Environmental justice research shows the importance of social feedbacks in ecosystem service trade-offs
Environmental justice research shows the importance of social feedbacks in ecosystem service trade-offs
复制标题
DOI：
10.5751/es-09481-220312
复制
发表时间：
2017-01-01
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Rasmussen, Laura Vang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dawson, Neil M.;Grogan, Kenneth;Rasmussen, Laura Vang
在本文中，我们重点关注研究生态系统服务权衡的方法，并严格评估其对相关社会动态的表征。尽管将生态系统服务与人类福祉联系起来的研究为社会和生态权衡提供了理论见解，但我们认为，生态系统服务研究对“社会反馈”，即人们对变化的认知和行为反应关注不够。我们证明，通过环境正义方法（探索对成本和收益分配的看法、决策程序以及对不同价值观和身份的认可）加强生态系统服务研究可以更有效地捕捉对生态系统治理的重要反应。在老挝北部 Nam Et-Phou Louey 国家保护区附近的三个村庄中应用了土地利用变化的空间分析、多维福祉的混合方法评估和定性环境正义研究。空间分析显示，2006年至2015年，保护区内耕地砍伐量保持稳定。福祉评估显示，当地居民在此期间受益于收入、资产拥有量的快速增长和贫困的减少。总的来说，空间和福祉分析描绘了一幅有限权衡的图景，尽管通过经济作物和高价值林产品开发受保护的土地和资源的动机日益增强。相比之下，环境正义研究的结果揭示了保护和当地实践之间深刻的权衡，并凸显了与程序和认可相关的治理缺陷。因此，正式的保护区规则被许多人认为是非法的，并被积极破坏，例如通过与替代当局谈判进入。我们的结论是，虽然福祉研究为理解对自然资源的不同依恋提供了重要基础，但环境正义研究的加入可以揭示对生态系统服务权衡至关重要的当地看法和社会反馈，并强调通过满足利益相关者多样化、动态目标来协调它们的途径。
In this article, we shine a spotlight on approaches to research ecosystem service trade-offs and critically assess their representation of relevant social dynamics. Although studies linking ecosystem services and human well-being have provided theoretical insights into social and ecological trade-offs, we argue that ecosystem services research has paid insufficient attention to "social feedbacks," people's cognitive and behavioral responses to change. We demonstrate that augmenting ecosystem services research with environmental justice approaches (exploring perceptions of the distribution of costs and benefits, decision making procedures, and recognition of different values and identities) can more effectively capture important responses to ecosystem governance. Spatial analysis of land use change, mixed-method assessment of multidimensional well-being, and qualitative environmental justice research were applied in three villages adjacent to Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area in northern Laos. Spatial analysis showed that, from 2006 to 2015, forest clearance for cultivation remained stable within the protected area. Well-being assessment revealed the local population benefited from rapidly increasing incomes, asset ownership, and reduced poverty during that time. In combination, spatial and well-being analyses paint a picture of limited trade-offs, despite growing incentives to exploit protected land and resources through cash crops and high-value forest products. In contrast, results from environmental justice research revealed profound trade-offs between conservation and local practices, and highlight governance deficiencies relating to procedure and recognition. Consequently, formal protected area rules were perceived to be illegitimate by many and actively undermined, for example through negotiated access with alternative authorities. We conclude that although well-being research provides an essential foundation to understand diverse attachments to natural resources, the addition of environmental justice research can reveal local perceptions and social feedbacks critical to ecosystem service trade-offs, and highlight pathways to reconcile them through satisfying stakeholders' diverse, dynamic objectives.