Landscape ethnoecological knowledge base and management of ecosystem services in a Székely-Hungarian pre-capitalistic village system (Transylvania, Romania)

Molnár, Zsolt; Gellény, Krisztina; Margóczi, Katalin; Biró, Marianna

doi:10.1186/1746-4269-11-3

Cited by 35 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In spite of this, we are losing ES at an alarming rate (Cardinale et al 2012). Short-sighted decisions damage 'nature's free goods', as concluded by a Transylvanian decision-maker in as early as 1786 (Molnár et al 2015) in Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania -very close to the region where the ecosystem assessment presented in this paper took place. Amid the enormous environmental challenges of the 21 century, this conclusion is more relevant today than it has ever been.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

How to design a transdisciplinary regional ecosystem service assessment: a case study from Romania, Eastern Europe

Czúcz¹,

Kalóczkai²,

Arany³

et al. 2018

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There is a broad diversity of concepts and methods used in ecosystem service (ES) mapping and assessment projects with many open questions related to the implementation of the concepts and the use of the methods at various scales. In this paper, we present a regional ES mapping and assessment (MAES) study performed between 2015 and 2017 over an area of ~900 km2in Central Romania. The Niraj-MAES project supported by EEA funds and the Romanian government aimed at identifying, assessing and mapping all major ES supplied by the Natura 2000 sites nested in the valleys of the Niraj and Târnava Mică rivers amongst the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians. Major ES in this culturally and ecologically rich semi-natural landscape were determined and prioritised in cooperation with local stakeholders. Indicators for the capacities of individual services were modelled with a multi-tiered methodology, relying on the involvement of regional thematic experts. ES with appropriate socio-economic data were also evaluated economically. The whole process was supervised by a stakeholder advisory board endowed with a remarkable decision-making position, giving feedback and recommendations to the scientists at the critical nodes of the process, thus ensuring salience and legitimacy. In addition to simply presenting the dry facts about the approaches (assessment targets, methods) and outcomes, we also identify several key decisions on the design of the whole assessment process related to (1) the role of conceptual frameworks, (2) stakeholder involvement, (3) the selection of ES to assess (priority setting), (4) the development of models and indicators and (5) the interpretation of outcomes, for which we give a detailed description of the decision process. We found that conceptual frameworks can have a pivotal role in structuring and facilitating communication amongst the participants of a MAES project and that a broad and structured involvement of stakeholders and (local) experts creates a sense of ownership and thus can facilitate local policy uptake. We argue that priority setting and the development of indicators should be an iterative process and we also give an example how such a process can be designed, enabling an efficient participation of a broad range of experts and the collaborative development of simple ES models and indicators. Finally, we discuss several general issues related to the interpretation of results of any kind of MAES and the follow-up of regional MAES projects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

How to design a transdisciplinary regional ecosystem service assessment: a case study from Romania, Eastern Europe

Czúcz¹,

Kalóczkai²,

Arany³

et al. 2018

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“…Three main periods can be distinguished that influenced landscape and value changes (Matei 2013): the pre-socialist (before 1947), socialist , and capitalistic/democratic period (after 1990). Historically, the Szeklerland was a privileged region of the Hungarian Kingdom with self-governed communities of peasants, where commons pool resources were regulated by village laws (Molnár et al 2015). This medieval structure informally survived in Erd} ovidék until the newly formed socialist Romania reorganized its administrative divisions (1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954)(1955)(1956)(1957)(1958)(1959)(1960)(1961)(1962)(1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968).…”

Section: Illustration Of the Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The erosion of relational values resulting from landscape simplification

et al. 2020

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Context The global trend of landscape simplification for industrial agriculture is known to cause losses in biodiversity and ecosystem service diversity. Despite these problems being widely known, status quo trajectories driven by global economic growth and changing diets continue to lead to further landscape simplification. Objectives In this perspective article, we argue that landscape simplification has negative consequences for a range of relational values, affecting the socialecological relationships between people and nature, as well as the social relationships among people. A focus Keywords Agricultural intensification Á Diversified farming Á Human-nature connections Á Landscape sustainability science Á Smallholder farming Á Socialecological systems Maraja Riechers and Joern Fischer have equally contributed to the development of this paper and can be contacted as corresponding authors.

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“…dominated lowland hay meadows and in the vicinity of the Niraj (Nyárád) river traditionally mown lowland hay meadows with Sanguisorba officinalis L. are present. Agricultural fields (13%) are typically extensively cultivated, reflecting historical land use and property systems [63]). From the two main rivers, Târnava Mică (Kis-Küküllő) has broad meanders and gallery forests of Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Berries, greens, and medicinal herbs—mapping and assessing wild plants as an ecosystem service in Transylvania (Romania)

Vári

Arany

Kalóczkai

et al. 2020

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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Background: Wild edible plants as well as medicinal herbs are still widely used natural resources in Eastern Europe that are frequently accessed by the local population. Ethnobotanical studies rarely give insight to the specific ecosystems in which wild food and medicinal plants grow in a spatially explicit way. The present work assesses the potential of different ecosystems to provide wild plants for food and medicinal use based on 37 selected plant species, gives an estimate on the actual use of wild plants, and allows insights into the motivation of local people to collect wild plants.Methods: A number of interdisciplinary methods were used: participatory stakeholder workshops with experts scoring the provisioning capacity of ecosystem types, GIS for representing results (capacity maps), basic data statistics for actual use assessment, and interviews for analysing motivations.Results: Capacity to provide wild edible plants was assessed highest in broad-leaved forests and wetlands, while for medicinal herbs, orchards were rated best. We could find a multitude of motivations for gathering that could be grouped along four main lines corresponding to major dimensions of well-being (health, habit/tradition, nutrition/ income, pleasure/emotional), with health reasons dominating very clearly the range (59% of answers), which can be interpreted as a combination of modern "green" values with a traditional lifestyle. We detected some distinct patterns of motivations between the different social groups analysed with more fundamental needs associated with lower level socio-ecological background. Conclusion: This case study provides an example on the importance of wild plants for locals from several points of view. We emphasize the relevance of these local stakeholder views to be included in decision-making and ecosystem management, which can be achieved by the presented workflow for mapping and assessment of ecosystem services which is also compatible with EU-suggested Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES).

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Landscape ethnoecological knowledge base and management of ecosystem services in a Székely-Hungarian pre-capitalistic village system (Transylvania, Romania)

Cited by 35 publications

References 36 publications

How to design a transdisciplinary regional ecosystem service assessment: a case study from Romania, Eastern Europe

How to design a transdisciplinary regional ecosystem service assessment: a case study from Romania, Eastern Europe

The erosion of relational values resulting from landscape simplification

Berries, greens, and medicinal herbs—mapping and assessing wild plants as an ecosystem service in Transylvania (Romania)

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