The UK NEA has provided new information on the changing natural environment in terms of ecosystems and the range of services that ecosystems provide to people. It had 3 objectives:

⇒ To produce an independent and peer-reviewed UK National Ecosystem Assessment for the whole of the UK.

⇒ To raise awareness of the importance of the natural environment to human well-being and economic prosperity. 

⇒ To ensure full stakeholder participation and encourage different stakeholders and communities to interact and, in particular, to foster better inter-disciplinary cooperation between natural and social scientists, as well as economists.

Using an Ecosystem Assessment process the UK NEA has:

⇒ Assessed the status and trends of the UK’s ecosystems and the services they provide at multiple spatial scales from country to catchment levels;

⇒ Described the key factors (drivers of change) affecting the UK’s ecosystems, including changes in land-use, infrastructure development, pollution and climate change;

⇒ Included plausible futures (scenarios) for the UK’s ecosystems and the services they provide;

⇒ Outlined societal response options to secure continued delivery of the UK’s ecosystem services, for all of society; and

⇒ Valued the contribution of ecosystem services to human well-being through economic and non-economic analyses.