This review presents the concept of the ecosystem services. In the paper discussed are the following topics: definition of the ecosystem services, the history and the development of the concept, typology of the services, main approaches to distinguishing services, different methods of monetary and non-monetary services evaluation, and the role of ecosystem services in land management. The relation between concepts of ecosystem services and of landscape potential is also shown. In the final part of the review proposed is a set of services-oriented research problems which could be wider included in landscape-ecological studies.