Stakeholder perceptions of grassland ecosystem services in relation to knowledge on soil fertility and biodiversity

The concept of ecosystem services is increasingly being used by scientists and policy makers. However, most studies in this area have focussed on factors that regulate ecosystem functions (i.e. the potential to deliver ecosystem services) or the supply of ecosystem services. In contrast, demand for ecosystem services (i.e. the needs of beneficiaries) or understanding of the concept and the relative ranking of different ecosystem services by beneficiaries has received limited attention. The aim of this study was to identify in three European mountain regions the ecosystem services of grassland that different stakeholders identify (which ecosystem services for whom), the relative rankings of these ecosystem services, and how stakeholders perceive the provision of these ecosystem services to be related to agricultural activities. We found differences: (1) between farmers?? perceptions of ecosystem services across regions and (2) within regions, between knowledge of ecosystem services gained by regional experts through education and farmers?? local field-based knowledge. Nevertheless, we identified a common set of ecosystem services that were considered important by stakeholders across the three regions, including soil stability, water quantity and quality, forage quality, conservation of botanical diversity, aesthetics and recreation (for regional experts), and forage quantity and aesthetic (for local farmers). We observed two contrasting stakeholder representations of the effects of agricultural management on ecosystem services delivery, one negative and the other positive (considering low to medium management intensity). These representations were determined by stakeholders?? perceptions of the relationships between soil fertility and biodiversity. Overall, differences in perceptions highlighted in this study show that practitioners, policy makers and researchers should be more explicit in their uses of the ecosystem services concept in order to be correctly understood and to foster improved communication among stakeholders.     

Socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services in a transhumance social-ecological network

The ecosystem services framework is receiving increasing attention in the fields of policy and research. The assessment of human attitudes and perceptions regarding ecosystem services has been proposed as a promising tool for addressing complex problems associated with environmental change, particularly in the context of cultural landscapes. Transhumance is not only a farming practice responsible for shaping cultural landscapes but also an adaptive strategy based on mobility that may represent a useful approach to overcoming the growing challenges posed by accelerated environmental change. A socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services associated with the Conquense Drove Road, one of the major transhumant networks still in use in Mediterranean Spain, was conducted via the distribution of questionnaires to 416 local residents and visitors to capture their perceptions regarding the importance of 34 ecosystem services (10 provisioning, 12 regulating, and 12 cultural) for both social and personal well-being. Overall, the ecosystem services considered to be the most important for social well-being were fire prevention, air purification and livestock. Most of the ecosystem services in question were perceived as declining, with the exception of those associated with recreation, scientific knowledge and environmental education. This study revealed that perceptions regarding the value of ecosystem services differed among respondents, depending on their age, place of origin and gender. Several methodological issues, as well as the implications of socio-cultural valuation for policy making, are also discussed here.     

Practices and opportunities of ecosystem service studies for ecological restoration in China

New approaches have emerged in integrating ecosystem services, their structure and function for ecological restoration. As the concept relating with ecosystem services has become widely accepted in last decade in China, its linking with ecological restoration will provide good opportunities and make substantial progress towards sustainable development. By analyzing the traditional ecological restoration procedure in China, we developed a framework of ecological restoration based on ecosystem services valuation. Relevant researches of ecological restoration based on ecosystem services are also carefully reviewed. China’s ecosystem services studies and payments for ecosystem services (PES) experiences were extensively discussed to show the ecological restoration strategy and its change. Two case studies in China were presented to show the framework for ecological restoration based on PES. We suggested that despite the limitations of valuation uncertainties at present, PES could be an opportunity for ecological restoration by evaluating the trade-offs of different stakeholders. In current state in China, challenges and opportunities coexist and scientists should work together in the integrated research of sustainable ecological management and economic development policies.     

