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Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
Available online 16 July 2021
0921-3449/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Full length article
Social indicators of ecosystem restoration for enhancing human wellbeing
Daniela Alba-Pati˜
no
a
, Vicenç Carabassa
b
, Hermelindo Castro
a
, In´
es Guti´
errez-Brice˜
no
c
,
Marina García-Llorente
c
, Cynthia Giagnocavo
d
, Miguel G´
omez-Tenorio
e
, Javier Cabello
a
,
Jos´
e A. Aznar-S´
anchez
f
, Antonio J. Castro
a
,
*
a
Biology and Geology Department, Social-Ecological Research Laboratory, Andalusian Center for the Assessment and Monitoring of Global Change (CAESCG), University
of Almeria, 04120 Almería, Spain
b
CREAF, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vall´
es, Catalonia, Spain
c
Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Universidad Aut´
onoma de Madrid, C/Darwin 2, 28049 Madrid, Spain
d
Department of Economy and Business, C´
atedra Coexphal-UAL Horticulture, Cooperative Studies and Sustainable Development, University of Almería, Agrifood Campus
of International Excellence, CeiA3, and CIAMBITAL, 04120 Almería, Spain
e
Deparment of Regenerative Agriculture and Research, Avelal Association, C/Paseo 1, 04825, Chirivel, Spain
f
Department of Economics and Business, Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, La Ca˜
nada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Mediterranean landscape
Ecosystem services
Ecological restoration
Circular economy
Sustainability
Natural capital
Agroecology
ABSTRACT
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 case study located in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes, we conducted a social sampling with
350 respondents to explore how an almond tree restoration changes perceptions and preferences for ecosystem
services, and how these socio-ecological changes translate into indicators of natural capital and human well-
being. Results not only indicated that the almond tree restoration induced changes in people´s preferences and
perceptions for ecosystem services, such as an increase in ecosystem service diversity (i.e., local identity and
erosion control), but they also demonstrated how the social and cultural benets associated to ecosystem services
can be used as indicators of human well-being (i.e., human health and access to goods). We suggest that the
inclusion of social indicators of ecosystem restoration must be included in policies and initiatives for a transition
to circular economy, and to achieve the challenges of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
1. Introduction
Circular economy (CE) seeks to decouple economic growth from the
consumption of resources, conserving the product and material value for
as long as possible (Kirchherr et al., 2017; Chowdhury et al., 2020), by
keeping resources in circular movements that connect different pro-
duction and consumption systems (Hanumante et al., 2019). However,
using such denition, only 9% of the world economy is currently circular
(Barros et al., 2020). The European Union (EU) is aware that the CE will
make a decisive contribution to achieving climate change neutrality by
2050 while ensuring its long-term competitiveness. For this reason, it
must accelerate the transition to a regenerative growth model that keeps
resource consumption within the limits of the planet, reducing its
consumption footprint and doubling the usage rate of circular material
in the next decade (Muscio and Sisto, 2020). To meet this objective, the
EU has developed a new Action Plan for the Circular Economy 2020,
which seeks to benet people, regions, and cities, contribute to climate
neutrality and promote research, innovation, and digitalisation,
achieving by 2030 the Sustainable Development Goals (European
Commission, 2020a). One of the main initiatives of this plan is to
identify the effects of circularity on climate change mitigation and
adaptation measures, such as restoring ecosystems, reforestation, and
strategies that enable carbon sequestration in agriculture (European
Commission, 2020a). Additionally, recent research argues the impor-
tance of having well-designed and effective indicators in the transition
from a linear to a circular economy (Di Maio and Rem, 2015). However,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: fap912@ual.es (D. Alba-Pati˜
no), v.carabassa@creaf.uab.cat (V. Carabassa), hcn068@ual.es (H. Castro), ines.gutierrezbriceno@gmail.com
(I. Guti´
errez-Brice˜
no), marina.gllorente@uam.es (M. García-Llorente), cgiagnocavo@ual.es (C. Giagnocavo), migote1@hotmail.com (M. G´
omez-Tenorio),
jcabello@ual.es (J. Cabello), jaznar@ual.es (J.A. Aznar-S´
anchez), acastro@ual.es (A.J. Castro).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Resources, Conservation & Recycling
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105782
Received 24 March 2021; Received in revised form 29 June 2021; Accepted 29 June 2021
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
2
there is a gap in CE research in this regard, due to the lack of works that
develop or discuss CE indicators (Elia et al., 2017). Therefore, it is
fundamental to develop sets of well-designed, effective indicators to
support robust decision-making processes that ensure an agricultural
sustainable transition from a linear economy to a CE (Aznar-S´
anchez
et al., 2020).
Ecological or ecosystem restoration, i.e., natural or assisted recovery
of ecosystems taking into account their resilience, functionality and
sustainability (Higgs et al., 2018), is a clear strategy of integration be-
tween the above mentioned circularity and climate change mitigation
and adaptation measures (Muscio and Sisto, 2020). It contributes to the
restoration of biodiversity and natural capital and facilitates the tran-
sition towards a sustainable future by the promotion of reduce, reuse,
recycling and recovery of resources and products (Priyadarshini and
Abhilash 2020). Furthermore, ecological restoration is included in the
EU’s Biodiversity strategy for 2030, whose main objective is to protect
nature and reverse ecosystem degradation, putting Europe’s biodiversity
on the road to recovery by 2030. Specically, the strategy sets out to
create an EU nature restoration plan for 2030, addressing the main
drivers of biodiversity loss (European Commission, 2020b).
