Cultural ecosystem services

Within ecological research and environmental management, there is currently a focus on demonstrating the links between human well-being and wildlife conservation. Within this framework, there is a clear interest in better understanding how and why people value certain places over others. We introduce a new method that measures cultural preferences by exploring the potential of multiple online georeferenced digital photograph collections. Using ecological and social considerations, our study contributes to the detection of places that provide cultural ecosystem services. The degree of appreciation of a specific place is derived from the number of people taking and sharing pictures of it. The sequence of decisions and actions taken to share a digital picture of a given place includes the effort to travel to the place, the willingness to take a picture, the decision to geolocate the picture, and the action of sharing it through the Internet. Hence, the social activity of sharing pictures leaves digital proxies of spatial preferences, with people sharing specific photos considering the depicted place not only " worth visiting " but also " worth sharing visually. " Using South Wales as a case study, we demonstrate how the proposed methodology can help identify key geographic features of high cultural value. These results highlight how the inclusion of geographical user-generated content, also known as volunteered geographic information, can be very effective in addressing some of the current priorities in conservation. Indeed, the detection of the most appreciated nonurban areas could be used for better prioritization, planning, and management.

En este trabajo se indagó en aspectos conceptuales y operativos vinculados a la elaboración de instrumentos de gestión patrimonial en Uruguay, poniendo énfasis en los bienes y espacios costeros que se destacan por su contribución al mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. El objetivo general de la investigación fue proponer un modelo conceptual que integrara y representara cuestiones clave de la Conservación de la Biodiversidad y del Patrimonio Cultural y que hiciera factible que tal integración pudiera hacerse operativa mediante instrumentos concretos de Ordenamiento Territorial y Desarrollo Sostenible previstos en la Ley 18.308 (Uruguay, 2008).
El abordaje metodológico se basó en la Teoría de los Sistemas Complejos y en las Ciencias de la Integración e Implementación (I2S). La síntesis de los conocimientos se realizó por medio de mapas y modelos conceptuales. Los datos primarios se obtuvieron a través de entrevistas y talleres. El principal resultado fue la extensión del Modelo conceptual de referencia abstracto del Patrimonio Cultural (CHARM) para la elaboración de instrumentos de protección patrimonial enfocada en especies, ecosistemas, paisajes y servicios ecosistémicos. El modelo está expresado en lenguaje ConML que permite su traducción a bases de datos para el registro y gestión de la información.
El enfoque del Manejo Costero Integrado podría contribuir a la integración de los distintos sectores y niveles del gobierno y de la academia así como a la incorporación de otros actores que deberían ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de elaborar una política pública. Se destaca un aspecto esencial de la función del manejador costero como potencial articulador y catalizador de dichos procesos.

La investigación que da origen a los resultados presentados en la presente publicación recibió fondos de la Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación bajo el código POS_NAC_2013_1_11414

Hanaček K., Rodríguez-Labajos B (2018). Impacts of land-use and management changes on cultural agroecosystem services and environmental conflicts—A global review,Global Environmental Change,
Volume 50: 41-59.
As an outcome of interactions and interdependencies with people, agroecosystems provide cultural ecosystem services (CES), such as traditional knowledge, recreation, and places for social gatherings. Today however, agroecosystems undergo biophysical changes because of land-use and management changes (LUMC), such as intensive agriculture, urbanisation, and land abandonment. Typically, environmental conflicts emerge between stakeholders with differing interests in land areas around the LUMC. Cumulatively, these changes and conflicts have substantial influence on the CES appreciation of the farmland, triggering different types of responses, including social mobilisation and resistance. A comprehensive analysis of these processes was missing in the literature. Here we present a systematic review of CES provided by agroecosystems at the global level, we explore their interconnections through network analysis, and analyse the interrelation between LUMC, CES and environmental conflicts. The review includes 155 peer-reviewed articles, representing empirical data from 81 countries. Twenty main categories of CES and their subcategories delivered by agroecosystems are identified. Through the network analysis we demonstrate how CES are interrelated, with agricultural heritage as a connecting core. In a comprehensive map, we further identify which LUMC types have influence upon specific CES categories, and what are the causes, outcomes of, and responses to environmental conflicts that emerge from these processes. CES and agroecosystems cannot be seen separately from one another, as a reflection of secular or recently-created relationships people have with their environments. While these relationships are dynamic, LUMC may lead to their impairment or even loss, with ensuing impacts on biocultural diversity. The resulting environmental conflicts push most frequently for greater participation of actors involved in farming, socio-cultural revalorisation of farmland activities and the promotion of multi-functionality.

