Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being: a Participatory Study in a Mountain Community in Portugal

Abstract

Ecosystem services are essential for human well-being, but the links between ecosystem services and human well-being are complex, diverse, context-dependent, and complicated by the need to consider different spatial and temporal scales to assess them properly. We present the results of a study in the rural community of Sistelo in northern Portugal that formed part of the Portugal Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The main purpose of our study was to assess the linkages between human well-being and ecosystem services at the local level, as perceived by the community. We used a range of tools that included participatory rural appraisal and rapid rural appraisal as well as other field methods such as direct observation, familiarization and participation in activities, semistructured interviews, trend lines, wellbeing ranking, and other ranking and scoring exercises. Sistelo has a unique landscape of agricultural terraces that are now being abandoned because of the depopulation of the region, a common trend in mountainous rural areas of Europe. From the community perspective, some components of well-being such as material well-being have been improving, whereas some ecosystem services, e.g., food production, have been declining. Although a few of the local criteria for well-being are closely related to local ecosystem services, most of them are not. People recognize many of the services provided by ecosystems, in particular, provisioning, cultural, and regulating services, although they feel that provisioning services are the most important for well-being. It is apparent that, for the Sistelo community, there is an increasing disconnect between local well-being and at least some local ecosystem services. This disconnect is associated with greater freedom of choice at the local level, which gives the local inhabitants the power to find substitutes for ecosystem services. The consequences of land abandonment for human well-being and ecosystem services at different temporal and spatial scales are discussed.

Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

“…Rural populations still value the quality of their environment and its scenic beauty (Bell et al 2009;Pereira et al 2005), but the working conditions in many of these regions have always been difficult. Terraces are some of the most admired cultural landscapes in Mediterranean areas, but locals often use the expression "slavery land" to describe the harshness of the working conditions (Pereira et al 2005).…”

“…Terraces are some of the most admired cultural landscapes in Mediterranean areas, but locals often use the expression "slavery land" to describe the harshness of the working conditions (Pereira et al 2005).…”

“…In Europe, there has been a decline of 17 % of the rural population since 1961 (FAOSTAT 2010). Some parishes of Mediterranean mountain areas have lost more than half of their population in a similar period (Gortázar et al 2000;Pereira et al 2005). At the regional scale, the current farmland contraction is best explained by an increase in agricultural productivity and the slowing of population growth in Europe (Keenleyside and Tucker 2010).…”

Stakeholders' preferences and the assessment of forest ecosystem services: a comparative analysis in Italy

“…However, only few studies of ecosystem services have addressed stakeholders' perspective in the valuation of ecosystem services (Pereira et al 2005;Lamarque et al 2011).…”

Evaluation of ecosystem services: A case study in the middle reach of the Heihe River Basin, Northwest China

“…However, considering spatial and temporal scales, the links between ecosystem services and human activities are more complicated (Pereira et al, 2005). According to the report of Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), it showed that human activities had induced more rapid and extensive changes in ecosystems over the past 50 years compared to other period, which mainly due to the rapidly growing demands of humans for food, fresh water, timer, fiber and fuel etc.…”