scholarly journals A Framework for Characterizing and Regulating Ecosystem Services in a Management Planning Context

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emin Zeki BASKENT
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Cultural Services ◽  
Human Wellbeing

Sustainable management promises to improve the conservation and utilization of ecosystem services and their contribution to human wellbeing through management plans. This paper explores the concept of characterization and integration of ecosystem services in a management planning concept. The integration process involves the identification, quantification, valuation, assessment, and monitoring of ecosystem services over time. The quantification of common ecosystem services, such as soil erosion, water conservation, recreation, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration was explored. A framework was developed to integrate ecosystem services into management planning process. Ecosystem services are classified as provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services with a defined typology. The conceptual framework acts as an organizing structure and it serves as a model for the management of ecosystems with their contribution to human wellbeing. Ecosystem management with multi-criteria decision techniques, information technologies and a structured participation is a proposed approach for the sustainable management of ecological, economic, and socio-cultural functions. Establishing the quantitative relationships between ecosystem services and societal benefits is essential. The provision of a universally accepted clear measurement of regulating, supporting, and cultural services is challenging. A commitment, vision, and strong willingness are required to adopt policies, regulations, and management objectives in planning. Integration can only be realized with prioritizing ecosystem services with the involvement of stakeholders. Substantial understanding of both the ecological and social systems is a prerequisite for sustainable management of ecosystem services. The ecosystem services with significant benefits to the wellbeing of society should primarily be characterized, their relative importance be weighted, and prioritized through a participatory approach. A holistic approach with a comprehensive decision support system is essential in forecasting the future provision of ecosystem services and assessing the trade-off analysis, resulting in better policy formulation before on-the-ground implementation.

scholarly journals Qualitative Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Services: The Stakeholders’ Point of View in Support of Landscape Planning

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella De Meo ◽  
Maria Cantiani ◽  
Fabrizio Ferretti ◽  
Alessandro Paletto
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Landscape Planning ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Cultural Services ◽  
Forest Management Planning

In the last decades, the ecosystem services (ES) concept has become one of the main challenges of study and discussion in the scientific community. The quantitative and qualitative assessment of ES is as a tool to address forest management planning on a local scale. Forest landscape management planning is the most suitable level for integrating social needs and demands in the enhancement of different forest ES. Some regions in Italy have developed forest landscape management plans taking into account the social preferences for the different ES. In this paper, we refer to five case studies in three pilot areas in Italy. A survey collected and analyzed the opinions and preferences, from 362 stakeholders, for ten ES included in three categories (provisioning, regulating and cultural services). The main aim of this study is to understand what type of variables (study area, the groups of interest and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents) most influence stakeholder preferences for ES. The results show that for the sample of stakeholders involved in the survey, the most important ES category is regulating services followed by cultural services. In addition, the results show that the group of stakeholders’ interest is the most important variable influencing their preferences for ES.

scholarly journals Contributing to the cultural ecosystem services and human wellbeing debate: a case study application on indicators and linkages

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Waweru Wangai ◽  
Benjamin Burkhard ◽  
Marion Kruse ◽  
Felix Müller
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Human Wellbeing ◽  
Management Actions

Inadequacies in the indication of cultural ecosystem services (CES) are a hindrance in assessing their comprehensive impacts on human wellbeing. Similarly, uncertainties about the quantity and quality of CES, in real time and space, have hampered the ability of resource managers to precisely take responsive management actions. The aim of the study is to demonstrate, how CES indicators can be identified and qualified in order to link CES to human wellbeing, and to integrate them into the ‘ecosystem services cascade’ and the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) models. A case study methodology is applied at the Nairobi-Kiambu (Kenya) peri-urban area. Primary data on CES was collected in the case study through survey, field observations and matrix tables. Secondary data originates from literature analysis. Results show that the participatory identification of CES and human wellbeing indicators could improve their transparencyand comprehensibility. The environmental policy formulation and implementation processes have been demonstrated. The tripartite framework of CES-human wellbeing-DPSIR has demonstrated more linkages and feedbacks than initially indicated in the cascade model. For policy formulation and implementation, appropriate communication of results is mandatory. This is illustrated by a terminology that enables the transfer of scientific messages to stakeholders, especially for the local people. The conclusion indicates the importance of consistency in qualifying CES and human wellbeing indicators even at this time of urgency to bridge the gaps existing in CES and human wellbeing research.

scholarly journals Practices of sustainability and the enactment of their natures/cultures: Ecosystem services, rights of nature, and geoengineering

2021 ◽  
pp. 053901842199894
Author(s):  
Frank Adloff ◽  
Iris Hilbrich
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Knowledge Cultures ◽  
Rights Of Nature ◽  
Value Of Nature ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control

Possible trajectories of sustainability are based on different concepts of nature. The article starts out from three trajectories of sustainability (modernization, transformation and control) and reconstructs one characteristic practice for each path with its specific conceptions of nature. The notion that nature provides human societies with relevant ecosystem services is typical of the path of modernization. Nature is reified and monetarized here, with regard to its utility for human societies. Practices of transformation, in contrast, emphasize the intrinsic ethical value of nature. This becomes particularly apparent in discourses on the rights of nature, whose starting point can be found in Latin American indigenous discourses, among others. Control practices such as geoengineering are based on earth-systemic conceptions of nature, in which no distinction is made between natural and social systems. The aim is to control the earth system as a whole in order for human societies to remain viable. Practices of sustainability thus show different ontological understandings of nature (dualistic or monistic) on the one hand and (implicit) ethics and sacralizations (anthropocentric or biocentric) on the other. The three reconstructed natures/cultures have different ontological and ethical affinities and conflict with each other. They are linked to very different knowledge cultures and life-worlds, which answer very differently to the question of what is of value in a society and in nature and how these values ought to be protected.

