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Social preferences for ecosystem services in pre and post restoration. The bars represent the average importance value assigned to each ecosystem service.
Source publication
This study implements the ecosystem service framework to link the concepts of farming activity and ecosystem restoration within the circular economy. It proposes a method for identifying social indicators of ecosystem restoration that can be taken into account in the transition towards more circular and sustainable agricultural systems. Using a cas...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... provisioning ES (41%) were considered as the most important followed by regulating (32%) and cultural ES (26%). Specifically, the only ES identified as very important before and after the restoration was food production, with a mean importance of 2.42 (pre-restoration) and 2.20 (post-restoration) (Fig. 5). However, we found that freshwater supply was perceived as less important during the post restoration (with a mean importance of 0.5). Most of the regulating ES increased in terms of social importance, specially erosion control and pollination (Fig. 5). Cultural ES were mostly ranked as less important in both the pre-and ...
Context 2
... food production, with a mean importance of 2.42 (pre-restoration) and 2.20 (post-restoration) (Fig. 5). However, we found that freshwater supply was perceived as less important during the post restoration (with a mean importance of 0.5). Most of the regulating ES increased in terms of social importance, specially erosion control and pollination (Fig. 5). Cultural ES were mostly ranked as less important in both the pre-and post-restoration. Further details regarding changes in ES importance between pre-and post-phases provided in see supplementary material ( Figure S2; Appendix ...
Context 3
... both stages of restoration, food production, pollination, climate regulation, and erosion control were characterized as critical ES (i.e., important and vulnerable). However, in the post-restoration phase, freshwater provision was classified as a vulnerable but not important (Fig. 5). In the vulnerable but not important category (Fig. 7), we observed a change in air purification, which was not identified in this category in the post-restoration phase, while fresh water supply became part of it. In the category of less relevant ES, we observe a dominance of cultural services in both phases (Fig. 7). Finally, in the ...
Citations
... While previous studies have often recorded the benefits of forests and forest restoration (Alba-Patiño et al. 2021;Blaen, MacDonald, and Bradbury 2016;Williams et al. 2022), there remains limited understanding of how societal perceptions of forest restoration align with these ecological benefits (Mori, Lertzman, and Gustafsson 2017;L€ ofqvist et al. 2023). Exploring these relationships is particularly important, as restoration practices are often best informed by evidence derived from local knowledge (L€ ofqvist et al. 2023; H€ ohl et al. 2020). ...
... Presently, the HRB is in a critical period of transition to high-quality development, while the health and stability of the ecosystem bear crucial implications for the basin's highquality economic and social advancement [6]. Ecosystem services serve as a crucial link between natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems, encompassing these benefits, including water supply, air purification, soil conservation, food production, and cultural enrichment [7], ensuring human health and well-being [8][9][10]. Presently, the application of ecosystem services extends to various domains such as ecological health diagnosis, ecological product supply, ecological compensation [11], and ecological management [12]. ...
Strengthening the exploration of synergistic promotion mechanisms between ecosystem services (ESs) and new urbanization is of great significance for watershed development. In this work, we revealed the evolution mechanism of coupling coordination development degree (CCD) between ESs and new urbanization and its driving factors in the Huaihe River Basin (HRB) from 1980 to 2020 using a combination of the CCD model, Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) method, and GeoDetector model. Additionally, we employed the PLUS model to investigate multi-scenario simulations. The results demonstrate that ESs showed a decline initially, followed by an increase, while the urbanization index showed consistent annual growth over the four decades. Furthermore, the CCD between the ESs and urbanization showed a yearly optimization trend. The CCD demonstrated notable spatial clustering characteristics, with factors such as precipitation, distance from water body, elevation, and per area GDP emerged as the primary drivers. Under scenarios of ecological protection, comprehensive development, and natural protection, the value of ESs from 2020 to 2050 maintained an upward trend; however, it fell with the decrease under the scenario of cropland protection. These research findings offer valuable decision-making support for the differentiated regulation of ecosystem functions and promotion of high-quality urbanization development in the HRB.
