The term “ecosystem services” has first been established by Ehrlich & Ehrlich (1981) 1) as a metaphor to communicate the value of nature and its components for human societies. A later and much referred to definition of ecosystem services (ES) was set by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) as: “The benefits that people obtain from ecosystems” (Reid 2005)2). The TEEB (2010) 3) Initiative defines them as the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. The EU-wide Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services, MAES, refers to these definitions (Maes et al. 2014) 4). Burkhard et al. (2014) 5) extended the definition to “the contributions of ecosystem structure and function – in combination with other inputs – to human well-being”. Harrington et al. (2010)6) extended on the MEA definition: “Ecosystem services are benefits that humans recognise as obtained from ecosystems that can support, directly or indirectly, their survival and quality of life”.
In Italy, France as well as in Germany there are official national definitions of ES that are in line with the MAES approach. The AlpES project also refers to the MAES definition.