Cooperative Extension produces public value through educational programming that benefits the greater community. Forests provide numerous valuable benefits to society through the provision of ecosystem services. Cooperative Extension educational programming positively impacts forest owners, who in turn conduct actions that enhance ecosystem services. A heretofore unrecognized relationship exists between Cooperative Extension and ecosystem services that provides opportunity for mutual benefit. Applying ecosystem services values to Extension natural resources-related programmatic outcomes through benefit transfer provides an avenue for Extension to make significant advancements in monetizing public value. Beyond serving simply as a source of financial justification, however, linkages with ecosystem services also provide Cooperative Extension with opportunities to improve the design and delivery of educational programs, do a better job articulating an array of public benefits resulting from agency accomplishments, and optimize allocation of sparse resources and Extension efforts. This dissertation thoroughly explores these concepts by providing an overview of: Cooperative Extension in general and Extension forestry more specifically; public value in an Extension context; ecosystem services; ecosystem services valuation; benefit transfer, and; connections between these diverse topics. In addition, benefit transfer principles are applied to an existing Extension evaluation data set in attempt to monetize Cooperative Extension's impact, lessons learned are explored, and the Cooperative Extension public value discussion is re-framed as one aspect of overall continuous organizational improvement. / Ph. D. / Cooperative Extension produces public value through educational programming that benefits the greater community. Forests provide numerous valuable benefits to society through the provision of ecosystem services such as clean air, aesthetic beauty, and clean water. Cooperative Extension educational programming positively impacts forest owners, who in turn conduct actions that enhance ecosystem services. A heretofore unrecognized relationship exists between Cooperative Extension and ecosystem services that provides opportunity for mutual benefit. Applying ecosystem services values to Extension natural resources-related programmatic outcomes through benefit transfer—a process by which monetary values from primary studies are applied to similar sites where original studies are not possible due to high costs or time constraints--provides an avenue for Extension to apply monetary values to the public benefits it provides. Beyond serving simply as a source of financial justification, however, linkages with ecosystem services also provide Cooperative Extension with opportunities to improve the design and delivery of educational programs, do a better job articulating an array of public benefits resulting from agency accomplishments, and optimize allocation of sparse resources and Extension efforts. This dissertation thoroughly explores these concepts by providing an overview of: Cooperative Extension in general and Extension forestry more specifically; public value in an Extension context; ecosystem services; ecosystem services valuation; benefit transfer, and; connections between these diverse topics. In addition, benefit transfer principles are applied to an existing Extension evaluation data set in attempt to monetize Cooperative Extension’s impact, lessons learned are explored, and the Cooperative Extension public value discussion is reframed as one aspect of overall continuous organizational improvement.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a global carbon trading program intent on mitigating or reversing carbon emissions from forestry in the global south. REDD+ was negotiated at the 2005 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is coordinated by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), administered by the World Bank Group. In this project, I explore REDD+ activity in Costa Rica, drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality. Costa Rica became a participant in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility in July of 2008. Since then, indigenous peoples throughout the country have contested the program. This project is a single-case study of the Bribri contestation of REDD+ schemes, one of the larger indigenous communities in Costa Rica. Bribri argue that REDD+ disrespects their worldview and further endangers their local rights to land and forestry. This project argues that REDD+ and Bribri have different perceptions of nature, enabling disagreement on REDD+ goals. Whereas REDD+ perceives nature as commodifiable for the purposes of neoliberal climate policies, Bribri express a spiritual, harmonious relationship with nature. I conclude by noting that REDD+ can pose negative implications for indigenous life and culture. This is not only because REDD+ draws external and domestic actors to land and forestry for incentive-based purposes. But also because REDD+ defines 'rightful behavior' among forestry resources, challenging indigenous conceptions of environmental management. However, the Bribri are resisting REDD+ imposition and, particularly, the program's external governing of indigenous behavior amongst forests. / Master of Arts / Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a global initiative intent on reducing carbon emissions from forestry. After it was negotiated at the 2005 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), REDD+ soon gained the participation of many countries throughout the global south. In this project, I explore REDD+ activity in Costa Rica. Ever since Costa Rica became a participant in July of 2008, indigenous peoples throughout the country have contested the program. This project is a single-case study of the Bribri opposition towards REDD+. The Bribri express that REDD+ disrespects their worldview and, particularly, their traditional knowledge of environmental management. This project argues that REDD+ and the Bribri harbor different views of nature, leading to disagreements on REDD+ goals. While REDD+’s perception of nature is market-oriented, the Bribri envision a spiritual, harmonious relationship with nature. Though REDD+ intends to promote better management of forestry resources, it can threaten traditional indigenous practices on reserves. This project concludes that REDD+ can pose significant risks to Bribri life and culture, especially to their local rights to land and forestry.