... The most frequently identified category following employment was health and well-being. This included health impacts related to changes in pollution levels, for example, addressing the human health impacts of increased pollution for people local to landfill mining activities in Belgium (Einhäupl et al., 2021) and access to cleaner air following an almond trees restoration project in Spain (Alba-Patiño et al., 2021). The impact of CE policies on safety was also highlighted by the literature, such as increasing the perceived sense of safety of residents local to CE-related projects (e.g. through enabling improved lighting infrastructure (Obaideen et al., 2021)). ...
Socioeconomic impacts of Circular Economy (CE) policies, particularly those that are not easily quantifiable, are frequently overlooked. To address this shortcoming, a comprehensive Typology of Socioeconomic Impacts is developed in this work, which encompasses a wide range of identified impacts as well as providing insights into policy objectives, measures, economic sectors and products. The aim of this study is to offer lessons learned and recommendations to improve CE policymaking in the EU by making the scope and depth of socioeconomic impact assessments more comprehensive. It provides good practice examples from the literature analysed, EU impact assessments and evaluations as well as from international organisations, national and local governments and civil society.
... Thus, understanding the relationships among urbanization, ecosystem service value(ESV), and HWB and finding coordinated development paths are crucial for the area and similar regions globally, necessitating comprehensive planning and scientific decisions in multiple aspects. Scholars have made significant progress in comprehending the influence of urbanization on ESV [12,13] and the interplay between ESV and HWB [14,15]. First, concerning urbanization and ecosystem systems, the pressure-state-response framework [16], environmental Kuznets curve, and decoupling theory [17] were developed to examine the interactions between urbanization and the ecological environment. ...
The ecological and social problems brought about by China’s rapid urbanization process threaten sustainable development. Taking the cities with high and coarse sediment yield in the middle reaches of the Yellow River as the research objects, this study constructed a complex analytical framework composed of urbanization, ecosystem service value (ESV), and human well-being (HBW) subsystems. The equivalent factor method (EFM) was used to evaluate the ESV. The entropy weight method (EWM) and the comprehensive nighttime light index (CNLI) were adopted to assess the level of urbanization and human well-being. Then, coupled coordination degree (CCD) and grey relational modes were developed to reveal the level and major obstacles of synergistic development. The results showed that, from 2000 to 2020, urbanization, ESV, and HWB increased. The average value of CCD grew from 0.34 to 0.56, with higher coordination levels in the northeast and south. The coordinated development is influenced by multiple factors, with the intensity of the driving factors decreasing in the order of industrial structure, population quality, economic drive, government regulation, and scientific and technological support. The results indicate that it is essential to formulate differentiated regionally coordinated development strategies and establish cross-regional cooperation mechanisms to achieve interactive urban economic development, ecological protection, and well-being improvements in the middle reaches of the Yellow River.
... According to Gehl (1987), if the quality of the outdoor environment is good, the frequency of social interaction increases. Furthermore, the maintenance of the outdoor environment's biodiversity and its restoration have a positive effect on improving the quality of social indicators and human wellbeing (Alba-Patino et al., 2021). ...
Although mixed-use campuses are recognized by designers, little attention is paid to the social values that their outdoor environment generates for the wider community. Aiming to identify social values, the methodology used in this study includes a survey that is applied via an online questionnaire (N=156) to explore users' perceptions about the values the campus produces to translate into indicators of wellbeing. This study's aim is to identify indicators of wellbeing that can capture campus social value, referring to a continuously changing campus (Agricultural University of Tirana). The results indicate that the social and cultural benefits that come from a mixed-use campus are related to the adequacy of physical outdoor environments and social activities. However, compared to mixed-use spaces, outdoor spaces that preserve the functions of agricultural backgrounds (as originally designed) have higher social values. We suggest that both physical and non-physical determinants play a basic role in enhancing social interaction (this is a strong indicator), so they must be included in the policies and strategies of the higher education systems.