scholarly journals Towards sustainable management of the stock and ecosystem services of urban trees. From theory to model and application

Trees ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Pretzsch ◽  
A. Moser-Reischl ◽  
M. A. Rahman ◽  
S. Pauleit ◽  
T. Rötzer
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Urban Trees ◽  
Urban Tree ◽  
Age Class ◽  
Sustainable Planning

Abstract Key message A model for sustainable planning of urban tree stocks is proposed, incorporating growth, mortality, replacement rates and ecosystem service provision, providing a basis for planning of urban tree stocks. Abstract Many recent studies have improved the knowledge about urban trees, their structures, functions, and ecosystem services. We introduce a concept and model for the sustainable management of urban trees, analogous to the concept of sustainable forestry developed by Carl von Carlowitz and others. The main drivers of the model are species-specific tree diameter growth functions and mortality rates. Based on the initial tree stock and options for the annual replanting, the shift of the distribution of the number of trees per age class can be predicted with progressing time. Structural characteristics such as biomass and leaf area are derived from tree dimensions that can be related to functions such as carbon sequestration or cooling. To demonstrate the potential of the dynamic model, we first show how different initial stocks of trees can be quantitatively assessed by sustainability indicators compared to a target stock. Second, we derive proxy variables for ecosystem services (e.g. biomass for carbon sequestration, leaf area for deposition and shading) from a given distribution of the number of trees per age class. Third, we show by scenario analyses how selected ecosystem services and functions may be improved by combining complementary tree species. We exercise one aspect (cooling) of one ecosystem service (temperature mitigation) as an example. The approach integrates mosaic pieces of knowledge about urban trees, their structures, functions, and resulting ecosystem services. The presented model makes this knowledge available for a sustainable management of urban tree stocks. We discuss the potential and relevance of the developed concept and model for ecologically and economically sustainable planning and management, in view of progressing urbanization and environmental changes.

Payment for Ecosystem Services policies in Peru: assessing the social and ecological dimensions of water services in the upper Santa River basin 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa María Dextre ◽  
María Luisa Eschenhagen ◽  
Mirtha Camacho ◽  
Sally Rangecroft ◽  
Laurence Couldrick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Payment For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Metabolic Pattern ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Latin American Region

<p>Increasing pressures on ecosystems in the Latin American region as well as the adoption of multilateral conservation commitments have led to the implementation of instruments that are economic in nature but oriented towards the recovery, conservation, and functioning of ecosystems. The increasing adoption of schemes such as payment for ecosystem services (PES) has emerged as multilateral strategies to address water security problems in the mountain regions of Perú. However, their design and implementation can face many barriers when the policy is translated into practice in a local context. Socio-economic processes and hydro-climatic factors are affecting the capacity of the ecosystems of the glaciated Cordillera Blanca (Peruvian Andes) to provide water services, in terms of both, quality and quantity, to the main users of the Santa River basin. This study thus aims to analyze how the hydro-social relations affect, and are affected by, the introduction of water-related PES in the Quillcay sub-basin, one of the most populated sub-basin along the Santa River basin. The water metabolism approach was used to characterize water as a service produced by ecological systems (water as an ecological fund) and co-produced by social systems (water as a social flow). For this purpose, a classification of the different social and ecological uses and meanings of water was used, as well as the role of the different actors involved. </p><p>Based on the combination of primary data, both from an urban citizens survey (Huaraz) and semi-structured interviews with different actors, and from secondary sources, we present evidence that the metabolic pattern of water in the upper Santa basin is impacted not only by the glacial meltwater and rainwater regime but also by political, economic and cultural power relations over water. Thus, the implementation of a PES policy in the upper Santa basin affects and is affected by, ecological and social dimensions of water. In the ecological dimension, glacial retreat makes the design of a water-related PES more complex. In the social dimension, some socio-political processes, such as the lack of experience and the limited technical and financial capacity of public water management institutions to carry out these processes, as well as the lack of political will of regional and local authorities to promote them, are affecting the way these PES schemes are implemented. Along with these institutional bottlenecks, local socio-cultural processes related to a lack of interest in participating and demanding to participate in these decision-making processes could result in the design of a mechanism in which not all stakeholders benefit equally. This raises the need to recognize the multi-dimensional nature of water in the design and implementation of policies, and the importance of identifying processes and barriers which affect the success of these policies.</p>

Aligning landscape structure with ecosystem services along an urban–rural gradient. Trade-offs and transitions towards cultural services

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1525-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Herrero-Jáuregui ◽  
Cecilia Arnaiz-Schmitz ◽  
Lorena Herrera ◽  
Simon M. Smart ◽  
Carlos Montes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Landscape Structure ◽  
Cultural Services ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Urban Rural

scholarly journals Evaluando el bienestar humano y los servicios de los ecosistemas en San Jacinto de Santay, Ecuador

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Daniel Gómez de la Torre Hidalgo ◽  
Mateo Aguado Caso ◽  
María Cristina Vallejo
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Artisanal Fishing ◽  
Subjective Satisfaction ◽  
Clean Air

This research identifies the influencing factors on human well-being in the San Jacinto de Santay community by interpreting subjective satisfaction with life revealed by its inhabitants in a crosssectional study. The dependent variable was explained by age, social relationships, and time available for recreation activities. In addition, ecosystem services perceived as critical were identified: clean air and wild food (mainly artisanal fishing). The analysis of the results, using a Mann-Whitney test and analysis of covariance and redundancy, highlighted sustainable management and the importance of understanding the contributions of the natural environment.

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