This dissertation employed a random forest algorithm for Land Use Land Cover (LULC) classification and proposed and tested a modified forest transition framework in the Greater Shawnee National Forest (GSNF), Illinois. Subsequently, a machine learning-based multilayer artificial neural network was used to assess the LULC of the GSNF between 2019 and 2050 utilizing IPCC-based projected climate data. The accuracy of LULC classification was evaluated using Kappa statistics and Producer and User accuracies. The Stepwise Regression, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) models were compared to quantify terrestrial carbon stock. Similarly, InVEST, FRAGSTAT, and Maxent models were used for habitat quality analysis and to estimate the probability of bobcat distribution. The terrestrial carbon stock, habitat quality, and bobcat distribution were quantified across three spatial resolutions, 30, 60, and 90 meters, to assess if there were substantial differences in the represented trends of these measures of Ecosystem Services (ES). The LULC analysis showed varying levels of temporal and spatial variabilities with increased deciduous forest (1.35%), mixed forest (26.40%), agricultural land (2.15%), and urbanized areas (6.70%) between 1990 and 2019. Notably, the LULC intensity analysis exhibited stability from 2001 to 2019, consistent with the forest transition framework proposed in the study. However, when integrating temperature and precipitation projections derived from the IPCC, notable changes in forest cover were observed from the western to eastern sectors within the central region of the GSNF. In all IPCC based scenarios, overall forest cover (deciduous, evergreen, and mixed) declined. The classification accuracy of the LULC assessment ranged from 92.9% to 95.9%, accompanied by kappa statistics ranging from 0.89 to 0.94. The prediction accuracy of LULC change was validated for the year 2019, ranging from 77.99% to 84.67%, with kappa statistics between 0.79 and 0.81, depending on the scenario, and predictions were extended to the year 2050. The terrestrial carbon stock in GSNF varied from 15 to 212 MgC per hectare across different models. The RF model performed best at 90 meters resolution with FIA-based data, with RMSE values of 17.45, 18.73, and 20.05, and R-squared values of 0.53, 0.48, and 0.43 for 2001, 2010, and 2019, respectively. The findings indicated that while the InVEST model provides a broad and generalized approach to quantifying carbon storage, the random forest (RF) model is essential for obtaining more accurate and precise estimations. LULC has gradually become more fragmented over time, leading to a decline in average habitat quality from 1990 (0.724±0.215) to 2019 (0.689±0.192). Regardless of increased forest density, the proportion of high-quality habitats (habitat quality score above 0.83) decreased by 5% during the study period. Interestingly, there was a notable increase in the probability score of bobcat distribution from 1990 (0.327±0.123) to 2019 (0.347±0.084). The study revealed a strong correlation between habitat quality and the probability of bobcat distributions, indicating a mutual influence between the two factors. This dissertation suggests that the LULC change of the GSNF follows the forest transition framework and has a significant implication on ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and habitat quality. These results are instrumental for sustainable land management to optimize terrestrial carbon stock and habitat quality, thereby mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Spatially explicit ecosystem service valuation (ESV) allows for the identification of the location and magnitude of services provided by natural ecosystems to human activities along with a measure of their significance based upon economic valuation. While ESV has been used to provide new insight into land use management, few studies have identified the connections between the values of ecosystem services and ecological sensitivity to nitrogen loading despite a growing body of ecosystem service literature. This research combines a GIS-based, value transfer approach to map ecosystem services in the Lower Yakima River Basin (LYRB), Washington, USA, along with estimates of nitrogen loading to identify how nitrogen management may affect ecosystem services in the basin. This analysis combines values of ecosystem services with estimates of nitrogen loading and identifies subwatersheds and specific parcels within a