Authors
Spangenberg, Joachim H., Beaurepaire, Alexis L., Bergmeier, Erwin, Burkhard, Benjamin, Ho Van Chieng, Le Quoc Cuongh, Görg, Christoph, Grescho, Volker, Le Huu Hai, Heong, K.L., Horgan, Finbarr G., Hotes, Stefan, Klotzbücher, Anika, Klotzbücher, Thimo, Kühn, Ingolf, Langerwisch, Fanny, Marion, Glenn, Moritz, Robin F.A., Quynh Anh Nguyen, Ott, Jürgen, Sann, Christina, Sattler, Cornelia, Schädler, Martin, Schmidt, Anja, Tekken, Vera Truong Dao Thanh, Thonicke, Kirsten, Türke, Manfred, Vaclavik, Tomas, Vetterlein, Doris, Westphal, Catrin, Wiemers, Martin, Settele, Josef

Abstract
In a cross-disciplinary project (LEGATO) combining inter-and transdisciplinary methods, we quantify the dependency of rice-dominated socio-ecological systems on ecosystem functions (ESF) and the ecosystem services (ESS) the integrated system provides. In the collaboration of a large team including geo-and bioscientists, economists, political and cultural scientists, the mutual influences of the biological, climate and soil conditions of the agricultural area and its surrounding natural landscape have been analysed. One focus was on sociocultural and economic backgrounds, another on local as well as regional land use intensity and biodiversity, and the potential impacts of future climate and land use change. LEGATO analysed characteristic elements of three service strands defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA): (a) pro-visioning services: nutrient cycling and crop production; (b) regulating services: biocontrol and pollination; and (c) cultural services: cultural identity and aesthetics. However, in line with much of the current ESS literature, what the MA called supporting services is treated as ESF within LEGATO. As a core output, LEGATO developed generally applicable principles of ecological engineering (EE), suitable for application in the context of future climate and land use change. EE is an emerging discipline, concerned with the design, monitoring and construction of ecosystems and aims at developing strategies to opti-mise ecosystem services through exploiting natural regulation mechanisms instead of suppressing them. Along these lines LEGATO also aims to create the knowledge base for decision-making for sustainable land management and livelihoods, including the provision of the corresponding governance and management strategies, technologies and system solutions.

During the last decade, we have witnessed an increased interest in
Ecosystem Services (ES), including the so-called ‘cultural ecosystem
services’ and its subcategory of ‘cultural heritage’. In this article, a
review of academic literature of ES and cultural heritage is carried out.
ES has primarily been developed by scholars from the ecological and
economic disciplines, and in this article, we discuss how this impacts
the way in which cultural heritage is used and conceptualised in ES
literature. Based on the conceptual review, we initiate a discussion of
what the implications for cultural heritage management could be if
the heritage sector adopts the rationales in the ES framework.

The ecosystem services concept is increasingly gaining momentum in land-use policies and landscape planning. Yet, cultural ecosystem services often lack proper assessments. With this study, we use novel methodological approaches to map the cultural ecosystem service landscape aesthetics for its enhanced consideration in land-use policies. Our study uses expert-based participatory mapping and crowd-sourced (social media) photo data to examine the spatial distribution of landscape aesthetics in the Province of Barcelona, Catalonia. We distinguish the capacity and flow of landscape aesthetics. Landscape aesthetics capacity was assessed through spatial multi-criteria evaluation, consisting of a viewshed analysis and an expert-based selection and weighting of landscape features. Landscape aesthetics flow, i.e., people's actual appreciation of landscape aesthetics, was assessed by analysing a sample of 13,460 geolocated photographs from the social media platform Flickr. Our results uncover a substantial mismatch between landscape aesthetics capacity and flow. While landscape aesthetics capacity is widely distributed across the case study area, landscape aesthetics flow is (with few exceptions) mostly concentrated in urban and periurban areas. The main insights for land-use policies derived from our results are twofold. On one hand, landscape aesthetics flow seems less dependent on 'pristine nature' than experts and planners assume, while the complex integration of green and grey landscape features plays a critical role. On the other hand, urban and periurban landscapes as key landscape aesthetics providers should receive additional attention in land-use policies.

