度量生态服务价值的选择实验:方法介绍及案例研究

选择实验作为一种价值评估工具,自1990年代以来被应用于生态环境和自然资源利用领域。选择试验不同于开放式或封闭式条件价值法中采用的那种直接出价方式,它实际上模拟了一个关于不同水平属性组合的交易市场。由于选择实验可以评价生态环境和自然资源利用的某一属性,所以这一方法更适合作为生态补偿政策的评估工具。选择实验基于特征效用理论和随机效用理论,该方法成功的关键是选定合适的属性及其水平。设计选择实验目前最有效的方法是D-效率设计,这一设计要求的原则是水平平衡,正交性,最少重叠,以及效用平衡。作为案例研究,本文利用选择实验计算了资兴东江湖雾的景观价值。将影响东江湖旅游这一产品的效用和价值的主要属性确定为雾、其他自然景观、设施以及门票,其中门票价格是成本属性。数据由课题组实地通过问卷调查获得。计算结果是,相对于无雾,东江湖游客愿意支付132.93元看到小雾,支付136.59元看到仙境雾。本文还计算出让其他自然景观维持现状、变好的支付意愿分别为151.84、198.98元,让道路及旅游服务设施变得更好的支付意愿是28.43元。     

Sociocultural valuation of ecosystem services to improve protected area management: a multi-method approach applied to Catalonia,Spain

The notion of ecosystem services is considered useful for integrating perceptions and values into decision-making on environment and nature. Sociocultural factors have been suggested to explain perceptions and values assigned to ecosystem services. We examine this by undertaking a sociocultural valuation of ecosystem services provided by the natural park of Sant Llorenç del Munt, located at the edge of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. Four methods are used, namely a review of the literature on ecosystem services, non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and a valuation survey among visitors. We assess whether visitors and other stakeholders understand the term ecosystem service, finding that the concept is rather unknown or misunderstood. Among the 28 ecosystem services identified, habitat and cultural services were the most valued. We statistically identify socioeconomic characteristics of visitors that have a main influence on their valuation of ecosystem services. We further assess diverging preferences of all stakeholders that might give rise to conflicting views about policies for protected areas. We draw lessons about the usefulness of the multi-method approach and about the management of protected areas.     

Heat waves and floods in urban areas: a policy-oriented review of ecosystem services

Urbanisation is increasing and today more than a half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Cities, especially those where urbanisation is un-planned or poorly planned, are increasingly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological hazards such as heat waves and floods. Urban areas tend to degrade the environment, fragmenting and isolating ecosystems, compromising their capacity to provide services. The regulating role of ecosystems in buffering hydro-meteorological hazards and reducing urban vulnerability has not received adequate policy attention until now. Whereas there is a wide body of studies in the specialised biological and ecological literature about particular urban ecosystem features and the impacts of hazards upon people and infrastructures, there is no policy-driven overview looking holistically at the ways in which ecosystem features can be managed by cities to reduce their vulnerability to hazards. Using heat waves and floods as examples, this review article identifies the aggravating factors related to urbanisation, the various regulating ecosystem services that buffer cities from hydro-meteorological impacts as well as the impacts of the hazards on the ecosystem. The review also assesses how different cities have attempted to manage related ecosystem services and draws policy-relevant conclusions.     

Public preferences for production of local and global ecosystem services

Many regulating ecosystem services exhibit non-excludability and non-rivalry characteristics akin to public goods. This makes it unlikely that such regulating ecosystem services will attract a price in the marketplace. Policymakers, therefore, find difficulties in determining a correct economic valuation for regulating ecosystem services, with potentially severe consequences for aligning policy for ecosystem service provision with public preferences for service delivery. This research used a choice modelling approach to estimate public preferences for delivery of two regulating ecosystem services; reductions in the flood risk to the British city of York (implemented by filling in drainage ditches in peat moorland further up the catchment), and a reduction in CO₂ emissions (implemented by planting Poplar trees for biomass either locally in the study area or elsewhere in the UK). The choice experiment presented respondents with options providing different levels of CO₂ reduction, implemented locally or nationally, and different levels of flood risk reduction, at a range of different prices, with a tax as the payment vehicle. Subsequent analysis with latent class (LC) models showed considerable heterogeneity of preference among respondents, particularly with regard to the location of tree planting for CO₂ reduction. One LC segment showed a significant preference for achieving a high level CO₂ reduction through national, as opposed to local tree planting, potentially indicating the existence of NIMBYism. The same LC segment displayed a preference for moderate reductions in the flood risk to York, even though this would deliver no personal benefit for a substantial proportion of the segment. This could, therefore, indicate altruistic behaviour towards geographically proximate beneficiaries.     

