Laura Nahuelhual

Patagonian Fjord Ecosystems in Southern Chile as a Highly Vulnerable Region: Problems and Needs

Southern Chile encompasses one of the most extensive fjord regions of the world, the Patagonia, currently exposed to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. These fjord ecosystems provide important services to humans, which have not been adequately measured and valued. As a consequence, ecosystem services are commonly ignored in public policy design and in the evaluation of development projects. Here we tackle questions that are highly relevant for the nation’s development, namely (1) understanding fjord functioning, and (2) developing management strategies based on ecosystem services, in order to secure simultaneous and adequate use of these ecosystems which area influenced by ecological (e.g., biogeochemical) and productive (e.g., aquaculture, fisheries) processes. We also seek to strengthen the analysis of fjord ecosystem value from the economical (including coastal zoning), socio-cultural, institutional, and governmental points of view. In addition, the investigation of current and future effects of climate change on this large region offers a unique opportunity to understand the social and economic consequences of a global phenomenon at local to regional scales. Biogeochemical and socio-economic models will be used to simulate future scenarios under a gamut of management options.

Concepts and methods for landscape multifunctionality and a unifying framework based on ecosystem services

The potential of landscapes to supply multiple benefits to society beyond commodities production has received increasing research and policy attention. Linking the concept of multifunctionality with the ecosystem services (ES) approach offers a promising avenue for producing scientific evidence to inform landscape planning, e.g., about the relative utility of land-sharing and land-sparing. However, the value for decision-making of ES-based multifunctionality assessments has been constrained by a significant conceptual and methodological dispersion. To contribute towards a cohesive framework for landscape multifunctionality, we analyse case studies of joint ES supply regarding ten criteria designed to ultimately answer four aspects: (i) the multifunctionality of what (e.g., landscapes), (ii) the type of multifunctionality (e.g., based on ES synergies), (iii) the procedure of multifunctionality assessments, and (iv) the purpose of multifunctionality. We constructed a typology of methodological approaches based on scores for criteria describing the evaluation method and the level of stakeholder participation in assessments of joint ES supply. Surveyed studies and underlying types of methodological approaches (spatial, socio-spatial, functional, spatio-functional) differed in most criteria. We illustrate the influence of methodological divergence on planning recommendations by comparing two studies employing contrasting approaches (spatial and functional) to assess the joint supply of wildlife habitat and agricultural production in the Argentine Chaco. We distinguish between a pattern-based and process-based multifunctionality, where the latter can only be detected through approaches considering the ecological processes (e.g., ES complementarities) supporting the supply of multiple ES (functional and spatio-functional). Finally, we propose an integrated approach for assessing a socially-relevant process-based multifunctionality.

Ecosystem services in changing landscapes: An introduction

Abstract The concept of ecosystem services from landscapes is rapidly gaining momentum as a language to communicate values and benefits to scientists and lay alike. Landscape ecology has an enormous contribution to make to this field, and one could argue, uniquely so. Tools developed or adapted for landscape ecology are being increasingly used to assist with the quantification, modelling, mapping, and valuing of ecosystem services. Several of these tools and methods encased therein are described among the eleven papers presented in this special issue, and their application has the potential to facilitate the management and promotion of services within ecosystems. Papers are associated with each of the four key categories of services that ecosystems provide to humans: supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural. The papers represent work conducted in eleven different countries, especially from South America. Each carries a unique approach to address a particular question pertaining to a particular set of ecosystem services. These studies are designed to inform and improve the economic, environmental and social values of the ecosystem services. This knowledge should help to develop new management alternatives for sustaining and planning ecosystems and the services they provide at different scales in space and time. We believe that these papers will create interest and inform management of some potential methods to evaluate ecosystem services at the landscape level with an integrative approach, offering new tools for management and conservation.

Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Dryland Forest Restoration in Central Chile

Investment in natural capital restoration is increasing as a response to the widespread ecological degradation of dryland forests. However, finding efficient mechanisms to promote restoration among private landowners is a significant challenge for policy makers with limited financial resources. Furthermore, few attempts have been made to evaluate the costs and benefits of restoration interventions even though this information is relevant to orient decision making. Hence, our goal was to estimate the benefits and costs of dryland forest restoration by means of reforestation with native trees in a study area in central Chile. To determine benefits we applied a Contingent Valuation questionnaire that allowed for the calculation of willingness to pay measures. Restoration costs were calculated based on market prices following existing technical recommendations developed for the study area. The results showed that the restoration project had a negative NPV irrespective of the discount rate applied in the analysis. Thus, the NPV varied between -US

Spatio-temporal effects of human drivers on fire danger in Mediterranean Chile

71,000 and -US

Focusing Conservation Efforts on Ecosystem Service Supply May Increase Vulnerability of Socio-Ecological Systems

258,000. The NPV attained positive results only for negative discount rates (US

Adoption of cleaner production practices by dairy farmers in southern Chile.

