The subject background of ecological product value realization contributes to landscape sustainability science

Landscape sustainability science (LSS) is a place-based, use-inspired science of understanding and improving the dynamic relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being with spatially explicit methods (Wu 2013). This definition is based on the recognition of the ultimate goal of landscape sustainability as seeking the landscape and regional spatial pattern that promotes long-term maintenance and improvement of ecosystem services and human well-being in the context of internal dynamics and external disturbances with uncertainty. These optimal or suboptimal patterns are necessarily dynamic and developing with time (Wu et al. 2014). Ecological civilization is a new form of human civilization following industrial civilization. Ecological civilization construction helps address global challenges such as environmental pollution, climate change, ecosystem imbalance and biodiversity loss brought about by industrial civilization. Ecological product value realization (EPVR) is an important part of ecological civilization construction. Entering the era of ecological civilization, exploring how EPVR contributes to landscape sustainability is of great significance for enriching the theoretical connotation and practical implications of landscape sustainability science.

The concept of ecological products originated in China, and similar conceptions include eco-labels and ecosystem services. The eco-label is an environmental performance certification introduced by government agencies and other public service organizations (Hou et al. 2023). Just like other signs and prompts, eco-labels are a way of informing consumers about more sustainable product choices and advising them of how to use the product more sustainably (Leire and Thidell 2005). Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life (Daily 1997). Unlike the previous two, ecological products include both purely natural ecosystem services and human-produced products. Specifically, ecological products refer to a continuous bundle of products, including ecological design products, eco-label products, and ecosystem services(Ma 2012; Huang 2015; Shen and Xu 2017). Therefore, ecological products refer to a collection of products and services obtained from nature or processed by humans, with functions of material supply, life support, environmental improvement, cultural inheritance, etc. (Xie and Chen 2022a). According to varied criteria, ecological products can be classified into different categories (Table 1). Generally, ecological products are classified into ecological material products, regulation service products and cultural service products according to their manifestation and function (Shen and Li 2021). Ecological product value is composed of material product value and functional service value provided by ecological products for human survival and development. The value realization of ecological products refers to the processes of transferring ecological value, etc., of ecological products to economic benefits via rational development and utilization of ecosystem products while maintaining the stability and integrity of ecosystems (Lin et al. 2023). The key link is to use economic value to monetize the protection cost or utilization value of ecological products (Wang et al. 2016; Xie and Chen 2022a). EPVR is committed to protecting the ecological environment, promoting the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, and addressing the asymmetry between private costs and social costs in environmental protection. The overlap between EPVR and landscape sustainability science in material basis, practical goal, and theoretical foundation makes space for the integration of the two disciplines.

Table 1 Categories of ecological products
Full size table

Common material basis: natural capital

Natural capital refers to the stock of natural resources and environmental assets that can provide useful product or service flows now or in the future (Daly 1996). It is composed of three parts: surface space; various non-artificially produced species that form various ecosystems; and the stock of substances stored in the Earth’s crust and atmosphere to provide raw materials for production and absorb wastes (Wanyan 2009). The circulation of natural capital facilitates the production of ecological products that sustains the development of individuals, families, enterprises, and the entire society. Natural capital, ecological products and ecological product value form the interdependent relationship between stock, flow and value (Zhang et al. 2022). In this perspective, natural capital plays an important role in the material basis for EPVR.

Ecosystem services are one of the core components of landscape sustainability science (Wu 2013). Ecosystem services are sourced from the material flow, energy flow and information flow in natural capital, and its combination with manufacturing capital and human capital generates human welfare (Costanza 1997). In this sight, natural capital lays the material foundation for landscape sustainability. A number of definitions of landscape sustainability have been centered on natural capital (Haines-Young 2000; Odum and Barrett 2005; Potschin and Haines-Young 2006; Nassauer and Opdam 2008; Potschin and Haines-Young 2013; Turner et al. 2013). For example, Odum and Barrett (2005) argued that a sustainable landscape is one that maintains “natural capital and resources to supply with necessities or nourishment to prevent falling below a given threshold of health or vitality’’. Haines-Young (2000) argued that landscape sustainability is about maintaining the total amount of natural capital and associated ecosystem goods and services in a landscape without increasing people’s liabilities (Potschin and Haines-Young 2006, 2013).