One strand of ecological restoration is the agroecosystem restoration,
using diversied crops on degraded land, beneting restoration by
increasing the provision of ecosystem services (benets people get from
nature) such as soil fertility, promoting sustainable agriculture and rural
participation (Priyadarshini and Abhilash 2020). In addition to helping
communities recover their degraded ecosystems, ecological restoration
boosts agricultural productivity, while maintaining resource efciency,
with positive implications for food sovereignty (Wade et al., 2008). In
Europe, over the last 50 years, the agri-food industry has become more
intensive, based on a growth and increasing production efciencies
model, which has often led to food production being environmentally
unsustainable (Muscio and Sisto, 2020). It is, therefore, necessary to
change from a linear model of agricultural intensication to a circular
model that signicantly reduces these negative pressures on the envi-
ronment, reducing inputs, and undesired outputs and externalities
(Oteros-Rozas et al., 2019). Circular models that respond to the objec-
tives of the European Farm to Fork Strategy, a key element of the Eu-
ropean Green Deal, which aims to reduce the environmental and climate
footprint of the EU food system, strengthen its resilience, ensure food
security in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, and lead a
global transition towards competitive sustainability (European Com-
mission, 2020c). The Farm to Fork Strategy makes clear that food sys-
tems cannot be resilient to crises if they are not sustainable. While
agroecology is a growing eld of research and practice, for the purposes
of this paper, we will refer to the wider term of ecological restoration,
but note that agroecology can be included therein.
While attention has been given to economic and environmental in-
dicators, one of the challenges of the ecological restoration within CE is
to integrate the social aspect of sustainability. Specically, it is not clear
how social well-being is directly improved through CE implementation
(Ngan et al., 2019). For this reason, the introduction of new indicators
that include the environmental and social aspects of progress is funda-
mental to inuence social perceptions, public policies and support social
actors that promote economic transformation (Fioramonti et al., 2019).
This is the aim of the Beyond GDP initiative promoted by international
organisations, such as the United Nations (Bleys, 2012). They claim that
well-being indicators would allow us to better connect global gover-
nance with changes in the economy, thus providing a more up-to-date
picture of prosperity (as opposed to GDP), giving greater visibility to
the economic stakeholders that are leading the way in this economic
transformation and supporting the transition to a good Anthropocene
(Fioramonti, 2017). Dasgupta report (2021) lends support to this
initiative in his report on the Economics of Biodiversity in which it is
highlighted the need to change our measures of economic success, which
for the most part exclude Nature from economic models. Demonstrating
the need for the inclusion of Natural capital to guide us on more
sustainable pathways. This report emphasises that GDP is a limited
measure and one that hails back to previous perceptions of the impor-
tance of produced capital and human capital over natural capital. By not
taking into account the depreciation of the natural environment, the
pursuit of unsustainable economic growth and development has been
encouraged in both private enterprise and public policy. This report also
sets out a careful argument for an inclusive measure of wealth and
natural capital accounting, one that recognises and includes natural
assets and services in our economies, and keeps in mind the well-being
of current and future generations. In addition, in developing a natural
capital accounting framework, the movement of natural capital over
time may be calculated, which is necessary for assessing sustainability
and for policy analysis. (Dasgupta, 2021). The same applies to ecological
restoration, where there is little knowledge about the extent to which
people benet from the restoration results or what social interactions
result in this process (Martin and Lyons, 2018). Consequently, these
types of metrics or indicators are important for practitioners, conser-
vation managers, local communities and policymakers, who need to
demonstrate the social contributions of restoration and must make de-
cisions about resource management at different scales (Moseley and
Reyes 2008; Higgs, 2012).
These well-being social indicators can be identied through the
ecosystem service framework (ES) proposed by the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) 2005. The MEA (2005) report identied
agroecosystems as a vulnerable situation due to the decline of cultural
values and regulating ecosystem services (MEA, 2005). An assessment of
the ES provided by ecological restoration processes can be done in
different ways (Quintas-Soriano et al., 2018a; P´
erez-Ramírez et al.,
2019). One way is to measure biophysical parameters that reect
changes in biophysical structure and that are function-driven by man-
agement decisions or environmental changes (Quintas-Soriano et al.,
2019; Olander et al., 2018). Another way is through socio-cultural and
economic valuation measures that reect and translate the impact of ES
on human well-being (Castro et al., 2013; García-Llorente et al., 2015).
This latter can be done through the analysis of the perceptions and
preferences of locals and other stakeholders about the ES provided by a
given landscape (Martín-L´
opez et al., 2007a; Castro et al., 2011; 2019).
This type of assessment can be used to obtain social indicators that
identify social benets, in terms of contributions to human well-being or
the diverse values local communities place on restoration process
(Quintas-Soriano et al., 2018a; Narducci et al., 2019). In addition, if we
consider the tenants of Beyond GDP, we can see the connection between
agricultural activity and ecological restoration. Increasing intensied
agriculture is based on a growth model, with every increasing demands
for higher production. Yet the regeneration of natural systems, which is
compatible with agricultural activity, highlights other non-economic
goods that are generated for both the natural environment and society.
