Managing cultural ecosystem services

Mary M. Pleasant, Steven A. Gray, Christopher Lepczyk, Anthea Fernandes, Nathan Hunter and Derek Ford

Ecosystem Services, 2014, vol. 8, issue C, 141-147

Abstract: Cultural ecosystem services (CES) substantially contribute to human wellbeing as the nonmaterial benefits of ecosystems. However, they remain poorly understood due to their often nonmarket and intangible nature. We analyzed management characteristics of coastal and watershed – based CES in contrast to provisioning and regulatory services from surveys of environmental managers in Hawaii. CES were the most frequently managed type of ecosystem service, a top management priority among local-scale decision-makers and nongovernmental organizations, and managed for security. However, only 10% of managers could articulate specific policies they used to manage CES. Follow-up interviews with a subset of managers further revealed that half of all CES managed were considered to benefit people beyond the spatial scale in which management decisions were made. Identifying management characteristics of CES will inform the development of indicators to monitor changes in CES, and develop policies that maintain the relationship between ecosystem function, CES and human wellbeing.

Keywords: Coastal watershed; Cultural ecosystem service; Environmental management; Hawaii; Human wellbeing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:8:y:2014:i:c:p:141-147

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.03.006

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