Stakeholder Perceptions of the Impacts of Rural Funding Scenarios on Mountain Landscapes Across Europe

The plurality of wilderness beliefs and their mediating role in shaping attitudes towards wilderness

In light of current trends of land abandonment across Europe, the rewilding of abandoned land is increasingly discussed as a future land management option. Since many of the regions affected by rewilding developments will be located in vicinity to densely populated areas, it is imperative to better understand public's attitudes towards an expansion of wilderness. Prior research on wilderness attitudes has typically been descriptive and rarely explored the underlying processes that lead to differences in wilderness attitudes. Taking the Theory of Planned Behaviour as our framework of analysis, we examine public attitudes towards wilderness in the context of people's beliefs of wilderness, and to what extent these beliefs can explain differences in wilderness attitudes between social groups. Results of a questionnaire survey (n = 858) in the mountain region of South Tyrol in the Central Alps show that wilderness attitudes are significantly influenced by three dimensions of wilderness beliefs, corresponding to 1) respondents' general wilderness representations, 2) perceived extent of wilderness areas, and 3) expected consequences of wilderness expansion. In addition, significant differences in wilderness attitudes are found between age groups, user groups, and groups with varying degrees of interest in wildlife watching. Our results indicate that these differences are partly related to contradictory views of wilderness, suggesting that it is not only conflicting interests that may lead to differences in wilderness attitudes between social groups. We conclude that participatory processes are needed to consider the plurality of people's wilderness representations and their perception of risks and benefits for the design and implementation of socially-just rewilding initiatives.

Spatio-temporal changes in ecosystem service values: Effects of land-use changes from past to future (1860-2100)

Increasing global pressure on natural resources requires that decision makers and land managers adopt sustainable solutions to ensure the long-term provision of essential ecosystem services (ES). Analysing the effects of land-use changes on ES can contribute to an improved understanding of the interactions between socio-economic development, landscape changes and ES, which is fundamental in order to avoid or mitigate the undesired consequences of today's decisions. Studies at longer timescales are still underrepresented, but are also fundamental for capturing slow social and ecological processes. This study therefore analysed the impacts of land-use/land cover (LULC) changes on ES values from the past to the future (1860-2100) in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol (Italy). Future scenarios were based on socio-economic storylines and their spatial distribution mapped. By attributing ES values to LULC types, we assessed changes in ES values as well as their spatial patterns. Our results indicate that the abandonment of mountain grassland induced an ongoing shift in ES at higher elevations, from grassland-related ES towards forest-related ES. The intensification of use in the valley bottoms had predominantly negative effects on regulation & maintenance, and cultural ES in the past. Under future scenarios, changes in ES values at lower elevations greatly depend on expected socio-economic development. Negative effects on regulation & maintenance and cultural ES were highest for the 'Food sovereignty' scenario due to huge transformations of grassland and permanent cultures to arable land in order to optimise food provision at the regional level. In contrast, under the 'Liberalisation' and 'Rewilding' scenarios, there were positive trends for forest-related provisioning ES and less negative effects on regulation & maintenance and cultural ES within the study area, but the dependence on imported products increased. Our findings provide valuable information for decision-making and policy development in order to minimise negative consequences through targeted management measures or payments for environmental services.

A Review of Changes in Mountain Land Use and Ecosystem Services: From Theory to Practice

Global changes impact the human-environment relationship, and, in particular, they affect the provision of ecosystem services. Mountain ecosystems provide a wide range of such services, but they are highly sensitive and vulnerable to change due to various human pressures and natural processes. We conducted a literature survey that focused on two main issues. The first was the identification of quantitative methods aimed at assessing the impact of land use changes in mountain regions and the related ecosystem services. The second was the analysis of the extent to which the outcomes of these assessments are useful and transferable to stakeholders. We selected papers through a keyword-driven search of the ISI Web of Knowledge and other international databases. The keywords used for the search were mountain land use change and ecosystem service. Quantitative approaches to ecosystem service assessment rely on suitable indicators, therefore land use/land cover can be used as an appropriate proxy. Landscape metrics are a powerful analytical tool; their use can increase the accuracy of assessments and facilitate the mitigation of specific phenomena, such as fragmentation or the reduction of core habitat areas. Mapping is essential: it is the basis for spatial analyzes and eases the interactions between stakeholders. Land use/land cover change is a temporal process, so both past and future approaches are meaningful. It is necessary to enhance information transfer from theory to practice. Increasing stakeholder awareness can lead to suitable management solutions, and, reciprocally, stakeholder feedback can help improve current assessment methodologies and contribute to developing new tools that are suitable for specific problems.

Multiple ecosystem services of a changing Alpine landscape: past, present and future

In mountain regions, ecosystem services provision is strongly linked to land use, topography and climate, where impacts can be expected under global change. For our study site in the Austrian Alps, we examined the relationship between agricultural activities and multiple ecosystem services on landscape scale from past to future. Modelling of future land-use patterns was based on stakeholder workshops considering different socio-economic and climate scenarios. In the past, land-use intensity was reduced resulting in less forage provision but better regulating services. Future scenarios predict contrasting developments; under conditions of global change, farmers shift the focus of their activities towards tourism, but in times of global economic crisis farming becomes more important again. Developing the local economy facilitates new markets for agricultural products, but projected drought periods will cause an abandonment of farmland. While forest regeneration is valuable for regulating services, it reduces the aesthetic value. Both regulating and cultural services decrease when forage provision is optimized. To ensure multiple ecosystem service provision, agricultural management should be related to ecosystem services and included into land-use policies and agricultural incentives.