Agriculture is one of the most important sources of biomass for human society but increasingly contributes to anthropogenic degradation of ecosystems through negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, climate change, and ecosystem services. Here we estimate NPPpot agricultural footprint, that is, the level of appropriation of potential net primary production (NPPpot) by global cropland and human‐made pastures from the consumer responsibility (footprint) perspective and reveal the role of international trade. To quantify the NPPpot agricultural footprint, we utilize environmentally extended multi‐regional input–output analysis to attribute the terrestrial potential NPP altered by global cropland and human‐made pastures to the final consumers responsible for pulling the supply chains. We identify the NPPpot of geographically specific cropland area of 186 agricultural crops in 236 countries and we track each of those crops through the global web of international trade and supply chains to the point of final consumption. We show that human society appropriates 20% (13 petagrams of carbon per year) of global potential net primary production by the transformation of natural ecosystems into cropland and human‐made pastures. International trade accounts for 23% of global NPPpot footprint of agriculture. While the two and half billion people living in China and India (the two countries with lowest NPPpot agricultural footprint per capita) appropriate about 16% of the global NPPpot agricultural footprint of cropland and human‐made pastures, the same share is appropriated by only 360 million people living in countries with the highest per capita footprint.

Public perception of climate change is an important element that affects attitudes towards adaptation and mitigation. Understanding the general public’s perception of the issue can assist decision-makers, though the climate change perception is affected by multiple factors. This study examines the main sociodemographic factors, including gender, and the role of previous personal experience with extreme weather events on climate change perception and engagement in individual adaptation and mitigation actions among the general population in the Czech Republic. Based on statistical analysis, gender, age and previous experience with extreme weather events have been found to play a significant role in the climate change beliefs of individuals and in the perception of the cause of the changing climate. The analysis revealed that respondents with previous experience with extreme weather events were significantly more likely to implement adaptation and mitigation actions than respondents with no experience. The survey represents insights into climate change perception and beliefs of the general public at the national level.

This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes throughout the European Union, across a wide range of themes, biomes and scales. The analysis is based on a framework that addresses the key steps of an ES mapping and assessment process, namely policy questions, stakeholder identification and involvement, application of mapping and assessment methods, dissemination and communication and implementation. The analysis revealed that most case studies were policy-orientated or gave explicit suggestions for policy implementation in different contexts, including urban, rural and natural areas. Amongst the findings, the importance of starting stakeholder engagement early in the process was confirmed in order to generate interest and confidence in the project and to increase their willingness to cooperate. Concerning mapping and assessment methods, it was found that the integration of methods and results is essential for providing a comprehensive overview from different perspectives (e.g. social, economic). Finally, lessons learned for effective implementation of ES mapping and assessment results are presented and discussed. Graphical Abstarcat in Fig. 1.

Ecosystem accounting has become one of the key components in the revision of international statistical standards. Expansion of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for ecosystem services follows the rapid progress of science in this area as well as expanding applications to sustainability challenges. In this contribution, we discuss approaches to accounting of ecosystem assets as a natural capital basis that is critical for ecosystem service delivery. Based on examples from the Czech Republic, a Central European country, we illustrate the construction of ecosystem extent accounts based on the methodology of Land and Ecosystem Accounting. This analysis is complemented by monetary ecosystem asset accounting through quantification of the present value of future ecosystem service flows. Ecosystem condition is represented by the Mean Species Abundance indicator, which gauges the direction of ecosystem naturalness. Based on the demonstration of approaches to ecosystem asset accounting, we discuss selected aspects of ecosystem condition measurements, valuation, and policy implications of ecosystem asset accounting at the national level.