Abstract
There is increasing experience with the valuation of ecosystem services. However, to date, less attention has been devoted to who is actually benefiting from ecosystem services. This nevertheless is a key issue, in particular, if ecosystem services analysis and valuation is used to support environmental management. This study assesses and analyzes how the monetary benefits of seven ecosystem services are generated in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia, are distributed to different types of beneficiaries. We analyze the following ecosystem services: (1) timber production; (2) rattan collection; (3) jelutong resin collection; (4) rubber production (based on permanent agroforestry systems); (5) oil palm production on three management scales (company, plasma farmer, and independent smallholder); (6) paddy production; and (7) carbon sequestration. Our study shows that the benefits generated from these services differ markedly between the stakeholders, which we grouped into private, public, and household entities. The distribution of these benefits is strongly influenced by government policies and in particular benefit sharing mechanisms. Hence, land-use change and policies influencing land-use change can be expected to have different impacts on different stakeholders. Our study also shows that the benefits generated by oil palm conversion, a main driver for land-use change in the province, are almost exclusively accrued by companies and at this point in time are shared unequally with local stakeholders.
Highlights
Ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly recognized as a concept that can be used to assess the benefits humans derive from ecosystems in support of ecosystem management (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) 2005)
Compared to the other provisioning services that we analyzed, oil palm production provides the highest net benefit per ha; it leads to significant societal costs related to CO2 emissions, in particular when oil palm is cultivated on peatland
The social costs related to CO2 emissions from oil palm on peat are higher than the total benefits private and public beneficiaries receive from oil palm production
Summary
Ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly recognized as a concept that can be used to assess the benefits humans derive from ecosystems in support of ecosystem management (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) 2005). The concept of ES is broadly defined as the contributions of ecosystems to economic and other human activity (TEEB 2010; UN et al 2014; Haines-young and Potschin 2013). Identification of benefits and beneficiaries from ES is paramount to identify enhanced ecosystem management options (Kettunen et al 2009). Several studies have described the concept of beneficiaries and stakeholders of ES for spatial range and specific ecological and economic processes (Hein et al 2006; TEEB 2010; Bagstad et al 2014). There is still insufficient insight in how different stakeholders benefit from different types of ES and what this means for ecosystem management (Daily et al 2009)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