... Ecosystem restoration usually is a multipurpose approach. On the one hand, local people may recover goods, such as wood, food, and native medicinal plants, which are natural resources that could provide a livelihood for increasing local people's well-being (Alba-Patiño et al. 2021;Aronson et al. 2020). In the long term, the communities might obtain payment for conserving capital natural restored, and hence decrease poverty (Alix-Garcia et al. 2018;Nieratka et al. 2015). ...
... From a socioeconomic perspective, previous reports show that restoration can reduce poverty, produce employment and revenue, and provide various environmental goods and services to society [29]. Ecosystem restoration in a semi-arid region of Spain also showed significant changes in people's preferences and perceptions for ecosystem services and overall human wellbeing (i.e., human health and access to goods) [30]. Thus, knowledge about socioeconomic instruments, tools, and principles can perceptions for ecosystem services and overall human wellbeing (i.e., human health and access to goods) [30]. ...
... Ecosystem restoration in a semi-arid region of Spain also showed significant changes in people's preferences and perceptions for ecosystem services and overall human wellbeing (i.e., human health and access to goods) [30]. Thus, knowledge about socioeconomic instruments, tools, and principles can perceptions for ecosystem services and overall human wellbeing (i.e., human health and access to goods) [30]. Thus, knowledge about socioeconomic instruments, tools, and principles can strengthen decision-making processes for restoration actions and help with restoration challenges [31]. ...
The effectiveness of restoration programs may differ in terms of environmental and socioeconomic metrics, depending on the strategies employed and ecological settings. Thus, we synthesized different restoration strategies and discussed the environmental and socioeconomic factors influencing restoration success. In the present systematic review, we examined peer-reviewed articles published between 1990 and 2024 that discussed strategies and factors impacting land-based restoration. Only 227 of 55,229 articles from ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases met the inclusion criteria. China, Brazil, and India are more active in conducting studies about land restoration compared to other regions, particularly in megadiverse countries in Asia with high degradation rates. There is a strong emphasis on practical and adaptive restoration strategies, including soil and water management (e.g., agroforestry), the use of native plant species, and weed and invasive species management. The prevalence of Acacia, Leucaena, and Eucalyptus species in restoration programs can inform decisions about effective species selection. Here, a holistic understanding of the complex ecological processes is crucial for the development of effective restoration strategies. Although policy frameworks have received less attention in restoration research, their incorporation into restoration projects can help address policy implications for land-based restoration. Overall, successful restoration necessitates a thorough understanding of the optimal strategies and environmental and socioeconomic factors impacting restoration success. Future restoration initiatives can leverage such an understanding to ensure successful implementation.
... Initiatives such as afforestation and wetland restoration can enhance ecosystem resilience and self-purification. The restoration of ecosystem structure and function can bolster resilience to environmental change, thereby promoting human well-being and biodiversity [45]. Increased efforts to conserve local biodiversity, particularly in key ecological areas offering essential services, are vital for sustaining natural ecosystems. ...
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the coupled coordination degree of climate, environmental, socio-economic, and ecosystem resilience in Zhejiang Province from 2010 to 2022 and to propose optimization strategies. With the increasing impact of global climate change, the need to explore the construction of resilient cities and sustainable development models has become increasingly pressing. Assessing the coupled coordination among climate, environment, socio-economic, and ecosystem resilience aids in suggesting more precise and effective social and ecological recovery strategies in the context of climate change. Zhejiang Province, serving as a model for China’s urbanization development, demonstrates a balance between the natural environment, economic growth, and social development but still suffers from ecological and environmental pollution problems. In this study, an evaluation system was constructed utilizing the entropy weight method (EWM), and the coupled coordination among climate, environmental, socio-economic, and ecosystem resilience in Zhejiang Province was empirically analyzed over the period from 2010 to 2022. The results show that (1) the climatic-environmental, socio-economic, and ecological subsystems of cities in Zhejiang Province generally show an upward trend, despite fluctuations over different periods. (2) The climatic-environmental-social-ecological system resilience of the cities in Zhejiang Province increased as a whole, and six cities (Hangzhou: 0.805, Quzhou: 0.811, Huzhou: 0.827, Taizhou: 0.829, Wenzhou: 0.856, and Jinhua: 0.857) reached the “well-coordinated” level by 2022; however, the coupling coordination of Jiaxing City and Lishui City decreased from good to intermediate coordination. (3) The coupled coordination degree of climatic-environmental-social-ecological system resilience generally stagnated in each city during 2020–2022. Thus, the climate change adaptation strategy proposed in this study aims to enhance urban adaptive capacity to climate change impacts by controlling pollutant emissions, restoring ecosystems, optimizing industrial structures, and designing urban green spaces.
