The ecosystem services concept is dynamic and it has engaged a number of different scientific domains during its 30 year history with resulting shifts of emphasis and focus. Moreover, the notion of “ecosystem services” has been used not simply as a descriptive tool (concept) for disinterested, objective science, but also to further several different normative goals (agendas). These agendas can be summarised as: the conservation of biodiversity, the active (efficient) management of ecosystems to ensure human well‐being; and the desire for more equitable distribution of access to natural resources. Success in each of these three agendas (conservation, well‐being and equity) is dependent on
acknowledging their mutual interdependences. We argue here that aligning the (descriptive) ecosystem services concept with the broader (normative) agenda of sustainability provides a uniquely useful framework for understanding and managing human‐ecosystem interactions. In this paper we undertake a text analysis of existing ecosystem services research to map 1) how the ecosystem service concept has changed over time and 2) the extent to which this changing concept is aligned with the normative goals of sustainability. We provide a new conceptual model for ecosystem services research that frames the concept within an explicit sustainability agenda. We argue that such an explicit normative realignment of the ecosystem services, while important, is in itself insufficient if
the concept is to become transformative. We must consider how new ecological and socio‐economic understandings of human‐ecosystem interactions can inform norms, behaviours and policies that break from the current dominant paradigm that is endangering ecological and human well‐being.