Ecosystem services as if people mattered

Ecosystem services

as if people mattered Joachim H. Spangenberg UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Dept. Community Ecology, Halle and Sustainable Europe Research Institute SERI Germany e.V., Cologne, Germany

Presentation at the 21st ISDRS Conference Geelong (Melbourne), Victoria, Australia, 10 - 12 July 2015 “The Tipping Point: Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity” Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The ESS Definition

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The ESS Definition 1 “Ecosystem Services are the goods and services that biodiversity and ecosystems provide to human wellbeing” (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005) This is the “objective” definition: neither the valuer nor the beneficiary play a role in it. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Who decides? If those considered to be beneficiaries value (recognise and welcome) the effect of nature, if they actively mobilise, passively enjoy or reluctantly bear it plays no role. The decision what is a (dis)service has to be taken by experts and authorities. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Whose values count? • Lobbyists’ and politicians’? • Expert scientists’ and economists’? • The local people’s who live from the ESS, and will have to live with the results?

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The ESS Definition 2 “Ecosystem Services are the benefits humans recognise as obtained from an ecosystem and that support, directly or indirectly, their survival and quality of life” (Harrison et al. 2009). Economically speaking, what is not recognised cannot be demanded and has no value. It is no ESS. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Defining „benefits“: Holy place or tourist attraction (and money machine)?

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Trade-offs between services • Trade-offs: some services are mutually exclusive: land use for industry and mangrove system services. These may by marginal for high sea fishers, oil companies, coastal developers,… • Synergies: again other services are cogenerated, one cannot be produced without the other like fish breeding ground, aesthetics and flood protection by mangroves. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Mangrove Values

Dr. Joachim H. Spangenberg, Biodiversity and SPAC, Belgrade 9.10. 07

The ESS Cascade

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The starting point: Potschin & Haines-Young (2011) Source: Potschin, M. and R. Haines-Young (2011): Ecosystem Services: Exploring a geographical perspective. Progress in Physical Geography 35(5): 575-594. - Adapted after: Haines-Young, R. & Potschin, M. (2010): The links between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. In: Raffaelli, D. & C. Frid (eds.): Ecosystem Ecology: a new synthesis. BES Ecological Reviews Series, CUP, Cambridge, p.110-139.

Biophysical  structure or  process (e.g. woodland  habitat or net  primary  productivity )

Function (e.g. slow passage of water, or biomass)

Limit pressures via policy action?

Σ Pressures

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Service (e.g. flood protection, or harvestable products)

Benefit (e.g. contribution to aspects of wellbeing such as health and safety)

Value (e.g. willingness to pay for woodland protection or for more woodland, or harvestable products)

Gansu

Sichuan

Ecosystem services: considered free gifts of nature generating a natural flow of benefits

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Shanxi

Gansu

In this cascade… …each step flows “naturally” from the previous: structures determine functions which determine ESS which determine benefits which determine value. …who gets what seems to be a natural process, legitimising current distribution: risk of a new variant of social Darwinism. …value is monetary, also for non-market ESS, implying commodification: what is measured in € is a (suggested) price, no value Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The social process of ESS co-production:

Modifying the “Cascade”

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The ESS Cascade (Spangenberg et al. 2014) A focus on the processes: attributing values, mobilising, appropriating, commercialising services

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The ESS Cascade (Spangenberg et al. 2014) Which ESP is defined, which ESS are generated, who appropriates them and reaps the benefits, is no way natural but a matter of (political) power

The overlap requires transdisciplinarity

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Open questions

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Stakeholders: heroes, villains, victims • Who has the right to access and mobilise a potential or existing service? • What constitutes a right (tradition, labour, contracts, payments to whom)? • Why respect property but not possessions? • How should a chosen service be mobilised – central/decentral, small/large scale? • Who has the resources to undertake the chosen form of mobilisation?

• Choices constitute exclusions – thus

making people count is essential!

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Human Agency • Different groups, agents, stakeholders and cultures have different world views and thus recognise different potential and real services. • Identifying use potentials is an intellectual act, not (yet) a physical intervention. • Which potential is realised is a matter of power, and of societal/political conflict moderation processes. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

From bottom up

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Up the cascade

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Up the cascade

Club

(subtractibility = rivalry, distinguishing rival/non-rival goods) Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The nature of ecosystem services (illustrated by those identified in a LaMa study from the Okavango basin)

The cascade as stairways Sustainable land management: private ownership or use rights as a shortcut to avoid considering the public good

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The SES framework (Version of McGinnis & Ostrom 2014) • For private and club goods, property owners (A) decide how to maximise their ESB within the prevailing legal framework (GS).

• For public goods, government (GS) is the responsible agent (A).

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

What about Common Pool Goods? • CPG are not ungoverned; the “tragedy of the commons” is a tragedy of common sense. • Actors constitute (informal) institution and act within this governance framework. • They manage Ecosystems and ESF to provide best ESB to the community.

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

The SES framework (Version of McGinnis & Ostrom 2014) • Ecosystems and their functions are Resource Systems (RS).

• Service providing units (SPU) are resource units (RU), although hard to define for ESS bundles. • Attribution, mobilisation & appropriation are all Focal Action Situations Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Conclusions

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Some Conclusions

• Ecosystem services are no free gifts of nature but the result of co-production in of the environmental and social system and their processes. • Who decides about their provision and appropriation is a matter of power, but also of the character of the respective service. • The prevailing regime (set of rules, institutions, governance) is crucial. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Ecosystem services: not free gifts of nature but a human view on nature’s riches

Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

More Conclusions •

Which good should be public, private or common pool is a political decision each country has to take. Fridges, passports, voting rights, higher education, land and land use, ESS and ESB are cases in point.

• Conflicts between private owners and rule setters are unavoidable if regulators indeed pursue the public good. • Societal self-management is effective and protects the community values. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

Final Conclusions

• Current ESS research, by neglecting social and political processes, noneconomic values and the influence of power relations risks to generate pseudo-”objective” results serving the legitimation of dominant interests. • The SES framework can help analysing the ESF-ESP-ESS management and ESB distribution processes in particular for common pool goods. Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015

We have become far too clever to survive without wisdom E. F. Schumacher Thank you for your attention For the presentation and other papers see

http://seri.academia.edu/JoachimHSpangenberg Dr. J. H. Spangenberg, ESS as if people mattered, Geelong, July 2015