Uncovering ecosystem service bundles through social preferences

Community perception to pay for conservation of Barekese and Owabi watersheds in Ghana

There is growing concern globally to conserve natural systems including watersheds due to increasing forest degradation and deforestation. The Barekese and Owabi watersheds provide several ecosystem services to communities, health facilities and industries. The watersheds are found in a rapidly degrading environment due to increasing anthropogenic activities. This paper addressed the neglected, but critical, question of the importance of watershed ecosystem services. The objective of the study was to determine willingness of households in downstream communities to pay for watershed conservation and the drivers of WTP. Households were willing to pay a mean of $1.5 ± 0.2 additional on their monthly water bills. Quotations for Willingness to pay varied from as low as $0.02 to as high as $ 20.58 per month. Age, household size and years of residence were significantly related with willingness to pay, amount to pay and reasons for protest bids. The younger generations and women were ready to pay extra amount for watershed management. The results indicated that downstream communities are willing to support conservation and that demographic factors influence the amount people are willing to pay. The concept of WTP is useful and applicable to conservation of watersheds in the tropics through the design and implementation of PES schemes. It also provides important information for conservation and development policies related to watershed management in developing countries.

Integrated assessment and mapping of provisioning services for sustainable management of natural resources, the case of Lake Hawassa Basin, Ethiopia

Lake Hawassa Basin (LHB)-the study area is known for its rich and diverse aquatic and terrestrial natural resource base. However, the prevailing environmental and social problems, such as land degradation, deforestation, pollution, resource exploitation, etc. impacted the existing provisioning services (PS), and the effect becomes remarkable unless sound management is in place. The study aimed at the assessment and mapping of PS to suggest development options for decision-makers. The study employed various methods including primary and secondary data collection, including existing Land Use Land Cover (LULC), desk review, stakeholder consultations, site visits, expert judgment matrix, and ArcGIS v10.1. The study results include 6 PS identified and prioritized from the existing 14 PS, mapping of the spatial pattern of the selected 6 PS at the basin scale, and alternative development options recommended for the decision-making process conducted by decision-makers and development partners to ensure efficient management of ecosystem services in LHB. The importance of this study, as well as the simplicity and user-friendly nature of the methods and approach adopted, enables interested parties to replicate while conducting similar studies in different places within the country or globally. The intervention of adopting this study approach helps also to avoid or minimize the aforesaid biophysical and socioeconomic environmental problems and ensure development activities planned or implemented in the respective study area are environmentally friendly, and socially acceptable, through sustainable management of natural resources. In this regard, decision-makers and development partners shall provide adequate consideration for this study approach and the result of demonstrating basin scale spatial variability of PS. This plays a vital role in the sustainable management of natural resources as well as provisioning services existing in the study area to benefit the community members, ensure human well-being, and secure the livelihood of the people residing within or around the Lake Hawassa Basin.

Perceived Status Of Ecosystem Services Emanating From A Forest Reserve: Evidence From Atewa Range Forest Reserve In Ghana

Forest ecosystem services play an integral part in the realization of global sustainable development goals due to their potential contribution to climate change mitigation and forest-based livelihoods in marginalized rural parts of the world. The Atewa Forest Range Reserve has been recognized to support forest-based livelihoods in adjacent communities and even urban areas of Ghana. While this contribution is acknowledged, information on the current status of the reserve's ecosystem services which are under serious threats from human-induced activities, remains fragmented. Therefore, through a household survey of 150 respondents complemented by key informant interviews (n = 9), this research assessed the awareness and perceptions of people on the current status of the Atewa Forest Range Reserve and its ecosystem services as well as the major drivers of change that seem to threaten the provision of these ecosystem services. Our results point to provisioning services as the most widely utilized ecosystem service, leading to their significant decline with the potential to affect the livelihoods of the local populations. Respondents' awareness and the relative importance they ascribe to the reserve's ecosystem services reinforced their appreciation for these services and interest in their sustainable management. Our results suggest the need for understanding local perceptions of ecosystem services to guide the prioritization of management decisions for balancing both utilization and conservation goals. A co-management approach that fosters the strategic inclusion of local communities in decision-making regarding the forest reserve could contribute to collaborative relationships and further increase positive perceptions of locals to preserve the reserve's ecological functions.

Ecosystem Services Profiles for Communities Benefitting from Estuarine Habitats along the Massachusetts Coast, USA

The Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership is one of 28 programs in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Estuary Program (NEP) charged with developing and implementing comprehensive plans for protecting and restoring the biological integrity and beneficial uses of their estuarine systems. The Partnership has recently updated their comprehensive management plan to include restoration targets for coastal habitats, and as part of this effort, the program explored how to better demonstrate that recovery of ecological integrity of degraded ecosystems also provides ecosystem services that humans want and need. An essential step was to identify key stakeholders and understand the benefits important to them. The primary objective of the study presented here was to evaluate variability in beneficial uses of estuarine habitats across coastal communities in Massachusetts Bays. We applied a text mining approach to extract ecosystem services concepts from over 1400 community planning documents. We leveraged a Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) classification framework and related scoping tool to identify and prioritize the suite of natural resource users and ecosystem services those users care about, based on the relative frequency of mentions in documents. Top beneficiaries included residents, experiencers and viewers, property owners, educators and students, and commercial or recreational fishers. Beneficiaries had a surprising degree of shared interests, with top ecosystem services of broad relevance including for naturalness, fish and shellfish, water movement and navigability, water quality and quantity, aesthetic viewscapes, availability of land for development, flood mitigation, and birds. Community-level priorities that emerged were primarily related to regional differences, the local job industry, and local demographics. Identifying priority ecosystem services from community planning documents provides a starting point for setting locally-relevant restoration goals, designing projects that reflect what stakeholders care about, and supporting post-restoration monitoring in terms of accruing relevant benefits to local communities.

Understanding supply-demand mismatches in ecosystem services and interactive effects of drivers to support spatial planning in Tianjin metropolis, China

Metropolitan areas are being challenged by the disparity between growing societal needs and dwindling natural resource provision. Understanding the supply-demand mismatches of ecosystem services (ES) and their drivers is essential for landscape planning and decision-making. However, integrating such information into spatial planning remains challenging due to the complex nature of urban ecosystems and their intrinsic interactions. In this study, we first assessed and mapped the supply, demand, and mismatches of six typical ES in Tianjin, China. We then clustered numerous townships based on their corresponding spatial characteristic of ES supply-demand mismatches. We also used Random Forest regression to examine the relative importance of drivers and applied Partial Least Squares structural equation modelling to decouple their interactions. The results showed that, the distribution of ES supply and demand showed obvious spatial heterogeneity, with a common surplus of ES supply in highly natural mountainous region and an excess of demand in urban centre. Additionally, all towns were classified into four spatial clusters with homogeneous states of supply-demand mismatches, serving as basic units for spatial optimization. Moreover, the interactions between drivers affected ES supply-demand mismatches in a coupled manner, including the direct effects of the socioeconomic factor (-0.821) and landscape composition (0.234), as well as the indirect effects of the biophysical factor (0.151) and landscape configuration (0.082). Finally, we discussed the utility of analysing the spatial mismatches between ES supply and demand for integrated territorial planning and coordinated decision-making.