Groundwater Management Area (GWMA) most susceptible to reductions in ecosystem services due to excess nitrogen loading. Based on the benefit transfer analysis, wetlands and forested areas have disproportionately high values of ecosystem services when compared to their land area in the LYRB, while pasture and cultivated crops contribute much less to the total value of ecosystem service flows in proportion to the total area in the LYRB. Across the study area estimated nitrogen loads are strongly driven by the location of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and cultivated crops. Areas of particularly high nitrogen loading and high ESV may highlight specific areas for achieving immediate success in increasing or maintaining ecosystem services through appropriately focused regulatory mechanisms. The land cover analysis however, completely neglects the values and importance of subsurface processes and groundwater resources in ecosystem service assessment, and therefore an econometric model is applied to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) to maintain safe nitrate levels in private wells. Through the incorporation of WTP estimates for groundwater quality, a more complete economic and ecological perspective on the effects of landscape N loading in the study site is highlighted. The results of these estimates clearly indicate that ecosystem services from groundwater should be considered to have significant value in the LYRB. Further economic valuation data on specific land cover types and the value of groundwater quality, whether from primary studies or meta-analysis, is needed to refine relative measures of ecosystem service values and more confidently describe these values in specific dollar amounts. Additionally, limits in spatial data resolution may contribute to errors in location and magnitude of ecosystem services, and is an area in need of further development. Despite these potential limitations, this analysis highlights a promising direction for combining spatially explicit ecosystem service valuation with nutrient loading data to identify the location and potential magnitude of effects on ecosystem services from management practices. / Graduation date: 2013

Syfte: Städer behöver grönska, ekosystem och ekosystemtjänster. Grönytefaktor (GYF) är ett verktyg som säkerställer grönska i urbana miljöer. Jönköpings kommun ska som del i sin stadsutveckling av Södra Munksjön inkludera GYF i sin grönstrukturplan. För att utforma en GYF-modell måste man veta platsens förutsättningar och målbilden för staden. Denna studie syftar till att kartlägga de ES som finns i området idag samt vilka som bör skapas, skyddas, stärkas eller rent av skippas i den nya stadsdelen. Vidare studeras även hur den lokala GYF-modellen kan användas i andra områden i Jönköpings kommun. Metod: En kvalitativ studie har genomförts med hjälp av metoderna litteraturstudie, dokumentanalys, observation och intervjuer. Med utgångspunkt i Ekosystemtjänster i stadsplanering - en vägledning framtagen av ℅ city har ekosystemtjänster identifierats. Intervjuer har genomförts med landskapsarkitekter som arbetat med GYF i sammanhang som liknar det Södra Munksjön och Jönköpings kommun står inför. Resultat: Kartläggningen av ekosystemtjänster i Södra Munksjön visar att de flesta tjänsterna på ℅ citys lista kan identifieras och att de kulturella tjänsterna bör premieras i den GYF-modell som ska utformas för området. För att den lokala GYF-modellen ska kunna appliceras på andra områden underlättar det om modellens formuleringar är generella och kompletteras med separat platsspecifik information. För att GYF ska ge bra resultat är dock uttalade och formulerade mål att styra mot den viktigaste faktorn. Konsekvenser: Genom god planering kan en och samma lösning gynna flera ekosystemtjänster samtidigt, vilket rekommenderas i stadsmiljö. Slutsatsen är därför att fokus bör ligga på kulturella ekosystemtjänster och mångfunktionalitet som resulterar i att alla tjänster gynnas. Då GYF är ett nytt verktyg för Jönköping är det av stor vikt att inkludera berörda aktörer och byggherrar i ett tidigt skede. Begränsningar: Den kartläggning av ekosystemtjänster som gjorts i Södra Munksjön har utgått från en geografisk plats och dokument knutna till denna vilket gör att resultatet är begränsat till Södra Munksjön. Av den analys och diskussion som förs gällande hur en GYF-modell kan tas från ett aktuellt område till att appliceras på andra platser kan dock tas vidare av städer som planerar