Actionable knowledge for land use planning: Making ecosystem services operational

The term 'actionable knowledge' indicates the rising expectation that science should produce useful results for policy and planning. In line with this, the success of the notion of ecosystem services (ES) in ecological sciences has been associated with promises of enhanced environmental protection and a narrowed gap between ecological knowledge and action. Promising to deliver operational knowledge for land-use planning, the notion allows ecologists to address social and economic issues related to conservation. We show that actionability of ES in land-use planning is not given, but requires active engagement by ecologists, land-use planners and nature managers. Making ES knowledge useful can be achieved through a range of techniques facilitating collaborative action between the producers and users of ES knowledge. We draw on exploratory case analyses in France and Finland to show how ES maps and scenarios are mobilised to operationalise ES. More specifically, we identify four techniques associated with mapping and scenario-making that seek to render ES knowledge actionable: (1) measures of ES in specific units, (2) visualisation of the results, (3) storytelling to discuss future options and (4) gamification to enact a culture of cooperation. We underline that these techniques can be used in several different ways in the planning process, providing specific advantages and limits depending on the goals, and that they have a diverging place in professional cultures.