In many parts of the world the relationship between ecosystems and livelihoods is changing.  The changing economic systems across the urban-rural sectors are creating what we call mixed-economic “desakota” systems.

This study aims at increasing the understanding of the relationships among patterns of global economic and demographic changes, the nature of ecosystem services and the role of such services in increasingly interlinked urban/rural livelihood system, particularly those of poor. The focus is particularly on water-based ecosystem services as water is not only the resource but a contributor to climate, chemical and biological system.

The paper finds that processes of globalization and increasing mobility are creating unprecedented interlinkages in livelihood, economic, environmental, social and other systems across scales of interaction from the
 local to the global.
 In addition to the creation of unprecedented interlinkages across scales, the mixture of “rural” agricultural and more “urban” service, manufacturing and other economic activities in the desakota context often intensifies pressures on local ecosystems and the services they provide.

Such rapid change processes represent a fundamental challenge to conventional approaches to research and the incorporation of new knowledge in development strategies. Research also needs to be interactive across disciplines. The paper concludes that networked approaches that incorporate many of the core research themes identified in this report are essential. Disconnected research on individual themes has, by itself, little chance of contributing to action on the ground or the formulation of effective policies whether at local, regional, national or global scales.