This paper conducts a socio-economic assessment of the ES gained
through an ecosystem restoration process conducted in a rural region of
south-eastern Spain with th goal of identifying social indicators that
enhance natural capital. Specically, we aimed to explore social per-
ceptions and preferences for ES as social indicators of the impacts of
ecosystem restoration to wellbeing. To do so, we rst examined factors
that explain social awareness of the benets associated to ecological
restoration with almond tree. Secondly, we explored the social percep-
tions regarding ES delivery and ES change associated to almond tree
restoration. Third, we compared social preferences for and perceived
vulnerability of ES before and after the ecological restoration. Fourth,
we assess how diverse socio-demographic factors inuence ES percep-
tions and preferences. Finally, we examined the linkages between
preferences for ES and the maintenance of human wellbeing.
D. Alba-Pati˜
no et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
3
2. Methods
2.1. Study area
The case study was conducted in the Los V´
elez region, a semi-arid
area of southeast Spain, in the Almeria province. Los Velez is a rural
region characterised by its large extensions of ecological and conven-
tionally cultivated almond trees, which have boosted its economy and
inuenced its culture (Castro et al., 2018a). It has a warm, dry Medi-
terranean climate, with average annual temperatures of 12◦and 15 ◦C
and with an annual average rainfall of 200–350 mm per year (Castro
et al., 2018b; Quintas-Soriano et al., 2014; Armas et al., 2011). The
region includes four municipalities (V´
elez-Blanco, V´
elez-Rubio, Chir-
ivel, and Maria) around the Sierra Maria-Los V´
elez Natural Park
(Valenciano, 2007). Its total population is around 12,500 inhabitants,
with an equal distribution of men and women (50% men, 50% women)
the majority of which are located in the V´
elez-Rubio municipality. In the
past, traditional agriculture was based on cereal crops. However, since
the ’70s, almond tree cultivation on unirrigated land has been a way to
improve the region’s development due to its high protability (Nav-
arro-L´
opez et al., 2012). In addition, the introduction in recent decades
of ecological almond tree varieties has made this crop the most planted
in the region, with more than 19,484 ha (IECA, Instituto de Estadística y
Cartografía de Andalucía 2020).
The restoration process was carried out within the framework of EU
LIFE The Green Link project (https://thegreenlink.eu/). The Green Link
aimed to restore desertied areas with an innovative tree growing
method to increase resilience. As a restoration area, we used a private
plot (El Ciruelo) located in the southern part of the Sierra María-Los
V´
elez Natural Park (Fig. 1) to plant over 3000 almond trees of the Guara
and Lauranne varieties. This land plot was chosen mainly because of the
landowners’ willingness to cooperate in the LIFE project and because of
the agricultural activities they carry out on the surrounding plots which
allowed us to compare our results. Other auxiliary species such as
rosemary and aromatic plants were planted around the almond trees to
attract pollinators and diversify the crop. The ecological almond tree
varieties are characterized by their late owering, which makes them
more resistant to frost. Their low water requirements, high resistance to
drought, high productivity, and good fruit quality (Castellví et al., 2007)
also characterize them.
2.2. Social sampling strategy and questionnaire design
In order to obtain a convenient sample of the local population of the
region, we conducted 350 face-to-face surveys before and after the
restoration process. The pre-restoration surveys took place in July 2017
and the post-restoration surveys in July 2019. The sampled population
was selected semi-randomly in an effort to represent the heterogeneity
of ES beneciaries (Castro et al., 2016 a,b). The social sampling covered
a wide range of stakeholders, from primary sector workers, traders,
tertiary sector workers and public administration workers, amongst
others (Castro et al., 2011). As sampling locations, the populated centres
of the four municipalities of the region were visited (Maria, Chirivel,
V´
elez Blanco, and V´
elez Rubio). The social sampling for the pre- and
post-restoration identied that most of the respondents (over 80%) were
from the V´
elez region. Overall, 60% were men and 40% women, with an
average age ranging from 41y/o (pre-restoration) to 32y/o (post--
restoration) (Table 1). The population surveyed before and after resto-
ration were not the same, although they represented similar
stakeholders.
Respondents were informed that all the answers were anonymous,
and that there were no right or wrong answers. We had no contact with
Fig. 1. Location of the study area and sampling points (i.e. locations where the face-to-face surveys were conducted).
Table 1
Socio-demographic characterization of the Los V´
elez region.
Categories Pre-restorationN
=249
Post-restorationN
=101
Gender Female 98 37
Male 151 64
Age Mean (±SD) 41.7 (±12.7) 32.3 (±15.9)
Place of residence Los V´
elez Region 82.7% 64.4%
Other
municipalities
17.3% 35.6%
Rural
development
job
Yes 60.2% 34.7%
No 39.8% 65.3%
Land ownership Lease 15.0% 3.9%
Ownership 53.6% 26.2%
None 31.4% 69.9%
Educational level University 40.2% 17.8%
Professional
formation
10.8% 26.7%
High school 9.6% 18.8%
Secondary school 14.1% 21.8%
Primary school 18.5% 5.0%
Others 6.4% 9.9%
D. Alba-Pati˜
no et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
4
any respondents before our surveys (Narducci et al., 2019). The ques-
tionnaire included four main sections; section A included questions that
used a free-listing technique for exploring ES, section B for exploring ES
preference and ES trend; section C for exploring perceptions toward
crops, and section D for collecting socio-demographic information of
respondents (see Appendix A in Supplementary Data; based on Castro
et al., 2016).
