The abilities of global ecosystems to produce services are declining; while the demands for these services are rapidly increasing. However, there is limited understanding of mismatches between supply and demand of ecosystem services (ESs), which has serious implications for both human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, particularly in drylands. This paper provides three perspectives: (1) an understanding of ESs in dryland catchments from a systemic process perspective; (2) an understanding of ESs in dryland catchments from a spatial management perspective; and (3) an understanding of
mismatches between ecosystem service supply (ESS) and ecosystem service demand (ESD) from a long timeframe perspective. We then propose a driver-based framework for managing the mismatches between ESS and ESD. It is expected that applying these perspectives and the framework in an integrated way can assist in addressing ES mismatches to achieve ecological security and sustainable development of the socio-economy in drylands.
