For an illustration of social-ecological relationships, the authors take reader on a short journey to a Yemenite island. The social-ecological systems (SES) is a framework that can be used to structure key factors, concepts or variables, and the assumed relationships between them, such as the spatial boundaries of systems, units of analysis, time horizons, inputs and drivers. The authors describe the SES approach as a way to summarize the hybrid elements and relations of human-nature interactions. Human-nature interactions represented in SES vary across space and time because they are path-dependent and culturally variable. Applying the SES framework for analyzing ES and assessing future actions, needs and options is anything but simple. The analysis of ES can be an important element in developing responses to the challenges of global change at the local, regional and global level. Economists and ecologists increasingly apply the ecosystem services (ES) concept as a way of conceptually bridging human and natural systems.