Bill Slee

Anticipating and managing future trade-offs and complementarities between ecosystem services

This paper shows how, with the aid of computer models developed in close collaboration with decision makers and other stakeholders, it is possible to quantify and map how policy decisions are likely to affect multiple ecosystem services in future. In this way, potential trade-offs and complementarities between different ecosystem services can be identified, so that policies can be designed to avoid the worst trade-offs, and where possible, enhance multiple services. The paper brings together evidence from across the Rural Economy and Land Use Programmes Sustainable Uplands project for the first time, with previously unpublished model outputs relating to runoff, agricultural suitability, biomass, heather cover, age, and utility for Red Grouse (Lagopus scotica), grass cover, and accompanying scenario narratives and video. Two contrasting scenarios, based on policies to extensify or intensify land management up to 2030, were developed through a combination of interviews and discussions during site visits with stakeholders, literature review, conceptual modeling, and process-based computer models, using the Dark Peak of the Peak District National Park in the UK as a case study. Where extensification leads to a significant reduction in managed burning and grazing or land abandonment, changes in vegetation type and structure could compromise a range of species that are important for conservation, while compromising provisioning services, amenity value, and increasing wildfire risk. However, where extensification leads to the restoration of peatlands damaged by former intensive management, there would be an increase in carbon sequestration and storage, with a number of cobenefits, which could counter the loss of habitats and species elsewhere in the landscape. In the second scenario, land use and management was significantly intensified to boost UK self-sufficiency in food. This would benefit certain provisioning services but would have negative consequences for carbon storage and water quality and would lead to a reduction in the abundance of certain species of conservation concern. The paper emphasizes the need for spatially explicit models that can track how ecosystem services might change over time, in response to policy or environmental drivers, and in response to the changing demands and preferences of society, which are far harder to anticipate. By developing such models in close collaboration with decision makers and other stakeholders, it is possible to depict scenarios of real concern to those who need to use the research findings. By engaging these collaborators with the research findings through film, it was possible to discuss adaptive options to minimize trade-offs and enhance the provision of multiple ecosystem services under the very different future conditions depicted by each scenario. By preparing for as wide a range of futures as possible in this way, it may be possible for decision makers to act rapidly and effectively to protect and enhance the provision of ecosystem services in the face of unpredictable future change.

Public preferences for landscape features: A case study of two Scottish environmentally sensitive areas

Abstract This paper examines the extent to which the menu of environmental features supported by public policy in two Scottish environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) and the range of environmental products supported by farmers who have participated in the scheme are congruent with public preferences. The examination of public preferences was based on a sample survey of residents and visitors to the Loch Lomond and Stewartry ESAs and the Scottish general public. This sample was split, with one group being asked questions relating to their valuation of a range of environmental features, and the second group being asked about their preferred level of future provision of the same set of features. The results indicate that the features most widely adopted by farmers and which have been very costly to support are amongst those least desired by the visitors to the areas and the general public. Consequently, it might be asserted that a changed menu of supported environmental actions in ESAs would be likely to deliver higher levels of social benefits.

Resolving production-environment conflicts: the case of the Regional Forest Agreement Process in Australia

Abstract This paper evaluates the development of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) as a means of reducing timber production-environment conflicts in Australia, with particular reference to the development of the Regional Forest Agreement in Northeast Victoria. Regional Forest Agreements are formal legal agreements between federal and state governments. The processes associated with their production have a number of innovative features from a social perspective, but the economic analysis associated with their production fails to put any value on the non-market values associated with native forests. The processes involved in the production of Regional Forest Agreements may result in economic benefit through local capacity building and conflict resolution amongst different stakeholders. However, there may be a gap between the intention and the outcome, in that RFAs have in some cases polarised and exacerbated conflicts.

A contingent valuation of the Mar Lodge Estate, Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland

Abstract The contingent valuation method is applied to the economic valuation of a significant environmental resource in the Scottish Highlands. Use and non‐use values are estimated. The results of such studies might be used to assist decision makers assess the case for public intervention to support the provision of environmental non‐market goods.

To climb a mountain? Social inclusion and outdoor recreation in Britain

Abstract Despite the importance of social inclusion policies for outdoor recreation in Britain, there is some debate over their effectiveness. Young people and the disabled as well as ethnic minorities and the less well off, all take part in outdoor recreation proportionately less than other sectors in society. The British literature has identified that this could partly result from a desire not to rather than simply not having the opportunity to recreate in the countryside. Twelve case studies that have attempted to develop inclusive policies for recreation are examined. They are likely to be most successful if they are community driven, they are empowering and they increase social cohesion. Partnerships that involve outreach staff also are most likely to succeed. Evaluations of projects should be qualitative as well as quantitative if their real success is to be uncovered and initiatives should be appropriately marketed. Fixed term funding is a common problem for socially inclusive outdoor recreation initiatives and a paternalistic ethos also can threaten their success.

An economic assessment of informal recreation policy in the Scottish countryside

Abstract Countryside recreation policy in Scotland is currently delivered through numerous ad hoc arrangements. This paper assesses the economic effectiveness of these arrangements using cost‐benefit analysis. The benefits associated with recreation enhancements are measured using the contingent valuation method, while the costs are assessed through a survey of public and voluntary section expenditure on informal recreation. The analysis demonstrates that recreation policies are generally economically efficient in that they target enhancement programmes that are shown to generate high economic benefits. The exception to this is related to investments in visitor centres. The paper concludes that the cost‐benefit methodology adopted in this research can provide useful information for the strategic analysis of countryside recreation policy.