Reducing risks by transforming landscapes: Cross-scale effects of land-use changes on ecosystem services

Abstract

Globally, anthropogenic environmental change is exacerbating the already vulnerable conditions of many people and ecosystems. In order to obtain food, water, raw materials and shelter, rural people modify forests and other ecosystems, affecting the supply of ecosystem services that contribute to livelihoods and well-being. Despite widespread awareness of the nature and extent of multiple impacts of land-use changes, there remains limited understanding of how these impacts affect trade-offs among ecosystem services and their beneficiaries across spatial scales. We assessed how rural communities in two forested landscapes in Indonesia have changed land uses over the last 20 years to adapt their livelihoods that were at risk from multiple hazards. We estimated the impact of these adaptation strategies on the supply of ecosystem services by comparing different benefits provided to people from these land uses (products, water, carbon, and biodiversity), using forest inventories, remote sensing, and interviews. Local people converted forests to rubber plantations, reforested less productive croplands, protected forests on hillsides, and planted trees in gardens. Our results show that land-use decisions were propagated at the landscape scale due to reinforcing loops, whereby local actors perceived that such decisions contributed positively to livelihoods by reducing risks and generating co-benefits. When land-use changes become sufficiently widespread, they affect the supply of multiple ecosystem services, with impacts beyond the local scale. Thus, adaptation implemented at the local-scale may not address development and climate adaptation challenges at regional or national scale (e.g. as part of UN Sustainable Development Goals or actions taken under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement). A better understanding of the context and impacts of local ecosystem-based adaptation is fundamental to the scaling up of land management policies and practices designed to reduce risks and improve well-being for people at different scales.

Adaptation in ropocenethe Anth: How we can support ecosystems to enable our response to change

“…Indonesian communities in the upper watersheds of Western Kalimantan and Central Java ( Figure 5) have recognized the value of forest regulating and provisioning services for adapting to climate variability and hazards (Fedele et al 2017(Fedele et al , 2018. This has reinforced conservation efforts, extended plantation and agroforestry best practices, and stimulated the marketing of forest products.…”

Land-use elements and attributed ecosystem services: an archetype approach to land-use evaluation at the German North Sea coast

“…Positioning land-use elements in relation to the provision of ecosystem services made it possible for the stakeholders to understand and evaluate ecosystem services. A good understanding of ecosystem services and the attribution to land-use elements is essential to grasp the relationships between natural capital, societal demands, and human well-being (Fish 2011, Maes et al 2012, Fedele et al 2018).…”

Para adaptar la restauración de la tierra a un clima cambiante: aceptemos lo que sabemos y lo que no

“…El marco de servicios ecosistémicos puede servir como una guía útil para planear e implementar la restauración ecológica, con la ayuda de sus enfoques prácticos y herramientas (Alexander et al 2016), y especialmente para evaluar el suministro y el balance entre los beneficios y las pérdidas (trade-offs) a diferentes escalas espaciales (Fedele et al 2018). El marco sirve también como base para la adaptación basada en ecosistemas, que se lleva a cabo cuando las personas basan sus estrategias de adaptación en servicios de los ecosistemas tales como la regulación del agua Tabla 1.…”