... Social ambition is more difficult to define because it is extremely multi-faceted. It might relate to the degree of stakeholder participation in the restoration process (see, for example, Arnstein's (1969) classic ''ladder of participation''), or more generally, to the material and non-material benefits that people obtain from restoration, including livelihoods (Erbaugh and Oldekop 2018), human-nature connectedness (Furness 2021), social cohesion (Alba-Patiño et al. 2021), or other dimensions of environmental justice (Löfqvist et al. 2022). In practice, the ecological and the social level of ambition are likely interrelated and as such can be captured by the notion of ''social-ecological ambition''. ...
Expanding in both scope and scale, ecosystem restoration needs to embrace complex social–ecological dynamics. To help scientists and practitioners navigate ever new demands on restoration, we propose the “social–ecological ladder of restoration ambition” as a conceptual model to approach dynamically shifting social and ecological restoration goals. The model focuses on three dynamic aspects of restoration, namely degrading processes, restoration goals and remedial actions. As these three change through time, new reinforcing and balancing feedback mechanisms characterize the restoration process. We illustrate our model through case studies in which restoration has become increasingly ambitious through time, namely forest landscape restoration in Rwanda and grassland restoration in Germany. The ladder of restoration ambition offers a new way of applying social–ecological systems thinking to ecosystem restoration. Additionally, it raises awareness of social–ecological trade-offs, power imbalances and conflicting goals in restoration projects, thereby laying an important foundation for finding more practicable and fairer solutions.
... As a result it has been argued that restoration initiatives should be context-specific and consider broader social and economic benefits in order to encourage greater stakeholder involvement (Aronson and Alexander, 2013). With the increasing interest in identifying the intricate linkages between restoring ecosystem health and improving social wellbeing, there have been many studies unraveling social preferences in the context of ecosystem restoration (Alba-Patiño et al., 2021;Aronson et al., 2016). ...
... For example, several studies have aimed to elicit social preferences in the context of ecosystem restoration, as a means of informing restoration actions (Alba-Patiño et al., 2021). Choice experiments have been one of the most promising methods to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for restoration action due to their ability to identify preferences for multiple ecosystem services and evaluate the total economic value of environmental change or ecosystem management (Khan and Zhao, 2019). ...
Mangroves are one of the most biodiverse but degraded type of ecosystems globally. There has been a strong impetus for mangrove restoration globally to compensate for mangrove loss. Understanding the public acceptability and preference heterogeneity for mangrove restoration could help practitioners tailor restoration programs , improve stakeholder engagement, and ultimately improve the chances of restoration success. Here we conduct a choice experiment to understand the heterogeneity of public acceptability for mangrove restoration in the Large Xiamen Bay (LXB), China. We estimate the total economic value of mangrove restoration and compare the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for each attribute (including an ecosystem disservice) between participants with different socio-demographic characteristics and living locations. Using both the random parameter logit model and latent class model, our results reveal that the respondents' location, socio-demographic characteristics , interaction with the coastal environment, and knowledge about mangroves have significant effects on their acceptability and preference for mangrove restoration. Such findings can provide guidance to practitioners when planning and implementing mangrove restoration projects, to improve the effectiveness and equity of restoration actions in LXB and beyond. By including an ecosystem disservice our study arguably elicits more comprehensively preference tradeoffs, which should be considered in future applications of choice experiments for ecosystem restoration.