att använda GYF eller vill utveckla en befintlig GYF-modell. / Purpose: Cities need greenery, ecosystems and ecosystem services. Green area ratio (GAR) is a tool that ensures greenery in urban environments. As a part of its urban development of the new city area Södra Munksjön the municipality of Jönköping will include GAR in the local plan for green structure. In order to design a GAR model, one must know the conditions of the site and vision of the city. This study aims to map the ecosystem services located in the area today as well as the ecosystem services that can be created, protected, strengthened or skipped in the new city area. Furthermore, it is also investigated how the local GAR model can be used in other areas in Jönköping municipality. Method: A qualitative study has been conducted with the help of literature studies, document analysis, observation and interviews. With starting point in the model of guidance on ecosystem services in city planning from ℅ city ecosystem services has been identified. Interviews have been conducted with landscape architects with experience from working with GAR in a context similar to the one in Jönköping. Findings: The mapping of ecosystem services in the area of Södra Munksjön shows that most services from ℅ city can be identified and that the cultural ecosystem services should be premiered in the GAR model designed for the city area. In order for the local GAR model to be applied in other areas, it's easier if the formulations in the model are general and supplemented with separate site-specific information. However, in order for GAR to produce good results the most important factor is to have stated and well formulated goals to aim for. Implications: Through good planning, one solution can benefit several ecosystem services at the same time, which is recommended in urban environments. Thus the conclusion is that focus should lay on cultural ecosystem services and multi-functionality that result with all services benefiting. Since GAR is a new tool for Jönköping, it is of great importance to include stakeholders and building contractors at an early stage. Limitations: The mapping of ecosystem services made in Södra Munksjön has been based on a geographical location and documents linked to this place, which means that the results are limited to Södra Munksjön. However, the analysis and discussion of how a GAR model can be taken from a current area to be applied elsewhere could be taken on by cities that are planning to use GAR or want to develop an existing GAR model.

Denna rapport behandlar utvärdering av urbana ekosystemtjänster på stadsdelsnivå. Eftersom ökad urbanisering leder till ökad belastning på urbana ekosystem är det viktigt att både exploatering och etablering av grönområden sker på ett hållbart sätt där ekologiska, sociala och ekonomiska faktorer inkluderas. Detta kan delvis uppnås genom att villkor i verktyg och certifieringssystem inkluderar aspekter för urbana ekosystemtjänster. Det undersökts hur certifieringssystemen BREEAM Communities och CASBEE for Urban Development samt verktyget Grönytefaktormetoden behandlar sådana urbana ekosystemtjänster. Analysen utgår från en föreslagen kategorisering av urbana ekosystemtjänster. Detta kompletteras med ett eget ramverk som utvidgar och förtydligar otillräckligt hanterade ekosystemtjänster och närliggande aspekter. Resultatet visar att ytterligare ekosystemtjänster kan inkluderas i de undersökta metoderna och en kategorisering av urbana ekosystemtjänster förslås. / This report discusses assessment of urban ecosystems services in the scale of city districts. Since intensified urbanisation increases the pressure on urban ecosystems it is of importance that development projects in green areas is sustainable with inclusion of ecological, social and economic aspects. This can in part be achieved through requirements in tools and certification systems that include aspects for urban ecosystem services. An investigation of how the certification systems BREEAM Communities and CASBEE for Urban Development as well as the tool Grönytefaktormetoden deal with such urban ecosystem services is made. The analysis is based on a suggested categorisation of urban ecosystem services. This is complemented by an own framework that expands and clarifies insufficiently treated ecosystem services and adjacent aspects. The result shows that further ecosystem services can be included in the investigated methods and a categorisation of urban ecosystems services is suggested.