It was implied that both EPVR and landscape sustainability need to be adapted to the natural characteristics of natural capital and its elements. Follow the natural laws of formation, reproduction, restoration and distribution, and pay attention to the finiteness, scarcity and nonrenewable nature of natural resources, as well as the adaptability, vulnerability and resilience of environmental systems. This is also a prerequisite for the contribution of EPVR to landscape sustainability science.

Common practical goal: human well-being improvement

In addition to protecting and restoring ecosystems, EPVR also attaches importance to poverty reduction, sustained livelihood improvement (Kareiva et al. 2011; Guerry et al. 2015; Mandle et al. 2019), cost-effectiveness, equity, governance, and specific objectives such as enhancing the supply capacity of public goods, promoting ecosystem services, and integrating urban‒rural development. Landscape sustainability is defined as the capacity of a landscape to consistently provide long-term, landscape-specific ecosystem services essential for maintaining and improving human well-being (Wu 2013). This indicates that the ultimate goal of landscape sustainability is to improve human well-being, that is, to meet the material, cultural, and spiritual needs of contemporary and future generations (Zhao and Fang 2014). Both EPVR and landscape sustainability are highly compatible with the well-being of humans derived from ecosystems, such as security, basic material needs to maintain a high-quality life, and freedom of choice and action (Zhao and Zhang 2006). EPVR is the process in which the ecosystem provides products and services to enhance the sustainable well-being of human beings and nature through ecological processes or joint effects with human social production. It is also the process of developing and strengthening landscape sustainability (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Common practical goal: human well-being improvement

Full size image

Common theoretical foundations: sustainability theory

Landscape sustainability has long been recognized as a key research topic in sustainability science (Wu 2013). As the basic spatial units for sustainability development research and practice, landscapes and regions are the most operational spatial scales for studying sustainability processes and mechanisms, as well as an important pivotal scale for connecting global and local factors (Wu 2006, 2012, 2013). According to the two opposing sustainability paradigms (Neumayer 2003), strong sustainability posits that natural capital is non-substitutable, while weak sustainability holds that it is substitutable. Two paradigms of EPVR are thus derived: weak sustainability theory inspires the EPVR paradigm of “value transformation”, which emphasizes the use of market mechanisms to transform ecological value into economic value and promote the transformation of ecological advantages into economic advantages; strong sustainability theory inspires the EPVR paradigm of “value protection”, emphasizing reliance on government regulatory measures to protect the value of natural capital (Shi 2021). Landscape sustainability science inspires a spatial perspective based on landscape scale for EPVR study; meanwhile, the two EPVR paradigms based on strong and weak sustainability theories also provide a sustainable solution combining marketization and government regulation for landscape ecology study. This facilitates the effective management and coupling of socioeconomic and ecological systems, thereby smoothly transitioning toward sustainability.

What can EPVR provide for landscape sustainability?

The overlap of EPVR and landscape sustainability science in material basis, practical goal and theoretical basis provides possibility for the integration of the two. Landscape itself is an important ecological product, including ecological material products, ecological regulatory products and ecological cultural products at the landscape level. This section discusses what EPVR can provide for landscape sustainability in terms of research perspective, research paradigm, methodology, etc.

A market-based economic solution involving multiple subjects

Landscape sustainability involves the environment, economics, equity, aesthetics, experience, and ethics (Musacchio 2009), which determine the diversity of ecological and cultural knowledge. Therefore, interdisciplinary cooperation in multiple fields is necessary for landscape sustainability. With landscape sustainability science’s focus on the interaction between landscape pattern, landscape service, and human well-being (Zhao and Fang 2014), EPVR provides a market-based economic solution involving multiple subjects. Landscape itself is a kind of ecological product, and it possesses the general characteristics of ecological products: the first is externality, that is, the positive externality of landscape ecosystems may lead to insufficient supply and overuse of landscape ecological products, such as landscape resource loss, environmental pollution, and ecological degradation. “Internalization of external costs” in economics such as environmental taxation has played an important role in coping with the negative effects caused by resource overutilization, and the insufficient supply of landscape public goods caused by free riding. The second characteristic is indivisibility. Being unable to be subdivided infinitely, magnitude threshold may exist in the value realization of landscape ecological products. Applying scale economy theory to the overall planning and coordination of landscape ecological products helps to enhance landscape sustainability. The third characteristic is the implicit nature of value. In particular, the regulation service value and cultural service value of landscape ecological products are difficult to directly reflect in the market, so a certain economic mechanism is necessary to make the implicit value explicit (Shi 2021), which involves the distribution mechanism of landscape ecological elements, the supply and demand mechanism of landscape ecological products, and the price mechanism.