Disaggregated contributions of ecosystem services to human well-being: a case study from Eastern Europe

Aggregated analyses of the benefits from ecosystem services (ES) to well-being neglect important differences among beneficiaries and fail to capture the complexity of factors that mediate the ES–well-being relationship. Based on 25 group interviews, we disaggregated the ES–well-being relationships across six groups of potential beneficiaries in a farming landscape in central Romania, Eastern Europe. We explored what mediates distributional patterns of needs and benefits among beneficiaries and identified six contextual factors: (1) characteristics of the appropriated ES; (2) policies, formal institutions, and markets; (3) social and power relations, and informal institutions; (4) household decisions and individual contexts; (5) different perceptions and understandings of equity; and (6) individually held values. Based on these empirically derived factors, we developed a conceptual model of mediating factors that holistically takes into account the contextual space between ES and human beneficiaries. This model provides a framework for unpacking ES–well-being relationships that may guide ES research across varying socioeconomic cases. Notably, this model of mediating factors incorporates an equity perspective that is more refined than the dominant discourse on the relation between poverty and ES (which typically emphasizes that poor people are most dependent on ES, but neglects factors such as power relations and held values). Recognizing multiple contextual factors that shape the contribution of ES to well-being opens doors for harnessing new interdisciplinary collaborations and can help to inform more holistic policy interventions.     

Forest management and future changes to ecosystem services in the Romanian Carpathians

This study investigates consequences of future changes to the provision of ecosystem services (ES) in the Romanian Carpathians. Two 2040 forest management scenarios were compared, using two indicators to describe the gains and losses of ES. Changes in landslide regulation potential were defined as changes to landslide susceptibility. High nature value grasslands characterized biodiversity support. The business as usual scenario results in a 8% lower loss of landslide regulation potential compared to the alternative scenario. It also results in a 29% higher regional net gain of landslide regulation potential. Both scenarios result in the loss of biodiversity support due to their prevalent transition of forest expansion. This type of information is crucial for informing decision makers on the locations of potential gains and losses of future development.     

Recent changes in ecosystem services and human well-being in the Bangladesh coastal zone

This study takes an historical approach in order to establish how the form and function of the social-ecological system that represents the Bangladesh south-western coastal zone has changed over recent decades. Time series data for a range of ecosystem services and drivers are analysed to define the range of trends, the presence of change points, slow and fast variables and the significant drivers of change. Since the 1980s, increasing gross domestic product and per capita income mirror rising levels of food and inland fish production. As a result, the size of population below the poverty line has reduced by ~17 %. In contrast, non-food ecosystem services such as water availability, water quality and land stability have deteriorated. Conversion of rice fields to shrimp farms is almost certainly a factor in increasing soil and surface water salinity. Most of the services experienced statistically significant change points between 1975 and 1980, and among the services, water availability, shrimp farming and maintenance of biodiversity appear to have passed tipping points. An environmental Kuznets curve analysis suggests that the point at which growing economic wealth feeds back into effective environmental protection has not yet been reached for water resources. Trends in indicators of ecosystem services and human well-being point to widespread non-stationary dynamics governed by slowly changing variables with an increased likelihood of systemic threshold changes/tipping points in the near future. The results will feed into simulation models and strategies that can define alternative and sustainable paths for land management.     

Biophysical and monetary quantification of ecosystem services in a mountain region: the case of avoided soil erosion

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Even though ecosystem services have a significant contribution to human well-being, their value is not always recognized. Despite difficulties, the...     

Ecosystem management based on ecosystem services and human activities: a case study in the Yanhe watershed

With activities that alter the structure and function of the habitat, humans have a direct impact on ecosystems and ecosystem services, i.e., the conditions and processes that sustain human life. In this study, 35 townships in the Yanhe watershed in the Loess Plateau of China were selected. The net primary production (NPP), carbon sequestration and oxygen production (CSOP), water conservation, and soil conservation were the ecosystem services selected and valuated. Human activity was quantified by an integrated human activity index (HAI) based on population density, farmland ratio, and the influence of road networks and residential areas. The NPP, CSOP, and water conservation showed a conspicuous spatial pattern fanning outward from the southwest, while the soil conservation showed an obscure spatial pattern distinguished primarily by the peripheral area surrounding the urbanized areas. Total ecosystem services in the Yanhe watershed demonstrated a decreasing pattern from south to north, and the HAI was in proportion to administrative and economic development. Based on the selected ecosystem services and HAI, we mapped the townships of the Yanhe watershed by cluster analysis, and provided sustainable ecosystem management suggestions, tailored to the social-ecological map.     

