Abstract

The study of ecosystem services in Latin America has increased exponentially in the last 10 years. During this period, different methodologies have been applied for the identification and valuation of ecosystem services, following experiences designed for developed countries, sometimes ignoring the social and environmental context of each territory where the methods were applied. The objective of this chapter is to review the methodologies applied in Latin America, with particular emphasis on the identification of the providing ecosystems and the particular services that should be considered at each scale of analysis. Finally, based on our findings and the hierarchical theory, we propose a theoretical-methodological framework for the identification and valuation of multiple ecosystem services at different scales.