2.3. Perception and preferences for crop cultivation in the region
We examined both social perceptions and preferences regarding the
region’s traditional crops by using a free-listing and ranking technique,
respectively (Quintas-Soriano et al., 2018b; Castro et al., 2015a). First,
respondents were asked to identify examples of those crops considered
as most benecial to the well-being of the region. Responses were coded
into different crop categories (i.e., almond, olive, pistachio, cereal, pine,
others). Secondly, we used a panel with six specic crops (i.e., almond,
olive, cereal, pistachio, tamarix and pine; see Appendix B1) and asked
respondents to select and rank the four most important, assigning them a
value from one (least important) to four (most important), and
describing motivations supporting their choice. Finally, in order to
specically understand public support for ecological and traditional
almond cultivation, we explored the perceptions regarding its contri-
butions to the development of the region. Responses were coded into six
categories (i.e., environmental benets, economic, aesthetic, food sup-
ply, employment generation, and tradition) to characterize the social
awareness toward ecological restoration with almond tree.
2.4. Social perception, preferences and perceived trends of ecosystem
service associated to ecological restoration
The analysis of ES perceptions was carried out in the pre-restoration
and post-restoration phases. Here we dene social perception analysis as
an exercise in which it is explored the public knowledge about the
benets that nature provides to people (or ecosystem services) through a
free-listing technique (Martin-L´
opez et al. 2007a, b; Castro et al., 2011,
2013). This technique is commonly used to explore all possible benets
that people associate with a particular ecosystem or species (García-L-
lorente et al., 2011a, 2020; Quintas-Soriano et al., 2016, 2018b). Re-
sponses were coded as ES, excluding ambiguous responses and those
that did not t any classication (Martín-L´
opez et al., 2011; García-L-
lorente et al., 2011b). Similar responses were grouped into a single
category corresponding to a given ES. Finally, we analysed the per-
centage of responses for each ES category (provisioning, regulating, and
cultural) and for each ES classes (Quintas-Soriano et al., 2020).
The analysis of preferences and trends of ES was carried out by
analysing the social importance and perceived trend placed on ES
(Narducci et al., 2019). Preferences for and trends of ES were explored
during the pre-restoration and post-restoration phases in order to reect
the importance that people place on revealed benets considered as
important for human well-being maintenance (Castro et al., 2011,
2013). Respondents were shown a panel of 15 ES; ve per category
(provisioning, regulating and cultural; see Appendix B). ES were
selected from previous research in the region (Castro et al., 2015a;
García-Llorente et al., 2015). From 15 selected ES, we asked respondents
to rank the four ES that they considered as most important to maintain
human well-being in the region, and they were asked to express the
motivations behind their choices. Thereafter, for the four ES identied
as most important, the perceived ES trend was analysed by asking re-
spondents if they believed an individual ES supply had been decreasing,
increasing, stable, or whether they did not know, over the past ten years
(“don’t know" responses answers were excluded from the analysis).
Perceived trends reect the degree of vulnerability people attach to the
ES they have identied as most important. The perceived importance of
ecosystem services was coded as 0 =not chosen, 1 =less important, 2 =
slightly important, 3 =very important and 4 =most important. The
perceived trend of ecosystem services was coded as 1 =decreasing, 2 =
stable, 3 =increasing. Averages of the importance and trends of
ecosystem services were estimated and reclassied into very important,
important, slightly important and less important (Castro et al., 2015b)
The ES state throughout the ecological restoration process was esti-
mated by exploring the relationships between ES importance and
perceived trend (Iniesta-Arandia et al., 2014). We considered four ES
states based on different levels of importance and vulnerability.
Vulnerability levels were estimated from ES trends, so an ES identied
with a decreasing or increasing trend was considered as vulnerable and
not vulnerable, respectively. ES were classied using the median num-
ber of respondents and plotted into four state groups: (1) critical ES (i.e.,
ES perceived as important and vulnerable); (2) important and not
vulnerable; (3) vulnerable and not important; and (4) not important and
not vulnerable.
2.5. Socio-demographic factors inuencing perception of ecosystem
services
Inuence of socio-demographic factors on ES perceptions (i.e., pro-
visioning, regulating, and cultural) was analysed by using non-
parametric tests of Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U. Socio-
demographic factors included age (under 40 vs. over 40), gender (fe-
male vs. male), place of residence (region residents vs. residents from
others municipalities), level of education (i.e., university, professional
formation, high school, secondary school, primary school). In addition,
other economic factors such as rural development job (yes or not) and
land ownership (i.e., lease, ownership or none) were analysed (Mar-
tín-L´
opez et al., 2012; Quintas-Soriano et al., 2014, 2016; García-Llor-
ente et al., 2012, 2015; Castro et al., 2011).
2.6. Relationship between ecosystem service and human wellbeing
Linkages between ES categories (i.e. provisioning, regulating, and
cultural) and components of human wellbeing were identied by
exploring human motivations in ES ranking (Quintas-Soriano et al.,
2020) (see Section 2.3). Specically, motivations expressed in ES pref-
erences were coded according to components of well-being (MEA 2005).
Ambiguous answers and those that did not t any classication were
excluded. Motivations were grouped into four components and
sub-components of well-being, including security (personal safety,
secure resource access and security from disasters), the basic material
for a good life (adequate livelihoods, sufcient nutritious food and ac-
cess to goods), health (strength, feeling well and access to clean air and
water), and good social relations (social cohesion, mutual respect and
ability to help others). Finally, signicant differences amongst human
well-being components and sub-components were analysed using a
Kruskal-Wallis test, and the results for each ES category were compared
between pre and post-restoration.
