Participatory multi-criteria decision aid: Operationalizing an integrated assessment of ecosystem services

Ongoing ecosystem alterations underscore the need for ecosystem service assessment to urgently enterpolicy-making. Participatory methods and a systematic inclusion of stakeholders are crucial yet underde-veloped cornerstones of environmental decision making. This study aims at conducting a transpare...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Langemeyer, Johannes, Palomo, Ignacio, Baraibar, Sergio, Gómez-Baggethun, Erik
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/35680
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/35680
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.01.012
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ecosistemes -- Gestió
Gestió del medi ambient
Descripción
Sumario:Ongoing ecosystem alterations underscore the need for ecosystem service assessment to urgently enterpolicy-making. Participatory methods and a systematic inclusion of stakeholders are crucial yet underde-veloped cornerstones of environmental decision making. This study aims at conducting a transparent andlegitimized integrated assessment of ecosystem services that rigorously involves stakeholder knowledgeand values in environmental decision making. To this end, participatory multi-criteria decision aid wasapplied to the case of declining vineyard ecosystems surrounding the National Park of Doñana insouth-west Spain. Data was gained by means of a survey (n = 178), interviews (n = 21), and three stake-holder workshops (each with 15–21 participants). We found that stakeholder engagement improved allsteps of decision making, including problem structuring, policy evaluation, and operationalization. Ourresults thereby reinforce two major arguments for adopting participatory methods in integrated ecosys-tem service assessments: (1) the inclusion of stakeholders and their objectives adds legitimacy to deci-sion making; (2) the integration of stakeholder knowledge provides important information for decisionmaking