Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services and economic activities: an indicator-based assessment

At the very basis of biodiversity conservation stands the need to be able to quantify status and trends of biodiversity. Biodiversity is too complex to be fully quantified at policy-relevant scales and its assessment can only be done by means of indicators. This thesis establishes a link between biodiversity, measured via indicators, and human well-being, through the impact exerted by biodiversity on different economic sectors, for instance tourism. Moreover they can be employed as benchmarks for the evaluation of the effectiveness of policy decisions. Finally, they can be used to define priorities and policy objectives, thus becoming decision-making tools for biodiversity conservation.