Abstract
Investments to promote sustainable land-use within critical river catchment areas are often undertaken to provide benefits to society. Investments generally aim to protect or restore ecological infrastructure—the underlying framework of ecosystems, functions and processes that supply ecosystem services—for multiple benefits to society. However, the empirical evidence base from studies across the world on both mechanisms and outcomes to support these assumptions is limited. We collate evidence on the benefits of ecological infrastructure interventions, in terms of ecosystem services provided to society, from three major South African water-providing catchments using a novel framework. In these catchments, millions of US Dollars' worth of investments have been made into ecological infrastructure since 1996. We ask the question: is there evidence that ecological infrastructure interventions are delivering the proposed benefits? Results show that even in catchments with substantial, long-term financial investment into ecological infrastructure, research has not empirically confirmed the benefits. Better baseline data collection is required, and monitoring during and after ecological infrastructure interventions, to quantify benefits to society. This evidence is needed to leverage investment into ecological infrastructure interventions at scale. Investment at scale is needed to transition to more sustainable land-use to unlock greater benefits to nature and people.
Highlights
Over the past 50 years, it is estimated that humans have affected 83% of the global terrestrial land surface, with 60% of ecosystem services reported to have declined [1]
We ask the question: is there evidence available that ecological infrastructure interventions are delivering the proposed benefits? To support our assessment, we developed an ‘ecological infrastructure intervention – ecosystem services’ (EII-ES) framework that can be adapted to other
The first included the development of an ‘ecological infrastructure intervention – ecosystem services’ (EII-ES) framework which we used to hypothesize the effects of ecological infrastructure interventions on ecosystem processes and services
Summary
Over the past 50 years, it is estimated that humans have affected 83% of the global terrestrial land surface, with 60% of ecosystem services reported to have declined [1]. Sustainable land-use has been defined as the ‘rational development, use and protection of land resources based on specific space–time conditions and adopting appropriate means and organizational forms’ [2]. Underpinning sustainable land-use is the protection and restoration of ecological infrastructure which is ‘the underlying framework of natural elements, ecosystems, and functions and processes that are spatially and temporally connected to supply ecosystem services’ [3]. Interventions to restore or protect ecological infrastructure are wide ranging and context specific, so here we define ecological infrastructure interventions as artificial or natural actions that aim to enhance chosen ecosystem services in intact to transformed landscapes, informed by an understanding of ecology. Examples of natural interventions include alien plant clearing and revegetation, and examples of artificial interventions include artificial wetlands, permeable pavements and erosion control structures (gabions and weirs)
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