Mining-induced changes in ecosystem services value and implications of their economic and relational cost in a mining landscape, Ghana

The surge in mining operations to meet the global demand for mineral resources adversely impacts ecosystem services and dependent households, but the issue barely attracts attention. This study evaluated the dynamics of mining-induced changes in the value of ecosystem services (ES) and the consequent economic and relational cost to rural households in the Ahafo region of Ghana. Face-to-face structured interviews with 200 householders were conducted in three mining communities. We determined relational values in the landscape through focus group discussion and the economic cost of the ecosystem services lost by applying replacement and contingency cost estimations. Old-growth forests, degraded forests, teak plantations, cultivated land, wetlands, and grassland were ecosystems identified in the mining landscape. The most valued ecosystem was old-growth forest, while the least was grassland. Provisioning service was the most valued ES, while supporting service was the least. Provisioning ES was rated the most impacted by the mine, whereas cultural services were the least affected. Mining activities caused a significant loss of 14 ecosystem services (including crops, livestock, capture fisheries, wild food, bush meat, biomass fuel, and freshwater) that were of priority to the communities. The affected households experienced relatively high monthly economic costs, approximating $300 per household, from the loss of priority ecosystem services. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed connections between ecosystem services valuation and the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. There was a perceived mine-adverse effect on the relational values of the people relating to cultural identity, sovereignty, symbolic value, security, subsistence and livelihood, sense of place, social cohesion, social memory, female emotional/mental health, and womanhood training opportunities. Actors in the mining industry should consider policies and management interventions that will limit ecosystem services loss, widely ascertain ecosystem benefits, and comprehensively mitigate the impact of their loss on households.

Multicriteria analysis of critical areas for restoration in a semiarid landscape: A comparison between stakeholder groups

In landscape-scale ecological restoration, there is an urgent need to develop participatory systematic planning strategies and prioritization schemes that are operational under current technical and legal constraints. Different stakeholder groups may differ in their choice of criteria to define critical areas for restoration. Analyzing the correspondence between stakeholder characteristics and their expressed preferences is key to understand their values and facilitate consensus among the different groups. We analyzed the participatory identification of critical areas for restoration in a Mediterranean semiarid landscape of southeastern Spain by means of two Spatial Multicriteria Analyses. The first one included 33 ecological and socioeconomic prioritization criteria. The second included 24 ecosystem services. Prioritization criteria and services and their weights were based on the preferences of 46 stakeholders. We distinguished three stakeholder groups, according to their approach to ecological restoration. Stakeholders showed similarities regarding the most important criteria and services assessed. Yet, we found contrasted opinions between the group labeled as Biodiversity, who showed preference for Regulating Services and Ecosystem Functions, and the two groups labeled as Environment, and Agriculture & other occupations who assigned the highest importance to Provisioning and Cultural Services, along with highly Anthropized Environments. Maps integrating criteria and services weighted by the different groups of stakeholders were largely coincident, because of their overall agreement and the high number of criteria and services included in the analysis. Our approach allowed the identification of consensual critical areas for restoration, which were mainly covered by shrublands and rainfed crops, and mostly characterized by low to medium supply of ecosystem services. Our study emphasizes the need to recognize and integrate different social perspectives when identifying critical areas for restoration and highlights the importance of using complementary approaches as decision-making support tools to define these areas.

How geographical factors and decision-makers' perceptions influence the prioritization of ecosystem services: Analysis in the Spanish rice field areas in RAMSAR Mediterranean wetlands

Mediterranean wetlands provide many ecosystem services to humans and other organisms. However, these services are being increasingly damaged. The prioritization of ecosystem services is essential to start a decision-making process focused on environmental policies, highlighting the necessity of equilibrium between sustainability and human well-being. This study analyzes the similarities and differences among the ecosystem services provided by the Spanish RAMSAR Mediterranean wetlands, where rice production is the main economic activity. These areas are the Ebro Delta, the Albufera Natural Park and the Guadalquivir Marshes (Doñana Biosphere Reserve). Despite being different areas, environmental and agricultural policies sometimes treat their characteristics without distinction since they are conceptually englobed in the same category. This analysis aims to study whether geographical and sociocultural factors could influence the prioritization of ecosystem services. The prioritization of the three study areas was conducted using the Analytic Network Process (ANP), a multi-criteria decision-making method which allows decision-makers to manage the ecosystem's complexity. The results are helpful for future policies and in understanding the complex network of interconnections among ecosystem services. Additionally, results show that there are statistically significant differences in priorities among the three study areas due to geographical and cultural reasons. Moreover, results have also shown that decision-makers' judgements influenced the priorities depending on their background and personal or professional preferences. It emphasizes the necessity of implementing environmental policies from a theoretical and global scale to a participatory and local one, considering a broader range of stakeholders' perceptions to reflect the complexity of the ecosystem services network.

Convergence in Perceptions of Ecosystem Services Supports Green Infrastructure Decision-making in a Semi-arid City

Effective management of cities using ecosystem services from green infrastructure (GI) requires explicit consideration of the linkages between provision of services and ecosystem service demands (i.e., governance priorities). Identification of stakeholder knowledge and objectives in GI decision-making contexts with respect to ecosystem services may improve urban planning; yet this information is rarely explicit in local contexts and cases. We address this gap by surveying environmental stakeholders and practitioners to investigate how perceptions of ecosystem services influence GI practice in Tucson, AZ. Results indicate that the semi-arid environment and urban design led to prioritizations that focus on water sustainability and urban heat mitigation. We found strong agreement in environmental perceptions between different management sectors. We observed matches (as well as mismatches) between the ecosystem service priorities and important environmental issues. Ecosystem services prioritization revealed a unique classification of ecosystem services that reflects stakeholder priorities. Our findings suggest the study of ecosystem services supply and demand can inform local urban management. These findings from a semi-arid city further suggest that understanding stakeholder knowledge, perceptions, and priorities should be important for cities in other regions where GI is being implemented as an environmental solution to provide ecosystem services.

Analysis of the interrelationships of stakeholders involved in the management of transhumance in southern Benin

The management of pastoral mobility is a stakeholder-centered approach for the integration of resource conservation and agricultural development. This study aimed to characterize the stakeholders of transhumance and to analyze their influence in the municipality of Djidja in southern Benin. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 300 stakeholders involved in transhumance and pastoral resource management. The Likert scale (1 to 5) was used to assess the levels of influence and focus groups were conducted. The results showed that several stakeholders (transhumant herders, agro-pastoralists, farmers, hunters, fishermen, loggers, gendarmerie, Garso, CTAF, cattle farmers' associations, farmers' associations, SCDA, and communal transhumance committee) were involved in transhumance with diverse interests, backgrounds, knowledge, and power (P < 0.05). More than half of the farmers (72%) blame transhumant herders whose practices are source of multiple conflicts among (please mention what kind of conflicts and with whom by providing example). Statistical analysis indicated a strong influence with significant differences (P < 0.001) in the pastoral resources by four stakeholders including the communal transhumance committee, the association of herders, the Garso (scout and intermediary for transhumant herders), and the transhumant herder. This research demonstrates how the systematic analysis of the activities carried out by the stakeholders, the interconnected activities between them, and their relationships can offer insights for a better coordination of transhumance. For effective pastoral management, it is therefore important to build a dialogue between the different stakeholders involved in transhumance in southern Benin.

