Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes
Over and above food, agricultural landscapes provide citizens with crucial public-good ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation, cultural values, recreational opportunities, and food security. Because continuing agricultural intensification undermines the ability of landscapes to provid...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-09-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2017.00109/full |
| _version_ | 1818275583236243456 |
|---|---|
| author | Lovisa Nilsson Georg K. S. Andersson Klaus Birkhofer Henrik G. Smith Henrik G. Smith |
| author_facet | Lovisa Nilsson Georg K. S. Andersson Klaus Birkhofer Henrik G. Smith Henrik G. Smith |
| author_sort | Lovisa Nilsson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Over and above food, agricultural landscapes provide citizens with crucial public-good ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation, cultural values, recreational opportunities, and food security. Because continuing agricultural intensification undermines the ability of landscapes to provide public goods, policies have been implemented to preserve landscape multifunctionality, but with limited success. We suggest that one reason for this lack of success is that the cascading nature of ecosystem services has not been sufficiently addressed. While different definitions of multifunctionality emphasize different parts of the service cascades, we argue that efficient policies targeting multifunctionality simultaneously need to consider ecosystem services along the entire cascade, i.e., both intermediate and final ones. By understanding how multiple final ecosystem services are promoted by single measures with effects on multiple intermediate ecosystem services or by single intermediate ecosystem services with effects on multiple final ecosystem services, measures can be identified that simultaneously benefit private and public goods, allowing the latter to hitchhike on management for the former. Even if such synergistic solutions are less efficient in terms of promoting yields compared to non-synergistic solutions, policies such as payment for ecosystem services to promote them may be cost-efficient since the private benefit reduces the need for public payment. Furthermore, by focusing on the ecosystem service cascade, social-ecological scale-mismatches along the cascade hampering the implementation of synergistic solutions can be identified and targeted by policy. We exemplify our reasoning with the potential benefit to biodiversity conservation from yield-enhancing ecosystem services. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T22:32:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-97680df0443047248496ace6143cdc51 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T22:32:03Z |
| publishDate | 2017-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-97680df0443047248496ace6143cdc512022-12-22T00:09:34ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2017-09-01510.3389/fevo.2017.00109289189Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural LandscapesLovisa Nilsson0Georg K. S. Andersson1Klaus Birkhofer2Henrik G. Smith3Henrik G. Smith4Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, Lund UniversityLund, SwedenInstituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, National University of Río NegroBariloche, ArgentinaFaculty of Environment and Natural Sciences, Brandenburg University of TechnologyCottbus, GermanyCentre for Environmental and Climate Research, Lund UniversityLund, SwedenDepartment of Biology, Lund UniversityLund, SwedenOver and above food, agricultural landscapes provide citizens with crucial public-good ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation, cultural values, recreational opportunities, and food security. Because continuing agricultural intensification undermines the ability of landscapes to provide public goods, policies have been implemented to preserve landscape multifunctionality, but with limited success. We suggest that one reason for this lack of success is that the cascading nature of ecosystem services has not been sufficiently addressed. While different definitions of multifunctionality emphasize different parts of the service cascades, we argue that efficient policies targeting multifunctionality simultaneously need to consider ecosystem services along the entire cascade, i.e., both intermediate and final ones. By understanding how multiple final ecosystem services are promoted by single measures with effects on multiple intermediate ecosystem services or by single intermediate ecosystem services with effects on multiple final ecosystem services, measures can be identified that simultaneously benefit private and public goods, allowing the latter to hitchhike on management for the former. Even if such synergistic solutions are less efficient in terms of promoting yields compared to non-synergistic solutions, policies such as payment for ecosystem services to promote them may be cost-efficient since the private benefit reduces the need for public payment. Furthermore, by focusing on the ecosystem service cascade, social-ecological scale-mismatches along the cascade hampering the implementation of synergistic solutions can be identified and targeted by policy. We exemplify our reasoning with the potential benefit to biodiversity conservation from yield-enhancing ecosystem services.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2017.00109/fullmultifunctionalityecosystem servicesecosystem-service cascademultifunctional agricultural landscapesagri-environmental measures |
| spellingShingle | Lovisa Nilsson Georg K. S. Andersson Klaus Birkhofer Henrik G. Smith Henrik G. Smith Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution multifunctionality ecosystem services ecosystem-service cascade multifunctional agricultural landscapes agri-environmental measures |
| title | Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes |
| title_full | Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes |
| title_fullStr | Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes |
| title_short | Ignoring Ecosystem-Service Cascades Undermines Policy for Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes |
| title_sort | ignoring ecosystem service cascades undermines policy for multifunctional agricultural landscapes |
| topic | multifunctionality ecosystem services ecosystem-service cascade multifunctional agricultural landscapes agri-environmental measures |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2017.00109/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lovisanilsson ignoringecosystemservicecascadesunderminespolicyformultifunctionalagriculturallandscapes AT georgksandersson ignoringecosystemservicecascadesunderminespolicyformultifunctionalagriculturallandscapes AT klausbirkhofer ignoringecosystemservicecascadesunderminespolicyformultifunctionalagriculturallandscapes AT henrikgsmith ignoringecosystemservicecascadesunderminespolicyformultifunctionalagriculturallandscapes AT henrikgsmith ignoringecosystemservicecascadesunderminespolicyformultifunctionalagriculturallandscapes |