Analysing Trade-Offs in Management Decision- Making Between Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity Conservation, and Commodity Production in the Peruvian Amazon National Reserve

Abstract

The Ecosystem Services concept has been developed in recent decades through both academic and international institutions. Nowadays, most of the literature agrees that ecosystem services constitute a crucial contribution to human well-being. Most studies focus on final ecosystem services which are directly identifiable amongst society's consumption habits. Ecosystem services generally named "Provisioning Services" seem to be the masterpiece of ecosystem services provided by nature, and their contribution to human well-being is linked to their economic relevance. In most cases this can be easily determined as there are markets already developed to evaluate these services. Nonetheless, final ecosystem services are supported by often-overlooked Intermediate Ecosystem Services, which do not have a structured market and yet hold an economic relevance that could directly affect society. Similarly, cultural ecosystem services are often difficult to economically assess as it is very difficult to put a price on intrinsic values. Though Regulating and Cultural Ecosystem Services are difficult to value, they are of vital importance to society and must be evaluated when making any assessment locally or regionally. In order to yield a better understanding of the importance of all ecosystem service categories, we propose a spatial-temporal limited study to pinpoint the synergies and trade-offs between Ecosystem services, Biodiversity conservation, and Commodity production in Allpahuayo Mishana National Reserve, and to highlight the possible environmental and economic outcomes according to different management scenario