3. Results
3.1. Perceptions and preferences toward crops and almond tree
production
Overall, the analysis of perception and preferences for crops identi-
ed the almond tree as the most valuable crop in the region, followed by
cereal and olive (Fig. 2). Both the free-listing and ranking identied
almond trees as the most important crop (Fig. 2). Additionally, the
analysis of preferences also identied these crops as the most preferred
by locals, with an average importance of 3.26 for the almond tree, 2.34
for cereal and 2.07 for olive (Figure. S4; Appendix C).
The comparison between benets associated to conventional farming
and ecological almond cultivation identied conventional farming as
providing the higher economic prot, while the ecological almond tree
cultivation was mainly linked to a higher quality production (i.e. bigger
D. Alba-Pati˜
no et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
5
size of almond) and a more environmental awareness behaviour (i.e.
more sustainable over time) (Fig. 3).
3.2. Perceived awareness of ecosystem services
Out of 249 respondents in the pre-restoration phase, 45% responded
that the study area "provides benets to the well-being of local com-
munities". This percentage increased to 95% after the post-restoration
phase. In terms of the identied ES, in both pre- and post-restoration
phases, most of the benets identied were associated with provision-
ing ES, especially food production. However, we found that in the post-
restoration, the number of cultural and regulating ES identied
increased (i.e., from one to ve for cultural ES and from three to six for
regulating ES), including examples such as air purication, climate
regulation, pollination, local identity, aesthetic appreciation (Fig. 4).
Supplementary material summarizes full description of ES identied in
pre and post restoration (Figure S1 and Table S1; Appendix C).
3.3. Social importance and trend of ecosystem services before and after
almond restoration
Overall, provisioning ES (41%) were considered as the most impor-
tant followed by regulating (32%) and cultural ES (26%). Specically,
the only ES identied 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
post-restoration. Further details regarding changes in ES importance
between pre- and post-phases provided in see supplementary material
(Figure S2; Appendix C).
Out of the 15 ES analysed, freshwater supply, pollination, water
regulation, air purication, climate regulation, and erosion control were
identied during the pre-restoration as the most vulnerable ES. Addi-
tionally, more than 60% of respondents considered that the supply of
these ES had decreased in the last 10 years. This trend continued in the
post-restoration phase, where erosion control was only identied with
an increasing trend (60% of respondents). Overall, cultural ES were
identied as the least important for both pre- and post-restoration, and
with a stable or increasing trend. (Fig. 6).
3.4. Linkages between ecosystem service importance and vulnerability
For 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 classied as a vulnerable but not important
(Fig. 5). In the vulnerable but not important category (Fig. 7), we
observed a change in air purication, which was not identied 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 important but not
vulnerable category, we only observed the change in tourism, which is
not identied in this category in the post-restoration stage.
3.5. Socio-demographic factors inuence on ecosystem service perceptions
Perceptions for ES categories varied signicantly amongst re-
spondents according to their age, place of residence (region residents
versus residents from other municipalities), rural development job (yes
or not) and ownership of agricultural land (Lease, Ownership and none).
People under 40 years of age recognized more regulating and cultural ES
than those over 40. Residents of Los V´
elez region perceived fewer
regulating ES than residents from other municipalities, and respondents
who do not own land mostly identied cultural ES. People working on
rural development jobs recognized more cultural ES than people with
other types of jobs, who, in turn, identied more regulating ES (Table 2).
Although provisioning ES were the most appreciated ES by all re-
spondents, no signicant differences in ES perception were identied in
Fig. 2. Comparison between free-listed and ranked crops present in the
study area.
Fig. 3. Benets associated to conventional almond tree farming versus ecological almond tree farming (*** and ** indicate statistical signicance, between benets,
at the 0.001 and 0.01 levels, respectively).
D. Alba-Pati˜
no et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
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any of the socio-demographic factors (Table 2).
3.6. Relationships between ecosystem service and human well-being
We found that preferences for ES were associated with their ability to
support different components of human well-being (Fig. 8). Provisioning
ES were most strongly related to "basic materials for a good life", spe-
cically access to goods in the pre-restoration and the ability to have
sufcient nutritious food in the post-restoration. Regulating ES were
mainly linked to the security component (mainly providing safe access
to resources), followed by basic materials for a good life and health.
Finally, cultural ES were related to good social relations. We found that
in each restoration stages the health component was indirectly con-
nected to all ES categories (Fig. 8). Figure S2 of Appendix C summarizes
linkages between ES categories and human well-being components.
4. Discussion
4.1. Changes in quantity and diversity of ecosystem services due to
almond farming restoration
The socio-economic evaluation of ES gained through an almond tree
restoration identied indicators that can help to enhance natural capital
and people well-being. We specically found changes in people´s per-
ceptions and concerns regarding the variety of ES and their impacts on
natural capital and wellbeing. First, the number and diversity of ES
increased signicantly due to the restoration with almond trees, going
from a single ES (i.e., 90% only identied food production) to the
identication of 13 ES that included both cultural and regulating ES, (an
increase of 27% and 18% of respondents, respectively). This result re-
ects that almond cultivation is not only perceived as an opportunity to
increase food production (provisioning services), but also other cultural
benets (i.e., sense of belonging) and benets associated with ecosystem
processes (i.e., soil fertility) (P´
erez-Ramírez et al., 2019). Additionally,
Fig. 4. Perceived awareness of ES during pre and post restoration. Classied by ES categories (provisioning, regulating and cultural).
Fig. 5. Social preferences for ecosystem services in pre and post restoration. The bars represent the average importance value assigned to each ecosystem service.