The concept of ecosystem services is increasingly important for measuring both tangible and intangible benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems. Much research on ecosystem services focused on more tangible services. Intangible cultural ecosystem services, such as sense of place, are often neglected, but in the context of highly populated, increasingly urbanized countries, maintenance of cultural ecosystem services is an important policy objective. One of the challenges of integrating sense of place into the framework of ecosystem services is that it is not linked to abstract notions of ecosystems, but tied to perceived landscape features such as mountains, or rivers. In this study, we used free listings and interviews with visitors to investigate perceived landscape features and sense of place through the lens of language in five different landscape types in Switzerland. Within each landscape type, we selected two study sites to quantitatively and qualitatively compare landscape descriptions. Using text processing, we show that terms for landscape features were more similar within the same landscape type, suggesting that people perceive differences between these landscapes that they express in language. However, in general, elicited concepts related to sense of place were similar across landscape types. Thus, our results show that we can use free-listing descriptions to distinguish landscape types, but we found limited differences in the language used to describe sense of place. Our findings offer insights into exploring sense of place in different landscapes and contribute to ongoing efforts for refining the definitions and standardizing assessments of cultural ecosystem services.

Non-native tree species (NNT) have been transported worldwide to create or enhance services that are fundamental for human well-being, such as timber provision, erosion control or ornamental values; yet NNT can also produce undesired effects, such as fire proneness or pollen allergenicity. Despite the variety of effects that NNT have on multiple ecosystem services, a global quantitative assessment of their costs and benefits is still lacking. Such information is critical for decision-making, management and sustainable exploitation of NNT. We present here a global assessment of NNT effects on the three main categories of ecosystem services, including regulating (RES), provisioning (PES) and cultural services (CES), and on an ecosystem disservice (EDS), i.e. pollen allergenicity. By searching the scientific literature, country forestry reports, and social media, we compiled a global dataset of 1683 case studies from over 125 NNT, covering 44 countries, all continents but Antarctica, and seven biomes. Using different meta-analysis techniques, we found that, while NNT increase most RES (e.g. climate regulation, soil erosion control, fertility and formation), they decrease PES (e.g. NNT contribute less than native trees to the global timber provision). Also, they have different effects on CES (e.g. increase aesthetic values but decrease scientific interest), and no effect on the EDS. NNT effects on each ecosystem (dis)service showed a strong context-dependency, varying across NNT types, biomes and socio- economic conditions. For instance, some RES are more increased by NNT able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and when the ecosystem is located in low-latitude biomes; some CES are more increased by NNT in less wealthy countries or in countries with higher gross domestic products. The effects of NNT on several ecosystem (dis)services exhibited some synergies (e.g. among soil fertility, soil formation and climate regulation or between aesthetic values and pollen allergenicity), but also trade-offs (e.g. between fire regulation and soil erosion control). Our analyses provide a quantitative understanding of the complex synergies, trade-offs and context-dependencies involved for the effects of NNT that is essential for attaining a sustained provision of ecosystem services.

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), Ecosystem Services are divided into four main categories: supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural services. The Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) represent the physical, intellectual and spiritual interactions with ecosystems and land/seascapes. The current work aims to strengthen the links between CES and Tourism, by presenting how the conceptualization of CES can contribute to researching landscapes. A sample of 876 questionnaire respondents in six different types of landscape revealed that the CES conceptualization could provide a useful framework for understanding visitor perceptions and experiences of landscapes. Furthermore, the study showed that CES categories are very closely interconnected and an integrated approach is recommended for all landscape planning. This knowledge is essential to place making, which incorporates elements of meaning making and attachment, as well as place identity, continuity and dependency.

