Cultural ecosystem services of Chinese typical landscapes: Rethinking Non-Material Links between People and their Landscapes

Samenvatting (Engelstalig):

To inform decision-making for sustainable landscape management, an elicitation of people’s concerns associated with their landscapes from socio-cultural perspectives is. The objective of this research was to investigate the non-material links between people and landscapes by analysing cultural ecosystem services (CES), the benefits that people receive from ecosystems in the form of spiritual, religious, recreational, inspirational and educational experiences, in four typical Chinese landscapes (Dryland agricultural landscape, wetlands, grasslands and coastal wetlands).The research highlighted that human interventions, including ecological restoration, conservation and local economic development influence CES perception, by influencing the opportunities for local people to engage with their landscapes, as well as potentially influencing the demographic characteristics of local communities. Considering cultural ecosystem services, local communities, and the way they interact with different landscape features in ecological conservation and landscape management can help to improve conservation effectiveness, and pioneer new co-management arrangements.