A Review of Changes in Mountain Land Use and Ecosystem Services: From Theory to Practice

Abstract

Global changes impact the human-environment relationship, and, in particular, they affect the provision of ecosystem services. Mountain ecosystems provide a wide range of such services, but they are highly sensitive and vulnerable to change due to various human pressures and natural processes. We conducted a literature survey that focused on two main issues. The first was the identification of quantitative methods aimed at assessing the impact of land use changes in mountain regions and the related ecosystem services. The second was the analysis of the extent to which the outcomes of these assessments are useful and transferable to stakeholders. We selected papers through a keyword-driven search of the ISI Web of Knowledge and other international databases. The keywords used for the search were mountain land use change and ecosystem service. Quantitative approaches to ecosystem service assessment rely on suitable indicators, therefore land use/land cover can be used as an appropriate proxy. Landscape metrics are a powerful analytical tool; their use can increase the accuracy of assessments and facilitate the mitigation of specific phenomena, such as fragmentation or the reduction of core habitat areas. Mapping is essential: it is the basis for spatial analyzes and eases the interactions between stakeholders. Land use/land cover change is a temporal process, so both past and future approaches are meaningful. It is necessary to enhance information transfer from theory to practice. Increasing stakeholder awareness can lead to suitable management solutions, and, reciprocally, stakeholder feedback can help improve current assessment methodologies and contribute to developing new tools that are suitable for specific problems.

Horizon Scan of Transboundary Concerns Impacting Snow Leopard Landscapes in Asia

“…Other options include focusing on improving livestock management practices, controlling human population growth, climate change mitigation, creating transboundary conservation landscapes, establishing environment-friendly trade corridors, and adopting sustainable tourism. Similarly, previous studies in other regions found stakeholder awareness, stakeholder participation, and complex management systems to be other possible options [197][198][199].…”

Methodology for Identifying Ecological Corridors: A Spatial Planning Perspective

“…The spatial levels are, as in the French system, territorial planning, at the level of counties, regions, and the whole country, and urban planning, for cities and rural settlements; territorial plans have a strategic character, and urban plans are seen as operational zoning regulations. In all of the cases, the plans consist of images and text; they have specific chapters, some dealing with the environment and its protection, showing the existing status, underlining the problematic issues and proposing solutions for solving them; one of the key requirements is to include all of the protected elements, including the natural protected areas [58,[60][61][62][63].…”

Using Landscape Change Analysis and Stakeholder Perspective to Identify Driving Forces of Human–Wildlife Interactions

“…The overall importance of our study is represented by the fact that the results strengthen the scientific knowledge concerning a few topics of interest within the field of wildlife conservation and management. These are the influences of landscape changes over HWI spatial and temporal pattern in mountain areas with major tourism resorts and high pressure on natural ecosystems, followed by their potential to develop into major sources of ecosystem disservices [47]. Landscape change analyses prove efficient in assessing the potential of human-induced spatial and structural dynamics of complex landscapes to trigger ecological dysfunctions materialized through increasing conflict interactions between local citizens, tourists and wild animals [48].…”