The roles of organic farming, renewable energy, and corruption on biodiversity crisis: a European perspective

The loss of biodiversity has profound implications for nature's contributions to people and their health. This study intends to examine the factors responsible for biodiversity loss as well as the coping mechanisms to address this crisis in the context of 35 European economies covering the 2009-2018 period. The study utilises both the static and dynamic panel estimation techniques to examine the above issue. Specifically, the study applied Driscoll and Kraay (1998a), Driscoll and Kraay (Rev Econ Stat 80:549-560, 1998b) and Panel Corrected Standard Approach (PCSE) for the static panel models. As for dynamic panel models, the study employs linear dynamic panel model by Arrelano and Bond (Rev Econ Stud 58:277-297, 1991) and Arrelano and Bover (J Econom 68:29-51, 1995)/Blundell and Bond (J Econom 87:115-143, 1998) system generalised methods of moments (GMM). Morandeover for robustness purposes, fixed and random effect models are also applied. The findings indicate that renewable energy use increases biodiversity crisis whereas organic farming is beneficial for biodiversity preservation in Europe. Corruption and gender gap were found to increase the biodiversity crisis. The evidence also suggests a positive and significant effect of forest area, e-governance and social progress on biodiversity. Finally, the study provides insightful implications for stakeholders and practitioners associated with energy and biodiversity conservation in Europe.

Gender perspectives on coastal and marine ecosystems services flow in Kwale County, Kenya

Introduction

The continuous flow of ecosystem services (ESs) within coastal and marine ecosystems supports communities' well-being and security by harnessing required resources such as seafood that address food security. The overexploitation of these coastal resources places communities at risk of losing ES. This study assesses how preference for the ES flow from these ecosystem types (i.e., mangrove forests, coastal lagoons, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and the deep sea) vary by gender in Diani Chale and Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Areas in Kwale County, Kenya. Specifically, the objective of this article was to assess the pattern and variation in mean scores of ES flow across coastal and marine ecosystem types by gender.

Methods

A total of 148 respondents (87 men and 61 women) aged 20-72 years participated in describing ES through focus group discussions and the Delphi technique. Respondents were engaged in a participatory activity that involved filling of perceived ES flow scores using a 6-point Likert-type scale in the lookup tables (also known as matrix). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for mean scores of ES flow across coastal and marine ecosystem types as perceived by men and women. One-way MANOVA was used to test for the significant differences between mean scores of men and women in ES flow across ecosystem types.

Results

The aggregate scores for non-use values, regulating services, and cultural services, were scored higher than provisioning services by ecosystem service flow. The overall ES flow scores were higher in the mangrove forests 52/90 and least in the coastal lagoon 39/90. There was a significant variation (p &lt; 0.05) of ES flow by gender: the mean score of men was significantly higher than women for most ES flow in cultural, regulating, and provisioning services across some coastal and marine ecosystem types. However, there was no significant variation (p &gt; 0.05) in the flow of non-use values by gender across ET.

Conclusion

The findings of this study highlight the importance of understanding gender views in ES access and use at local levels to support food security. Including gender perspectives in coastal and marine ecosystem governance is critical, especially toward achieving sustainable development goals.

How Do Ecological and Recreational Features of Waterfront Space Affect Its Vitality? Developing Coupling Coordination and Enhancing Waterfront Vitality

People are increasingly concerned with natural environment quality (NEQ) as well as recreation services (RS) as the popularity of natural experiences grows. Specifically, public spaces in ecologically sensitive areas must achieve coordinated eco-recreational development. Waterfront spaces fall into this category, providing a high-quality natural environment and facilitating various recreational activities. This paper uses two waterfront spaces, Foshan New City Riverfront Park and Nanhai Qiandeng Lake Park, as sample sites, divides 22 waterfront space samples into specific research objects, introduces dual variables for RS function and NEQ, and uses mathematical and statistical methods, such as Pearson correlation analysis, coupling coordination degree calculation, and redundancy analysis, to investigate the influence of different waterfront spaces on RS function and NEQ. Finally, we propose an optimization strategy for coupling and coordinating the development of the RS function and the NEQ of waterfront space. This paper found the following: (1) RS (number of public facilities) and natural environment quality (shoreline curvature) are the dominant factors in the vitality of waterfront space; (2) optimization of RS function will restrict the development of NEQ to a certain extent; and (3) the coupling and coordination of NEQ and RS function are positively related to the vitality of waterfront space. This study can be valuable for government officials and waterfront space planners as they develop social-ecological synergy models.

An ecosystem service approach to the study of vineyard landscapes in the context of climate change: a review

Vineyard landscapes significantly contribute to the economy, identity, culture, and biodiversity of many regions worldwide. Climate change, however, is increasingly threatening the resilience of vineyard landscapes and of their ecological conditions, undermining the provision of multiple ecosystem services. Previous research has often focused on climate change impacts, ecosystem conditions and ecosystem services without systematically reviewing how they have been studied in the literature on viticulture. Here, we systematically review the literature on vineyard landscapes to identify how ecosystem conditions and services have been investigated, and whether an integrative approach to investigate the effects of climate change was adopted. Our results indicate that there are still very few studies that explicitly address multiple ecosystem conditions and services together. Only 28 and 18% of the reviewed studies considered more than two ecosystem conditions or services, respectively. Moreover, while more than 97% of the relationships between ecosystem conditions and services studied were addressing provisioning and regulating services, only 3% examined cultural services. Finally, this review found that there is a lack of integrative studies that address simultaneously the relationships between ecosystem condition, ecosystem services and climate change (only 15 out of 112 studies). To overcome these gaps and to better understand the functioning of vineyard socio-ecological systems under climate change, multidisciplinary, integrative, and comprehensive approaches should be adopted by future studies. A holistic understanding of vineyard landscapes will indeed be crucial to support researchers and decision makers in developing sustainable adaptation strategies that enhance the ecological condition of vineyards and ensure the provision of multiple ecosystem services under future climate scenarios.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-022-01223-x.

Perceptions of ecosystem services: Comparing socio-cultural and environmental influences

Ecosystem services such as food provisioning, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, or recreation in open landscapes underpin human wellbeing. They are highly dependent on land use, land cover and utilization pattern as well as environmental factors like climate, topography and soil. In consequence, ecosystem services supply shows a high spatial variability. However, it is less clear if the perception of the importance of ecosystem services is similarly heterogeneous in space and amongst societal actors. The aim of this large-scale study was to explore whether land cover and climate gradients as well as socio-cultural factors influence the perceptions of ecosystem services of four groups of societal actors: citizens, farmers, foresters and nature managers. Spatially explicit survey data of 3018 respondents allowed to gain insight into the distribution of perceived importance of 21 ecosystem services in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany together with the respondents' socio-cultural characterisation (e.g. gender, education and hobbies in nature). Responses were analysed through descriptive statistics, redundancy analysis, and Generalized Linear Models. Results reveal that the perceived importance of many ecosystem services was consistently high across groups, although perception differed for some ecosystem services (e.g. production of energy plants and timber as well as recreation in urban green space). Compared to other actor groups, farmers attributed slightly lower importance to all ES except provisioning services. Socio-cultural factors better explained variability in perceived importance of ecosystem services than land cover and climate gradients. This might be either explained by the fact that the environmental gradients vary not strong enough in our case study or that they do not shape the perceptions of respondents. A limitation of the study is that the sample of respondents obtained is not representative for the population, but biased towards persons interested in the topics of the survey. Still the consensus indicated by the overall positive perception of ecosystem services among respondents highlights the integrative potential of ecosystem services when included in decision-making.