15,039 for -2%) and only when the national subsidy available for forest restoration was taken into account. This shows that landowners in Colliguay do not have incentives for carrying out restoration interventions due to a classic market failure: that in which ecosystems are mismanaged because many of their benefits are externalities from the perspective of landowners. Overall, these results stress the need for developing new compensation mechanisms and enhancing those in existence, with the aim of making restoration competitive with other land uses.

Mapping social values of ecosystem services: What is behind the map?

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la influencia de factores humanos, en especifico del cambio de cobertura y uso de suelo (CCUS), en el peligro de incendios forestales en una region mediterranea de Chile. Para ello, se evaluo la probabilidad de ignicion y la inflamabilidad del paisaje como componentes clave del peligro de incendio. La probabilidad de ignicion fue determinada a traves de una de regresion autologistica para los anos 1999 y 2009, utilizando como base los registros de la Corporacion Nacional Forestal y variables generadas a partir de bases de datos geograficas. La inflamabilidad se evaluo mediante la combinacion de las categorias de vegetacion presentes en el Catastro y evaluacion de recursos vegetacionales de Chile de 1999 y su actualizacion de 2009, y el modelo de combustible desarrollado por Julio (1995). Se llevo a cabo un analisis espacio-temporal de inflamabilidad el que se relaciono con los principales procesos CCUS (expansion de plantaciones, regeneracion forestal y abandono de tierras agricolas). Se combino la probabilidad de ignicion y el analisis de inflamabilidad para producir mapas de peligro de incendios. Los resultados mostraron que el peligro de incendio es un indicador dinamico que depende en gran medida de factores humanos. En 1999, las areas de alto peligro concentraron 31.399 hectareas, mientras que para el ano 2009 esta area aumento en 54.705 ha. En ambos periodos el peligro tuvo una distribucion espacial similar, concentrandose cerca de las carreteras, principales ciudades (26,3 % de la zona de peligro) y en areas cubiertas por plantaciones forestales (33,2 % de la superficie bajo peligro alto de incendio)

Impacts of anthropogenic land-use change on populations of the Endangered Patagonian cypress Fitzroya cupressoides in southern Chile: implications for its conservation

Growing concern about the loss of ecosystem services (ES) promotes their spatial representation as a key tool for the internalization of the ES framework into land use policies. Paradoxically, mapping approaches meant to inform policy decisions focus on the magnitude and spatial distribution of the biophysical supply of ES, largely ignoring the social mechanisms by which these services influence human wellbeing. If social mechanisms affecting ES demand, enhancing it or reducing it, are taken more into account, then policies are more effective. By developing and applying a new mapping routine to two distinct socio-ecological systems, we show a strong spatial uncoupling between ES supply and socio-ecological vulnerability to the loss of ES, under scenarios of land use and cover change. Public policies based on ES supply might not only fail at detecting priority conservation areas for the wellbeing of human societies, but may also increase their vulnerability by neglecting areas of currently low, but highly valued ES supply.

Livelihood trajectories in the Chilean Patagonian region: an ethnographic approach to coastal and marine socioecological change

Rising concerns about the environmental costs of dairy production have resulted in an increasing use of farm practices that diminish negative production externalities. Yet, little empirical evidence exists regarding the factors infl uencing the adoption of pollution-reducing strategies by dairy farmers. In this study, we estimate a logit probability model to explain fi rststage adoption of capital-intensive cleaner production (CP) practices, using a sample of 100 medium and large-size dairy farms located in southern Chile. Voluntary approaches to pollution control in agriculture are relatively recent in Chile and diffusion has been slow and uneven among farmers. Only 43% of the farmers surveyed were using some CP practices at the time of the interview. The probability of adoption was found to be positively correlated with farmer’s education and age, awareness of environmental regulations, the type of milk buyer, and the use of complementary CP management practices. Conversely, farm structure variables were not signifi cant, which suggests that the adoption of CP practices could be responding to noneconomic motivations. La creciente preocupacion por los costos ambientales generados por la produccion lechera, se ha traducido en un mayor uso de practicas que disminuyan la generacion de externalidades negativas. Sin embargo, existe escasa evidencia empirica en relacion con los factores que determinan el nivel de adopcion de tales practicas en el caso de predios lecheros. En este estudio se estimo un modelo de probabilidad (logit) para explicar la adopcion de practicas de produccion limpia (PL) intensivas en capital, para una muestra de 100 explotaciones lecheras de mediano y gran tamano del sur de Chile. En Chile, los enfoques voluntarios para el control de la contaminacion en la agricultura, como es el caso de la PL, son relativamente recientes y su difusion ha sido lenta y desigual entre los agricultores. Para el caso de esta muestra, solo el 43% de los agricultores utilizaba practicas de PL en el momento de la entrevista. Los resultados indican que la probabilidad de adopcion presenta una correlacion positiva con la educacion del agricultor y la edad, el conocimiento de las normativas ambientales, el tipo de comprador de leche, y el uso de practicas complementarias de PL basadas en manejo. Por el contrario, las variables relacionadas con la estructura predial no fueron estadisticamente signifi cativas, lo que sugiere que la adopcion de practicas de PL puede responder a motivaciones no economicas.