Fostering ecosystem services’ security by both objective and subjective analyses: the case of a natural protected area in Southern Italy

The maintenance of ecosystem services is the basic guarantee of environmental security that, in an objective sense, aims to evaluate the level of threats to actual acquired goods and services and, in a subjective sense, the level of consciousness and fear that such services will be attacked and possibly lost. To this purpose the aim of this research is: (1) to assess the temporal dynamics of land use and land cover mosaics, and indirectly of ecosystem services, using the economic valuations as surrogates; (2) to verify if the environmental conservation policies can foster ecosystem services; and, since it is still necessary to foster users’ perception of ecosystem services in order to reduce their fragility, (3) to compare the results coming from objective and subjective analyses. This is overriding in the case of tourism, where the attarctiveness of tourist destinations will depend on the maintenance of recreational ecosystem services based on both natural and cultural heritages. This research highlights the need for a dynamic and continuous inter-comparison between objective and subjective analyses in order to reduce progressively their possible discordance and, consequently, increase environmental security for a more effective adaptive management of ecosystem goods and services.

Keywords: Ecosystem goods and services; environmental security; socioeconomic valuation