A new collaborative methodology for assessment and management of ecosystem services

Marina Segura, Concepción Maroto, Valerie Belton, Concepción Ginestar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)
85 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Collaborative management is a new framework to help implement programmes in protected areas. Within this context, the aim of this work is twofold. First, to propose a robust methodology to implement collaborative management focused on ecosystem services. Second, to develop indicators for the main functions of ecosystem services. Decision makers, technical staff and other stakeholders are included in the process from the beginning, by identifying ecosystem services and eliciting preferences using the AHP method. Qualitative and quantitative data are then integrated into a PROMETHEE based method in order to obtain indicators for provisioning, maintenance and direct to citizens services. This methodology, which has been applied in a forest area, provides a tool for exploiting available technical and social data in a continuous process, as well as providing easy to understand graphical results. This approach also overcomes the difficulties found in prioritizing management objectives in a multiple criteria context with limited resources and facilitates consensus between all of the people involved. The new indicators define an innovative approach to assessing the ecosystem services from the supply perspective and provide basic information to help establish payment systems for environmental services and compensation for natural disasters
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1696-1720
Number of pages24
JournalForests
Volume6 
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 May 2015

Keywords

  • collaborative management
  • ecosystem services assessment
  • multiple criteria analysis
  • natural resource management

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A new collaborative methodology for assessment and management of ecosystem services'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this