Abstract
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) provide multiple benefits to people, including experiences, identities, and capabilities through both material and non-material means. There have been few studies of CES in Vietnam, despite a number of historical, religious, cultural, and customary traditions that have long influenced landscape values and management. We aim to identify a range of CES important to respondents in a study site in north-central Vietnam by providing a unique longitudinal view. Over a two-decade period, different ecosystem benefits have been obtained by local households, some of which have been influenced by cultural factors or could be considered CES. These have included material ecosystem services, including agricultural production, local medicinal plants, and culturally relevant craft materials. There are also non-material CES of interest, including those related to sense of place and national identities, spiritual and religious practices, and recreational and aesthetic benefits. However, over time there has been diminishing importance of some material resources as landscapes have changed from a mix of agricultural lands and natural forests to plantation forestry, and social impacts have resulted from increased labor migration, which has diminished sense of place among younger generations. Assessing these changes allows us to explore how CES are not static or pre-given but shift over time and within different contexts.
Highlights
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are increasingly recognized as important benefits resulting from how people perceive, value, and use landscapes
The concept was first introduced in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), defining them as the “non-material benefits that people obtain from ecosystems” and outlining examples, ranging from recreational interactions with nature, sense of place, and aesthetic values to health and psychological benefits, learning and education, and spiritual and religious meanings (MEA 2005:58)
Cultural ecosystem services are considered an important component of the ways humans positively value their interactions with nature, which can translate into support for environmental policies, economic benefits through tourism and recreation, and direct social benefits like better health and well-being (Gould et al 2019, Kosanic and Petzold 2020, Roux et al 2020)
Summary
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are increasingly recognized as important benefits resulting from how people perceive, value, and use landscapes. Indigenous knowledge is one cultural connection to landscape that has been explored in different communities in Vietnam (Nguyễn and Ross 2017, Sơn et al 2019), but many others remain unstudied. This is true for Kinh communities because existing studies of cultural landscapes and other literatures tend to focus on ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples (Tekken et al 2017). Most of the work in Vietnam has been focused primarily on the Mekong Delta region, with other culturally important landscapes (mountainous areas, oceans, or islands) receiving less attention
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