Exploring socio-cultural values of ecosystem service categories in the Central Alps: the influence of socio-demographic factors and landscape type

The socio-cultural assessment of ecosystem services has been proposed as a promising tool for eliciting people’s preferences towards ecosystem services. Despite an increasing integration of the socio-cultural perspective in ecosystem service research, little knowledge exists about linkages between landscape and the socio-cultural values people assign to ecosystem services. This paper combines a socio-cultural valuation approach with the use of landscape pictures to analyse and compare people’s perceived importance of the provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem service categories across three landscape types (i.e. larch meadows, spruce forests, and hay meadow). A survey with 470 tourists visiting the region of South Tyrol (Italy) was conducted to link people’s perceived importance to their socio-demographic background and to the landscape types explored. The results show that regulating ecosystem services are preferred over provisioning and cultural services, whereby environmental awareness is found to be more influential than formal education levels regarding the perceived importance of regulating services. The results further demonstrate that cultural background is an important driver in determining people’s perceived importance of cultural services. The underlying landscape types, however, exert an even stronger influence on people’s socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem service categories. This finding suggests that the focus of most ecosystem services assessments on the study area as a whole risks mistakenly attributing differences in people’s socio-cultural values to socio-demographic characteristics only. A better knowledge of the spatial integration of socio-cultural values, however, could help with anticipating the consequences of changes in the landscape and provide better guidance for future landscape planning.     

Biodiversity provides ecosystem services: scientific results versus stakeholders’ knowledge

Exploiting the complementarities between biological components in agricultural systems is presented as a solution to increase food production and decrease environmental problems. This amounts to maximizing the ecosystem services (i.e., the benefits human obtain from ecosystems) provided by biodiversity at the expense of the disservices (i.e., the nuisances human obtain from ecosystems). In recent years, science has produced significant results supporting this strategy, but their application in the field is dependent on stakeholders’ knowledge. This article therefore addresses two questions: What do stakeholders know about the services and disservices provided by biodiversity? Does this knowledge agree with scientific results? We address these questions by combining a literature review of 39 scientific articles and interviews with 8 farmers and 3 farm advisors in France. Scientific results and stakeholders’ knowledge both indicate that within- and between-field plant biodiversity have a positive effect on the provision of ecosystem services. For instance, it can reduce inputs and give higher and more stable plant production. It may even improve farmers’ management conditions. However, our work revealed two gaps in our scientific knowledge. Only 3 scientific articles connected ecosystem services with plant biodiversity at the farm scale or between fields, while stakeholders did so for 43 % of the services they mentioned. Similarly, management services concerned about one-third of the services mentioned by stakeholders but were addressed in only 3 scientific articles. Stakeholders’ expertise can thus help us to prioritize research options in order to simultaneously fill scientific gaps and produce knowledge relevant to practice.     

Building resilience to water scarcity in southern Spain: a case study of rice farming in Doñana protected wetlands

Agricultural water management needs to evolve in view of increased water scarcity, especially when farming and natural protected areas are closely linked. In the study site of Doñana (southern Spain), water is shared by rice producers and a world heritage biodiversity ecosystem. Our aim is to contribute to defining adaptation strategies that may build resilience to increasing water scarcity and minimize water conflicts among agricultural and natural systems. The analytical framework links a participatory process with quantitative methods to prioritize the adaptation options. Bottom-up proposed adaptation measures are evaluated by a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) that includes both socioeconomic criteria and criteria of the ecosystem services affected by the adaptation options. Criteria weights are estimated by three different methods—analytic hierarchy process, Likert scale and equal weights—that are then compared. Finally, scores from an MCA are input into an optimization model used to determine the optimal land-use distribution in order to maximize utility and land-use diversification according to different scenarios of funds and water availability. While our results show a spectrum of perceptions of priorities among stakeholders, there is one overriding theme that is to define a way to restore part of the rice fields to natural wetlands. These results hold true under the current climate scenario and even more so under an increased water scarcity scenario.     

