Ecosystem disservices (EDS) highlight the negative effects of nature on human well-being. Like ecosystem services (ES), EDS impact economic and non-economic aspects of human life within social-ecological systems (SES). The concept of EDS has been much debated, with strongly differing opinions regarding its utility and implications. In this opinion paper, we emphasize its relevance and complementarity to the ES concept for analyzing SES, and advocate applying EDS to SES research more systematically. Firstly, we highlight that though EDS are now sometimes studied, they remain neglected compared to ES. Secondly, we propose five reasons why EDS and ES are complementary concepts. Thirdly, we suggest that EDS are critical to understanding stakeholders' behavior regarding ecosystems. Drawing on existing studies, we illustrate how stakeholders in SES simultaneously perceive and benefit or suffer from ES and EDS. We further suggest that, under certain conditions, EDS may influence people's behavior more than ES. Such 'EDS-biased behavior' implies that, under certain circumstances, targeting EDS reduction may be more effective than targeting ES increase to encourage nature-friendly behaviors. Finally, we provide five recommendations to further integrate ES and EDS in research, as a pathway towards improving the understanding of SES and the effectiveness of sustainability policies.

Context: While the concept of ecosystem services (ES) is well-established in the scientific and policy arena, many challenges remain to operationalize it. Indeed, ES supply, demand and flow are related to ecological and social processes at multiple spatiotemporal scales, leading to complex interactions in the provision of multiple ES.Objectives: To develop a conceptual framework (CF) in order to facilitate the governance of multiple ES in agricultural social-ecological landscapes.Method: We examine the ecological and social literatures to identify how approaches at the landscape level contribute to a better understanding of ES supply, demand and flow in agricultural systems. After presenting our CF, we develop a case study to illustrate how methods from different disciplines can be combined in order to operationalize this CF.Results: The literature suggests that the landscape level is likely to be the organization level allowing to (i) integrate different components of ES co-production, i.e. ecological processes, agricultural practices and social structures, (ii) understand interactions between stakeholders, including ES coproducers and beneficiaries, (iii) explicit ES trade-offs, i.e. social choices between ES. Conclusion:The production of multiple ES at the landscape level involves different types of interdependencies among ES co-producers and beneficiaries. These need to be addressed in concerted and integrated ways to achieve a sustainable and equitable governance of agricultural landscapes.

Rural forests, including the wooded areas primarily managed by farmers (e.g. farm forests, hedgerows, isolated trees), are critical for the sustainability of agricultural landscapes. Yet with agricultural industrialization, rural forests have been in decline in many regions across Europe. To reverse this trend and promote the sustainable use of farmland, 'greening' measures have been introduced by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in recent years. However, their effectiveness depends on local farmers' values and reaction to these measures. In this study, we investigated the socio-cultural value accorded to rural forests in southwestern France by interviewing 19 farmers. The positive and negative contributions cited were categorized as ecosystem services/disservices and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The results indicate that farmers in this region have mixed views, as they cited 32 positive and 25 negative contributions (material and non-material) of rural forests. They felt trees provide services (e.g. erosion control, windbreak) and disservices to agriculture (e.g. decline in yield, damage to tractors and infrastructures). Depending on their farming practices, farmers had contrasting opinions on how to reconcile rural forests and agriculture. Our results suggest that CAP greening measures need to better target rural forest conservation and further adapt to local contexts.

OATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of some Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible.

Context -The Landscape approach and the Ecosystem Services (ES) framework have been widely used to investigate human-nature relationships and orient landscape planning and management. However, ecosystem disservices (EDS) and their influence on how people interact with ecosystems have received less attention.Objective -We aimed at assessing people's preferences and perceptions of forest ES and EDS in three contrasted case studies. In the meantime, it aims at discussing the potential of considering both ES and EDS in landscape preference and sociocultural valuation studies.Methods -Interviews with stakeholders were conducted in an agroforestry landscape (France), in the Atlantic Forest and in the Pampa grasslands (Brazil). Identified ES and EDS were classified into a common typology and analyzed through discourse analysis and quantitative methods to assess the variability in ES/EDS perceptions among respondents and among forest types.Results -Respondents cited 19 ES classes and 11 EDS classes, with strong variability among case studies.Contrasted perceptions and preferences among respondents were revealed. In the agroforestry landscape, EDS were particularly emphasized by people and contributed to the variability in people's perceptions. In the Atlantic forest landscape, forested areas tended to contrast based on cultural ecosystem services. In the Pampa case study, EDS were particularly salient in people's preferences concerning exotic forest plantations.Conclusions -This study suggests that different types of forested areas produce specific ES/EDS, suggesting their complementarity at the landscape scale. The combination of ES and EDS therefore offers a promising research avenue for more consistent ES sociocultural valuations and for improving management recommendations.

International audienceIn order to cope with uncertainty, human populations living in drylands have developed social-risk management strategies (SRMS) and own extended ecological knowledge (LEK), which contributes to their resilience and adaptive capacity. The aim of this study was to address LEK distribution and variability and to discuss LEK adaptation to drylands. Through ethnobotanical interviews and vegetation surveys in a Saharan Moroccan village, we tested the hypothesis that LEK is shaped by plant apparency and by SRMS. Out of 164 plants, 68 were useful for 126 distinct uses. Plant cultural value obtained from free-lists was positively correlated with plant use value. Plant apparency was positively correlated with plant cultural value, which corroborated the ecological apparency hypothesis. No effect of age or gender on LEK was observed. In contrast, permanently-settled people had a lower level of knowledge than former nomads. The relative intracultural homogeneity of LEK suggests a reciprocal exchange network system strategy at the village scale, which may contribute to human adaptation and resilience to arid environments and to global changes. Nevertheless, LEK seemed interlocked with subsistence activities and with a mobile lifestyle. Conserving this lifestyle may thus be crucial for people's resilience in a context of an uncertain future

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Land‐use changes and the expansion of protected areas (PAs) have amplified the interaction between protected and unprotected areas worldwide. In this context, ‘interface processes' (human–nature and cross‐boundary interactions inside and around PAs) have become central to issues around the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. This scientific literature review aimed to explore current knowledge and research gaps on interface processes regarding terrestrial PAs. At first, 3,515 references related to the topic were extracted through a standardized search on the Web of Science and analyzed with scientometric techniques. Next, a full‐text analysis was conducted on a sample of 240 research papers. A keyword analysis revealed a wide diversity of research topics, from ‘pure' ecology to sociopolitical research. We found a bias in the geographical distribution of research, with half the papers focusing on eight countries. Additionally, we found that the spatial extent of cross‐boundary interactions was rarely assessed, preventing any clear delimitation of PA interactive zones. In the 240 research papers we scanned, we identified 403 processes that were studied. The ecological effects of PAs were well documented and appeared to be positive overall. In contrast, the effects of PAs on local communities were understudied and, according to the literature focusing on these, were very variable according to local contexts. Our findings highlight key research advances on interface processes, especially regarding the ecological outcomes of PAs, the influence of human activities on biodiversity, and PA governance issues. In contrast, main knowledge gaps concern the spatial extent of interactive zones, as well as the interactions between local people and conservation actions and how to promote synergies between them. While the review was limited to terrestrial PAs, its findings allow us to propose research priorities for tackling environmental and socioeconomic challenges in the face of a rapidly changing world.