Journal Article

Uncovering Ecosystem Service Bundles through Social Preferences

Palomo, Ignacio, Willaarts, Bárbara, López-Santiago, Cesar, Oteros-Rozas, Elisa, González, José A., Montes, Carlos, Iniesta-Arandia, Irene, Palacios-Agundez, Igone, García-Llorente, Marina, Onaindia, Miren, Casado-Arzuaga, Izaskun, Gómez-Baggethun, Erik, Martín-López, Berta, Amo, David García Del, Santos-Martín, Fernando

2012

Overview

Ecosystem service assessments have increasingly been used to support environmental management policies, mainly based on biophysical and economic indicators. However, few studies have coped with the social-cultural dimension of ecosystem services, despite being considered a research priority. We examined how ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs emerge from diverging social preferences toward ecosystem services delivered by various types of ecosystems in Spain. We conducted 3,379 direct face-to-face questionnaires in eight different case study sites from 2007 to 2011. Overall, 90.5% of the sampled population recognized the ecosystem's capacity to deliver services. Formal studies, environmental behavior, and gender variables influenced the probability of people recognizing the ecosystem's capacity to provide services. The ecosystem services most frequently perceived by people were regulating services; of those, air purification held the greatest importance. However, statistical analysis showed that socio-cultural factors and the conservation management strategy of ecosystems (i.e., National Park, Natural Park, or a non-protected area) have an effect on social preferences toward ecosystem services. Ecosystem service trade-offs and bundles were identified by analyzing social preferences through multivariate analysis (redundancy analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis). We found a clear trade-off among provisioning services (and recreational hunting) versus regulating services and almost all cultural services. We identified three ecosystem service bundles associated with the conservation management strategy and the rural-urban gradient. We conclude that socio-cultural preferences toward ecosystem services can serve as a tool to identify relevant services for people, the factors underlying these social preferences, and emerging ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Air purification / Analysis / Biodiversity / Biology / Bundles / Bundling / Case studies / Cluster analysis / Conservation / Conservation of Natural Resources / Cultural factors / Cultural identity / Earth Sciences / Ecology / Economic indicators / Ecosystem / Ecosystem assessment / Ecosystem biology / Ecosystem management / Ecosystem services / Ecosystems / Environmental behavior / Environmental behaviour / Environmental economics / Environmental management / Environmental policy / Human behavior / Humans / Hunting / Hydrology / Laboratories / Management / Multivariate analysis / National parks / Plant biology / Population (statistical) / Preferences / Probability / Protected areas / Provisioning / Purification / Quantitative analysis / Quercus suber / Redundancy / Resource management / Rural communities / Rural urban differences / Services / Social and Behavioral Sciences / Social aspects / Social Behavior / Social factors / Sociocultural factors / Soil erosion / Spain / Statistical analysis / Strategic management / Studies / Surveys / Surveys and Questionnaires / Tradeoffs / Valuation / Wetlands