生态补偿理论研究进展及争论——基于生态与社会关系的思考

生态补偿的概念自提出便受到学界和政府决策者的广泛关注,并迅速成为近20年来生态保护的主要政策手段。虽然基于生态补偿的政策手段被大范围使用,但是生态补偿的相关理论却处于发展与争论的阶段,该理论的适用性及对现实问题的剖析在实践过程中备受质疑。本文梳理了生态补偿理论发展及构建的过程,将其总结为生态系统服务概念的提出、生态系统服务价值评估方法的建立、以及生态系统服务市场机制的构建三个主要阶段。已有研究更多集中在生态补偿的具体实施层面,如补偿标准、补偿方式、效果评估等方面,但是对基础理论探讨不足。本文从生态补偿理论发展及构建的三个过程,综述了目前对生态补偿理论的讨论及争议,认为在处理"社会—生态"关系的核心问题上,尤其在一些长期依赖并利用自然资源的传统地区或者民族地区,目前学术界和政策决策者均对此问题缺乏深入的理解,这也是实践中生态补偿政策未达到理想效果的主要原因之一。最后,本文提出用"社会生态系统服务"一词代替目前所使用的"生态系统服务",这一概念有助于在理论上避免忽视社会系统及社会与生态系统二者之间的关系,减少不当外部政策干预。     

Research of the Response of Ecosystem to LUCC in Miyun County,Beijing: Based on Ecosystem Services Valuation

Abstract

Miyun County, located in the northeast of Chinese capital Beijing, was underwent remarkable variations in land use in recent years. This paper aimed to detect changes in land use of Miyun from 1997 to 2005, and to qualify the response of ecosystem to LUCC based on ecosystem services valuation. With two-periods TM images, we got land use change data, and then ecosystem services values were calculated using ecosystem services valuation coefficients proposed by Chinese scholar Xie Gaodi. Results showed that water area, farm land and unused land decreased while residential land, forest land, grassland and orchard land increased during the study period. The loss of ESV was RMB 206 million and the main reason was the decrease of water area and farm land area. As for spatial variation, there were most dramatically land use change and ESV decline in reservoir ecological protection region. The coefficient sensitivity analysis indicates that valuation coefficients used in the study are suitable and results are reasonable. The driving forces of ESV loss were rapid population growth and economic development. More work should be done to make eco-environment stay healthy.     

Linking biophysical models and public preferences for ecosystem service assessments: a case study for the Southern Rocky Mountains

Through extensive research, ecosystem services have been mapped using both survey-based and biophysical approaches, but comparative mapping of public values and those quantified using models has been lacking. In this paper, we mapped hot and cold spots for perceived and modeled ecosystem services by synthesizing results from a social-values mapping study of residents living near the Pike–San Isabel National Forest (PSI), located in the Southern Rocky Mountains, with corresponding biophysically modeled ecosystem services. Social-value maps for the PSI were developed using the Social Values for Ecosystem Services tool, providing statistically modeled continuous value surfaces for 12 value types, including aesthetic, biodiversity, and life-sustaining values. Biophysically modeled maps of carbon sequestration and storage, scenic viewsheds, sediment regulation, and water yield were generated using the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services tool. Hotspots for both perceived and modeled services were disproportionately located within the PSI’s wilderness areas. Additionally, we used regression analysis to evaluate spatial relationships between perceived biodiversity and cultural ecosystem services and corresponding biophysical model outputs. Our goal was to determine whether publicly valued locations for aesthetic, biodiversity, and life-sustaining values relate meaningfully to results from corresponding biophysical ecosystem service models. We found weak relationships between perceived and biophysically modeled services, indicating that public perception of ecosystem service provisioning regions is limited. We believe that biophysical and social approaches to ecosystem service mapping can serve as methodological complements that can advance ecosystem services-based resource management, benefitting resource managers by showing potential locations of synergy or conflict between areas supplying ecosystem services and those valued by the public.     

