Ecosystem service trade-offs and land use among smallholder farmers in eastern Paraguay

Grossman, Jake J.

doi:10.5751/es-06953-200119

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Like Ewing and Runck (2015), they too demonstrate that alternative management practices could increase both the provisioning services that sustain livelihoods and the regulating services that allow long-term sustainability. In step with these studies, Grossman (2015) shows that in smallholder farms in eastern Paraguay, where subsistence provisioning of agricultural and forestry products trade off with regulating services and biodiversity, most landholders are inefficient in their land management. Empirically based models of the efficiency frontier reveal that both greater yields and greater regulating services should be possible.…”

Section: Empirical Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…F. Mora, P. Balvanera, E. García-Frapolli, A. Castillo, J. Trilleras, and D. Cohen, unpublished manuscript show how changes in cattle ranching management practices and stakeholders' preferences are feasible and can provide alternatives to sustain biodiversity, carbon stocks, and fodder production. Grossman (2015) examines the conditions under which land use is optimized, allowing increased agricultural productivity and biodiversity conservation. Mastrangelo and Laterra (2015) provide examples of how different stakeholders are able to increase agricultural productivity or biodiversity conservation without compromising the other.…”

Section: Empirical Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using remote sensed data and models of forest recovery, Allen (2015) documents the impacts of nature tourism on forest cover; she describes the shapes of different efficiency frontiers from interview data and discusses their associated economic and community impacts. Grossman (2015) calculates ecosystem services from interview data, models the efficiency frontiers in which maximum potential service could be obtained, and compares these with realized conditions; he discusses the socioeconomic, historical, and cultural conditions that have enabled or hindered the attainment of potential conditions. Ewing and Runck (2015) model the services within grid cells and contrast the observed efficiency frontier with those in which nitrogen use is optimized.…”

Section: Empirical Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecosystem service trade-offs across global contexts and scales

Cavender‐Bares¹,

Balvanera²,

King³

et al. 2015

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Meeting human needs while sustaining the planet's life support systems is the fundamental challenge of our time. What role sustenance of biodiversity and contrasting ecosystem services should play in achieving a sustainable future varies along philosophical, cultural, institutional, societal, and governmental divisions. Contrasting biophysical constraints and perspectives on human well-being arise both within and across countries that span the tropics and temperate zone. Direct sustenance of livelihoods from ecosystem services in East Africa contrasts with the complex and diverse relationships with the land in Mexico and the highly monetary-based economy of the United States. Lack of understanding of the contrasting contexts in which decision-making about trade-offs occurs creates impediments to collective global efforts to sustain the Earth's life support systems. While theoretical notions of the goals of sustainability science seek a unified path forward, realities on the ground present challenges. This Special Feature seeks to provide both an analytical framework and a series of case studies to illuminate impediments posed to sustainability by contrasting biophysical constraints and human perspectives on what should be sustained. The contributors aim to clarify the trade-offs posed to human welfare in sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services and the challenges in managing for a sustainable future in which human well-being is not compromised as compared to today. Our goal is to provide novel insights on how sustainability can be achieved internationally through exploration of constraints, trade-offs, and human values examined at multiple scales, and across geographic regions from a range of cultural perspectives.Key Words: biophysical constraints; cultural contexts; ecosystem services; empirical case studies; human preferences; sustainability framework; trade-offs INTRODUCTIONOur aim in this Special Feature is to synthesize the relevant ecological and welfare economics literature to present a simple analytical framework for understanding the constraints and challenges of a sustainability transition across spatial scales and biophysical, cultural, and institutional contexts, and to apply the framework to a series of empirical case studies that traverse this range of contexts. We define sustainability as meeting the needs of current populations without compromising those of future generations, following the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland. Inherent to this definition is the imperative to maintain the Earth's life support systems. The framework, which focuses on trade-offs between provisioning ecosystem services, on the one hand, and regulating services or biodiversity, on the other, helps reveal how the contrasting perspectives and needs of different stakeholders drive very different preferred and realized outcomes. Empirical analysis using this framework allows stakeholders to identify the biophysical constraints of natural systems in generat...

