Beyond Ecosystem Services: Valuing the Invaluable

Sustainable land management enhances ecological and economic multifunctionality under ambient and future climate

The currently dominant types of land management are threatening the multifunctionality of ecosystems, which is vital for human well-being. Here, we present a novel ecological-economic assessment of how multifunctionality of agroecosystems in Central Germany depends on land-use type and climate. Our analysis includes 14 ecosystem variables in a large-scale field experiment with five different land-use types under two different climate scenarios (ambient and future climate). We consider ecological multifunctionality measures using averaging approaches with different weights, reflecting preferences of four relevant stakeholders based on adapted survey data. Additionally, we propose an economic multifunctionality measure based on the aggregate economic value of ecosystem services. Results show that intensive management and future climate decrease ecological multifunctionality for most scenarios in both grassland and cropland. Only under a weighting based on farmers' preferences, intensively-managed grassland shows higher multifunctionality than sustainably-managed grassland. The economic multifunctionality measure is about ~1.7 to 1.9 times higher for sustainable, compared to intensive, management for both grassland and cropland. Soil biodiversity correlates positively with ecological multifunctionality and is expected to be one of its drivers. As the currently prevailing land management provides high multifunctionality for farmers, but not for society at large, we suggest to promote and economically incentivise sustainable land management that enhances both ecological and economic multifunctionality, also under future climatic conditions.

Aula Verde (tree room) as a link between art and science to raise public awareness of nature-based solutions

Nature-based solutions inherently require a multifaceted perspective that encompasses diverse fields. The aim of this project is to develop more effective nature-based solutions, climate action and environmental awareness by breaking down boundaries between disciplines and fostering a co-creative process. Concepts of ecology and urban forestry were combined with the research on political ecology, environmental humanities, land art, regenerative art, performing art, participatory art, and more-than-human art. This process resulted in the creation of Aula Verde Aniene. It is located in an urban park in Rome and consists of a stand of trees arranged in circles with a specific design to give the perception of being in an outdoor vegetated room. The project activities involved community participation through art performances and citizen science initiatives. Regulating and cultural ecosystem services of Aula Verde were assessed using i-Tree Eco software and citizens' surveys. Beyond numerical descriptions of ecosystem services, the manuscript introduces shinrin-yoku as a practice to raise awareness of nature. The distinctive approach here described contributed to convey a sense of belonging to the ecosystem to citizens. The project framework and study findings have been developed to formulate policy recommendations and disseminate a format that can be adapted to diverse locations.

What is enlightened agriculture? A multi-normative approach to the nature and values of food production systems

The sustainable development of farming is an agenda with strong normative undertones, yet beyond the call to combine enhanced agricultural output with better environmental outcomes, this normativity is rarely unpacked or analysed with respect to different worldviews and value systems. The normative practices approach is a values-explicit framework for analysing the normativity of social practices; here it is applied to agriculture to provide a critique of sustainability. This helps to clarify the nature of farming and the breadth of sometimes incommensurable visions for its sustainable intensification. It also leads to a values-explicit concept of “enlightened agriculture”, defined as models for agricultural systems that explicitly realise aesthetic, jural and moral benefits, possibly at some cost to economic productivity. While any implementation of this qualitative definition will be worldview-dependent, it appears that land-sparing approaches and the promotion of biodiversity per se are unlikely to qualify as enlightened farming, but farming with concern for the wellbeing of humans and non-humans probably does. The recognition that normative worldviews direct social practices implies that there will be profound diversity among visions of good farming, which technical and political proposals ought to account for. In the face of accelerating global change, this diversity may provide both resilience and fertile grounds for new context-sensitive and community-led initiatives.

A critical review of Gross ecosystem product accounting in China: Status quo, problems and future directions

As a measure of ecosystems' contribution to human well-being, the concept of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) is an integrated monetary index for the evaluation of final ecosystem services, which has attracted widespread attention around the world. In China, both national and local governments have launched a series of GEP accounting pilot projects, with the aim to incorporate this new concept into real world decision-making. However, a critical review of these practices remains lacking, especially regarding their current status and problems. In this study, by performing a systematic review and data integration of current literature and government documents, we comprehensively described the GEP accounting practices in China, including pilot project's coverage, accounting methods, and policy application. Then, we identified five major problems in current GEP accounting practices in China, which prevent GEP from being accurately measured in the short term. We proposed that GEP accounting should be a constantly evolving process with both long-term and short-term improvement goals. More in detail, the accuracy issues in GEP accounting require longer periods of time to resolve; while its repeatability, comparability, and applicability should be improved in the short term, so that it can be incorporated into decision-making. In response to these challenges, we suggested the adaptation of GEP accounting index screening principles as a possible future direction, which can help to apply GEP results in the current stages of decision making. By improving GEP concept and accounting, it will be possible to establish a unified comparable GEP accounting system and reduce the gap between the GEP and decision-making.

