The role of cultural ecosystem services in landscape management and planning

This paper synthesizes recent empirical evidence and discusses what consideration of cultural ecosystem services adds to landscape management and planning.

Photo: Claudia Bieling

Cultural ecosystem services are strong motivators both for individual landowners and community-level engagement, shows a recent review of empirical evidence, and it is common that they are co-generated with provisional services, like hunting and berry picking. However, cultural ecosystem services often encourage the preservation of traditional land uses, which is not always beneficial for environmental sustainability. Therefore, it is important for landscape planning to consider the trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services.