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Human recognition, valuation, and communication lie at the heart of ecosystem goods and services. We explore how the wellbeing effects of ecosystems are recognized and communicated based on data obtained from an information campaign to increase public awareness of the health and wellbeing benefits of rural nature areas in Finland. Interested members of the public from different backgrounds were asked to outline and publicly share short descriptions of their personal recommendations for improving their wellbeing through interacting with rural landscapes. The results indicate that a wide variety of ecosystem types and functions are perceived to be important for producing a range of wellbeing benefits through experiencing and multisensory observations of natural landscapes. The importance of cultural and experiential ecosystem services were highlighted while provisioning services received only minor attention, and regulating services were almost entirely unnoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Indicators describing sustainability and, more recently, well-being have raised considerable interest throughout the world. Much conceptual and empirical research exists focusing on the criteria for sustainability and development of indicators, while relatively few studies examine the actual use and influence of indicators. Employing document analysis and interviews of key actors, we explore the use of sustainable development indicators at national and EU level and draw forth lessons relevant for topical discussion of the measurement of human well-being. We apply a conceptual model of three main types of indicator use: instrumental, conceptual, and political. The results indicate that the use of sustainability indicators is mainly confined to the ‘indicator circuit’ formed by indicator-developers themselves and actors obliged to use the indicators. The results suggest that direct instrumental use of indicators shows limited potential, whereas conceptual use is the key for enhanced indicator influence in the long term. Political use of indicators cannot be controlled by the indicator-developers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Indicators are commonly used as tools to identify and highlight socio-economic and ecological trends and to assess progress towards sustainability. Different quality criteria can be considered for indicators. This paper focuses on the timeliness of indicators used in the evaluation of sustainable development strategies. The analysis is based on indicators included in four assessment reports of the sustainable development strategy of the European Union and three assessment reports of the national strategy of Finland. Furthermore, a web-based national level indicator portal is analysed. The results show that the timeliness of indicators has generally not improved during the past decade and that indicators used in strategy evaluations have a time lag of approximately two years. It is suggested that more attention should be given to efforts to improve the timeliness of indicators in order to increase the effectiveness of the evaluations. More generally, it is suggested that greater emphasis should be put on the empirical research on actual use of indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]