Anthropogenic Modifications and River Ecosystem Services: A Landscape Perspective

The process of development has led to the modification of river landscapes. This has created imbalances between ecological, economic, and socio-cultural uses of ecosystem services (ESs), threatening the biotic and social integrity of rivers. Anthropogenic modifications influence river landscapes on multiple scales, which impact river-flow regimes and thus the production of river ESs. Despite progress in developing approaches for the valuation ecosystem goods and services, the ecosystem service research fails to acknowledge the biophysical structure of river landscape where ecosystem services are generated. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to synthesize the literature to develop the understanding of the biocomplexity of river landscapes and its importance in ecosystem service research. The review is limited to anthropogenic modifications from catchment to reach scale which includes inter-basin water transfer, change in land-use pattern, sub-surface modifications, groundwater abstractions, stream channelization, dams, and sand mining. Using 86 studies, the paper demonstrates that river ESs largely depend on the effective functioning of biophysical processes, which are linked with the geomorphological, ecological, and hydrological characteristics of river landscapes. Further, the ESs are linked with the economic, ecological, and socio-cultural aspect. The papers show that almost all anthropogenic modifications have positive impact on economic value of ESs. The ecological and socio-cultural values are negatively impacted by anthropogenic modifications such as dams, inter-basin water transfer, change in land-use pattern, and sand mining. The socio-cultural impact of ground-water abstraction and sub-surface modifications are not found in the literature examined here. Further, the ecological and socio-cultural aspects of ecosystem services from stakeholders’ perspective are discussed. We advocate for linking ecosystem service assessment with landscape signatures considering the socio-ecological interactions.

Evaluation of water conservation function in the Xiongan New Area based on the comprehensive index method

Water conservation is an important service function of ecosystems. A timely understanding of dynamic changes in the water conservation function is important for the protection and reconstruction of water resources. Based on remote sensing data, meteorological data, land cover data, and the “Technical Criterion for Ecosystem Status Evaluation” issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, a comprehensive evaluation system was designed to assess the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area from 2005 to 2015. The system created from four aspects, including ecological structure, ecological stress, water balance and landscape ecology. The results showed that from 2005 to 2015, the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area first decreased and then increased, and the overall trend was upward. The increasing areas were mainly concentrated around Baiyangdian and near the grassland. Among all evaluated indicators, the precipitation compliance rate index fluctuated the most from -16.62 in 2010 to 6.70 in 2015. The evapotranspiration index was the largest in 2010 (6.47) and the smallest in 2005 (3.52). The Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) showed that the drought was the severest in 2010 and the least severe in 2015. However, the other indicators remain relatively stable. From the perspective of the spatial distribution, the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area was gradually enhanced from north to south.

Towards nationally harmonized mapping and quantification of ecosystem services

The EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy requests EU Member States to map and assess ecosystem services within national territories, and to promote and integrate these values into policy-making. This calls for standardized and harmonized data, indicators, and methods to assess ecosystem services within national boundaries. Current approaches for assessing ecosystem services often oversimplify cross-scale heterogeneity, sacrificing the spatial and thematic detail required to support the needs and expectations of decision-makers at different levels. Hence, nationally harmonized models for mapping and quantifying ecosystem services are needed. This paper presents the Natural Capital Model (NC-Model), a spatially-explicit set of models for quantifying and mapping ecosystem services within the Netherlands. Its aim is to support the integration of ecosystem services within spatial planning and policy-making at the national level, contributing to the fulfilment of national and international environmental policy targets. Models introduce previously unexplored combinations of explanatory variables for modelling ecosystem functions and the socioeconomic benefits they accrue, making use of publicly-available and high-resolution spatial data. To capture spatial and thematic heterogeneity across the urban-rural gradient, the NC-Model comprises a subset of ecosystem service models tailored to the urban environment. To demonstrate the model's application, we expand on six urban ecosystem service models and implement them to quantify and map ecosystem services for Municipality of Amsterdam. High-resolution ecosystem supply and use maps provide detailed spatial information useful for supporting spatial planners and decision-makers who wish to optimize the allocation of natural elements while supporting the needs of citizens. They paint a picture on the interlinkages that exist between natural elements, ecological functions, and socioeconomic well-being in a friendly manner, tailored to various audiences with differing priorities. Their open-access nature enables their customization, supporting the sharing of knowledge and data to endorse ecosystem service modelling efforts by external parties within and outside the Netherlands.