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Section: Empirical Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ecosystem service trade-offs across global contexts and scales

Cavender‐Bares¹,

Balvanera²,

King³

et al. 2015

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, indicator development and application are difficult due to manifold linkages between different services. Studies have mostly used unlinked, single indicators as proxies to assess the contribution of soil functions to ecosystem services (Grossman, 2015;Meylan et al, 2017;Schulte et al, 2014). It is important to clarify these analytical shortcomings to connect the insights and results from a large body of soil function literature to the ecosystem services concept.…”

Section: Ecosystem Services Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing soil functions for a sustainable bioeconomy—Assessment framework and state of the art

et al. 2018

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Bioeconomy strategies have been adopted in many countries around the world. Their sustainable implementation requires a management of soils that maintains soil functions and avoids land degradation. Only then, ecosystem services can be maintained and resources used efficiently. We present an analytical framework for impact assessment that links policy and technology driving forces for soil management decisions to soil processes, soil functional changes, and their impacts on ecosystem services and resource use efficiency, both being targets that have been set by society and are anchored in bioeconomy policy strategies and sustainable development goals. Although the resource use efficiency concept has a long-term tradition, most studies of agricultural management do not address the role of soils in their efficiency assessment. The concept of ecosystem services has received increasing attention over the last years; however, its link to soil functions and soil management practices is still not well established. This study is the first to conceptually link the socioeconomic processes of external drivers for soil management with the natural processes of soil functions and connect them back to impacts on the social system. Application of the framework helps strengthen the science-policy interface and to systemically assess and compare the opportunities and threats of soil management practices from the perspective of goals set by society at different spatial and temporal scales. Insights gained in this way can be applied in stakeholder decisionmaking processes and used to inform the design of governance instruments aimed at sustainable soil management within a bioeconomy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…Ewing and Runck 2015, Grossman 2015, Mastrangelo and Laterra 2015P. Balvanera, F. Mora, A. Castillo, and J. Trilleras, unpublished manuscript, M. ).…”

Section: Challenges and Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A sustainability framework for assessing trade-offs in ecosystem services

Cavender‐Bares¹,

Polasky²,

King³

et al. 2015

E&S

157

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ABSTRACT. Achieving sustainability, i.e., meeting the needs of current populations without compromising the needs of future generations, is the major challenge facing global society in the 21st century. Navigating the inherent trade-offs between provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting ecosystem services, and doing so in a way that does not compromise natural capital needed to provide services in the future, is critical for sustainable resource management. Here we build upon existing literature, primarily from economics and ecology, to present an analytical framework that integrates (1) the ecological mechanisms that underpin ecosystem services, (2) biophysical trade-offs and inherent limits that constrain management options, (3) preferences and values of stakeholders, and (4) explicit analysis of how systems evolve through time to ensure the goal of meeting the needs of future generations. Well-known ecological models define the relationships and trade-offs among services that represents an "efficiency frontier." Well-known methods in economics that combine preferences that define the willingness of stakeholders to trade off ecosystem services on the efficiency frontiers illuminate desirable outcomes that meet human needs. System dynamics show how the system will evolve with consequent impacts on ecosystem services and human well-being and the effects this has on achieving sustainability. Heterogeneity in biophysical constraints, uncertainty, technological advances, and obstacles imposed by societal factors and governance regimes influence potential and realized ecosystem services. Using a set of contrasting scenarios, we illustrate how progress can be made toward sustainability and the important obstacles that must be addressed in doing so. Our framework for analyzing sustainability drawn from economics and ecology is intended to make an integration of concepts from both disciplines accessible to a wider audience.

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Ecosystem service trade-offs and land use among smallholder farmers in eastern Paraguay

Cited by 13 publications

References 64 publications

Ecosystem service trade-offs across global contexts and scales

Ecosystem service trade-offs across global contexts and scales

Managing soil functions for a sustainable bioeconomy—Assessment framework and state of the art

A sustainability framework for assessing trade-offs in ecosystem services

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