Spatial-social evaluations of ecosystem services of adaptive aquaculture models using SAR and multivariate analyses: a case in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

The presented study is conducted to investigate the efficiency of two important aquaculture models of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD)'s Soc Trang province via quantifying and mapping the supporting ecosystem services (ES). The study targets the two most prevalent rearing practices, intensive and semi-intensive, covering four rural districts: My Xuyen, Tran De, Cu Lao Dung, and Vinh Chau. A mixed-method approach was applied, combining remote sensing, grass-root social survey, and multivariate statistical analyses. First, image analysis using Sentinel-1A time-series data was conducted to detect the aquaculture areas across the study area based on temporal changes of VV backscatter of different land use/land cover (LULC) types, in which aquaculture receives relatively low backscatter values compared to other LULC categories except river and deeper water surfaces. Our analysis yields an overall accuracy of 91% with a kappa coefficient of 0.82. Second, using semi-structured questionnaires, a total of 140 shrimp farming households across the four focused districts were interviewed for their rearing experience. Thereupon, the collected responses were analyzed using two multivariate analyses, including principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). In general, the intensive model could have generated more economic values of ecosystem services than the artisanal/semi-intensive model. Our analyses also took note of the potential barriers hindering the semi-intensive farmers from achieving higher economic income. These include (i) geographical factors, i.e., locations; (ii) social factors, i.e., experience, farming calendar, education; (iii) financial factors, i.e., investments; and (iv) technical factors, i.e., farm areas, productivity, rearing concentration. Since semi-intensive food is more appropriate for small-scale farming households, it is recommendable that addressing these factors can enhance the efficiency of this model as a profitable livelihood option.

Exploring subjective well-being and ecosystem services perception in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China

Understanding stakeholders' perceptions about human well-being and ecosystem services is essential for designing efficient public policies and sustainable environmental management that help to improve people's quality of life. Despite the fragile ecosystem and poverty concentration in the agro-pastoral ecotone, research in this field remains scarce. We selected a typical agro-pastoral ecotone, Duolun County, Inner Mongolia, China, to explore how socioeconomic and demographic factors affect subjective well-being and perceptions of ecosystem services through structural equation modelling (SEM) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Our results showed that health had the highest correlation with subjective well-being among the five dimensions, but respondents were least satisfied with it. Formal education had the greatest effect on subjective well-being, followed by age, income, and livelihood. Gender had no effect on subjective well-being. Older respondents with lower formal education who had a lower level of subjective well-being considered supporting and provisioning services more important for well-being. In contrast, younger respondents with higher education levels (mostly jobs not associated with working the land) mainly valued cultural services. Finally, we discussed the factors that influence subjective well-being and perceptions of ecosystem services and their implications for local management decision-making.

Targeting best agricultural practices to enhance ecosystem services in European mountains

Agri-environmental policies in Europe are failing to sufficiently address ongoing environmental degradation, biodiversity decline, climate impacts, and societal demands for sustainability. To reverse this, policymakers, practitioners, and farmers need better guidance on which specific agricultural practice/s should be promoted and how to adapt current practices to reach the desired objectives. Here we use social valuation tools to elucidate the relationship between agricultural practices and the provision of key ecosystem services in mountains, including maintenance of scenery from agricultural landscapes, conservation of biodiversity, regulation of climate change through carbon sequestration, production of local quality products, maintenance of soil fertility, and prevention of forest wildfires. We use as case studies two contrasting but representative mountain agroecosystems in the Mediterranean and Nordic regions of Europe. We analyze the best agricultural practices in both agroecosystems to reach the targeted environmental outcomes under three plausible policy scenarios. We find significant differences in the average contribution of agricultural practices to ecosystem services provision, which suggest the need for regionalizing the research efforts and, consequently, the design of agri-environmental policies. However, we also identify practices for ecosystem service delivery across policy scenarios and agroecosystems. Among these, grazing and silviculture practices such as extending the grazing period, grazing in semi-natural habitats, grazing in remote and abandoned areas, adapting stocking rate to the carrying capacity, and moving flocks seasonally, stand out for their relevance in all policy scenarios. These results highlight the potential of adequate grazing and silviculture practices to deliver bundles of ecosystem services. Our study provides guidance to design agri-environmental policies in Europe that focus on rewarding farmers for their sustainable management of natural resources, climate change mitigation and adaption and biodiversity conservation.

Demand for forest ecosystem services: a comparison study in selected areas in the Czech Republic and China

Ecosystem services are investigated from many perspectives, but there are very few studies comparing the perception of forest and demand for forest ecosystem services (FES) in a cross-cultural analysis. This study aims to map the demand for FES and find out the forest perception of forest visitors in both Czech and Chinese societies. Data were collected by structured questionnaire among three different groups of respondents (n = 847) in six forest areas. The questions were focused on the demand for FES, expectations from the forest, preference for the visual form of the forest, and the willingness of forest visitors. Analysis demonstrates that the demand for some FES is related to geographical and cultural conditions. The results indicated that provisioning and regulation services are perceived as more important than cultural services. The differences by country were obvious in the cultural and provisioning services: Chinese demand more relaxing and meditation activities, whereas Czech demand mushroom picking. A significant outcome is a high demand of Chinese respondents for recreational facilities. Tree planting was rated as one of the most popular voluntary activity across the whole sample. Meanwhile, some findings point to an increasing pressure on forest ecosystems and their protection, which emerge due to the strong demand for recreational facilities. According to the findings, active involvement of forest visitors in various activities is recommended so that their appreciation of FES will constantly increase and to take into account the profile of visitors and incorporate them in forest management and planning in order to meet societal demand.

Large Wood Debris Contributes to Beach Ecosystems but Colombian Beachgoer’s Do Not Recognize It

Large Woody Debris (LWD) accumulation serves essential ecological functions and benefits society’s coastal ecosystems (e.g., beaches). Thus far, the ecosystem services perspective has paid little attention to LWD. Therefore, we aim to contrast social perceptions on LWD and its ecological significance in Puerto Velero beach, Caribbean, Colombia. In consequence, the contribution of LWD to the conformation and creation of Puerto Velero beach was analyzed, as well as how beachgoers perceive the importance of LWD and if they were willing to pay to remove LWD in this beach. To achieve this, a quantitative convergent approach was then proposed using GIS analysis and remote sensing to understand the contributions of LWD to the Puerto Velero beach ecosystem; and in addition, a survey was performed to determine how beachgoers perceived LWD and how they valued the phenomenon. Results indicate that LWD contributed to beach maintenance; nevertheless, most people neglected LWD values because of its lack of visual attractiveness. As such, ecosystem services targets become conflicted because people positively perceived ecosystem services provided by beaches, but they did not assign importance to the beach dynamics they deemed unattractive, regardless of their vast importance.