Under global urbanization backgrounds with physical population migrations and relocations, corresponding consequences in society developments, cultural transformations, technology inventions and interactions between regions and countries, etc. are considered as having a huge impact on normal urban dwellers. For human beings always have intentions towards managements and benefits from natural surroundings, urban dweller demands under the modern challenges and their interactions are necessary to be concerned about. Urban ecosystem is considered as a highly developed civilization, but also with features of resources and energy demands and pollution and distributional exports. As the only natural element in this ecosystem, UGI (urban green infrastructures) is considered as an important human-environment interaction provider with urban ecosystem services (UES) largely focused by academic scholars, urban planners and policy managers. As one of the fastest urbanizing cities in the world, Shanghai is considered as having huge cultural and social developments combined with socioeconomic acceleration. Under the unique background of policy planning and traditional Confucian culture transformation, the impacts to urban dweller demands, whether these newly developed modern demands can be satisfied by UES provided by UGI and how the understandings of these normal dwellers to UGI in Shanghai are necessary for academic researches. By considering the interactions with urban dwellers, six urban parks in the center of Shanghai are chosen as research sites in this study. Combined with factors of urbanization processes and observed patterns of visitor interactions, the indicator of “park age” is concerned with three old parks (older than 25 years old) and three new parks (younger than 25 years old). With methodologies of fieldwork mapping, questionnaires, indicator based evaluation system constructions, etc., the quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out to habitat diversity, cultural and regulation UES results, and the background reasons caused by political and financial influences are subject to further discussion. The visitors to urban parks of Shanghai are classified into four sorts: “retired dwellers”, “dwellers for children care”, “tourist visitors” and “other visitors”, we found out that related demands and interactions with urban parks have significant differences. After detailed discussions, it could be figured out that the visitors demands play a significant role, and the interactions between visitors and UES in Shanghai are comprehensively influenced by multiple factors of “visiting objectives”, “park cultures (ages, popularities, etc.)” and “personal identities (educations, incomes, etc.)”. Based on this, the detailed differences of policy, finance, Confucian culture, nature understanding, and community society between old and new parks were further discussed. With all aspects of physical, mental, psychological and other demand aspects especially focused on, the typical features in Shanghai are also highly concentrated on dominant activities. For China is suffering from national environmental and urbanization problems but lack in related concerns combined with dweller demands, this research work may make certain efforts on model assessment methodologies constructions and national implementations. Also, with a combined background of top-down policy systems and natural understandings under socioeconomic duress, this research could also make significant efforts in dweller-UES interactions researches in similar cases of other countries and newly developed urban ecosystems in the world.

Santiago is the 7th largest major city of Latin America with almost 8 million inhabitants and is situated in a fairly closed watershed, surrounded on the eastern side by the high Andean mountain chain with altitudes of 5,000 m. From the Andean mountains, the Mapocho River and a set of large and small streams transport -often torrentially- water and sediment. In thirty years, Santiago has increased its size two fold, replacing previous agricultural lands, native forests and shrubs with urban land uses, and occupying rivers beds and streams. These land use and cover changes have had dramatic environmental consequences. The mentioned urban dynamic has produced a city in constant collision with the natural system. This structural disarticulation produces many environmental problems such as an increase in city’s surface and air temperatures, an accelerated disappearance of vegetation, a major interruption in wind, sediment and water flows, and finally, increasing people’s exposure to environmental hazards. Since streams, canals and rivers are structural components of Santiago’s landscape, they can function as key links between the urban-social and natural system and provide multiple ecosystem services, helping to reduce environmental problems and ensure long-term urban sustainability. Traditionally, the analysis of river and streamsides has been focused on rural and natural landscapes as well as on environmental protection and nature conservation. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest and necessity to understand the environmental status, functions and possibilities of riparian zones in urban environments in order to delineate and plan greenways, which provide social and ecological benefits. Green infrastructure such as urban greenways is a key component of sustainable cities. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the socio-ecological status of urban riparian zones and even fewer to assess these areas in terms of their potential as multifunctional greenways. New efforts should be conducted to develop analytical application-oriented frameworks in the green infrastructure field. This research elaborates and proposes a transferable conceptual-methodological framework for evaluating the potential for multifunctional riparian greenway development. An analytical application-oriented framework to assess the potential for multifunctional green infrastructure development is proposed by articulating and improving three analyses hitherto used separately: multicriteria, least cost path and opportunities-challenges. The Mapocho River was selected for the application and testing of the proposed conceptual-methodological framework to contribute to multifunctional green infrastructure planning in Santiago as a city representative of the structure and processes of megacities in Latin America. First, the main ecological and social characteristics of the Mapocho’s riparian zone are analyzed, making a synthesis of the socio-ecological status. Second, the suitability to provide multiple ecosystem services of the riparian zone is spatially explicitly modelled, first separately, as mono-functional