5.1.4 North Devon: Method to determine which ecosystem services were the focus

Both experts and stakeholders identified subtidal sedimentary habitats as the most appropriate focus.

Discussions with the North Devon Biosphere Reserve Coordinator and other stakeholders identified a shortlist of five priorities.

The “triage” process  [Mongruel et al. 2015; Pendleton et al., 2014; Charles et al., 2015] was then used (in a deliberative process by experts and through an online survey of stakeholders) to determine the usefulness of an ecosystem service assessment (ESA) for each of the issues shortlisted.

The triage scored each service against a series of criteria:

• the likely use of an ecosystem service assessment outputs in management decisions
• the potential for service delivery to change following management intervention
• the relative influence of external factors (such as climate change or national policy) on service delivery.