Impacts of business-as-usual management on ecosystem services in European mountain ranges under climate change

Mountain forests provide a multitude of services beyond timber production. In a large European project (ARANGE—Advanced multifunctional forest management in European mountain RANGEs), the impacts of climate change and forest management on ecosystem services (ES) were assessed. Here, we provide background information about the concept that was underlying the ARANGE project, and its main objectives, research questions, and methodological approaches are presented. The project focused on synergies and trade-offs among four key ES that are relevant in European mountain ranges: timber production, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, and protection from gravitational natural hazards. We introduce the concept and selection of case study areas (CSAs) that were used in the project; we describe the concept of representative stand types that were developed to provide a harmonized representation of forest stands and forest management in the CSAs; we explain and discuss the climate data and climate change scenarios that were applied across the seven CSAs; and we introduce the linker functions that were developed to relate stand- and landscape-scale forest features from model simulations to ES provisioning in mountain forests. Finally, we provide a brief overview of the Special Feature, with an attempt to synthesize emerging response patterns across the CSAs.     

Land cover transitions and effects of transhumance on available forage biomass of rangelands in Benin

This study examined the effects of transhumance pressure on total abavoe-ground biomass and forage availability on rangelands in Benin. We also investigated the implications of land cover transitions on rangelands over a 31-year period. Our work was carried out in three regions of Benin representing distinct phytogeographic regimes: Ketou, Tchaourou, and Sinende. Ground-truthing and biomass sampling of the herbaceous and phanaerophyte strata were carried out between the 2016 peak vegetation period and the onset of the 2017 rainy season. Herbaceous biomass was determined by destructive sampling, and biomass of shrub and trees was estimated using non-destructive sampling and allometric equations. Historical and present-day Landsat data allowed an analysis of land cover change for the 1986–2002 and 2002–2017 periods. Land cover analyses yielded evidence of significant expansion of agricultural areas, especially in the latter period. The data also revealed progressive landscape fragmentation and transformations to a land cover of reduced total phytomass. There were no long-term effects of transhumance on trees, but likely on herbaceous biomass. Land cover changes in the study regions seem primarily the result of population pressure, infrastructural changes, persisting norms, and traditions regarding environmental management and the increasing popularity of livestock keeping as an insurance strategy. Rangeland transformations had negative impacts on transhumant herds’ mobility and forage availability. As rangeland stability and consent between agricultural and pastoral land users are at a tipping point, informed policies, and land use planning that foster compromises among all stakeholders are needed.

     

国外生态补偿机制设计中的关键要素及启示

近年来,生态补偿已成为国内外学界关注的热点,各国相关实践也日益广泛深入。国外关于生态补偿的概念界定并不一致,不同国家的生态补偿实践也不尽相同,但通过考察现有相关研究和实践,可以总结和归纳出各国在生态补偿机制设计中均需考虑的一些关键要素。其中,生态补偿概念的构成要素包括外部性、条件性和自愿性,反映出生态补偿区别于其他环境保护政策工具所具有的核心特征;生态补偿效率的影响要素指向生态补偿的环境效益和成本效益,决定了生态补偿目的能否实现以及实现的程度和代价。提高环境效益的关键在于满足登记、目标锁定、额外性、联结和持续性的要求,避免泄漏、不正当激励和动机挤出效应的出现,而提高成本效益的关键则在于降低交易成本;生态补偿实施的制约要素是指机制运行的前提条件和事后保障,直接影响生态补偿最终能否真正落实和有效实施,包括制度背景例如生态系统服务提供者的财产使用权、透明度、附加目标、商业和技术支持等,以及事后的监督与评估,这也是条件性的必然要求。中国在建立健全生态补偿机制时,应当立足于本国的制度背景,同时借鉴国外先进经验,明确生态补偿的内涵和实质,从制度创新出发,将政府补偿和市场交易相融合,在生态补偿实施方案或协议的拟定中,将各项关键要素融入精密的条款设计中,明确利益相关各方的角色和责任,更好地实现生态补偿防止生态系统服务退化、促进生态系统服务恢复以及确保生态系统服务持续提供的功能,达成效益、效率和公平等价值目标。     

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.     