D. Alba-Pati˜
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Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
7
we also identied an increase in the social concern regarding those
benets classied as critical (e.g., pollination and air purication). This
may reect local stakeholders’ understanding of the dependency re-
lationships between provisioning ES and the regulating ES that support
those (Narducci et al., 2019). On the other hand, we found that pref-
erences for ES are conditioned by the socio-demographic characteristics,
such as age, place of residence, rural development job, and owning land.
This result is consistent with previous research (Quintas-Soriano et al.,
2019), where visitors are more aware than residents regarding the
importance of benets linked to regulating ES, and working people in
rural areas more broadly recognized the variety of benets associated to
cultural ES than those holding other types of jobs. This is consistent with
previous studies carried out in the province of Almería, where the social
perception of ES has been evaluated (Castro et al., 2011; 2018a, b;
Quintas-Soriano et al., 2018b).
4.2. Ecosystem services as social indicators of human well-being
Recent research highlights the need to carry out studies that apply
the ES framework to evaluate the social benets of ecological restoration
and biodiversity conservation strategies (Bullock et al., 2011; Martin
et al., 2018 Castro et al., 2018b). In this sense, identifying the social
benets that local communities obtain and perceive is crucial to main-
taining their commitment, trust, support throughout the process
(Quintas-Soriano et al., 2018b). Thus, monitoring the maintenance of
such benets can enhance the success of ecosystem restoration by
increasing the willingness of stakeholders to promote actions that will
achieve long-term sustainability of the restored system (Martin and
Lyons, 2018). Our results demonstrate that attempting to restore eco-
systems and their biodiversity of a degraded ecosystem without
considering people values, perceptions and interests can generate fail-
ures in both the process and nal result (Rosa et al., 2020). The
socio-economic evaluation of ES provides a practical approach for
identifying social indicators that link ecological and social outcomes of
ecosystem restoration (Rosa et al., 2020; Castro et al., 2011). Our results
indicated that the diversity of ES identied increased considerably when
the restoration ended, leading to changes in the values placed on specic
ES (e.g. regulating ES were mostly perceived as critical), and facilitating
the understanding of the role of ES in supporting human well-being,
such as the contribution of cultural ES to social cohesion. The
increased perception of regulating ES (i.e. pollination, water regulation
or erosion control), may be inuenced by a visible improvement in
landscape connectivity, one of the main benets of ecosystem
restoration (Peh et al., 2014). This nding reveals a possible direct
relationship between ecological connectivity, ES provision and social
awareness (Mitchell et al., 2013), and demonstrate that restoration
monitoring schemes can be improved and complemented with
socio-cultural assessments. Ecosystem restoration is increasingly used as
a key tool in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies,
especially in vulnerable Mediterranean ecosystems (Harris et al., 2006;
Wu et al., 2021). Further studies should analyse its potential use as a tool
for improving and monitoring ecological connectivity. Additionally,
moving from local to regional and national scale can determine if nat-
ural capital and the ecosystem service ow has been re-established in a
given biome or ecosystem as a result of restoration actions.
Additionally, these ndings t within the strategies for meeting the
aspirations of the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030
(United Nations Environment Agency 2019). More specically, our re-
sults can be used for strategy six of such initiative, which seeks to study
and inform the links between restoring ecosystem health and improving
the health of human populations (i.e. physical, mental, social, and cul-
tural), both locally and globally (Aronson et al., 2020). This study is one
of the few that carry out analyses of how ecosystem restoration posi-
tively impacts not only ecosystem health but also enhance human
wellbeing.
Despite the multiple advantages mentioned above, few studies have
analysed the social perception of ES in the context of ecosystem resto-
ration using the methodologies described here. amongst them are those
carried out in Arizona and Colorado (United States), in which an attempt
was made to determine whether the places socially valued at the
aesthetic, life-supporting, cultural, economic, historical, intrinsic and
biological diversity levels, amongst others, are signicantly related to
biophysical models of ecological restoration. They are or are not related
to the biophysical provision of ES of areas with restoration or conser-
vation potential. Identifying that life-supporting, local biodiversity and
aesthetic values are the most important social values recognised by the
population. The main tools used were surveys and SolVES (Social Values
for Ecosystem Services) software (Bagstad et al., 2015; Petrakis et al.,
2020). As in our study, they found a certain degree of social approval of
restoration projects and identied the need to incorporate social values
into landscape restoration investment decision-making.
4.3. Restoring agroecosystems to move towards a circular economy
With the resurgence of almond farming in Spain during the 1970s,
the Los V´
elez region began its transformation from traditional
Fig. 6. Perceived trends of ES (i.e., decreasing, increasing, or stable) over the last ten years in pre- and post-restoration. Classied by ecosystem service categories
(provisioning, regulating and cultural).
