ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how ecosystem services knowledge is used in decision-making, by whom and in which contexts to make decisions affecting ecosystems. It provides the ecosystem services policy context and related expectations behind knowledge use. The chapter provides an overview of the theory and practice of knowledge use in policymaking. The majority of studies of knowledge utilisation suggest that in many decision-making contexts, a more nuanced understanding of policymaking is required. The chapter reflects on how ecosystem service knowledge use in policymaking can be enhanced, how knowledge has been used to support the management of ecosystems and draws on insights from the knowledge utilisation literature to explain why ecosystem services knowledge is used the way it is. It concludes by highlighting the adjustments that need to be made around expectations of ecosystem service knowledge use, and research agendas for enhancing understandings of knowledge use for ecological protection.