From Environmental Soundness to Sustainable Development: Improving Applicability of Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme for Diverting Regional Sustainability Transition in Developing Countries

In developing and emerging countries, rapid urbanization at an unprecedented pace and degradation of ecosystem services at an alarming rate have caused many regions, especially those in environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), to encounter the “regional development dilemma” (RDD), in which regions can hardly divert their current development pattern to achieve a transition to sustainability. The main research focus of this study is to introduce—by means of a case study—a payments for ecosystem service (PES) scheme as a policy instrument that incorporates an ecosystem services (ES)-based baseline for payments and a spatial-targeting-based allocation plan to address that dilemma and to bridge, as well as achieve, sustainable development goals simultaneously at a regional scale. The water source areas of the Middle Route Project in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China were used as the case study. Land Use/Land Cover Change (LUCC) of this area between 2002 and 2010 was detected by adopting remote sensing and spatial analysis technologies. The ecosystem services value (ESV) variation was then estimated and the eco-compensation plan was determined through comprehensively applying equivalent weighting factors of the ecosystem service of terrestrial ecosystems in China and the adjustment coefficient of the ecosystem service based on the notion of willingness to pay for ecosystem services. Results show that rapid urbanization has substantial impacts on the spatial dynamics and quality of ecosystems in the research area. From 2002 to 2010, the total ESV declined by CNY 6 billion. Therefore, the baseline eco-compensation from the benefit zone to the research area was CNY 1.1 billion under the assumption of commensurability. Responsibility ought to be shared by Henan and Hebei provinces, and Beijing and Tianjin, with payment of CNY 422.3, 388.5, 110.9, and 133 million, respectively. We drafted the allocation plan of eco-compensation based on the spatial pattern of ESV variation, and suggested policy tools tailored for subregions in the research area defined by LUCC change categories. Such an integrated study can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of regional PES schemes and provide a set of policy instruments with upgraded spatial-targeting and better cost-efficiency, particularly as blueprints for regional governments in developing and emerging countries that aim at leveraging regional sustainability through bridging and achieving SDGs.

Exploring How Land Tenure Affects Farmers’ Landscape Values: Evidence from a Choice Experiment

Values play an important role in farmers’ land management decisions, becoming increasingly relevant when designing environmental policy. One key element that influences farming decisions is the land tenure under which farmers and their land are embedded, which represents different sets of rights for farmers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to elicit farmers’ values regarding the social and ecological attributes of the landscape, and determine how these values vary according to differences in land rights. We performed this exercise in the two most important land tenure systems in rural Mexico. We carried out a choice experiment to understand preferences for different landscape attributes such as vegetation cover, surface water, terrain slope, and type of property. Then, we probed how these preferences change according to the land rights that farmers hold. We found that surface water was consistently the most important landscape attribute. However, there were clear differences that were related to land rights for some values, such as for example, vegetation cover. Institutional mechanisms such as boundary rules and conflicting values are part of the explanation of these differences. These results provide a bridge to understanding farmers’ management decisions, and in the future, improving sustainable development.

Advantages and challenges associated with implementing an ecosystem services approach to ecological risk assessment for chemicals

The ecosystem services (ES) approach is gaining broad interest in regulatory and policy arenas for use in landscape management and ecological risk assessment. It has the potential to bring greater ecological relevance to the setting of environmental protection goals and to the assessment of the ecological risk posed by chemicals. A workshop, organised under the auspices of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Europe, brought together scientific experts from European regulatory authorities, the chemical industry and academia to discuss and evaluate the challenges associated with implementing an ES approach to chemical ecological risk assessment (ERA). Clear advantages of using an ES approach in prospective and retrospective ERA were identified, including: making ERA spatially explicit and of relevance to management decisions (i.e. indicating what ES to protect and where); improving transparency in communicating risks and trade-offs; integrating across multiple stressors, scales, habitats and policies. A number of challenges were also identified including: the potential for increased complexity in assessments; greater data requirements; limitations in linking endpoints derived from current ecotoxicity tests to impacts on ES. In principle, the approach was applicable to all chemical sectors, but the scale of the challenge of applying an ES approach to general chemicals with widespread and dispersive uses leading to broad environmental exposure, was highlighted. There was agreement that ES-based risk assessment should be based on the magnitude of impact rather than on toxicity thresholds. The need for more bioassays/tests with functional endpoints was recognized, as was the role of modelling and the need for ecological production functions to link measurement endpoints to assessment endpoints. Finally, the value of developing environmental scenarios that can be combined with spatial information on exposure, ES delivery and service provider vulnerability was recognized.