a b s t r a c tUrban areas, in particular, present unique challenges for the conservation of ecosystems. Allotment gardens (AGs) are an important greenspace feature of urban landscapes in Europe which have the potential to offer multiple social and bio-physical ecosystem services in addition to food production. This study is an attempt to assess and compare the ecosystem services provided by AGs in Manchester, UK, and Poznań, Poland as well as a comparison to city parks. The surveys included a detailed land cover characterisation and an assessment of cultivated and spontaneous plant species. There are differences in the land use characteristics in the two cities with a preference for vegetable growing and water recycling in Manchester, and a greater number of trees and a higher focus on recreation in Poznań. The consequences of these basic differences are discussed in terms of the ecosystem services that are provided by the two different AG types, and parks. In terms of ecology, there is higher species richness on AGs with a greater proportion of neophytes, which may potentially spread into cities. The species recorded in parks and AGs contained a lot of native characteristics of urban, ruderal plant communities.

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The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network creation, stakeholder engagement, enhancing ecosystem services mapping and assessment methods across various spatial scales and value domains, work in case studies and support of EU member states in MAES implementation. Thus ESMERALDA aimed at integrating various project outcomes around four major strands: i) Networking, ii) Policy, iii) Research and iv) Application. The objective was to provide guidance for integrated ecosystem service mapping and assessment that can be used for sustainable decision-making in policy, business, society, practice and science at EU, national and regional levels. This article presents the overall ESMERALDA approach of integrating the above-mentioned project components and outcomes and provides an overview of how the enhanced methods were applied and how they can be used to support MAES implementation in the EU member states. Experiences with implementing such a large pan-European Coordination and Support Action in the context of EU policy are discussed and recommendations for future actions are given.