Abstract
Agricultural landscapes play an important role in providing different ecosystem services. However, the current trend of land use intensification in Central Europe involves the risk of trade-offs between them. Since cultural ecosystem services (CES) are less tangible, they are often underrepresented in landscape management decisions. To highlight this subject we evaluated CES in agro-ecosystems in the biosphere reserve Swabian Alb (Southwestern Germany). We conducted a survey among visitors to investigate their usage of the landscape, their perception as well as valuation of CES, and interrelations with biodiversity. The results show the presence of various types of usage related to cultural services, the most prominent being recreation and landscape aesthetics. People declared a high affinity to nature and biodiversity awareness. A participatory mapping task revealed their appreciation of biodiverse and ecologically relevant places such as protected species-rich grasslands, traditional orchards and hedgerows. Several socio-demographic differences emerged, e.g., between age classes and local/non-local visitors. We conclude that our exemplary methodical approach was successful in capturing the CES and their link to biodiversity in the investigated biosphere reserve, while identifying priority fields of action concerning the integration of CES into management and planning of cultural landscapes, ultimately serving as guides for local decision-makers.
Highlights
The benefit of humans from ecosystems is prominently explored under the concept of ecosystem services, which are generally classified into the four categories: provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services [1]
Meadows came second in the list of appreciatednatural structures. Since they cover much of the protected areas in the plots and were often marked as important by visitors, we suggest the conservation of low-intensity grassland as a socially highly appreciated field of action in land use management
As deeply personal issues concerning practically everybody and synergizing with other services and biodiversity, cultural services of agro-ecosystems should be regarded as important guides for decision-makers in landscape management and planning
Summary
The benefit of humans from ecosystems is prominently explored under the concept of ecosystem services, which are generally classified into the four categories: provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services [1]. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [1] describes cultural ecosystem services (CES) as “the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.”. This classic definition is commonly used but has since been adjusted, reshaped and extended in many publications. Cultural along with regulating services appear to be the most degraded on a global scale [1], dependency of and demand for these services is growing especially in industrial countries [6]
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