Identification of Priority Implementation Areas and Configuration Types for Green Infrastructure Based on Ecosystem Service Demands in Metropolitan City

During urbanization in developing countries, fragmentation of green infrastructure due to increasing populations and the expansion of construction land leads to an extremely serious imbalance between the supply and demand for urban ecosystem services. In this study, the central city of Zhengzhou, a central city in central China, was selected as the study area and the excessive demand for six ecosystem services, namely, air purification, flood regulation, heat regulation, hydrological regulation, CO₂ sequestration and recreational services, was quantitatively evaluated. The entropy method was used to calculate the weights of various ecosystem services, and spatial overlay analysis was performed to obtain the comprehensive ecosystem service excessive demand. Finally, bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to explore the response of population density to comprehensive excessive demand for ESs. The results of this study indicate that: (1) The most prevalent need is for more CO₂ regulation service throughout the study area. (2) Except for hydrological regulation service, the spatial distribution of the remaining highly excessive ecosystem service demands are mostly concentrated in old neighborhoods. (3) Of the six excessively demanded economic services, rainwater regulation obtained the greatest weight, reflecting the poor urban infrastructure configuration for countering the rapidly increasing threat of flooding caused by climate change in the city. (4) The comprehensive ecosystem service excessive demand results show that there are eight priority green infrastructure implementation blocks in the central city of Zhengzhou. (5) There were three agglomeration types between population density and comprehensive excessive demand for ESs: high-high type, low-high type and low-low type. The spatial distribution characteristics of population density and comprehensive ES demand are positively correlated. The results of this study could help to provide information for decision making when delineating the priority areas and types of green infrastructure implementation in developing cities.

Assessing the Impact of Park Renovations on Cultural Ecosystem Services

Urban parks are essential in enhancing the quality of city life by providing diverse cultural ecosystem services (CES). Despite considerable investments in park renovations, there is very little evidence about whether park renovations can properly secure CES. This study provides a basis for the incorporation of CES evaluation into urban park practice to maximize CES. We specifically ask how CES are influenced by park renovations. We developed a participatory mapping approach by asking people to assess CES on a current map and on a historical map, representing the situations before and after the renovation, instead of doing a follow-up study, in order to be more time-efficient and enhance the comparative effects. The results show that the park renovations had different impacts on CES and not all the renovations had positive impacts. This study has a huge potential for supporting park practice. First, this study shows that specific park renovations can be used to guide park management to enhance CES. Second, this study provides a new insight for landscape architects to rethink their design proposals before construction. Third, the study encourages the method of combining participatory mapping and interviews to link CES to a specific location and specific renovations.

Analyzing Stakeholder Perceptions of Water Ecosystem Services to Enhance Resilience in the Middle Drâa Valley, Southern Morocco

Freshwater ecosystems deliver an extensive range of ecosystem services (ESs), which are the benefits people obtain from their interaction with nature. Increasing pressure on water resources threatens the sustainable supply of water-related ecosystem services, especially in arid regions, as is the case for the Drâa Valley located in southern Morocco. With the long-term objective of contributing to a sustainable supply of important ecosystem services in the Drâa Valley, this paper analyzes stakeholder perceptions of water-related ecosystem services (WESs). To assess the different perceptions of WES, 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the inhabitants of three oases in the middle Drâa Valley, as well as 12 other interviews with key government officials. Based on our interviews, we reflect on two of the policy-relevant generic principles proposed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre for enhancing the resilience of WESs. Our results reveal similarities in perceptions of WES among stakeholder groups regarding provisioning services but marked differences regarding regulating and cultural services. The analysis suggests that these differences stem from stakeholders’ different roles and activities in the area. In addition, socio-demographic, biophysical, and spatial aspects also shape how WESs are perceived in the area. Learning about similarities in WES perceptions can help build common ground among stakeholders. The recognition of differences can also assist the balancing of the different needs and interests of these groups. ESs perception assessment can contribute to strengthened stakeholder knowledge of the categories of ESs and provide a common ground for participating in ES-related decision making, hence enhancing resilience in social–ecological systems.

Ecosystem services through the lens of indigenous people in the highlands of Cordillera Region, Northern Philippines

Understanding the perception, use, and prioritization of ecosystem services (ES) is important for shaping local environmental policies. This study assessed for the Cordillera Region, Philippines, Indigenous peoples (IPs) perception on the significance of ES for their well-being, influence of socio-economic factors attributing to these perceptions, and ranked the most valued ES. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaires with 922 households in 48 villages of the Region. We found that most frequently identified and valued ES are provisioning (food, income, and medicinal resources) followed by cultural and regulating ES. The study showed signficant influence (p-value 0.001) of ethnicity, occupation, gender, and age to affect local perceptions of ES provided by the landscapes. A remarkable differences appeared in prioritizing ES, e.g. younger local respondents value ES more than older ones; women have appreciated most ES; and ethnic groupings tend to have a different value of ES that are significantly connected with the landscape characteristics. Traditional rice farming systems was ranked as source providing the most valued ES followed by conventional farming systems and off-farming activities like collection of non-timber forest products. Furthermore, IPs involvement to local surveys are useful in ecosystem conservation strategies because the way society modifies an ecosystem is a function associated to perceptions, interest, and values. A relevant information to decision-makers that must be integrated into local development planning to maintain the flow of ES that support the livelihood in a community.

An Analysis of the Worldwide Research on the Socio-Cultural Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services

The socio-cultural valuation of forest ecosystem services is a useful tool to generate knowledge and help balance the different interests of stakeholders with respect to the management of these services. The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of global research on the economic valuation of forest ecosystem services through a review of the existing literature on this topic. The results show that socio-cultural valuation has gained importance in recent years. There is a wide disparity between the countries conducting the research and those being studied. Inconsistency has been observed in the definition and classification of services provided by forests, as well as a lack of unanimity on the reference framework to be applied. The main methodological approaches in the socio-cultural valuation of forest services are participatory mapping, social media analysis, the Q method and free listing. For the collection of primary information, the dominant methodologies are focus groups, semi-structured interviews and online surveys. Finally, this study demonstrates that socio-cultural valuation has great potential to improve the legitimacy of forest ecosystem management decisions and to promote consensus building.

Identifying ecosystem service bundles and the spatiotemporal characteristics of trade-offs and synergies in coal mining areas with a high groundwater table

Understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of the interactions among ecosystem services (ESs) is a crucial but challenging task for maintaining human well-being and achieving sustainable regional development. However, understanding the spatiotemporal interactions of multiple ESs at different grid scales and within different ecosystem services bundles (ESBs) is relatively limited, particularly in coal mining areas with a high groundwater table (CMA-HGT) where the land use has drastically changed as a result of mining subsidence. This study examines CMA-HGT in Huainan, aiming to identify ESBs and explore the spatiotemporal characteristics of trade-offs/synergies among ESs at distinct grid scales and ESBs. Five ESs relating to provisioning, regulation, and maintenance, including food production (FP), water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), carbon sequestration (CS), and biodiversity maintenance (BM) were quantified using different biological models during the period 1987-2018. Spatiotemporal trade-offs/synergies among ESs were explored using correlation analysis and significance tests at different scales. The spatiotemporal distributions and main characteristics of distinct ESBs were identified using a self-organizing map (SOM) and Calinski criterion. The interactions among ESs in different ESBs were detected. Relationships between ESs and land use or coal production (CP) were explored using redundancy analysis (RDA). The results demonstrate that spatiotemporal trade-offs were generally observed among provisioning services at distinct grid scales and within different ESBs. Meanwhile, spatiotemporal synergies generally appeared between regulation and maintenance services at distinct grid scales. Interactions among ESs presented temporal dynamic, spatial heterogeneity and scales dependence due to the relationships of FP-BM or SC-CS had changed with the increasing of research scales. Three ESBs-ESB1, ESB2, and ESB3-were identified at a grid of scale of 1000 m, and their spatial locations varied across different periods, but the areas of variation covered less than 24% of the study area. BM was synergistic with FP, WY, SC, and CS; while WY had only a trade-off relationship with FP in ESB1. WY had trade-off relationships with FP, SC, CS, and BM in ESB2. In ESB3, BM was synergistic with FP, SC, and CS; while it was in a trade-off relationship with WY. Cultivated land, construction land and CP were the main driving factors in the WSA, ESB1, ESB2 and ESB3. There was a certain degree of change in the relationships between ESs and land use/CP, and the relationships among ESs at different grid scales and ESBs over time and space, which indicates strong regional heterogeneity and scale dependence. These results can provide detailed guidelines for formulating spatially targeted ecosystem management, restoration programs and ES payment policies.

