Projects per year
Abstract
Ecosystem research focuses on goods and services, thereby ascribing beneficial values to the ecosystems. Depending on the context, however, outputs from ecosystems can be both positive and negative. We examined how provisioning services of wild animals and plants can switch between being services and disservices. We studied agricultural communities in Laos to illustrate when and why these switches take place. Government restrictions on land use combined with economic and cultural changes have created perceptions of rodents and plants as problem species in some communities. In other communities that are maintaining shifting cultivation practices, the very same taxa were perceived as beneficial. We propose conversion factors that in a given context can determine where an individual taxon is located along a spectrum from ecosystem service to disservice, when, and for whom. We argue that the omission of disservices in ecosystem service accounts may lead governments to direct investments at inappropriate targets.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 173–183 |
Journal | AMBIO |
Volume | 46 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 2 Sep 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2017 |
Keywords
- Cash crop production
- Conservation
- Ecosystem disservices
- Ecosystem services
- Shifting cultivation
Profiles
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Neil Dawson
- School of Global Development - Research Fellow
- Area Studies - Member
- Global Environmental Justice - Member
- ClimateUEA - Member
Person: Other related - academic, Member, Research Group Member
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Adrian Martin
- School of Global Development - Professor of Environment and Development
- Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research - Member
- Global Environmental Justice - Member
- ClimateUEA - Member
Person: Research Group Member, Academic, Teaching & Research
Projects
- 1 Finished
-
Ecosystem Services, Wellbeing and Justice: developing tools for research and development practise
Sikor, T., Ball, S., Danielsen, F., Martin, A., Mertz, O., Thongmanivong, M. & Dawson, N.
Natural Environment Research Council
1/11/13 → 30/04/16
Project: Research