The ESPA Knowledge Strategy describes the programme's research
goals and outlines the knowledge gaps that must be addressed to
meet them. The document was created in collaboration with ESPA
researchers and is a very useful tool for prospective grant
applicants. The ESPA Directorate sees people as part of
ecosystems and considers sustainable poverty alleviation as a
key goal of ecosystem management. The programme's research
framework highlights the links between ecosystem services — such
as timber production or freshwater supplies — and the well-being
of the poor, and describes how these sit within wider social,
political and environmental settings (see Figure 1 below). ESPA
researchers work across different temporal and spatial scales.
Local impacts on ecosystems can have different effects on a
wider scale, areas where ecosystems cross political and legal
boundaries must also be considered. Temporally, short-term gains
may have long-term costs, and we encourage our researchers to
think on generational time sc