Social preferences towards ecosystem services provided by cloud forests in the neotropics: implications for conservation strategies

Despite the importance of neotropical cloud forests as providers of ecosystem services to society, they are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. We analysed the importance of three cloud forest reserves in central Colombia as providers of ecosystem services, as well as the social support to conservation actions in these ecosystems through willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to give up time (WTT) estimates. Our results highlight the high commitment of all users of the cloud forest areas towards the conservation of the ecosystem services provided by these strategic ecosystems. We found that the most important perceived ecosystem services were water supply and habitat maintenance for species. Our findings also suggest that the respondents’ ecological knowledge (measured as the awareness of the ecosystem services supplied by cloud forests) was an important factor in determining both WTP and WTT for conserving cloud forests. Moreover, our results indicate that WTT should be a viable technique to explore individual preferences of different stakeholders towards conservation activities in cloud forests. Based on our results, we propose a conservation strategy of cloud forests that considers different users’ socio-economic and environmental characteristics, in which both experimental and experiential knowledge should be incorporated in order to promote collective action.     

Benefits from and threats to European treeline ecosystem services: an exploratory study of stakeholders and governance

The concept of ecosystem services (ES) is being increasingly applied in environmental governance and science. To safeguard key ES in changing and complex social–ecological systems such as treeline areas, we need to (1) map key ES in different types of treeline landscapes, (2) identify the stakeholders benefiting from and threatening ES, and (3) examine how ES could be governed more sustainably. We explore these questions in European treeline areas by using quantitative and qualitative social science techniques to analyse responses from a survey of local scientific experts in 20 altitudinal and polar treeline areas in 15 European countries. In contrast to the prevalent consideration of treeline areas as a single type of a social–ecological system, we show that European treeline areas can be divided into two types that significantly differ in the delivery of ES. Our analyses allowed us to categorize stakeholders according to their benefits from and threats to ES; “Green key players” formed the most numerous group, while smaller number of stakeholder groups was categorized as “Harmless crowd”, “Occasional stressors”, and “Risky users”. However, behaviour of stakeholders is very much site-specific. Of 595 pairs of stakeholders analysed, we found <5 EU-wide “Allies” and “Opponents”. Recommendations for improved governance include adjusting governance instruments to specific problems in divergent treeline systems and creating participatory structures where stakeholders better interact with scientists and can genuinely influence management decisions.     

城市化背景下喀斯特流域生态服务价值时空分异特征——以贵阳市南明河流域为例

以贵阳市南明河流域1990、2000和2013年遥感影像数据为基础,通过多尺度空间单元格及空间自相关分析,结合GIS空间分析技术,定量描述了南明河流域生态系统服务功能的时空分异特征,进一步揭示了喀斯特区域城市发展引起的生态服务价值变化。结果表明:1990~2013年,南明河流域生态服务价值增加6.87亿元,林地生态服务价值增加,而耕地、建设用地的变化造成生态服务价值的损失;流域生态服务价值存在较强空间聚集性,生态服务价值"热点"区主要分布在流域中下游,"冷点"区主要集中在流域中游;随着研究尺度的增加,流域生态服务价值的空间自相关性增强;流域生态服务价值对价值系数缺乏弹性,林地敏感性最高,对流域生态服务价值贡献最大,而城市化进程加快使得建设用地对总生态服务价值的影响程度增加。     

Effectiveness of protected areas in the Colombian Andes: deforestation, fire and land-use changes

Protected areas (PAs) are one of the most common conservation strategies to halt biodiversity loss. However, little is known about their current effectiveness and how they could behave under projected scenarios of change, especially in the mountain ecosystems of the Andean region. In this study, we assess the role of protected areas against deforestation and fire incidence in the Colombian Andes and how variables associated with biophysical and context drivers such as the size, year of creation and geographic location of the PAs affect their effectiveness. For the long-term, we have addressed the question of how effective these areas will be under three different scenarios of change for the period between 2020 and 2050, including a reference scenario and two scenarios of increasing pastureland and croplands. The results obtained indicated that both deforestation and fire levels were significantly lower inside protected areas than outside their borders. Concerning variables affecting deforestation and fire, only the type of ecosystem affected these processes in this study. The magnitude of forest loss was different between the analysed scenarios and depended on the location of the PAs. The PAs located in the Western Mountain Range presented the largest values of deforestation but the lowest number of fire incidences. This finding could be related to the presence of processes other than fire, such as illegal logging or selective extraction. The largest losses are expected in the PAs associated with the Eastern and Central mountain ranges, whereas the Western Mountain range will have the lowest loss. We conclude that although the Andes Mountains are a highly transformed and dynamic region, the current PAs have been effective barriers for deforestation and fire. However, the creation of new areas and the maintenance of the current PAs should take into account the interaction with the surrounding population, especially in those areas that are more sensitive to change.     

