Conceptually, stakeholder participation in the governance of ecosystem services (ESS) is necessary for several reasons, some of them well-known for sustainability governance in general but some more specific for ecosystem services. In particular the failure of monetary valuation to provide meaningful valuation instruments requires participation of a representative diversity of stakeholders in ESS research and governance to answer the question what people value, and how. Building upon experience from transdisciplinary research projects in Asia, Africa and Europe, we argue that successful participation depends on the specific socio-cultural context and requires different means and modes of participation during different project phases. We list a variety of tested methods, with reference to the pros and cons each of them has. The challenges we describe are structured according to theoretical concepts, but not derived from them but from project experience. They are formidable, both conceptually and empirically, but with good project coordination such difficulties can be anticipated and handled.

The paper first outlines the specific challenges of ESS assessment and valuation in inter- and transdisciplinary research, arguing in Section 1 that the failure of internalisation requires participation as value attributing mechanism. Section 2 describes challenges experienced with participation in research design and implementation; the latter links to Section 3 which draws lessons for ESS governance strategies. Section 4 presents some lessons learned for future ESS research and governance.