Despite being intangible, subjective and difficult to measure, cultural ecosystem services (CES) are more comprehensible and meaningful to people than many other services. They contribute greatly to the quality of urban life and achieving sustainability. Yet, little attention has been paid to how CES might practically be incorporated into urban planning. This paper addresses this gap by examining the challenges planners might face when handling CES, establishing strategies for addressing the challenges and highlighting key factors planners should consider when planning for CES. CES differ greatly from other ecosystem services—they are definitionally vague, difficult to measure, often bundled with other services and depend on users’ perceptions and situational factors. Therefore, rather than adopting a deterministic approach to generating CES, we suggest that urban planners should seek to create opportunities for CES to ‘hatch’ and ‘grow’ as people encounter nature in cities. This paper draws from diverse theoretical considerations of the CES concept as well as greenspace planning scholarship and practice. We identify five factors that need to be considered when planning for CES: place, people, past, practices and purpose. We see the proposed ‘5P’ framework as a useful heuristic for planners when implementing CES in urban planning.

Despite being intangible, subjective and difficult to measure, cultural ecosystem services (CES) are easier to perceive and experience than many other services and therefore more meaningful to people. They contribute greatly to personal satisfaction, the quality of urban life and achieving sustainability. Yet, little attention has been paid to how CES might practically be incorporated into urban planning. The paper addresses this gap by (1) examining the challenges planners might face when handling CES, (2) establishing strategies for addressing the challenges, and (3) highlighting key factors planners should consider when planning for CES. CES differ greatly from other ecosystem services – they are definitionally vague, difficult to measure, often bundled with other services, and depend on users’ perceptions and involvement in specific places and times to be generated. To overcome some of these challenges, we suggest that planners should seek to create opportunities for CES to “hatch” and “grow” as people encounter nature in cities. This paper draws from theoretical considerations of the CES concept as well as greenspace planning scholarship and practice. We identify five factors that need to be considered when providing opportunities for CES generations: people, places, practices, past and purpose. They interact dependently in creating opportunities for CES generation meaning that change in any one factor while keeping other unchanged will alter the outcome of planning and consequently may decide the success of the planning process. We see the proposed ‘5P’ framework as a useful mean for planners when implementing CES in urban planning. We also provided a descriptive overview of application of the 5P framework to a park analysis on the example of the Grič Park in Zagreb, Croatia.

Ecosystem services are vital for humans in urban regions. However, urban development poses a great risk for the ability of ecosystems to provide these services. In this paper we first address the most important ecosystem services in functional urban regions in Finland. Well accessible and good quality recreational ecosystem services, for example, provided by urban nature, are an important part of a high-quality living environment and important for public health. Vegetation of urban regions can have a role in carbon dioxide sequestration and thus in climate change mitigation. For instance, estimates of carbon sinks can be compared to total CO2 emissions of an urban region, and the municipality can aim at both increasing carbon sinks and decreasing CO2 emissions with proper land-use planning. Large and contiguous core nature areas, smaller green areas and ecological connections between them are the essence of regional ecological networks and are essential for maintaining interconnected habitats for species and thus biological diversity. Thus, both local and regional level ecological networks are vital for maintaining ecosystem services in urban regions. The impacts of climate change coupled with land-use and land cover change will bring serious challenges for maintaining ecosystem services in urban areas. Although not yet widely used in planning practices, the ecosystem services approach can provide an opportunity for land-use planning to develop ecologically sustainable urban regions. Currently, information on ecosystem services of urban regions is lacking and there is a need to improve the knowledge base for land-use planning.

Communities in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes are aging and depopulating. While longstanding interdependence of humans and nature in such areas holds crucial hints for sustainable development, they continue to be undervalued by existing economic frameworks. We suspect omission of non-material nature’s contributions to people (NCPs) as a possible reason for this undervaluation and focus on the intangible aspects of human–nature relationships: people’s direct and emotional attachment to their land and interrelationships between close-knit human communities and a thriving natural environment. Field observations on Sado Island, Japan, and literature reviews informed our hypothesis that perceived nature, conceptual human–nature relationships, place attachment, and social relationships contribute to subjective wellbeing. Structural equation modeling of island-wide questionnaire responses confirmed our hypothesis. Nature contributes to wellbeing by enhancing place attachment and social relationships; ecocentrism contributes to greater values of perceived nature. Free-response comments elucidated how local foods and close interpersonal relationships enhance residents’ happiness and good quality of life, as well as how aging and depopulation impact their sense of loneliness. These results lend empirical support to the understanding of human–nature interdependency in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes. In assessing their value to local residents and society at large, greater consideration should be given to intangible aspects of human–nature relationships and quality of life.