The impact of individual capabilities on the access to ecosystem services: a case study from the Loess Plateau, China

Exploring how people access ecosystem services and revealing the individual capabilities that affect the accessibility of ecosystem services are important for obtaining a clear understanding of the contribution of ecosystem services to human well-being. Previous studies on ecosystem services have incorporated too little empirical research on the accessibility of ecosystem services and on the individual capabilities that affect accessibility. We chose the ecologically fragile and economically underdeveloped Loess Plateau as the research area because local farmers in this area are dependent on ecosystem services. The importance and accessibility of ecosystem services were evaluated on the basis of questionnaire surveys and semistructured interviews. The results showed that crops, meat, and water yield were the most important ecosystem services but were the most difficult to access. In contrast, fruit and soil fertility were easier to access. Furthermore, we determined the individual capabilities of local farmers based on Nussbaum's capabilities list as well as the actual conditions for local farmers and explored the impact of individual capabilities on the accessibility of ecosystem services. The results showed that local ecological knowledge and the ability to socialize were the key individual capabilities determining whether local farmers can access ecosystem services. Compared with farmers who have a formal education, farmers with rich local ecological knowledge can more easily access to crops and erosion control. The ability to socialize reflects the exchanges or donations of ecosystem services among farmers, which increase the accessibility of fodder and organic fertilizer. Physical health, financial capital, and other individual capabilities also have an impact on the accessibility of certain ecosystem services. Therefore, improving these individual capabilities is of great value for improving farmers' well-being. In policy-making and community management, the government needs to consider the development of farmers' individual capabilities in addition to considering poverty alleviation measures.

Freshwater systems and ecosystem services: Challenges and chances for cross-fertilization of disciplines

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world, while providing numerous essential ecosystem services (ES) to humans. Despite their importance, research on freshwater ecosystem services is limited. Here, we examine how freshwater studies could help to advance ES research and vice versa. We summarize major knowledge gaps and suggest solutions focusing on science and policy in Europe. We found several features that are unique to freshwater ecosystems, but often disregarded in ES assessments. Insufficient transfer of knowledge towards stakeholders is also problematic. Knowledge transfer and implementation seems to be less effective towards South-east Europe. Focusing on the strengths of freshwater research regarding connectivity, across borders, involving multiple actors can help to improve ES research towards a more dynamic, landscape-level approach, which we believe can boost the implementation of the ES concept in freshwater policies. Bridging these gaps can contribute to achieve the ambitious targets of the EU's Green Deal.

The current and future uses of machine learning in ecosystem service research

Machine learning (ML) expands traditional data analysis and presents a range of opportunities in ecosystem service (ES) research, offering rapid processing of 'big data' and enabling significant advances in data description and predictive modelling. Descriptive ML techniques group data with little or no prior domain specific assumptions; they can generate hypotheses and automatically sort data prior to other analyses. Predictive ML techniques allow for the predictive modelling of highly non-linear systems where casual mechanisms are poorly understood, as is often the case for ES. We conducted a review to explore how ML is used in ES research and to identify and quantify trends in the different ML approaches that are used. We reviewed 308 peer-reviewed publications and identified that ES studies implemented machine learning techniques in data description (64%; n = 308) and predictive modelling (44%), with some papers containing both categories. Classification and Regression Trees were the most popular techniques (60%), but unsupervised learning techniques were also used for descriptive tasks such as clustering to group or split data without prior assumptions (19%). Whilst there are examples of ES publications that apply ML with rigour, many studies do not have robust or repeatable methods. Some studies fail to report model settings (43%) or software used (28%), and many studies do not report carrying out any form of model hyperparameter tuning (67%) or test model generalisability (59%). Whilst studies use ML to analyse very large and complex datasets, ES research is generally not taking full advantage of the capacity of ML to model big data (1138 medium number of data points; 13 median quantity of variables). There is great further opportunity to utilise ML in ES research, to make better use of big data and to develop detailed modelling of spatial-temporal dynamics that meet stakeholder demands.

At a Conservation Crossroad: The Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve in the Dominican Republic

This paper assesses the Dominican Republic’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a conservation, restoration, and sustainable development program for the Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve (RBJBE). Created in 2002, the RBJBE covers approximately 4858 km2, of which approximately 900 km2 correspond to the sea surface. With three core conservation zones, the RBJBE constitutes a complex space with a history of conflicts rooted in exploiting natural resources and social and economic issues. At the same time, it is a biodiversity hotspot of global importance. We present a Contingent Valuation Method to estimate the WTP for a conservation and restoration program called PROBIOSFERA. The non-parametric and parametric estimates of the WTP are DOP 165.00 (≈USD 2.94) and DOP 181.88 (≈USD 3.25), respectively. The socioeconomic variables that positively affect the WTP are income level, educational level, and age. The ecosystem services that are statistically related to WTP are the provisioning and supporting services. Regardless of the monetary valuation scenarios defined, the estimated annual monetized aggregated welfare associated with the RBJBE for Dominican society is DOP 7.2 billion (≈USD 128.1 million).

Impact of urbanization processes on availability of ecosystem services in National Capital Region of Delhi (1992-2010)

The Southern and Eastern National Capital Region of Delhi is experiencing diversified and expanding urbanization as in million-plus cities of the area the urban sprawl activities are more frequent than the urban densification activities. The progressing sprawl of residential and construction sites is transforming the regional ecosystems and hampering the generation of ecosystem services of fundamental importance, i.e. the benefits and services that we get directly or indirectly from the ecosystem functioning. The Costanza et al., (2014) approach shows that the ecosystem services value has decreased at US$ 56 ha^-1 year^-1 (0.09% per year) and absolute and cumulative losses are estimated US$ 285.4 ha^-1 year^-1 and US$ 502.8 ha^-1 year^-1, respectively. The ecosystem service values assessment shows that the ecosystem services like climate regulation and recreation have increased but food production, genetic resources, water supply, soil formation, raw materials and waste treatment have decreased over the time. The use of alternative ecosystem value coefficient shows that the estimated value of the ecosystem service value changed from a low of 0.005% for 1% change in the value of the forest coefficient, to a high of 0.749% for a 1% change in the value of the agricultural land coefficient. For each land use/land cover category, the sensitivity analysis reflects the inelasticity or robustness of the estimated ecosystem value with respect to the value coefficient. Overall, prioritizing the conservation and enrichment of natural and man-made ecosystems of critical value will lead to sustainable development of urban ecosystems.