D. Alba-Pati˜
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Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
8
agriculture dominated by cereals to a monoculture of conventional non-
irrigated almond trees (Navarro-L´
opez et al., 2012). By 2015, the Los
V´
elez region had 18,450 hectares of almond trees, 98.8% of which were
non-irrigated and only 1.2% irrigated (Cosejería de Agricultura, Pesca y
Desarrollo Rural, 2016). This production system transformation gener-
ated higher economic benets for the population and produced changes
at an ecological and landscape level (Govers et al., 2006). Some
socio-cultural aspects started to revolve around almond farming and the
activities derived from it (e.g. agro-tourism, raw material processing,
educational programmes) (Navarro-L´
opez et al., 2012). In recent de-
cades, the introduction of ecological almond tree varieties, denominated
as such because of their characteristics such as late owering, which
make them more resistant to frost, lower water requirements and high
productivity, has allowed the region to establish itself in new markets,
becoming one of the areas with the highest production of ecological
almonds in Spain (Cosejería de, 2016). Furthermore, these almond tree
varieties have obtained prices double those of conventional almonds,
and in the last year, are the only almond variety not to have shown a
downward price trend (ASAJA, 2020). When we ask our respondents
about the benets of conventional and ecological almond crops, we can
see that they perceive greater economic benets in conventional al-
monds crops, a view contrary to what the economic reports demonstrate
(ASAJA, 2020). Reasons for this perception of some farmers may be that
changing their crop from conventional to ecological would imply a
signicant cost with no short term return on investment, since almond
trees require at least ve years before they start to produce, a time
period that increases when the crop is grown in dryland conditions. On
the other hand, our respondents were able to perceive other benets of
ecological almond tree crops, such as higher fruit quality, resistance to
pests, lower water requirements and greater integration with other
productive activities such as livestock farming. According to the litera-
ture, ecological almond varieties, characterised by late owering, are
Fig. 7. Scatter-plots classifying ES according to social importance (X-axes) and vulnerability (Y-axes) in (A) pre restoration, and (B) post restoration.
D. Alba-Pati˜
no et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
9
less vulnerable to frost damage while maintaining their production
(S´
anchez-P´
erez et al., 2014; Prudencio et al., 2018), and some studies
have reported a higher amount of fatty acids in the almond kernels of
these crop varieties (Piscopo et al., 2010). This evidences that social and
environmental benets are also important for local people and highlight
the need to value all benets, not only from a monetary perspective, that
may arise in agroecosystems, but also from the quality of life and
wellbeing perspective.
If we integrate the above observation into the CE framework, we note
that the Los V´
elez region’s agro-system applies some CE operational
principles, as dened by Su´
arez-Eiroa et al. (2019). The rst of these is to
adjust inputs to regeneration rates; this principle refers to minimising
inputs of non-renewable resources and controlling the rates of
renewable resources. In this case, the mostly non-irrigated crops have
low water requirements during production and, on land where livestock
activities are also carried out, animal excrement serves as fertiliser for
the almond trees. Secondly, the principle of adjusting the outputs of the
system to the absorption rates refers to the need to minimise waste
outputs and manage them in such a way that they become the raw
material for another production process (Su´
arez-Eiroa et al., 2019; Elia
et al., 2017). In the case of the almond tree, given that it is a plantation
with an average useful life of around 20 years, the amount of organic
material waste it can generate is low if we compare it to the intensive
greenhouse horticulture that takes place in the province’s south
(Vel´
azquez-Martí et al., 2012; Reinoso et al., 2019). In summary, the Los
Velez region is a clear example of how agricultural systems can be
Table 2
Socio-demographic factors inuencing people’s perception of ES. Asterisks indicate signicant differences between categories, after the Kruskal-Wallis and the Mann-
Whitney-U tests (* p <0.05, ** p <0.01, *** p <0.001) (SD: standard deviation).
Socio-economic factors Categories Mean (SD)
N Provisioning Regulating Cultural
Gender Female 135 0.90 (0.41) 0.15 (0.43) 0.10 (0.33)
Male 215 0.87 (0.44) 0.14 (0.41) 0.08 (0.27)
U 14,134.5 14,535.5 14,254.0
Age <40 174 0.84 (0.48) 0.19 (0.46) 0.13 (0.35)
>40 172 0.92 (0.36) 0.10 (0.37) 0.05 (0.22)
U 13,782 13,795* 13,936.5*
Place of residence Los V´
elez Region 259 0.89 (0.41) 0.12 (0.41) 0.07 (0.28)
Others municipalities 91 0.86 (0.48) 0.21 (0.43) 0.13 (0.34)
U 114,065 12,963.5* 12,513.5
Rural development job Yes 168 0.86 (0.41) 0.11 (0.39) 0.13 (0.35)
No 182 0.90 (0.45) 0.18 (0.43) 0.05 (0.22)
U 15,876 16,494.5* 14,128.5*
Land ownership Lease 19 0.79 (0.41) 0.16 (0.49) 0.00
Ownership 171 0.89 (0.41) 0.13 (0.40) 0.02 (0.15)
None 160 0.88 (0.46) 0.16 (0.43) 0.17 (0.39)
X
2
1.06 0.80 22.26***
Educational level University 129 0.95 (0.34) 0.13 (0.24) 0.11 (0.19)
Professional formation 54 0.80 (0.45) 0.13 (0.44) 0.11 (0.38)
High school 43 0.93 (0.33) 0.26 (0.57) 0.05 (0.21)
Secondary school 57 0.79 (0.40) 0.14 (0.43) 0.12(0.31)
Primary school 51 0.86 (0.47) 0.06 (0.36) 0.04 (0.31)
Others 16 0.88 (0.48) 0.31 (0.58) 0.00
X
2
7.78 6.86 5.33
Fig. 8. Linkages between ES and components of human well-being in (a) pre- restoration and (b) post-restoration. Each colour group represents a human well-being
component: 1. Security (Blue); 2. Basic material for good life (Green); 3. Health (Yellow); 4. Good social relations (Grey) (*** and ** indicate statistical signicance,
between human wellbeing sub-components, at the 0.001 and 0.01 levels, respectively).