Authors Spangenberg, Joachim H., Beaurepaire, Alexis L., Bergmeier, Erwin, Burkhard, Benjamin, Ho Van Chieng, Le Quoc Cuongh, Görg, Christoph, Grescho, Volker, Le Huu Hai, Heong, K.L., Horgan, Finbarr G., Hotes, Stefan, Klotzbücher, Anika, Klotzbücher, Thimo, Kühn, Ingolf, Langerwisch, Fanny, Marion, Glenn, Moritz, Robin F.A., Quynh Anh Nguyen, Ott, Jürgen, Sann, Christina, Sattler, Cornelia, Schädler, Martin, Schmidt, Anja, Tekken, Vera Truong Dao Thanh, Thonicke, Kirsten, Türke, Manfred, Vaclavik, Tomas, Vetterlein, Doris, Westphal, Catrin, Wiemers, Martin, Settele, Josef Abstract In a cross-disciplinary project (LEGATO) combining inter-and transdisciplinary methods, we quantify the dependency of rice-dominated socio-ecological systems on ecosystem functions (ESF) and the ecosystem services (ESS) the integrated system provides. In the collaboration of a large team including geo-and bioscientists, economists, political and cultural scientists, the mutual influences of the biologica...

Due to the difficulty of capturing spatially explicit information on cultural ecosystem services (CES), previous studies have paid less attention to their relationships with other services. In this study, we quantified the relationships between selected CES using crowdsourced photographs, carbon storage and species richness of plants and butterflies for a case study in Saxony, Germany. The relationships were quantified based on the mutual information metric and using principal component analysis. We further conducted a regression analysis to control for environmental and infrastructure factors such as the share of land use classes, landscape diversity and the presence of viewpoints and picnic sites. Our results showed overall positive relationships between CES indicators and carbon sequestration as well as species richness. However, the magnitude of the relationships varied: the CES indicators showed a stronger relationship with butterfly species richness than with plant species richness. Both CES indicators showed the strongest positive relationship with carbon sequestration. This positive relationship was likely driven by forest cover, which was strongly associated with carbon storage. However, our regression analysis also showed that too much forest cover reduces the perceived CES, in particular for landscape aesthetics. Our findings provide additional information for spatial planning in the study region.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) that people co-create with agroecosystems, such as place attachment and traditional knowledge, are declining in rural areas undergoing abrupt economic, environmental, and social changes. As a result, environmental conflicts arise. This article uses an ecosystem services framework to trace causes, outcomes, and responses to open and latent environmental conflicts in rural Bulgaria. Based on a correlation network analysis, the obtained results reveal the perceived importance of rural place identity and connectedness to nature as central and the most influenced CES in latent environmental conflicts responses (without visible mobilizations). As such, CES can be overlooked as important to local people in rural areas when environmental decisions are made. The study connects these findings with the notion of latency conflicts and argues how environmental conflicts over the agricultural land enclosure and rural marginalization are intertwined with non-material contributions-CES, unveiled through the network analysis.

There is increasing concern that the ecosystem services approach puts emphasis on optimizing a small number of services, which may jeopardize environmental sustainability. One potential solution is to bring cultural ecosystem services more strongly into the foreground. We synthesize recent empirical evidence and assess what consideration of cultural ecosystem services adds to landscape management and planning. In general, cultural ecosystem services incentivize the multifunctionality of landscapes. However, depending on context, cultural ecosystem services can either encourage the maintenance of valuable landscapes or act as barriers to necessary innovation and transformation. Hence, cultural ecosystems services are not uncontested, as seen through the three analytical lenses of landowner behavior, cultural practices of communities, and landscape planning.

