The goal of the workshop was to facilitate the process of implementing the concept of ecosystem services in multi-stakeholder decision-making in Macedonia and to promote conservation and sustainable land-management practices by applying sensible policy instruments for better ecosystem management. Participants developed different scenarios of pre-defined case studies to implement the guidelines for Integrated Ecosystem Services Assessment (see here for more information). Participants were managers of Macedonian national parks, government officials, scientistis and NGO's.

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Key messages were:

1. The workshop was successfully delivered, and participants indicated that they found much of the presented information to be of great use for their daily work. Not only did the participants gain knowledge of various concepts related to ecosystem services (valuation, stakeholder analysis, economic implications etc.), they were also confident to move forward with this information and apply it within the Macedonian context. The modules allowed the participants to get acquainted with different management tools for improved environmental decision-making.

2. In addition, due to the diverse organisations involved in the workshop and the strong willingness of all participants to improve and strengthen nature protection in Macedonia, we are hopeful that this training course proves useful in bringing Macedonia closer to implementing sustainable practices with regards to their (natural) landscapes.

3. The modules sparked discussion on both the natural condition of Macedonian landscapes as well as on the economic and social dynamics driving these changes. It is paramount to take the needs and wishes of each stakeholder into account and to understand the different dynamics at play, in order to find efficient and effective means to support these stakeholders in their common goal of protecting nature and using it sustainably.

4. We envision the way forward to be for all stakeholders to continue to collaborate on developing better management practices for protected areas and believe that the ecosystem services concept can be useful on a local, regional and national scale to address the various challenges related to the Nature Conservation Program in Macedonia. The guidelines and related tools can help to analyse the main effects (costs and benefits) of different management scenario´s, identify the main involved stakeholders and engage them in finding structural solutions including appropriate (blended) financing mechanisms and associated policy instrument.