Linking Ecosystem Services to Social Well-Being: An Approach to Assess Land Degradation

Abstract

Land degradation usually leads to the loss of ecosystem services, which may threaten social well-being. There is no approach to identify and manage all ecosystem services based on their importance in degradation processes and social systems. This study aimed to link ecosystem services to social well-being in order to assess rangeland degradation. Eleven ecosystem services (forage production, water yield, edible plants, fuel, medicinal plants, pollination, gas regulation, soil resistivity to erosion, soil fertility, scenic beauty, and recreation) were assessed in a semiarid rangeland near Bardsir city, Kerman Province, southeast Iran. There were significant differences between the rangeland types in providing ecosystem services (p < 0.05). Four criteria and 17 indices of social well-being were weighed according to their importance for local stakeholders. Rangeland degradation was estimated using the weight of the indices for social well-being and ecosystem services. Discriminant analysis indicated that supporting services (soil fertility) and provisioning services (water yield and forage production) had the greatest impact on rangeland degradation, which is related to food security in social well-being. Ecosystem services and social well-being declined in medium and severe degradation due to plant composition change and overgrazing based on principal component analysis (PCA). More than 70% of the watershed has been highly and severely degraded. There was a trade-off relationship between ecosystem services and social well-being in very severe degraded areas because of social well-being promotion due to agriculture expansion. Based on our approach, the loss rate of the ecosystem services and social well-being indices in each degradation category is a good guide for management programs and decision-makers to meet both the needs of the people and the preservation of ecosystems.

Plant functional traits shape cultural and provisioning services to Indigenous communities in western Amazonia

“…Therefore, reducing functional diversity or changing its composition could alter the supply of cultural services and affect good social relationships and freedom of choice by Indigenous Peoples. Sometimes a minor change in ecosystem services can trigger substantial changes when the loss exceeds certain thresholds (Sharafatmandrad & Khosravi Mashizi, 2021). Thereby, the protection of sites, species, or ecosystems of special significance improves the morale of large populations and the ability of self-determination.…”

Identifying the Changes in Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being under Agricultural Transformation Contexts in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of the Xi’an Metropolitan Zone, China

“…Most studies have shown that ecosystem services offer many benefits to human wellbeing [69,70]. In the "grain-grain" transformation, economic production services have directly or indirectly impacted on four dimensions of well-being.…”

The extent, perceived causes and impacts of land use and land cover change in Tyhume Valley, South Africa

“…Consequently, it remains unclear of what constitutes land degradation (von Maltitz et al, 2019), which explains why there is conspicuous absence of sound frameworks to guide policy formulation and the implementation of actionable adaptation strategies. In attempting to bridge this gap, recent studies suggest that LULC change be viewed from the perspective of the ecosystem goods and services that communities accrue from communal lands (Palmer and Bennett, 2013;Willemen et al, 2018;Sharafatmandrad and Mashizi, 2021;Kuule et al, 2022). This reasoning is informed by a scientifically premised realization of the fact that spatial and temporal variations in the distributions of the critical LULC types have far-reaching adverse impacts on sustainable access to ecosystem services and livelihoods of local communities.…”

“…In Ethiopia, ecosystem service values provided by grassland, forest, and shrubland, declined due to the expansion of cropland, which was associated with human population growth and increasing demands for food (Belay et al, 2022). In Iran, change in plant compositions resulted in the decline of forage and medicinal plants (Sharafatmandrad and Mashizi, 2021). In Uganda, grasslands were overtaken by cropland and built-up area, while tree loss was reportedly associated with land privatization, land clearing, and fuelwood extraction (Kuule et al, 2022).…”