An axiological research perspective based on dynamic value transformation and value sharing

Social equality, one of the main goals of sustainable development (United Nations 2015), embodies the concept of value sharing of EPVR, and one key point lies in landscape value transformation. From the perspective of axiology, it is worthwhile to explore the sources and compositions of landscape ecological product value, including use value and nonuse value (e.g., existence value), economic value and noneconomic value (e.g., cultural value); the driving force of landscape value flow, the evaluation and realization path of landscape value, ways to enhance human well-being through value sharing…… These explorations highlight the importance of natural capital theory and inclusive wealth theory in landscape sustainability science, and strengthen the link between landscape ecosystems and humanistic systems, thus providing channels for interdisciplinary integration between landscape sustainability science and resource economics, institutional economics, sociology, etc. In addition, the magnitude of value also provides ideas for the principles and methods of landscape pattern and process scaling in landscape ecology. Taking value measurement for example, it can be taken as an evaluation index of an integrated landscape index reflecting social, cultural and ecological diversity and heterogeneity. The composition of landscape value also provides reference for landscape pattern optimization regarding biodiversity conservation, ecosystem management and sustainable landscape development.

A multidisciplinary, all-round and multilevel system concept

EPVR is a comprehensive new-born research field integrating economics, ecology, environmental science, statistics, remote sensing technology, and involving various stakeholders including government, enterprises, financial institutions, and the public. Outlined by a multi-layered and multi-scale structure composing of biological system and value judgment etc., EPVR covers a wide range of fields including ecological environment, natural resources, landscape planning, industrial development, and green finance, and involves varied aspects, such as ecological product investigation and monitoring, value evaluation, operation and development, protection and compensation. Owing to the systematicness nature of this structure, EPVR can serve as a platform for bringing together scholars from different disciplines and fields to search for common landscape sustainability strategies. It enables scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds, ideologies and values to discuss possible points of common interest regarding landscape sustainability and encourages further exploration on landscape sustainability from varied perspectives, facilitating breakthrough insights in different dimensions. The integration of this knowledge will contribute to expanding a new study field that combines EPVR and landscape sustainability.

A dynamic mechanism with factor flow and value stream in landscape mosaic

EPVR is a process of embedding ecological resources into regional spatial environment and integrating them with multiple factors, such as economy, society, culture and environment. In the symbiotic system composed of natural ecosystems and socioeconomic systems, landscape elements not only undergo constant changes and form heterogeneous patterns through interactions with ecosystem process in the flow of energy, material, and information, but also participate in the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of social reproduction as the core production factor of modern economic systems, constituting an important entity in the value flow of ecological products. Relevant topics include, but not limited to the factor flow and value stream in landscape mosaic involve the existing forms of factor flow and value stream in landscape mosaic, the motion trajectories under different characteristics and intensities of human activities, variations with spatial and scale changes, and the transformation mechanism of ecological resources, production factors, and landscape value. Discussion on the above topics helps to further expand the research scope of energy, material and biological flow processes in heterogeneous landscapes. It is also one of the most essential and distinctive aspects of landscape sustainability science.

A holistic methodology providing landscape sustainability solutions through interdisciplinary integration

According to the ecological product value accounting theory, on the basis of physical quantity accounting of landscape ecological products, a value accounting method system for landscape ecological products can be constructed. It includes accounting method, evaluation index system and value measurement standard of landscape ecological products, thus providing a basis for their operation and development, ecological protection compensation, market transactions, etc. According to the theory of public goods, the payers of landscape ecological products are usually identified according to value benefit range or the size of ecological product consumer group, thus generating corresponding payment scheme such as government payment (e.g., ecological compensation), beneficiary payment, or consumer payment. As is the case with most ecological products, the positive and negative externaties of landscape protection and destruction are not adequately reflected in the costs and prices of ecological products. Combing environmental economic theory, two alternatives are available. The first is direct control through administrative means. For example, apply usage control or environmental standards on the basis of determining the quantity and intensity of the consumption of landscape ecological products, such as license trading or quota trading. The second is to allocate landscape resources through market-oriented mechanisms, such as the Pigouvian tax. These interdisciplinary theories and solutions facilitate the formation of a method system in which diverse theories, methods and technologies for landscape EPVR are integrated, thus enriching the content and level of landscape sustainability methodology.

