What can conservation strategies learn from the ecosystem services approach? Insights from ecosystem assessments in two Spanish protected areas

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Marina García-Llorente
  • Paula A. Harrison
  • Pam Berry
  • Ignacio Palomo
  • Erik Gómez-Baggethun
  • Irene Iniesta-Arandia
  • Carlos Montes
  • David García Del Amo
  • Berta Martín-López

Biodiversity conservation strategies that overlook the interests of local people are prone to create conflicts. The ecosystem service approach holds potential for more comprehensively integrating the social dimension into decision-making in protected areas, but its implementation in conservation policies is still in its infancy. This research assesses the extent to which ecosystem services have been implemented in conservation strategies in protected areas. The study was conducted in two outstanding Spanish protected areas, covering a wetland (Doñana Natural and National Parks) and a Mediterranean mountain system (Sierra Nevada Natural and National Parks). Data were collected from deliberative workshops with managers and researchers, face-to-face surveys with users and a review of management plans. We found that, beyond intrinsic values of ecosystems and biodiversity, these areas provide multiple ecosystem services that deserve further attention to ensure their sustained delivery. Our research shows that environmental managers and researchers have different perceptions and priorities regarding ecosystem services management compared with ecosystem service users. Environmental managers and researchers in both protected areas perceived that human-nature relationships and ecosystem services are already widely included in management plans, if often not explicitly. We found that different ecosystem service categories receive uneven attention in management plans. These contained measures to manage provisioning and cultural services whereas measures for managing regulating services were perceived to be largely absent. We conclude by summarizing insights on how the ecosystem service approach may enhance the consideration of social interests in the management of management protected areas.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBiodiversity and Conservation
Volume27
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)1575-1597
Number of pages23
ISSN0960-3115
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.06.2018

    Research areas

  • Deliberative workshop, Document analysis, Management plan, National Park, Natural Park, Perception
  • Sustainability Science

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Data based analysis of order processing strategies to support the positioning between conflicting economic and logistic objectives
  2. An Orthogonal Wavelet Denoising Algorithm for Surface Images of Atomic Force Microscopy
  3. Guest Editorial Special Issue on Sensors in Machine Vision of Automated Systems
  4. AGDISTIS - Graph-based disambiguation of named entities using linked data
  5. New Labor, Old Questions: Practices of Collaboration with Robots
  6. Grazing, exploring and networking for sustainability-oriented innovations in learning-action networks
  7. Exploring large vegetation databases to detect temporal trends in species occurrences
  8. Modeling self-determination theory motivation data by using unfolding IRT
  9. Combining linked data and statistical information retrieval
  10. Introduction Mobile Digital Practices. Situating People, Things, and Data
  11. How does Enterprise Architecture support the Design and Realization of Data-Driven Business Models?
  12. Additive Manufacturing of Soft Robots
  13. BERTologyNavigator: Advanced Question Answering with BERT-based Semantics
  14. Re-visiting Effectuation
  15. Competing Vegetation Structure Indices for Estimating Spatial Constrains in Carabid Abundance Patterns in Chinese Grasslands Reveal Complex Scale and Habitat Patterns
  16. Convolutional Neural Networks
  17. Metaphors and Paradigms of the Language Animal—or—The Advantage of seeing “Time Is a Resource” as a Paradigm
  18. Challenges for biodiversity monitoring using citizen science in transitioning social-ecological systems
  19. Turning Good Intentions Into Actions by Using the Health Action Process Approach to Predict Adherence to Internet-Based Depression Prevention
  20. Combining a PI Controller with an Adaptive Feedforward Control in PMSM
  21. Introduction
  22. Perfectly nested or significantly nested - an important difference for conservation management
  23. An Adaptive Resonance Regulator for an Actuator using Periodic Signals in Camless Engine Systems
  24. Modelling, explaining, enacting and getting feedback: How can the acquisition of core practices in teacher education be optimally fostered?
  25. Intraindividual variability in identity centrality
  26. Relationships between language-related variations in text tasks, reading comprehension, and students’ motivation and emotions: A systematic review
  27. Variational pragmatics in the foreign language classroom
  28. Applying Quarter-Vehicle Model Simulation for Road Elevation Measurements Utilizing the Vehicle Level Sensor
  29. Developing a Complex Portrait of Content Teaching for Multilingual Learners via Nonlinear Theoretical Understandings
  30. Diffusion patterns in small vs. large capital markets-the case of value-based management
  31. Reciprocal Relationships Between Dispositional Optimism and Work Experiences
  32. Influence of Mg content in Al alloys on processing characteristics and dynamically recrystallized microstructure of friction surfacing deposits
  33. The structure of emotions in learning situations
  34. Toward a methodical framework for comprehensively assessing forest multifunctionality