategy and its 2020 targets and clear focus on ecosystem services. Hence, the interaction and dialogue between different disciplines play a special role in the Special Issue. 

Access the special issue here: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tbsm21/11/3#.VcxXKflqXLB