Ecosystem service provisioning in the Grand Est, France

ABSTRACT Ecosystem services (ES) are at the forefront of ecosystem management. In this paper, we develop a baseline database of the supply of ES in the Grand Est region of France, with a particular pedagogic focus on the methodology – an aspect that is so often overlooked in ecosystem service studies. Specifically, we estimate a set of 21 indicators of 7 ES in the Grand Est, including agriculture production potential, biodiversity, carbon storage, livestock grazing potential, net ecosystem productivity, pollination potential, and soil loss by water erosion. We adopt a learning-centered approach in our methodology, discussing the different approaches available in the literature and making all of our data – including the raw, intermediate, and final data layers as well as commented scripts to transform them the initial data to its final forms – available online through the French national research data repository. Our goal is to present our work in a way such that it can be used as a learning tool – a how-to-guide if you will – for students, scientists, managers, and policy makers on how to measure, interpret, and understand the provisioning of ES. We discuss our findings in the context of ecosystem management in Grand Est, specifically the importance of forests and parks and reserves in the region, and how they fit into the broader question of what should be provided from the perspective of society.