Abstract
The challenge of incorporating the concept of ecosystem services in landscape planning has been widely acknowledged, yet values of ecosystem services are not well considered in current landscape planning and environmental governance. This is particularly the case when local stakeholders are strongly involved in decision making about adapting the landscape to future demands and challenges. Engagement of stakeholders introduces a variety of interests and motives that result in diverging value interpretations. Moreover, participative planning approaches are based on learning processes, implying that the perceptions of value evolve during the planning process. Current valuation approaches are not able to support such process. Therefore we argue that there is a need for a novel view on the mechanism of integrating valuation in the different stages of community-based landscape planning, as well as for tools based on this mechanism. By revisiting the original conception of ecosystem services and redefining the value of an ecosystem service as its comparative importance to human wellbeing, we develop a conceptual framework for incorporating ecosystem service valuation that captures the full spectrum of value and value changes. We acknowledge that in the social interactions during the planning process values are redefined, negotiated and reframed in the context of the local landscape. Therefore, we propose a valuation mechanism that evolves through the phases of the cyclic planning process. We illustrate the use of this mechanism by proposing a tool that supports stakeholder groups in building a value-based vision on landscape adaptation that contributes to all wellbeing dimensions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abelson J, Forest P-G, Eyles J, Smith P, Martin E, Gauvin F-P (2003) Deliberations about deliberative methods: issues in the design and evaluation of public participation processes. Soc Sci Med 57:239–251
Ahern J (1999) Spatial concepts, planning strategies, and future scenarios: a framework method for integrating landscape ecology and landscape planning. Landsc. Ecol. Anal. Springer, New York, pp 175–201
Aldred J (2006) Incommensurability and monetary valuation. Land Econ 82(2):141–161
Alkire S (2002) Dimensions of human development. World Dev 30:181–205
Anderson L (1995) Guidelines for preparing urban plans. Planners Press, American Planning Association, Chicago
Berkes F (2004) Rethinking community-based conservation. Conserv Biol 18:621–630
Bramston P, Pretty G, Zammit C (2010) Assessing environmental stewardship motivation. Environ Behav 43:776–788
Christie M, Fazey I, Cooper R, Hyde T, Kenter JO (2012) An evaluation of monetary and non-monetary techniques for assessing the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services to people in countries with developing economies. Ecol Econ 83:67–78
Daily GC (ed) (1997) Introduction: What are ecosystem services. In Nature's service: societal dependence on natural ecosystems. Island Press, Washington DC, pp 1–10
Daily GC, Polasky S, Goldstein J, Kareiva PM, Mooney HA, Pejchar L, Ricketts TH, Salzman J, Shallenberger R (2009) Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver. Front Ecol Environ 7:21–28
Daw T, Brown K, Rosendo S, Pomeroy R (2011) Applying the ecosystem services concept to poverty alleviation: the need to disaggregate human well-being. Environ Conserv 38:370–379
De Groot RS, Alkemade R, Braat L, Hein L, Willemen L (2010) Challenges in integrating the concept of ecosystem services and values in landscape planning, management and decision making. Ecol Complex 7:260–272
Dietz T, Ostrom E, Stern PC (2003) The struggle to govern the commons. Science 302:1907–1912
Duff G, Garnett D, Jacklyn P et al (2009) A collaborative design to adaptively manage for landscape sustainability in north Australia: lessons from a decade of cooperative research. Landsc Ecol 24:1135–1143
Gómez-Baggethun E, de Groot R (2010) Natural capital and ecosystem services: the ecological foundation of human society. In: Hester RE, Harrison RM (eds) Ecosyst. Serv. Royal Society of Chemistry, pp 105–121
Grêt-Regamey A, Walz A, Bebi P (2008) Valuing ecosystem services for sustainable landscape planning in alpine regions. Mt Res Dev 28:156–165
Gruber JS (2010) Key principles of community-based natural resource management: a synthesis and interpretation of identified effective approaches for managing the commons. Environ Manage 45:52–66
Kosoy N, Corbera E (2010) Payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism. Ecol Econ 69:1228–1236
Kumar M, Kumar P (2008) Valuation of the ecosystem services: a psycho-cultural perspective. Ecol Econ 64:808–819
Lane MB, McDonald G (2005) Community-based environmental planning: operational dilemmas, planning principles and possible remedies. J Environ Plan Manag 48:709–731
Leitão AB, Ahern J (2002) Applying landscape ecological concepts and metrics in sustainable landscape planning. Landsc Urban Plan 59:65–93