suitability, and then, integrated into a multifunctional suitability evaluation. Third, the opportunities and challenges perceived by government actors are identified and analyzed as well as those derived from an institutional and regulatory analysis. Finally, the assessment phase concludes with a discussion on the main potential for the development of a greenway, resulting from the synthesis and integration of the most relevant findings of the suitability and opportunities analysis The socio-ecological status of the riparian zones is characterized by being highly altered in ecological terms, diverse in social terms, and highly used by the metropolitan transport infrastructure with a concentration of green areas in a few municipalities. This means that the riparian zone provides limited physical support for important social and ecological functions characteristic of these zones in urban environments: habitat, aesthetic, cooling, transport route and flood mitigation. The results reveal a significant east-west gradient in the socio-ecological status of riparian zone, which gradually decreases from east to west. The riparian zone of the Mapocho River in Santiago has good suitability as a wind corridor, providing a cooling effect and to mitigate flood hazards. The main challenges for the development of a multifunctional urban greenway in the Mapocho River corresponds to low levels of inter-jurisdictional and inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation, maintenance costs and the existence of urban highways in the zone. On the contrary, the main opportunities are the existence of important sectors of vacant land, increased political and social importance of urban green areas and the existence of a set of consolidated riparian parks. In synthesis, the assessment developed in the Mapocho River identifies the most important aspects to be considered and the greatest potentialities to capitalize in planning a multifunctional greenway along the Mapocho River. This is key when thinking about a possible master plan for the Mapocho River that returns the river to the city and values it as an axis for urban integration. The development of a multifunctional greenway in Santiago can considerably contribute to the social and ecological connectivity and thereby mitigate the socio-ecological segregation and disconnection characteristic of cities in the region. It may also contribute significantly to reconcile urban growth with ecological health and people’s quality of life, maintaining functions and key ecosystem services and mitigating the negative effects of urbanization.

This research examined whether microfinance-assisted developmental mechanisms can integrate ecological objectives alongside social and economic ones—thus promoting sustainability. The specific focus was to test the ability of microenterprises operated by community-entrepreneurs in supporting local ecosystem services. To this end, the research: elucidated the nature and dynamics of linkages between communities and the local ecosystems with the lens of coupled social-ecological systems, i.e. illustrated ecological modernization of microenterprises in a developing country context; tested how community-based enterprises transform upon application of green microfinance strategy; and then recognized how social learning is promoted through such community-based intervention mechanisms, e.g. microfinance. The research used case study and participatory approaches. The case study comprised two components: i) a green microfinance program, and ii) communities in a riparian, and a wetland ecosystem in Bangladesh engaged in entrepreneurship. The major tools that the study employed for data collections were: household surveys, participatory land -use surveys, semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, multi-stakeholder workshops, field observations, and document reviews. The research findings reveal that the green microfinance strategy, in the short and medium terms, catalyzes entrepreneurial and social innovations, and combine the embedded economic and social objectives of the classic microfinance with the new ecological objectives towards sustainability. The strategy applied by Microfinance Institution (MFI) and adopted by community enterprises transformed the ventures—helping them to go green and reducing greenhouse gas emission. Besides, the partnerships that occur between non-governmental organization (NGO) and community-based organization (CBO) in the process of implementing developmental programs—result social learning and innovations in the communities. The research review found grassroots developmental initiatives as an evolving phenomenon over time. With this view, and with its observation through this cross-sectional study, the research proposes a framework entitled ‘community-based developmental enterprise (CBDE)’. The framework proposes community level entrepreneurial ventures, associated NGO-MFIs, CBOs and other development partners to consider ecosystem services and wellbeing components in entrepreneurial design and actions. / October 2016

The need to protect diverse biological resources from ongoing development pressures is one of today's most pressing environmental challenges. In response, "ecosystem services" has emerged as a conservation framework that links human economies and natural systems through the benefits that people receive from nature. In this dissertation, I investigate the science-policy interface of ecosystem services in order to understand the use of ecosystem service decision support tools and evaluate the pathways through which ecosystem services knowledge impacts decisions. In the first paper, I track an ecosystem service valuation project in California to evaluate how the project changes the social capacity to make conservation-oriented decisions and how decision-makers intend to use ecosystem services knowledge. In a second project, I analyze a global sample of cases and identify factors that can explain the impact of ecosystem services knowledge on decisions. I find that the perceived legitimacy of knowledge (whether it is unbiased and representative of many diverse viewpoints) is an important determinant of whether the knowledge impacts policy processes and decisions. For the third project, I focus on the global use of spatial ecosystem service models. I analyze country-level factors that are associated with use and the effect of practitioner trainings on the uptake of these decision support tools. Taken together, this research critically evaluates how ecosystem service interventions perform. The results can inform the design of boundary organizations that effectively link conservation science with policy action, and guide strategic efforts to protect, restore, and enhance ecosystem services.