Potential supply and actual use of cultural ecosystem services in mountain protected areas and their surroundings

Parks and protected areas are recognized for the important ecosystem services, or benefits, they provide society. One emerging but understudied component is the cultural ecosystem services that parks and protected areas provide. These cultural ecosystem services include a variety of benefits, such as cultural heritage, spiritual value, recreation opportunities, and human health and well-being. However, many of these services can only be provided if people visit these parks and protected areas through tourism opportunities. However, with this tourism use comes a variety of inevitable resource impacts. This current research connects potential impacts from tourism in parks and protected areas to the health and well-being aspect of cultural ecosystem services. We used an MTurk sample to record affective responses across a range of resource conditions. Results demonstrate that as tourism-related ecological impacts increased, positive affect decreased. Decreases in positive affect were more severe for park and protected area scenes featuring informal and/or undesignated social trails when compared to scenes with increasing levels of trampling/vegetation loss. Collectively, the results show that managing tourism in parks and protected areas in a manner that reduces impact is essential to providing beneficial cultural ecosystem services related to human health and well-being.

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Economic Value of Cultural Ecosystem Services from Recreation in Popa Mountain National Park, Myanmar: A Comparison of Two Rapid Valuation Techniques

Land ◽

10.3390/land8120194 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 194

Author(s):

Wai Soe Zin ◽

Aya Suzuki ◽

Kelvin S.-H. Peh ◽

Alexandros Gasparatos

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

National Park ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Economic Value ◽

Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽

Recreational Value ◽

The Individual ◽

Survey Protocol

Protected areas offer diverse ecosystem services, including cultural services related to recreation, which contribute manifold to human wellbeing and the economy. However, multiple pressures from other human activities often compromise ecosystem service delivery from protected areas. It is thus fundamental for effective management to understand the recreational values and visitor behaviors in such areas. This paper undertakes a rapid assessment of the economic value of cultural ecosystem services related to recreation in a national park in Myanmar using two valuation techniques, the individual travel cost method (TCM) and the Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA v.1.2). We focus on the Popa Mountain National Park, a protected area visited by approximately 800,000 domestic and 25,000 international tourists annually. Individual TCM estimates that each domestic visitor spent USD 20–24 per trip, and the total annual recreational value contributed by these visitors was estimated at USD 16.1–19.6 million (USD 916–1111 ha−1). TESSA estimated the annual recreational expenditure from domestic and international visitors at USD 15.1 million (USD 858 ha−1) and USD 5.04 million (USD 286 ha−1), respectively. Both methods may be employed as practical approaches to assess the recreational values of protected areas (and other land uses with recreational value), and they have rather complementary approaches. We recommend that both techniques be combined into a single survey protocol.

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Inequality in access to cultural ecosystem services from protected areas in the Chilean biodiversity hotspot

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.353 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 636 ◽

pp. 1128-1138 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Maria Jose Martinez-Harms ◽

Brett A. Bryan ◽

Spencer A. Wood ◽

David M. Fisher ◽

Elizabeth Law ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Biodiversity Hotspot ◽

Cultural Ecosystem Services

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Marine Protected Areas provide more cultural ecosystem services than other adjacent coastal areas

One Earth ◽

10.1016/j.oneear.2021.07.014 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (8) ◽

pp. 1175-1185

Author(s):

Emily Erskine ◽

Rosie Baillie ◽

David Lusseau

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Coastal Areas ◽

Cultural Ecosystem Services

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Participatory Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Madrid: Insights for Landscape Planning

Land ◽

10.3390/land9080244 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 244 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Víctor García-Díez ◽

Marina García-Llorente ◽

José A. González

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Sense Of Place ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Outdoor Recreation ◽

Landscape Planning ◽

Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽

Participatory Gis ◽

Aesthetic Enjoyment

Cultural ecosystem services are gaining increasing attention in the scientific literature, despite the conceptual and methodological difficulties associated with their assessment. We used a participatory GIS method to map and assess three cultural ecosystem services, namely, (a) outdoor recreation, (b) aesthetic enjoyment, and (c) sense of place, in the Madrid region (Spain). The main goal of the study was to identify cultural ecosystem service hotspots in the region and to explore the relationships among the three ecosystem services mapped. We developed a Maptionnaire online questionnaire asking participants to locate places that they associate with these three ecosystem services and their main reasons for choosing those places on a map. We collected 580 complete questionnaires with 1710 location points (807 for outdoor recreation, 506 for aesthetic enjoyment and 397 for sense of place). We found that the three ecosystem services analysed were spatially correlated, with similar hotspots appearing across the region. Most of the identified hotspots were located in the northern part of the region, which is characterised by mountains and forests. Other hotspots appeared within the city of Madrid, highlighting the importance of urban green areas. Natural protected areas supplied significantly more cultural ecosystem services than non-protected areas. Among CORINE land-use types, forested areas, mountain shrubs and rocky landscapes were more relevant than arable lands for the supply of cultural ecosystem services. Our results highlight the utmost importance of including ecosystem services mapping within land-use planning and policy-making agendas to ensure the conservation of areas supplying cultural services that are critical for societal wellbeing.

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