A landscape sustainability research approach following the “resource assetization–asset capitalization–capital monetization” chain of steps

An important link in realizing the value of ecological products is to make their value explicit, in which a popular approach is to monetize the multidimensional value of ecological products. It follows the “resource assetization–asset capitalization–capital monetization” chain of steps. (1) Resource assetization is a process of transforming ecological resources into ecological assets through effective management and protection without harming the rights and interests of the owners. (2) Asset capitalization is a process of assert conversion and capital appreciation by appropriate capitalized operations on the condition of clear property rights of ecological assets. (3) Capital monetization emphasizes monetizing ecological product value through market mechanisms. Following the “resource assetization–asset capitalization–capital monetization” chain of steps, EPVR provides economic support for landscape protection through value transformation, and landscape protection consolidates the resource base for value transformation. This facilitates the mutual transformation of landscape ecological, social and economic values, thus forming a virtuous cycle and enhancing landscape sustainability (Fig. 2) (Xie and Chen 2022b).

Fig. 2
figure 2

“Resource assetization–asset capitalization–capital monetization” chain of steps

Full size image

EPVR pathways contributing to landscape sustainability

Identify landscape patterns with the aid of ecological product investigation and monitoring

Ecological product investigation and monitoring makes full use of the natural resource survey system and ecological environment monitoring system to investigate, track and monitor (1) the basic information on the stock status of various natural resources and ecological elements and (2) the basic information on ecological products, including the distribution, supply level, quality grade, functional characteristics, ownership, protection, development and utilization situation. On this basis, a catalog list of ecological products is formulated to comprehensively reflect the state of the main ecological elements, as well as the ecological products and ecological services that the ecosystem can provide. These pieces of information can be applied to investigate landscape element types, spatial distribution patterns and characteristics. It enables a more comprehensive understanding of the distribution characteristics of ecological processes and geographical phenomena in varied areas and a more precise identification of their inherent laws, thus facilitating a more accurate analysis of the spatiotemporal interaction of surface landscapes and a more comprehensive description and explanation of the evolution of surface landscape patterns (Liu et al. 2022).

Promote landscape governance by ecological-resource transformation

As mentioned before, “resource assetization–asset capitalization–capital monetization” is an important approach of EPVR. It is a process of preserving and increasing ecological resource value based on the cognition, protection, development, utilization, investment and operation of ecological resources. Ecological resource value is varied forms of value at different stages of EPVR, and the multidimensional value of ecological products are realized in the constant changes of the forms and values of ecological resources. The meaning of realization is twofold: the first refers to the maintenance and improvement of key natural capitalFootnote 1, which applies to ecological product value that cannot be transformed into economic value (Xie and Chen 2022a). Taking ecologically fragile areas as an example, it’s prior to improve the supply capacity of ecological products through ecological protection, so as to realize the goals of landscape governance including landscape morphology optimization, ecological function enhancement and ecological environment improvement. The second refers to the realization of economic benefits. Through market trading, optimal allocation, investment and operation, etc., the economic value transformed from the multidimensional values of landscape ecological products facilitates landscape governance by financial support, thus forming a benign mechanism that supports landscape governance by ecological-product value transformation.

Consolidate the resource foundation of landscape sustainability with ecological product protection and compensation

Ecological protection compensation is an important means of realizing the economic value of public ecological products. It refers to the behavior in which the government, in the public interest, pays the labor value and opportunity cost to the producers of ecological products for ecological protection in restricted development areas (Zhang et al. 2019). Restricted development is always accompanied with the inevitable economic loss of ecological product providers, and the asymmetric cost and benefits between actual users and providers of ecological products may easily lead to market failure. Therefore, it’s essential to exert the guiding role of the government to redistribute the asymmetric cost and benefits authoritatively (Xie and Chen 2022a). The main measures include financial subsidies and financial transfer payments. According to statistics, in 2019, China invested nearly 200 billion Yuan in ecological protection and compensation, and 15 provinces participated in 10 pilot projects of ecological compensation in cross-provincial river basins (Wang et al. 2021b). This has played an important role in maintaining national ecological security and improving the ecological environment, further consolidating the resource foundation of landscape sustainability.