长江口湿地生态系统服务功能价值的评估

长江口湿地是我国重要的滨海湿地，具有多种生态服务功能。参考Costanza等提出的17项生态系统服务功能，利用市场价值法、造林成本法、影子工程法、费用替代法以及专家评估法等方法．对长江口湿地生态价值进行了评估。结果表明，长江口湿地生态系统的生态服务价值为40．00亿元/a。其中，成陆造地价值为9．0亿元/a，物质生产价值8．86亿元/a，大气组分调节价值为1．15亿元/a，水分调节价值为1．54亿元/a，净化水体价值为3．4l亿元/a，提供栖息地价值为2．86亿元/a，文化科研价值为8．38亿元/a，美学价值为4．81亿元/a。并提出对生态系统服务价值的利用应本着可持续发展的原则。     

土地利用变化对生态系统服务的影响研究综述

土地利用/覆被变化是全球环境变化的重要组成部分和主要原因之一,不仅带来了地表结构的巨大变化,而且对生态系统服务也造成重要影响。土地利用变化和生态系统服务研究已成为国际上生态学和地理学等跨学科研究的热点之一。从土地利用变化和生态系统服务的概念及其影响因素分析入手,综述了土地利用面积变化、土地利用方式变化和土地利用空间格局变化等对生态系统服务的影响,归纳了土地利用变化对生态系统服务的影响研究的主要方法和模型,分析了相关研究的不足,并提出了加强生态系统服务动态评估方法和时空动态评估模型的研究、强化土地利用变化对生态系统服务影响的生态学机制研究和注重土地利用变化下生态系统服务评估结果的集成应用研究等建议,以期对我国的土地利用变化与生态系统服务评估研究提供科学参考。     

生态服务价值视角下湖北省长江流域防洪能力研究

以我国洪涝灾害最为严重的地区之一——湖北省长江流域为研究对象,从生态服务价值的视角,利用流域1996年和2009年两期土地利用数据,测算与流域防洪功能相关的水土保持和滞洪蓄洪生态服务价值的变化情况,并结合土地利用/覆盖变化(LUCC),分区域对其变化的原因及所带来的影响进行分析。研究结果表明:(1)流域的整体防洪调蓄能力在1996~2009年有所增强,滞洪蓄洪和水土保持两项生态服务价值都有所增加;(2)局部地区存在较大问题,主要是:防洪重点地区江汉平原荆江段和鄂东沿江平原地区的滞洪蓄洪能力显著降低,其主要原因是湿地被大量侵占;水土保持重点区域鄂东沿江平原的北岸黄冈地区的水土保持生态服务价值则由于林地的减少而显著降低;(3)应借鉴生态服务功能保持较好地区的经验,坚持执行退耕还林和退田还湖政策,并建立湿地及森林自然保护区,以行政和法律的手段保护地区生态环境,提高流域防洪能力。     

Direct and indirect effects of climate and fishing on changes in coastal ecosystem services: a historical perspective from the North Sea

Humanity depends on the marine environment for a range of vital ecosystem services, at global (e.g. climate regulation), regional (e.g. commercial fisheries) and local scales (e.g. coastal defence and recreation). At the same time, marine ecosystems have been exploited for centuries, and many systems today are under stress from multiple sources. Recent studies have shown how both climate change and fishing have caused long-term changes in the marine environment. However, there is still poor understanding of how these changes influence change in coastal ecosystem services. In this paper, an integrated modelling approach is used to assess how the final delivery of marine ecosystem services to coastal communities is influenced by the direct and indirect effects of changes in ecosystem processes brought about by climate and human impacts, using fisheries of the North Sea region as a case study. Partial least squares path analysis is used to explore the relationships between drivers of change, marine ecosystem processes and services (landings). A simple conceptual model with four variables—climate, fishing effort, ecosystem process and ecosystem services—is applied to the English North Sea using historic ecological, climatic and fisheries time series spanning 1924–2010 to identify the multiple pathways that might exist. As expected, direct and indirect links between fishing effort, ecosystem processes and service provision were significant. However, links between climate and ecosystem processes were weak. This paper highlights how path analysis can be used for analysing long-term temporal links between ecosystem processes and services following a simplified pathway.     

