Abstract
Mountain and upland regions provide a wide range of ecosystem services to residents and visitors. While ecosystem research in mountain regions is on the rise, the linkages between sociocultural benefits and ecological systems remain little explored. Mountainous regions close to urban areas provide numerous benefits to a large number of individuals, suggesting a high social value, particularly for cultural ecosystem services. We explored and compared visitors' valuation of ecosystem services in the Pentland Hills, an upland range close to the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, and urban green spaces within Edinburgh. Based on 715 responses to user surveys in both study areas, we identified intense use and high social value for both areas. Several ecosystem services were perceived as equally important in both areas, including many cultural ecosystem services. Significant differences were revealed in the value of physically using nature, which Pentland Hills users rated more highly than those in the urban green spaces, and of mitigation of pollutants and carbon sequestration, for which the urban green spaces were valued more highly. Major differences were further identified for preferences in future land management, with nature-oriented management preferred by about 57% of the interviewees in the Pentland Hills, compared to 31% in the urban parks. The study highlights the substantial value of upland areas in close vicinity to a city for physically using and experiencing nature, with a strong acceptance of nature conservation.
Highlights
The concept of ecosystem services is well suited to assessing the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being (Haines-Young and Potschin 2013) and to informing decision making in ecosystem management (MA 2003; Fisher et al 2009)
The majority of the interviewed visitors were local residents. Of those interviewed in the urban green spaces, 93% were Edinburgh residents; the remainder were tourists from Scotland (7), England (1), or overseas (2)
In the Pentland Hills, 75% of the interviewed visitors were residents of Edinburgh, 13% were from the counties of West Lothian and Midlothian, and 9% were from other
Summary
The concept of ecosystem services is well suited to assessing the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being (Haines-Young and Potschin 2013) and to informing decision making in ecosystem management (MA 2003; Fisher et al 2009). The recently developed Common International Classification Scheme of Ecosystem Services (CICES) established 3 principal categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating and maintenance, and cultural (Haines-Young and Potschin 2013). Mountains and upland regions provide a wide range of ecosystem services to residents and visitors (Gr^et-Regamey et al 2012). In the vicinity of growing urban centers in and near mountain regions (eg as documented for the European Alps in Perlik et al 2001), these areas have the potential to supply ecosystem services to a large number of beneficiaries. Aside from policy implications, the relative importance of different management options to facilitate the sustainable use of natural resources has been identified as a critical knowledge gap (Future Earth 2014; Box 1)
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