Service to the people - Better governance of ecosystem services at local scales in the Wienerwald region
Abstract
Wider research context / theoretical framework Ecosystem services (ESS) are crucial for long term human prosperity. They typically require management to match supply and demand. The concept of Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP) has been introduced mainly to refine the complexity of demand side characteristics for ESS and to better account for citizen perspectives and social science interactions in ESS research. Hypotheses/research questions /objectives Based on the role of cultural settings and local knowledge emphasized by the NCP framework, and perceived risks of ESS depletion and resulting under-supply in the long run, the citizen science project ServeToPe tests methods for ESS demand and supply assessments in a participatory research process in order to inform sustainable landscape governance processes. ServeToPe will also focus on criteria for governance defined and accepted by citizens in the project region to complement established scientific and governmental criteria. ServeToPe will be based on the ongoing BiodivERsA project SALBES (“Scenarios for Agricultural Landscapes' Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” to include "citizen science”; www.salbes.eu). Preliminary model results and qualitative interview results on the demand and supply of ESS from SALBES in the project region Wienerwald are the starting point for the following research questions: 1. What are current local, regional, and global levels of ESS supply and demand and what is nature’s contribution to people’s needs in the region? 2. What does “good governance” mean from a citizen’s perspective? 3. What are exemplary good practice governance instruments to improve people’s quality of life? Approach/methods ServeToPe has a 4-step research approach. Step 1 is to provide a list of potential people’s needs for ESS. In step 2, people’s needs will be quantified. The major objective of step 3 is to compare supply and demand of ESS and to reveal benefit gaps by estimating NCP. Step 4 analyses the governance of ESS supply towards matching people’s needs. Level of originality / innovation ServeToPe will tackle all three knowledge categories of transdisciplinary science, i.e. “systems knowledge, “target knowledge”, and “transformative knowledge”. It will contribute to several pressing issues of ESS research from a scientific perspective, such as the role of supply and demand, spatio-temporal scales in determining both, or the issue of resilience under global change. Its major scientific innovation may result from its focus on the underrepresented citizen science studies in ESS research and its application of an NCP framework. We plan to contribute to the ongoing debate about the appropriateness of NCP compared to ESS-approaches by conducting an empirical case study at regional level.
ecosystem services regional Citizen Science Wienerwald
Publikationen
Project staff
Martin Schönhart
Dipl.-Ing. Mag. Dr. Martin Schönhart
martin.schoenhart@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-73124
Project Leader
01.04.2021 - 30.11.2023
Katrin Karner
Dr. Katrin Karner
katrin.karner@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-73125
Sub Projectleader
01.04.2021 - 30.11.2023
BOKU partners
External partners
University of Vienna
Dr. Thomas Wrbka
partner