Communities in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes are aging and depopulating. While longstanding interdependence of humans and nature in such areas holds crucial hints for sustainable development, they continue to be undervalued by existing economic frameworks. We suspect omission of non-material nature’s contributions to people (NCPs) as a possible reason for this undervaluation and focus on the intangible aspects of human–nature relationships: people’s direct and emotional attachment to their land and interrelationships between close-knit human communities and a thriving natural environment. Field observations on Sado Island, Japan, and literature reviews informed our hypothesis that perceived nature, conceptual human–nature relationships, place attachment, and social relationships contribute to subjective wellbeing. Structural equation modeling of island-wide questionnaire responses confirmed our hypothesis. Nature contributes to wellbeing by enhancing place att...

Humanity is not separate from the earth's ecosystem, as one might think. In fact, the quality of the earth's ecosystem and its services have a significant effect on the health of humans. Cultural ecosystem services are the most important services of the ecosystems, which are vital for a sustainable living of humans on the earth. These services include the non-material benefits of the earth's ecosystem in the form of recreation, aesthetic experiences, educational benefits, spiritual improvement and cultural heritage. Overall, these services help us to enrich our social and economic conditions, manage the earth's resources in a better way, and to provide us with a good physical and mental health. However, due to a lack of information and interest for these services in our economic, social and environmental aspects of life, and in the governmental policies on the land-use changes and land management practices, these ecosystem services are in danger of being either diminished, altered or destroyed entirely. This study reviews the experiences and knowledge of indigenous peoples that are deep-rooted in nature to highlight the cultural ecosystem services and their potential role in living in harmony with nature today.

In the last few decades European industrial cities have experienced major transformations which have implied the need to rethink the role of nature. Re-naturing the city, reconnecting urban planning and nature and enhancing sustainability, means taking into account ecosystems and biodiversity through a social approach to nature which reconsiders nature as a social product and re-examines city–nature relationships, the way Urban Political Ecology (UPE) suggests. This paper focuses on the Brescia Quarry Park, a suburban space that until just a few years ago was characterized by mining activities. This area has now been transformed into a re-naturalized area and is projected to become one of Europe’s largest re-naturalized protected urban areas. These transformations are signs of a profound change in the urban metabolism. In fact, the community has struggled for many years for the recognition of the value of the area in ecological and cultural terms. Therefore, an approach was adopted ...

Hindu Kush Himalaya is home to many cultural and religious sites. The literature on the valuation of cultural sites in the mountain terrains is thin. Hence, their development and sustainability are often ignored. Using primary survey data from three different sites in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of India and Nepal, the cultural value of religious sites to the visitors and households living in the surrounding areas was estimated using a modified travel cost method. As visitors travel by foot and offer donations at the religious sites, the estimations account for these aspects in travel cost calculations. For the sample sites, the per year average use value of cultural services was estimated to be USD 2.9 million. Excluding the use value to the outside visitors, the annual estimated use value of cultural services to the approximately 200,000 households of the entire KSL area, which covers 31,252 km2, is over USD 22.6 million, which is over 7% and 15% of the per capita income of India...

Los pescadores artesanales reciben de la naturaleza servicios ecosistémicos culturales (sc) que son esenciales para su bienestar y que pueden afectarse por
intervenciones de desarrollo que ignoran su importancia y ubicación. En este estudio cuantificamos la relevancia de estos sc, analizando las relaciones espaciales de su flujo e identificando las amenazas que los comprometen, a través de encuestas, entrevistas semiestructuradas, mapeo participativo y valoración social a pescadores de la subcuenca del río Mascota, estado de Jalisco, México. Los análisis revelaron que los sc integran la identidad colectiva e individual de los pescadores y ocurren en los ríos y cuerpos de agua próximos a las localidades principales. Las amenazas fueron disminución de la abundancia de peces y captura debido a malas prácticas, alteraciones de los ríos y pérdida del bosque de ribera. Esta investigación visibiliza el valor de los sc y propone acciones para su inclusión en los planes regionales de desarrollo.