Lurie S, Hibbard M (2008) Community-based natural resource management: ideals and realities for Oregon watershed councils. Soc Nat Resour 21:430–440
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis. Island Press, Washington
Munda G (2004) Social multi-criteria evaluation: methodological foundations and operational consequences. Eur J Oper Res 158:662–677
Nassauer JI (2012) Landscape as medium and method for synthesis in urban ecological design. Landsc Urban Plan 106:221–229
Nassauer JI, Opdam P (2008) Design in science: extending the landscape ecology paradigm. Landsc Ecol 23:633–644
Nelson G, Bennett E (2006) Anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem change: an overview. Ecol Soc 11(2):29. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art29/, [online]
Opdam P (2013) Using ecosystem services in community based planning: science is not ready to deliver. In: Fu B, Jones KB (eds) Landscape ecology for sustainable environment and culture. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 77–101
Opdam P, Foppen R, Vos C (2002) Bridging the gap between ecology and spatial planning in landscape ecology. Landsc Ecol 16:767–779
Pahl-Wostl C (2009) A conceptual framework for analysing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes. Glob Environ Chang 19:354–365
Pascual U, Muradian R, Brander L, Gómez- Baggethun E, Martín-López B, Verma M, Armsworth P, Christie M, Cornelissen H, Eppink F, Farley J, Loomis J, Pearson L, Perrings C, Polasky S (2010) Chapter 5: The economics of valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity. In: Kumar R (ed) The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity: ecological and economic foundations. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 183–256
Pereira E, Queiroz C, Pereira HM, Vicente L (2005) Ecosystem services and human well-being: a participatory study in a mountain community in Portugal. Ecol Soc 10(2):14. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss2/art14/, [online]
Polishchuk Y, Rauschmayer F (2012) Beyond “benefits”? Looking at ecosystem services through the capability approach. Ecol Econ 81:103–111
Raymond CM, Bryan BA, MacDonald DH et al (2009) Mapping community values for natural capital and ecosystem services. Ecol Econ 68:1301–1315
Reed MS (2008) Stakeholder participation for environmental management: a literature review. Biol Conserv 141:2417–2431
Reed MS, Fraser EDG, Dougill AJ (2006) An adaptive learning process for developing and applying sustainability indicators with local communities. Ecol Econ 59:406–418
Smith LM, Case JL, Smith HM, Harwell LC, Summers JK (2013) Relating ecoystem services to domains of human well-being: Foundation for a U.S. index. Ecol Indic 28:79–90
Spash CL (2007) Deliberative monetary valuation (DMV): issues in combining economic and political processes to value environmental change. Ecol Econ 63:690–699
Summers JK, Smith LM, Case JL, Linthurst RA (2012) A review of the elements of human well-being with an emphasis on the contribution of ecosystem services. Ambio 41:327–340
Termorshuizen JW, Opdam P (2009) Landscape services as a bridge between landscape ecology and sustainable development. Landsc Ecol 24:1037–1052
Turner RK, Morse-Jones S, Fisher B (2010) Ecosystem valuation: a sequential decision support system and quality assessment issues. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1185:79–101
Vatn A (2005) Rationality, institutions and environmental policy. Ecol Econ 55:203–217
Wagner MM, Gobster PH (2007) Interpreting landscape change: measured biophysical change and surrounding social context. Landsc Urban Plan 81:67–80
Wallace KJ (2007) Classification of ecosystem services: problems and solutions. Biol Conserv 139:235–246
Wallace KJ (2012) Values: drivers for planning biodiversity management. Environ Sci Policy 17:1–11
Wegner G, Pascual U (2011) Cost-benefit analysis in the context of ecosystem services for human well-being: a multidisciplinary critique. Glob Environ Chang 21:492–504
Willemen L, Hein L, Verburg PH (2010) Evaluating the impact of regional development policies on future landscape services. Ecol Econ 69:2244–2254
Acknowledgments
Parts of this study were developed in the GIFT-T! project (Green Infrastructure for Tomorrow Together, www.gift-t.eu) and financed by the INTERREG IVB Program North West Europe. This program is an effort toward building a more cohesive EU society, as it is the fruit of a cooperative work by people from different countries working on common issues that touch the lives of EU-citizens. The authors wish to thank Menko Wiersema and Kees Verdouw (Province of South Holland, The Netherlands) for making available the dream session data, and Martijn Haag for his kind support in translating and interpreting these data.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, J., Opdam, P. Valuing ecosystem services in community-based landscape planning: introducing a wellbeing-based approach. Landscape Ecol 29, 1347–1360 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-014-0045-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-014-0045-8