Ecosystem services in European protected areas: Ambiguity in the views of scientists and managers?

Abstract

Protected Areas are a key component of nature conservation. They can play an important role in counterbalancing the impacts of ecosystem degradation. For an optimal protection of a Protected Area it is essential to account for the variables underlying the major Ecosystem Services an area delivers, and the threats upon them. Here we show that the perception of these important variables differs markedly between scientists and managers of Protected Areas in mountains and transitional waters. Scientists emphasise variables of abiotic and biotic nature, whereas managers highlight socio-economic, cultural and anthropogenic variables. This indicates fundamental differences in perception. To be able to better protect an area it would be advisable to bring the perception of scientists and managers closer together. Intensified and harmonised communication across disciplinary and professional boundaries will be needed to implement and improve Ecosystem Service oriented management strategies in current and future Protected Areas.

A new method for assessing river ecosystem services and its application to rivers in Scotland with and without nature conservation designations

“…One of the aims of this article was to determine whether rivers protected for nature conservation have the added benefit of offering long‐term protection against the loss of ecosystem services (Boulton et al, ; DeFries et al, ; Harrison et al, ; Hummel et al, ). Previous studies suggest that protected areas may support high levels of ecosystem services, even if only marginally (Castro et al, ).…”

“…Many areas with near‐natural landscapes and high biodiversity are afforded protection using nature conservation designations, but to date only limited research has been conducted to determine whether such protection at the landscape scale has the added benefit of offering long‐term protection against the loss of ecosystem services (Boulton, Ekebom, & Gislason, ; DeFries, Hansen, Turner, Reid, & Liu, ; Hummel et al, ). García‐Márquez et al .…”

Sociocultural valuation of ecosystem services for operational ecosystem management: mapping applications by decision contexts in Europe

“…Martín-López et al 2014), how perception differs between groups of people (e.g. Hummel et al 2017) and between positive and negative aspects associated to ecosystems (e.g. Ruiz-Frau et al 2018).…”

Residents’ Views on Landscape and Ecosystem Services during a Wind Farm Proposal in an Island Protected Area

“…ES has been used as a kind of "Esperanto" for valuing nature's services and engaging participatory processes [77], but ES typologies may have "semantic limitations" [78]. Sometimes, there may be ambiguity in the meaning of ES categories [79,80] and caution in using these screening-level assessments is required.…”