Shedding Light on Peri-Urban Ecosystem Services Using Automated Content Analysis

The objective of this paper is to provide an overall perspective on peri-urban ecosystem services in European Countries. The phenomenon of urbanization affecting our era has seen the shift of the city from compact and well-defined structures to agglomerations with a seamless expansion. This has led to several environmental consequences that have affected the urbanized areas and the surroundings. The peri-urban areas may be the main urban design and planning challenge of the 21st century. These hybrid landscapes, characterized by high fragmentation, can be turned into opportunities to improve the sustainability and quality of urban areas, generating multiple economic, social and environmental benefits. Areas beyond the immediate urban core can be considered a zone of influence, which represent a critical resource in terms of provisioning, regulating, supporting services and cultural ecosystem services. Our study has been developed in the framework of the project “Fertile Lands, Fragile Lands” funded by the University of Catania. A multi-phased method has been applied, showing strong, heterogeneous ties between landscape and ecosystem services. While the importance of literature studies on this topic is well recognized, the same attention has not been placed on the tools and methods of conducting systematic and incremental literature reviews. Using Leximancer software, we propose a text mining approach to extract relevant themes and concepts as well as related topics of interest from identified literature on peri-urban ecosystems. We first introduce the overall methodology and then discuss each phase in detail. The outputs can be used as starting point for broad exploratory reviews and allow further exploration in this issue. The results show how the peri-urban space can be seen as a mosaic in which the settlement, the agricultural and the environmental systems interact and coexist, placing at the centre the relationship of reciprocity between the built environment and the open territory.

Linking Ecosystem Service Supply–Demand Risks and Regional Spatial Management in the Yihe River Basin, Central China

The continuous supply of ecosystem services is the foundation of the sustainable development of human society. The identification of the supply–demand relationships and risks of ecosystem services is of considerable importance to the management of regional ecosystems and the effective allocation of resources. This paper took the Yihe River Basin as the research area and selected water yield, carbon sequestration, food production, and soil conservation to assess changes in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and their matching status from 2000 to 2018. Risk identification and management zoning were also conducted. Results show the following: (1) The spatial distribution of the four ecosystems service supply and demand in the Yihe River Basin was mismatched. The food production supply levels in the middle and lower reaches and the upstream water yield, carbon sequestration, and soil conservation supply levels were high. However, most of the areas with high demand for ecosystem services were concentrated downstream. (2) From 2000 to 2018, the supply of water yield and carbon sequestration in the Yihe River Basin decreased, while that of food production and soil conservation increased. The demand for the four ecosystem services also increased. (3) Water yield faced considerable supply–demand risks. Fifty percent of the sub-basins were at a high-risk level, and the risk areas were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches. The three remaining services were mainly at low-risk levels. The Yihe River Basin was divided into eight types of supply–demand risk spatial management zones based on the ecosystem service supply and demand levels, which will help promote refined regional ecosystem management and sustainable development. The supply and demand assessment of ecosystem services from a risk perspective can integrate the information of natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems and provide scientific support for watershed spatial management.

Socio-geographical evaluation of ecosystem services in an ecotourism destination: PGIS application in Tram Chim National Park, Vietnam

Ecotourism in national parks of developing countries is increasingly recognised as a promising option to achieve sustainable development goals, regardless, might imply various paradoxical managerial challenges. This paper, therefore, seeks to contribute a methodological framework utilising ES-based social landscape metrics (SLM) to address the potential barriers in managing ecotourism-integrated multi-functional national parks. We present a mixed-method case study in Vietnam's Tram Chim National Park (TCNP), conducted via semi-structural interviews and PGIS with tourists and locals. Multiple key informants, i.e. TCNP's authorities were also interviewed to provide their managerial insights and assist in verifying the PGIS results obtained from the tourists and locals. Via the quantified and mapped SLMs, the study reveals the differences between tourists and locals in terms of how and where they perceive and appreciate the intangible values of TCNP. Through spatial statistics, we reported important spatial correlations (i) between different categories of Ecosystem Services (ES) and (ii) between ES richness and diversity on different TCNP's land covers. As a contribution to the decision-making outlook, we remarked potential areas to expand of ecotourism activities based on the spatial hot and cold spots. This study concludes by highlighting opportunities for future research in expanding on socio-geographical assessments of ES, especially in the fields of ecotourism.

Ecosystem services and justice of protected areas: the case of Circeo National Park, Italy

Protected areas are key instruments for conserving biodiversity and landscapes. Yet, conservation initiatives are still often struggling to accommodate people's needs, provoking conflicts, and lacking support from local communities. Our study combines environmental justice and ecosystem services approaches to provide a critical understanding of trade-offs between people's interests and conservation goals in the case study of Circeo National Park (Italy). Applying a qualitative content analysis of different materials and using a survey of local residents, we focus on three main objectives: analysing the implementation of the ecosystem services framework in policy documents and exploring how different people value benefits from nature; investigating the decision-making process in terms of participation, information and communication strategies; and identifying how conservation policies generated different allocations of benefits, burdens and inequalities among social groups. The integrated approach applied in our study highlights ways to systematically uncover perceived injustices and identifies potential conflict lines. In the long run, this approach might help to increase the public acceptance of protected areas by fostering sustainability also in its often-overlooked social dimension.

Good Pastures, Good Meadows: Mountain Farmers’ Assessment, Perceptions on Ecosystem Services, and Proposals for Biodiversity Management

An ongoing decrease in habitat and species diversity is occurring in many areas across Europe, including in grasslands in mountain areas, calling for adapted biodiversity management and measures. In this context, we carried out 79 interviews with grassland farmers in five alpine mountain regions in Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We analyzed farmers’ perceptions about the functions and services of their grasslands, how they qualify “good” grasslands, which grassland management practices have changed over the last 10 years, and proposals to increase species diversity on the farm. They related them primarily to cultural ecosystem services, secondly to provisioning services, and thirdly to regulating and supporting services. Good pastures or meadows were mostly related to composition, quality of forage and productivity, structural criteria, and certain characteristics of soils and topography. The measures for increasing biodiversity that were most frequently proposed were upgrading of forest edges, planting hedges or fruit trees, less or late grassland cutting, reduction or omission of fertilization, and more general extensification of farm productions. Factors hindering the implementation of these measures were mainly increased workload, insufficient time, and a lack of financial means or support to cover additional costs for biodiversity management. These factors have to be taken specifically into account for future policies for enhanced biodiversity management of grasslands, also beyond mountainous areas. Overall, we found that farmers have good but varying knowledge about biodiversity management of their grasslands, but also different perspectives on how to improve it. Here, local initiatives that bring together farmers and flora or fauna specialists to exchange knowledge could be designed and used in participatory pilot schemes to enhance the implementation of improved biodiversity management.

