Untangling perceptions around indicators for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services

TY - JOUR

T1 - Untangling perceptions around indicators for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services

AU - Martínez-Jauregui, Maria

AU - White, Piran Crawfurd Limond

AU - Touza, Julia M.

AU - Soliño, Mario

N1 - Funding Information: This study is framed within the INIA projects ref. RTA2013-00048-C03-01 and ref. RTI2018-096348-R-C21, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness , Spain. We thank Jesús de Miguel for his inputs on the graphical design of the choice experiment. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Appendix A Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2019/8

Y1 - 2019/8

N2 - Biodiversity indicators are commonly monitored to ensure the sustainable management of ecosystems and the conservation of multiple ecosystem goods and services. Indicators are important for tracking the ecological outcomes of conservation programmes, but they are also important in a wider context such as monitoring progress towards broader sustainability goals and serving to generate public support and funding for these programmes. Little attention is usually given to the social and cultural dimensions of biodiversity indicators. In this paper, using a discrete choice experiment, we compare the impact of within-species, between-species and within-ecosystem level biodiversity indicators on public preferences for conservation programmes in Spanish pine forests. Specifically we show that preferences towards conservation programmes are significantly affected by the interaction between indicators and their perceived role in delivering ecosystem services. Genetic variation, the number of invasive species and keystone elements were associated equally frequently with provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services, whereas population structure, the number of native species and the area of land conserved were more variable in how they were associated with different ecosystem services. Our results highlight the importance of considering the perceived social relevance of indicators alongside their ecological suitability in the design of conservation programmes and monitoring.

AB - Biodiversity indicators are commonly monitored to ensure the sustainable management of ecosystems and the conservation of multiple ecosystem goods and services. Indicators are important for tracking the ecological outcomes of conservation programmes, but they are also important in a wider context such as monitoring progress towards broader sustainability goals and serving to generate public support and funding for these programmes. Little attention is usually given to the social and cultural dimensions of biodiversity indicators. In this paper, using a discrete choice experiment, we compare the impact of within-species, between-species and within-ecosystem level biodiversity indicators on public preferences for conservation programmes in Spanish pine forests. Specifically we show that preferences towards conservation programmes are significantly affected by the interaction between indicators and their perceived role in delivering ecosystem services. Genetic variation, the number of invasive species and keystone elements were associated equally frequently with provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services, whereas population structure, the number of native species and the area of land conserved were more variable in how they were associated with different ecosystem services. Our results highlight the importance of considering the perceived social relevance of indicators alongside their ecological suitability in the design of conservation programmes and monitoring.

KW - Ecosystem-based management

KW - Forest conservation

KW - Forest management

KW - Choice experiment

KW - Biodiversity indicators

KW - Public perception

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066940618&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2019.100952

DO - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2019.100952

M3 - Article

SN - 2212-0416

VL - 38

JO - Ecosystem Services

JF - Ecosystem Services

M1 - 100952

ER -