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An ecosystem services-based SWOT analysis is proposed in order to identify and quantify internal and external factors supporting or threatening the conservation effectiveness of protected areas. The proposed approach concerns both the ecological and the social perspective. Strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats were evaluated based on 12 selected environmental and socio-economic indicators for all terrestrial Italian protected areas, belonging to the Natura 2000 network, and for their 5-km buffer area. The indicators, used as criteria within a multi-criteria assessment, include: core area, cost-distance between protected areas, changes in ecosystem services values, intensification of land use, and urbanization. The results were aggregated for three biogeographical regions, Alpine, Continental, and Mediterranean, indicating that Alpine sites have more opportunities and strengths than Continental and Mediterranean sites. The results call attention to where connectivity and land-use changes may have stronger influence on protected areas, in particular, whereas urbanization or intensification of agriculture may hamper conservation goals of protected areas. The proposed SWOT analysis provides helpful information for a multiple scale perspective and for identifying conservation priorities and for defining management strategies to assure biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In agroecological mosaic landscapes, the potential of the landscape to provide a broad range of ecosystem services (ES) is vital to human well-being. Landscape structure and composition plays an important role in ecosystem functioning and the production of ES. In this study, we aim to evaluate the potential of natural land use types within an agroecological mosaic landscape to provide biodiversity and ES, and evaluate landscape scales more suitable to identify ES production. We conducted our study in the Credit River Watershed, in southern Ontario (Canada). We assessed the proportion of land use types in the surrounding land cover for each site and, using field-based measurements, analyzed its association with the following parameters: plant species richness (biodiversity), aboveground carbon stock (global climate regulation), atmospheric temperature (local climate regulation), and several parameters for water quality regulation. Our results show that a higher percentage of natural areas within an agroecological mosaic landscape was associated with increased provision of many of the studied parameters. For three of them, the smallest spatial scales of assessment (site and local) had the highest proportion of the variance explained. Atmospheric temperature was the variable that could be assessed in all spatial scales, indicating that natural habitats, especially forests, can regulate temperature in both site, local and regional scales. Our findings highlight the importance of conserving natural ecosystems within the landscape mosaic, enabling the provision of biodiversity and ES. These results have implications for landscape management, as actions conducted at specific landscape scales, such as conservation/restoration efforts or urban expansion, can potentially impact biodiversity and the provision of ES that benefit human well-being. • Natural areas within mosaic landscapes can improve values of several ES. • Natural areas are associated with ES production, especially at smaller scales. • Local climate regulation can be assessed at site, local and regional scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]