Hierarchical priority setting for restoration in a watershed in NE Spain, based on assessments of soil erosion and ecosystem services

Maintaining and enhancing ecosystem services through the restoration of degraded ecosystems have become an important biodiversity conservation strategy. Deciding where to restore ecosystems for the attainment of multiple services is a key issue for future planning, management, and human well-being. Most restoration projects usually entail a small number of actions in a local area and do not consider the potential benefits of planning restoration at broad regional scales. We developed a hierarchical priority setting approach to evaluate the performance of restoration measures in a semiarid basin in NE Spain (the Martín River Basin, 2,112 km²). Our analysis utilized a combination of erosion (a key driver of degradation in this Mediterranean region) and six spatially explicit ecosystem services data layers (five of these maps plotted surrogates for soil retention and accumulation, water supply and regulation, and carbon storage, and one plotted a cultural service, ecotourism). Hierarchical maps were generated using a geographic information system that combined areas important for providing a bundle of ecosystem services, as state variables, with erosion maps, as the disturbance or regulatory variable. This was performed for multiple scales, thereby identifying the most adequate scale of analysis and establishing a spatial hierarchy of restoration actions based on the combination of the evaluation of erosion rates and the provision of ecosystem services. Our approach provides managers with a straightforward method for determining the spatial distribution of values for a set of ecosystem services in relation to ecological degradation thresholds and for allocating efforts and resources for restoration projects in complex landscapes.     

Environmental accounting of natural capital and ecosystem services for the US National Forest System

The National Forests of the United States encompass 192.7?million acres (78?million hectares) of land, which is nearly five percent of the total land area of the nation. These lands are managed by the US Forest Service (USFS) for multiple uses, including extraction of timber, production of fossil fuels and minerals, public recreation, and the preservation of biodiversity, clean air, water, and soils. The USFS is interested in valuing the natural capital within, and the ecosystem services provided by, their lands. This is in part to justify expenditures in a time of limited resources. We used emergy and an environmental accounting approach, to quantify the ecosystem services, the exported environmental goods and information provided by National Forest System (NFS) lands, and the natural capital residing on those lands. Environmental accounting using emergy provides a method to value these flows of services and storages of capital using a common biophysical unit, the solar emjoule and its monetary equivalent the emdollar. We compare emdollar values to economic values gleaned from the literature. In 2005, the ecosystem services provided by USFS lands were equivalent to 197?billion emdollars, and the value of NFS natural capital was 24.3?trillion emdollars. Our evaluation suggests that the Federal Government budget allocation for the NFS ($5.55E+09 in 2005) was well spent, protecting 24.3?trillion emdollars in natural capital and insuring annual ecosystem services totaling 197?billion emdollars. Monetary values for some natural capital and ecosystem services are similar to emergy-derived values (resources like fish, wildlife, water, and firewood extracted from forests), and others are widely different (biodiversity, fossil, and mineral resources). There is large uncertainty associated with computing the environment’s contributions to society whether using emergy or accepted economic techniques; yet, the magnitude of these emergy-derived estimates suggests that even with the uncertainty, the values are significant and monetary expenditures for the Forest Service are justified.     

Towards a framework for cross-scale and multi-level analysis of coastal and marine social-ecological systems dynamics

As the Anthropocene proceeds, regional and local sustainability problems are ever more likely to originate at multiple levels of the earth system. The rate of global environmental change is now vastly outpacing our policy response, and social-ecological systems analysis needs to support global environmental governance. To respond to this challenge, this paper initiates the development of a coastal social-ecological typology and applies it in an exemplary fashion to nine coastal and marine case studies. We use an explicit distinction between the definitions of scale and level and a problem or issue-specific approach to the delineation of social-ecological units. A current major challenge to social-ecological systems analysis is the identification of the cross-level and cross-scale interactions and links which play key roles in shaping coastal and marine social-ecological dynamics and outcomes. We show that the regional level is the best point of departure to generate sustainability-oriented cross-scale and multi-level analyses and offers the outline of a typology in which different disciplinary and other forms of knowledge can be integrated as both part of regionally grounded analysis and action which engages with global sustainability challenges.     

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.     

Greenbelt conservation as a component of ecosystem,ecological benefits and management services: evidence from Peshawar City,Pakistan

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Conservation of greenbelts is the most enduringly successful and popular basic need for today to protect green land, preserve ecological landscape and...