D. Alba-Pati˜
no et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 174 (2021) 105782
10
transformed and move towards sustainability, encompassing a wide
range of benets beyond the monetary, such as the maintenance of
ecosystem functions, the provision of ecosystem services and social
cohesion.
4.4. Is almond farming stable in spain?
If we analyse the agroecosystem of almond farming on a larger scale,
we nd that Spain is the country with the largest cultivated area of
almond trees in the world, with more than 700,000 ha (MAPA, Minis-
terio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentaci´
on 2018). However, it ranks
third in terms of production because most of the cultivated area is not
irrigated and with a low density of trees per hectare. amongst the
countries ahead of Spain is Australia, in second place, with more than
53,000 hectares under almond trees plantations and an annual pro-
duction of around 120,000 tonnes (USDA, United States Department of
Agriculture - National Agricultural Statistics Service 2020a). In rst
place is the United States, with more than 500,000 ha planted with
almond trees and more than one million tonnes in annual production
(USDA, United States Department of Agriculture - National Agricultural
Statistics Service 2020b). Its agricultural system, as in Australia, is
intensive with full irrigation to maximise productivity (Goldhamer and
Fereres, 2017).
However, during the last decade in Spain, there has been an increase
in intensive almond tree plantations characterised by the use of irriga-
tion, fertilisers, new varieties of almond trees and a higher density of
trees per hectare (MAPA, Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y
Alimentaci´
on 2018). This intensive agricultural system in a context
where the share of irrigation water is limited, both in terms of avail-
ability and in terms of institutional regulations may not be sustainable in
the medium and long term, depending on water availability, access and
water use policy. Different studies have tried to determine what the
future of these plantations will be like, with water as a limiting factor, by
simulating decit irrigation systems and comparing crop productivity
(Exp´
osito et al., 2020; Moldero et al., 2021). Their results suggest that
the productive capacity of the trees is maintained even with severe
decit irrigation systems, so that total irrigation systems, such as those
used in Australia and the USA, may not be necessary Exp´
osito and
Berbel, 2020; Moldero et al., 2021). In these countries, water gover-
nance is currently undergoing radical change in response to the severe
impacts of recent droughts, and in California, this situation has
prompted the creation of a new Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (Berbel and Esteban, 2019).
4.5. Moving beyond economic valuation of farming systems
Economic assessments of sustainable almond production, in any
context, tend to be limited to crop yields disregarding management costs
and externalities. Crop yield, however, is not a comprehensive indicator
of farm economic benets. Market price, labour, operational and input
costs, investment costs, as well as investment costs and subsidies also
have a signicant inuence on farm protability (Jezeer et al., 2018;
Sgroi et al., 2015). In the case of restoration with almond production
(De Leijster et al., 2020), we found that ES can contribute to a better
farm economic resilience in the long-term; however, empirical evidence
is scarce. Much depends on the extent to which externalities are
addressed by private and public incentives. For example, price pre-
miums (e.g. coupled to certication schemes) or green incentives under
programs such as the Common Agricultural Policy affect the economic
sustainability of the agricultural activity. Water footprint certications
can be one method to add value to agricultural products. S´
anchez-Bravo
et al. (2020) researched consumer perception of how to save water in the
food chain and how to identify water sustainable products by a logo, in
Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Spain and the USA. The logo was positively
rated by consumers, especially by young generations, although it is
evident that consumers have signicant knowledge gaps about water use
in food production and processing in general.
Finally, economic assessments are also dependant not only on the
“rules of the game” which determine the market and the perception of
added value by consumers. The methodologies used to calculate positive
benet depend as well on the number and type of externalities intern-
alised and over which period. It is evident that sustainable water prac-
tices will depend on the extent to which public policy adopts an
economics of biodiversity that includes socio-ecological details and an
accounting that includes natural capital, as well as consumer perception
of the added value and willingness to pay for natural capital and
biodiversity.
5. - Conclusion
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a rallying call for the
preservation and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the
benet of both people and nature. This paper implements the ES
framework to tie together the concepts of agricultural activity and
ecosystem restoration within the circular economy. Specically, we
propose a method for devising social indicators of ecosystem restoration
that may be taken into account in processes of transition towards more
circular and sustainable economic systems. We call the need of inte-
grating social indicators of ecosystem restoration in policies and initia-
tives for successfully transition to circular economy, and to achieve
challenges of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
CRediT Author Statement
Daniela Alba-Pati ˜
no: Formal analysis; Investigation; Writing–
Original draft preparation. Vicenç Carabassa: Methodology; Project
administration. Hermelindo Castro: Project administration;Funding
acquisition. In´
es Guti´
errez-Brice˜
no: Data curation; Investigation.
Marina García-Llorente: Conceptualization; Methodology; Validation.
Cynthia Giagnocavo: Resources; Writing– Original draft preparation.
Miguel G´
omez-Tenorio: Project administration and Resources. Jos´
e A.
Aznar-S´
anchez: Resources; Conceptualization. Antonio J. Castro:
Conceptualization; Methodology; Writing– Original draft preparation;
Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing nancial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to inuence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their
constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript. We
also thank the respondents who kindly took the time to answer our
questionnaire. Funding for the development of this research was pro-
vided by The Green Link LIFE project, LIFE15 CCA/ES/000125 - Restore
desertied areas with an innovative tree growing method across the
Mediterranean border to increase resilience.
Supplementary materials
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105782.
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