Optimize landscape patterns by balancing the supply and demand of ecological products

The market-oriented EPVR mode is an important way for ecological products to integrate into the market economy system, and the balance of supply and demand is the key to the smooth operation of the market-oriented mechanism. Currently, the widespread overexploitation, extensive utilization and extravagant waste of resources restrict landscape sustainability to a great extent. These unreasonable planning and utilization of landscape resources directly lead to the potential supply shortage of ecological products and structural regional imbalance, which are manifested in weak ecosystem function, single landscape structure, ecological imbalance, landscape pattern chaos, and increased landscape fragmentation. Expanding the supply of high-quality ecological products and controlling the total consumption help approach Pareto optimality of matching the total consumption of ecological products with the potential market supply (Chai and Dong 2020), thereby optimizing landscape patterns.

Promote biodiversity conservation at the landscape level through habitat conservation and restoration

Rich biodiversity implies abundant ecosystem types, specific species and genetic resources, regional distribution characteristics, unique landscapes and cultural resources, which are of high ecological and cultural value. Protecting biodiversity helps to improve the value and quality of ecological products, while EPVR also helps to improve the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation. Economic value generated from varied EPVR modes, such as ecological product branding, franchising, benefit compensation or carbon sink trading, provides financial support for habitat protection and restoration, thus promoting biodiversity. The increased biodiversity further improves the value and quality of ecological products and consolidates the resource base for EPVR (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3
figure 3

EPVR and biodiversity conservation

Full size image

Enrich landscape sustainability evaluation system by EPVR evaluation

Following the concept of sustainability, evaluating EPVR from the perspectives of economic and ecological benefits (Xu et al. 2023), EPVR effectiveness (Wang et al. 2023), EPVR capacity (Yu and Xiong 2023), value realization rate (Lin et al. 2023) etc., is of positive significance for the enrichment of a comprehensive and operational landscape sustainability evaluation system that integrates natural, social, and economic elements. The results of EPVR evaluation have various implications with respect to the improvement and understanding (1) of the specific set of landscape sustainability evaluation and the responses of landscape sustainability to the operation and management of ecological products, (2) of the potential benefit that the application of a transfer of sets of EPVR evaluations into landscape sustainability assessments could have for the sustainability-based assessment in general (Schädler et al. 2013) (Table 2).

Table 2 Several main EPVR evaluation methods
Full size table

Conclusions and discussion

In September 2021, Professor Tobias Plieninger mentioned in an interview that it is imperative to integrate landscape sustainability science with other related disciplines (Tobias and Guo 2022). Given the overlap between EPVR and landscape sustainability science in material basis, practical goals and theoretical foundations, they are both committed to the better supply of environmental elements to human society, thus laying the foundation for the integration of the two. Discussing the contributions of EPVR to landscape sustainability is an exploration of discipline integration, which reflects the interdisciplinary nature of landscape sustainability science and helps to develop and perfect the concept and theory system of landscape sustainability. Traditionally, quantifying the contribution of landscape to human welfare in an economic way is not easy. The introduction of EPVR offers a more intuitive and measurable way to recognize the contribution of landscape to human socioeconomic development. At the same time, landscape sustainability science also provides a multi-scale and spatial solution for EPVR, which is also a focus in future study.

EPVR contributes to the science and practice of landscape sustainability in multiple ways: (1) as an economic solution; (2) as an axiological research perspective; (3) as a multi-disciplinary, all-round and multi-level system concept; (4) as a dynamic mechanism with socioeconomic flows in landscape mosaic; (5) a holistic methodology through interdisciplinary integration; (6) as a landscape sustainability research approach following the “resource assetization–asset capitalization–capital monetization” chain of steps. In these ways, more possibilities for policy and economic sustainability regarding landscapes become available. Emphasizing a recyclable and sustainable pattern, the cycle of economic, social, and ecological values during the EPVR process provides a new way for humans to strengthen landscape sustainability. Taking the ecological compensation mode regarding EPVR as an example, the users of ecosystem services provided by landscape resources have to assume equal responsibility with the right to use them. The sustainable supply of landscape ecological products needs to be guaranteed by financial support or technological restoration. More than landscape resource protection, it is also a supportive measure for human beings to gain well-being from sustainable landscapes.

EPVR is a grand systematic project involving environmental protection, top-level design, technical support and other aspects of ecological, economic and social systems. This discussion presents a conceptual framework of the contributions of EPVR to landscape sustainability. EPVR involves various natural resources, such as mountains, water, forests, wetlands, oceans, grasslands, etc. The realization modes of different natural resource are varied, and different resource combinations may give rise to new value realization mechanisms. Accurately finding the integrating point with landscape sustainability in the grand EPVR connotation and further seeking a breakthrough constitute the key to the integration of the two.