Mapping and assessment of landscape aesthetic quality in Lithuania

Mapping and assessing landscape aesthetic quality (LAQ) at the national level can provide valuable insights to scientists and policymakers about the general condition of targeted cultural ecosystem service (CES). A generalised view based on unified methodological standards allows comparing LAQ between countries, thus facilitating international environmental management policies. LAQ can be assessed by combining subjective and objective metrics. This approach makes it challenging to map and assess the LAQ at national scale since it requires consensus-based methodologies to be reliably applicable in a broader geographic region. The national-scale studies related to LAQ are not common since they require high computational resources and differ in data accessibility. However, it is crucial to conduct broader LAQ studies to reveal the more general picture of LAQ condition and support (adjust) policy implementation at the national scale. More studies are needed to assess LAQ at the national level. This study aims to map and assess LAQ in Lithuania on the national scale. To achieve this aim, we adapted a LAQ mapping and assessment approach previously applied in Germany at the national scale. Based on previous work, we tested the methodology's transferability by applying it in a different geographical region by using local datasets. In this study, we partially modified sub-indicators calculation methods and performed an additional in-depth analysis to gather more information on LAQ accessibility and condition in Lithuania. Geographic Information Systems modeling and spatial statistics analysis allowed for achieving this aim. The results revealed that agricultural and urban areas had the lowest landscape diversity, naturalness, uniqueness, and LAQ in general, while areas with high ruggedness, forests, protected areas, natural monuments, and heritage sites had the highest LAQ scores. Viewshed analysis showed that a significant part of Lithuanian territory with the highest LAQ values have limited visibility due to terrain energy and undulation. Curonian spit and Nemunas riverbanks are few of high LAQ areas with high visual accessibility potential. The patches with high LAQ were clustered in protected areas, while the lowest LAQ values were observed in agricultural lands and urbanised areas. LAQ CES assessment is critical for higher quality environmental management regulation practices. High LAQ areas may need a better protection and provide wellbeing for the population, while low LAQ areas may require additional restoration effort. It also provides a better understanding of the LAQ condition and contributes to achieve national, European, and global goals related to landscape planning, management, and sustainable development.

Towards an enhanced indication of provisioning ecosystem services in agro-ecosystems

Provisioning ecosystem services play a vital role in sustaining human well-being. Agro-ecosystems contribute a significant share of these services, besides food and fodder and also fuel and fibre as well as regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Until now, the indication of provisioning ecosystem services of agro-ecosystems has been based almost only on yield numbers of agricultural products. Such an indication is problematic due to several reasons which include a disregard of the role of significant anthropogenic contributions to ecosystem service co-generation, external environmental effects and strong dependence on site conditions. We argue for an enhanced indication of provisioning ecosystem services that considers multiple aspects of their delivery. The conceptual base for such an indication has been made by prior publications which have been reviewed. Relevant points were taken up in this article and condensed into a conceptual model in order to develop a more holistic and expanded set of indictors, which was then exemplarily applied and tested in three case studies in Germany. The case studies represent different natural conditions, and the indicator set application showed that ecosystem services (ES) flow-in terms of output alone-does not characterise agro-ecosystems sufficiently. The proposed aspects of provisioning ecosystem services can give a fuller picture, for example, by input-output relationships, as it is possible by just using single indicators. Uncertainties as well as pros and cons of such an approach are elaborated. Finally, recommendations for an enhanced indication of provisioning ecosystem services in agro-ecosystems that can help to integrate agricultural principles with ideas of sustainability and site-specific land use are derived.

Linking Demographic Factors, Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Human Well-Being: Insights from an Sandy Landscape, Uxin in Inner Mongolia, China

Ecosystem services are fundamental in supporting human well-being which is a core component of sustainability. Understanding the relationship between ecosystem services (ESs) and human well-being (HWB) in a changing landscape is important to implement appropriate ecosystem management and policy development. Combining with demographic, economic, and cultural factors, their land use are the elements linking ESs and HWB at fine scale. Within this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate household HWB changes in the past decade, and understand the relationship between demographic factors, land use, ESs, and HWB in the social-ecological landscapes of Uxin, in Inner Mongolia. Our results indicate that: the levels of HWB of local herder families were slightly improved from 2007 to 2016; changes in family demographic factors enhanced their land use intensity, resulting in an increased supply capacity of ecosystems and improved HWB; in addition, regulating services contributed more to HWB than provisioning services. The results of this study can help improve the understanding of the relationship between ESs and HWB, and provide valuable information to policy-makers to maintain particular ESs or to improve HWB.

Perceptions and Social Values Regarding the Ecosystem Services of Beaches and Coastal Dunes in Yucatán, Mexico

The ecosystem services (ESs) approach has been used as a powerful tool for the analysis of socio-ecological systems to investigate the relationship between society and the environment. The aim of this article is to analyze the social perceptions of stakeholders, forms of use (sociocultural and economic), and the conservation of beaches and coastal dunes in Yucatán, Mexico. Interviews were held with focus groups to analyze the forms of use, social perceptions of stakeholders, and the conservation of beaches and coastal dunes in Yucatán, Mexico. The results indicate that these ecosystems are important to different types of activities related to regulating, provisioning, and cultural services. However, degradation is identified as a consequence of contamination and land-use change. The main identified threats are natural phenomena, followed by the presence of garbage, human presence in natural environments, infrastructure construction, and privatization of beaches. The opinions (e.g., conservation, ecosystem services provision, drivers of change), emotions (e.g., joy, fear, sadness), and knowledge of the local community and tourists with respect to these ecosystems were evidenced. In general, there is an absence of conservation and sustainable management projects. However, community perceptions provide an opportunity to outline public conservation strategies in which the community, as a component of these socio-ecosystems, can be fully involved in their implementation.

Ecosystem service lens reveals diverse community values of small-scale fisheries

The ocean provides benefits to coastal communities around the world, however, the depth and complexity of people's interactions with marine ecosystems are not well represented in many marine management initiatives. Many fisheries are managed to maximize provisioning value, which is readily quantified, while ignoring cultural values. An ecosystem services approach that includes both provisioning and cultural services will enable managers to better account for the diverse values marine fisheries provide to coastal communities. In this study, we assess community values related to a top fished species, the Mexican chocolate clam, Megapitaria squalida, in Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico. We conducted an exploratory analysis based on 42 household surveys, and found that community members perceive multiple provisioning and cultural benefits from the clam, including community economic, historical, and identity values. Despite reporting infrequent harvest and consumption of clams, participants perceive the species as an important part of community identity, highlighting the role of Mexican chocolate clams as a cultural keystone species in the Loreto region. Fisheries management that recognizes the full range of ecosystem services a species contributes to coastal communities will be better equipped to sustain these diverse values into the future.

Beekeepers perception of risks affecting colony loss: A pilot survey

Understanding amateur beekeepers' perception of risks affecting bee health and mortality is essential to analyse the reasons for adopting or rejecting good management practices. A perception survey on how beekeepers perceive and manage factors related to climate change, Varroa infestation, management practices, and pesticide exposure was designed and launched online. This unpreceded sociological survey involved 355 beekeepers spread all over Belgium. A two-sample t test with unequal variances comparing beekeepers with colony loss rates below or exceeding the acceptable level, that is <10% and ≥10%, indicates that beekeepers (N = 213) with colony loss rates <10% generally have greater average levels of perceived risks and the benefits of action that lead to increased motivation to act in better ways. The results of this survey highlight the importance of looking beyond socio-economic determinants in any risk mitigation strategy associated with bee mortality when dealing with amateur beekeepers.

Factors influencing perceptions of aquatic ecosystems

While factors influencing perceptions of drinking water have been well studied, those of aquatic ecosystems have been to lesser extent. We conducted a review to improve awareness of these factors. Environmental factors found to influence public perceptions of aquatic ecosystems were presence/absence of water plants and algae, presence/absence of floating debris, the odor, movement (for flowing waters) and clarity/turbidity of the water, and the type, condition, setting, naturalness, and overall aesthetic appeal of the ecosystem. Sociocultural factors found to influence public perceptions of aquatic ecosystems included age, education, gender, and place-based knowledge. We provide perspectives of how managers can better meet the diverse social demands placed on aquatic ecosystems. The importance and benefits of considering these perspectives may be especially beneficial where significant multi-generational and culturally relevant place-based knowledge exist.