国家级重点生态功能区县生态系统生产总值核算研究——以阿尔山市为例

国家级重点生态功能区是国家重要的生态安全屏障,是保障生态系统稳定的重要区域,生态系统生产总值(GEP)是生态系统为人类福祉和经济社会可持续发展提供的产品与服务价值的总和。核算重点生态功能区县生态系统生产总值(GEP)不仅为揭示区域生态系统为人类福祉和经济社会发展贡献提供了新的手段,同时为完善限制开发区市县政府考核机制和离任审计提供了新的科学方法。本文以国家级重点生态功能区县——阿尔山市为例,运用市场价值法、影子工程法、替代成本法及旅游费用法等研究方法,对阿尔山市生态系统产品提供、调节服务、文化服务3大类11项服务功能进行核算,结果表明:(1)2014年,阿尔山市生态系统生产总值539.88亿元,就生态系统服务类别而言,调节服务价值最高,占88.44%;文化服务价值占8.72%;产品提供价值占2.83%。(2)就不同生态系统服务类型而言,气候调节功能价值最大,占45.33%;固碳释氧价值、水源涵养价值、洪水调蓄价值次之。(3)就不同生态系统类型而言,由大到小排序,森林湿地草地灌丛农田。其中,森林生态系统生产总值最高,占61.99%;湿地次之,占32.44%。     

Economic valuation of Shadegan International Wetland,Iran: notes for conservation

Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on the earth. They produce various market and non-market goods and services, which have a significant role in human welfare. Despite the great opportunities from sustainable development, wetlands all over the world are under serious threat from a diverse range of non-sustainable activities. One of the major reasons for excessive depletion and the conversion of wetland resources is due to underestimating the non-market values of wetlands during development decisions. Shadegan International Wetland (SIW) in southern Iran is one of these wetland areas that is threatened by undervaluation and overexploitation from commercial activities. This study utilizes the contingent valuation method to estimate the economic benefits of SIW from the view point of peoples’ willingness to pay (WTP). The logit model was defined based on dichotomous choice to measure individuals’ WTP. The estimated mean WTP was US$ 1.74 per household as a onetime donation. This study concludes that the benefits of SIW to society could encourage managers to set priorities to ensure that the health of the ecosystem, its integrity, and its uniqueness would be conserved in a proper manner.     

Abandonment landscapes: user attitudes,alternative futures and land management in Castro Laboreiro,Portugal

Land abandonment is an important process for the European Union, which primarily occurs in less productive, remote and mountainous areas with unfavourable conditions for agriculture. Future management directions of these abandonment areas are under debate, with increasing calls to adjust policies to the local characteristics, including the promotion of rewilding and the management of succession of larger areas of less-productive land. While there is an increase in studies focusing on the environmental impacts of land abandonment, there are few studies that focus on the perceptions of abandonment by different user groups, even though an understanding of local perceptions, opportunities and trade-offs associated with changing land management is crucial for landscape-related policies and planning measures. In a case study in Northern Portugal, we used a combination of statements, photograph rating exercises and open questions to assess the perceptions of local inhabitants, visitors and experts regarding land abandonment and their preferences of different possible trajectories after abandonment. The results show that all user groups have a negative response towards abandonment and associate it mainly with negative emotions and the loss of heritage and traditions. The assessment of the different abandonment stages and outcomes clearly yielded different preferences and explanations, which can be used as input for finding a common ground for landscape management, reducing conflict and as a starting point for a more spatially targeted and nuanced management approach.