Ecosystem services and environmental governance: Some concluding remarks

This conclusive chapter of the book entitled "Governing the Provision of Ecosystem Services" attempts to summarize the main overall issues addressed by the different contributions that compose this volume. The insights gained through the broad range of case studies and conceptual chapters in the book are in line with the proposition that rules and rule-making autonomy and participation, how rules are designed and enforced and how they evolve over time, matter more than the property regime or the generic type of coordination between transacting parties in the management of natural resources. We argue that the contemporary overemphasis on market-based instruments for the management of natural ecosystems is misleading. It is true that these tools may, under specific circumstances, contribute to improving the governance regimes of natural ecosystems, but we must nevertheless put the necessary attention to their particular fit within specific socio-economic contexts and their capacity to modify rule-making structures. At the end of the day, we will always come back to the old concern for the suitability of rules, including by whom and for whom they are made