Protecting tranquil areas is becoming an important objective for landscape planning and management. In order to identify where people experience tranquillity, we developed a hybrid approach combining field-based interviews with an analysis of social media content in the form of photographs with associated tags and coordinates from the photo-sharing website Flickr. In a case study in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in Scotland, interviewed respondents reported high tranquillity ratings even when relatively close to roads and traffic noise. Mapping the distribution of Flickr photographs revealed that many people took photographs and tagged them with words related to tranquillity in easily accessible areas, often close to water bodies. Our results indicate that people find tranquillity in certain landscapes despite the presence of other people or traffic noise, which highlights the importance of taking into account tranquillity 'as experienced' for the purposes of planning and policy-making.

The demand for enjoyable recreational environments is growing. At the same time, the increase of urban areas and intensively managed agricultural areas are deemed major threats to ecosystem services provision. Therefore, protected areas are becoming increasingly important for providing recreational ecosystem services. In this study, we analysed visitors’ profiles from on-site surveys at 10 Natura 2000 sites in different Italian regions. We gathered information on recreational activities, behaviour, expenditure, satisfaction of the visitors, and knowledge of Natura 2000. Predominant recreational activities were hiking, cycling, and wine and food tasting. Mean daily expenditure per visitor amounted to 48.56 €. The level of satisfaction with site-specific facilities and features was generally high, whereas knowledge about the Natura 2000 network was scarce. In the light of the visitors’ behaviour, we identified three main types of visitors: the regional excursionist, the local recreationist, and the sportive tourist. The presented findings provide useful insights for Natura 2000 site management and related recreational ecosystem services as well as for guiding visitor management. Management implications: Our survey reveals several aspects related to recreational visits of protected areas, which are important for managing ecosystems and visitors:
• The revealed main recreational activities can help to improve the recreational opportunities or visitor management.
• Estimation of visitor expenditure indicates economic benefits at the local level.
• Visitor types describe visitor behaviour and can guide the promotion of the sites.
• Suggestions of the respondents for improving the recreational quality of the sites include more initiatives, guided tours and information, as well as the improvement of the roads and the signage system.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are important spatial elements providing humans with recreational, aesthetic, spiritual and other benefits. Yet, because of their immaterial, subjective, qualitative and unmeasurable nature, this means that scientists, decision-makers and general public often find their value difficult to grasp. We enrich the CES approach with theoretical insights from humanist geography, where we frame CES as arising from perpetual interactions between humans and their environment. Places are formed through various processes, both organic and planned, which endow people with unique identities, experiences, capabilities, knowledge and skills. We use the rural wetland area of Lake Hornborga, Sweden, with its complex history of restoration phases, to explore the profound interrelations between environmental spaces and cultural practices expressed in the everyday activities of learning, playing, creating, caring, producing, and consuming. The data was collected through qualitative methods, including interviews, observations and a focused group interview, in order to capture these unique senses and experiences. The findings outline CES as key drivers behind the formation of place, rather than mere labels for inventorying benefits people receive from nature. The presence of the iconic migratory crane is especially conducive to a positive sense of place and the practice of various activities, including tourism, around the wetland. We frame the implications for planning and future research of our findings within a context of ethics.

Understanding inhabitants' perceptions of cultural ecosystem services (CES) of urban green space will offer solutions to sustainability challenges. This study aimed to analyse the social perceptions of the supply and demand sides of CES in Dhaka City. A questionnaire-based social preference method was used. Questions in the survey concerned the respondents' satisfaction with green spaces, connected activities, limitations, CES preference and motivation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to the 405 surveyed questionnaire data to understand variation in respondents' opinions. Respondents were mostly dissatisfied with the quantity of green spaces. Respondents' family status and age influenced their satisfaction with green space quantity. Single and teenage respondents prefer green space for active recreational activities, whereas young and old respondents preferred passive kinds of recreational activities. Both space-related issues and respondents' barriers limited CES provisioning. This contextual factor particularly affected female, single and young respondents. Respondents most preferred CES was recreation. Respondents' gender, family status and age are drivers for differing perceptions of the green space-based CES. To develop sustainable city planning in the face of global environmental change, those divergent perceptions should be taken into consideration through urban development strategies. Moreover, understanding the supply and demand sides of CES help facilitate a more inclusive planning process to address urban sustainability issues.