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Land use changes induced by nature conservation regulation and management practices, especially in protected areas, often result in trade-offs between ecosystem services (ESs). Exploring trade-offs between ESs and linking them with stakeholders can help reveal the potential losers and winners of land use changes. In this paper, we demonstrate that ES trade-offs do not always go hand in hand with conflicts. The perception of local stakeholders about trade-offs between ESs at three protected sites in the Great Hungarian Plain were assessed through qualitative methods. In all areas significant conservation measures had been introduced since the 1990s resulting in land use changes. Locals (farmers at each site and inhabitants at one site) were the main 'losers' of the land use changes and related ES trade-offs, while there were many winners at different spatial and temporal scales. Conflicts appeared only between locals and the national park directorates, and not between locals and other beneficiaries of the new ESs. Due to scale mismatch, locals might not be in direct contact with other stakeholders, and vice versa, and therefore there is no interface between them for confrontation and negotiation. Integrating scale into the analysis also helps in advising policy instruments to minimise local-level conflicts.

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22The prevention and management of invasive alien species (IAS) has become a high priority in 23European environmental policy. At the same time, ways of evaluating IAS continue to be a topic of 24 lively debate. In particular, it is far from clear how directly policy makers' value judgements are linked 25 to the EU policy against IAS. We examine the arguments used to support value judgements of both 26 alien species and invasive alien species as well as the relation between these value judgements and the 27 policy against IAS being developed at European level. Our study is based on 17 semi-structured 28 interviews with experts from European policy making and from the EU member states Austria, 29Belgium, Germany and Hungary. We found that our interviewees conceived of IAS in very different 30 ways, expressed a variety of visions of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and adhered to widely 31 different values expressed in their perceptions of IAS and the impacts of IAS. However, only some of 32 these conceptualizations and value judgements are actually addressed in the rationale given in the 33 preamble to the European IAS Regulation. Although value judgements about IAS differed, there was 34 considerable agreement regarding the kind of action to be taken against them. 35 36 2 Key words 37 perception of nature; biodiversity evaluation; ecosystem services; environmental policy; EU 38Regulation; analysis of arguments 39

Please cite this article in press as: Kovács, E., et al., Towards understanding and resolving the conflict related to the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) conservation with participatory management planning. Land Use Policy (2016), http://dx

There is a broad diversity of concepts and methods used in ecosystem service (ES) mapping and assessment projects with many open questions related to the implementation of the concepts and the use of the methods at various scales. In this paper, we present a regional ES mapping and assessment (MAES) study performed between 2015 and 2017 over an area of ~900 km2in Central Romania. The Niraj-MAES project supported by EEA funds and the Romanian government aimed at identifying, assessing and mapping all major ES supplied by the Natura 2000 sites nested in the valleys of the Niraj and Târnava Mică rivers amongst the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians. Major ES in this culturally and ecologically rich semi-natural landscape were determined and prioritised in cooperation with local stakeholders. Indicators for the capacities of individual services were modelled with a multi-tiered methodology, relying on the involvement of regional thematic experts. ES with appropriate socio-economic data were also evaluated economically. The whole process was supervised by a stakeholder advisory board endowed with a remarkable decision-making position, giving feedback and recommendations to the scientists at the critical nodes of the process, thus ensuring salience and legitimacy. In addition to simply presenting the dry facts about the approaches (assessment targets, methods) and outcomes, we also identify several key decisions on the design of the whole assessment process related to (1) the role of conceptual frameworks, (2) stakeholder involvement, (3) the selection of ES to assess (priority setting), (4) the development of models and indicators and (5) the interpretation of outcomes, for which we give a detailed description of the decision process. We found that conceptual frameworks can have a pivotal role in structuring and facilitating communication amongst the participants of a MAES project and that a broad and structured involvement of stakeholders and (local) experts creates a sense of ownership and thus can facilitate local policy uptake. We argue that priority setting and the development of indicators should be an iterative process and we also give an example how such a process can be designed, enabling an efficient participation of a broad range of experts and the collaborative development of simple ES models and indicators. Finally, we discuss several general issues related to the interpretation of results of any kind of MAES and the follow-up of regional MAES projects.

Összefoglaló: Az Európai Unió 2020-ig megvalósítandó Biodiverzitás Stratégiájának egyik fő célkitűzése az ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatások (ÖSz-ek) minél teljesebb megőrzése és helyreállítása.Ennek érdekében a tagországok számára előírják, hogy térképezzék és értékeljék a területükön található ökoszisztémák állapotát (ÖÁ), valamint az általuk nyújtott ÖSz-ek helyzetét és gazdasági értékét. Magyarországon a 2016 őszén indult, Agrárminisztérium által koordinált KEHOP-4.3.0-VEKOP-15-2016-00001 számú kiemelt projekt keretében az "Ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatások" fejlesztési elem egyik fő feladata a hazai viszonyok között kiemelt fontossággal bíró ÖSz-ek országos térképezése és értékelése (Nemzeti Ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatás Térképezés és Értékelés; NÖSZTÉP). Az értékelés az ún. kaszkád-modell mentén végig halad az ÖSz-eket meghatározó ÖÁ jellemzőktől, az ÖSz kapacitásokon és az ebből ténylegesen igénybe vett szolgáltatásokon át az emberi jóllét fenntartásában vagy növelésében játszott szerepükig. A projekt eredményei a tervek szerint segítik majd a természeti tőkénkkel való fenntartható gazdálkodást, a zöldinfrastruktúra-hálózat fejlesztését, az egyes ágazatok közti hatékonyabb kommunikációt és a természetvédelmi és más ágazati döntéshozatalt.One of the main goals of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 is to maintain and restore ecosystem services. It requires the member states to assess and map the condition of ecosystems, and the state and economic value of the most important ecosystem services (ESs). Led by the Ministry of Agriculture an EU-co-financed KEHOP-4.3.0-VEKOP-15-2016-00001 project started in Hungary in 2016 to fulfill these goals. The evaluation of the ecosystem services follows a so-called cascade model, which has 4 main levels: 1. condition of ecosystems, 2. capacity of ecosystems to provide selected ESs (potential supply), 3. actual use of ESs, 4. contribution of ESs to human wellbeing. The results of the project will hopefully assist the sustainable management of environmental resources, the development of the green infrastructure network, improved communication between different sectors, and proper decision making in nature conservation and other related sectors.