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Summary: Relational values are a way of recognizing and valuing the complex and interconnected relationships between people and nature, such as caregiving, place attachment and spiritual meaning, as well as the social and cultural impacts of degradation and environmental and conservation efforts. However, the implications of these values for the management and conservation of protected areas are little known. We explored the role of relational values in shaping local communities' connectedness to a protected area of Ecuador that had been used by the military in the past and the implications of the values for well-being. Four hundred individual face-to-face surveys in the surroundings of Arenillas Ecological Reserve (south-west Ecuador) indicated high levels of connectedness towards this natural reserve amongst local communities through multiple values of nature. However, relational values were identified as the most prominent value explaining the strength of connectedness to nature, followed by intrinsic and instrumental values. We also showed that combinations of different natural values (instrumental, intrinsic and relational) might explain the support for specific well-being components. Our findings offer understanding of human behaviour towards protected areas with a military past and represent a first step in Ecuador towards comprehending how relational values shape the connectedness of local communities to nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry rivers are non-perennial rivers with no surface water in their channels except after heavy rainfall or snowmelt. The lack of water flow is often associated with a low provision of Nature's Contributions to People (NCP) and a poor quality of life. However, recent review studies have found evidence of human communities thriving in dry rivers through the co-production of multiple NCP, although no case studies have yet confirmed this evidence. We assessed the capacity of dry rivers and their associated social systems to provide NCP. We selected three dry rivers with high natural, cultural and landscape values in the most arid part of Murcia (Spain). We interviewed 37 representatives of the most influential social groups in the study area to explore the NCP of dry rivers, their synergies and trade-offs. Four material, three non-material and eight regulating NCP were identified, as well as one unique NCP: access to villages and fields through dry riverbeds. Fifty-two synergies were identified, especially between material and non-material NCP, and eight trade-offs. This wide range of NCP and synergies is a consequence of the co-production processes between dry rivers and the social system. NCP co-production seems to be underpinned by the indigenous and local knowledge acquired by the social system over generations about the management of floodwaters, biodiversity and geodiversity. Incorporating this knowledge into research and governance can help raise awareness of the NCP provided by dry rivers and help develop strategies for mitigating and adapting to global change. Dry rivers provide benefits that contribute to people's quality of life. These benefits are co-produced by dry rivers and their associated social systems. The co-production of benefits depends on the traditional knowledge that social systems have acquired over generations. The co-production of benefits between dry rivers and their social systems is a sustainable reference model, providing food, freshwater, medicines, building materials, natural habitats, soil protection, scientific advances, recreation and cultural identity. Benefit co-production and traditional knowledge from dry rivers not only contribute to people's quality of life, but are also a source of strategies for coping with global change, particularly climate change in drylands. Society seems to be unaware of the high value of dry rivers for our quality of life. Integrating benefit co-production and traditional knowledge into governance is essential to revalue these ecosystems and develop effective management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which was adopted in December 2022 to guide international biodiversity conservation efforts until 2030. The framework aims to address the decline in biodiversity and emphasizes the importance of including diverse perspectives and knowledge systems in conservation efforts. The text highlights the relevance of the GBF targets to the journal Ecosystems and People and provides examples of recent research that aligns with these targets. The targets discussed include biodiversity inclusive spatial planning, effective restoration, protected areas, conservation of species, sustainable use and trade of wild species, and invasive alien species management. The given text discusses the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its targets, focusing on the relevance of these targets to the journal Ecosystems and People. The text highlights specific targets that are of particular interest to the journal, including sustainable management in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry; restoring and maintaining nature's contributions to people; green and blue urban spaces; mainstreaming biodiversity and its multiple values; representation and participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities; and gender equity. The text also references recent studies published in the journal that address these targets, emphasizing the need for diverse perspectives and knowledge systems in biodiversity conservation. The authors encourage further research and contributions that can help achieve the targets outlined in the GBF. [Extracted from the article]

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In addition, agricultural intensification is currently threatening the maintenance of traditional indigenous and peasant farming, whose practices have been proven to be beneficial for building up resilient agroecosystems that sustain both ecosystems and societal well-being [[15]]. However, so far, in the Global North, the majority of the proposed frameworks have been based on applying incremental or reformative practices (e.g., sustainable intensification, sustainable agriculture, conservation agriculture, or integrated pest management) [[32]], whereas agroecology has been more frequently applied in countries of the Global South [[33]]. A Transformative (r)Evolution of the Research on Agriculture through Fostering Human-Nature Connectedness - A Special Issue Editorial For instance, very often, agroecology is combined with the use of participatory research methods, such as participatory action research [[41]], and on the other hand, over the last few years, citizen-science methods have become an emerging topic in sustainable agriculture [[42]]. [Extracted from the article]

In the last decade, an awareness towards temporary rivers has increased globally in response to drying climates and growing human demand for water. However, social perceptions of temporary rivers have rarely been incorporated in their science and management. In this study, we advance an understanding of the socio-cultural values of temporary rivers principally in a European context. We used an ecosystem services-based approach for a participatory and deliberative exercise with 16 researchers and managers. Our results point out to two important aspects of socio-cultural values in temporary rivers. First, cultural ecosystem services have high socio-cultural values and usually represent the interests of the less influential stakeholders in related conflicts. And second, the temporal and geographical variability of these types of rivers is key to understand their socio-cultural values. As an example, the low provision of freshwater in a long non-flowing phase is one of the reasons for its high value. The results above point to future research needs that deserve more attention like the study of tradeoffs and synergies of ecosystem services and interdisciplinary research and management. We finally acknowledge the need to conduct case study research to account for geographical variation and to include the multiple views of different stakeholder groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of People & Nature is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent studies have shown the opportunities and limitations of participatory mapping for ecosystem services management, although it is an incipient research area. One of the research questions yet to be addressed is whether the composition of stakeholder groups has an effect on the outputs of participatory mapping. In this study, we assessed the influence of group composition on the mapped spatial distribution of ecosystem services. We developed two participatory mapping workshops of the ecosystem service supply and demand in the Nacimiento Watershed (Andalusia, Spain). In workshop 1, stakeholders were uniformly grouped according to their level of influence on land management. In workshop 2, we created mixed groups, with participants having dissimilar levels of influence on land management. The strategy of the second workshop aimed to foster social learning among participants, which was expected to influence the mapping outputs. We compared the outputs regarding the mapped spatial distribution of the ecosystem service supply and demand between the two workshops. Our results suggest that social learning occurred in groups with a mixed composition of participants, affecting the mapped spatial distribution of the supply and demand of ecosystem services. Finally, we discuss that knowledge exchange among participants can be supported through deliberative processes that occur in participatory settings, when stakeholders have different degrees of influence on land management. This can also enrich the assessment of the distribution of ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the challenges of environmental and social changes, sustainable management of ecosystem services is a worldwide priority. The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) approach provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary place-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the PECS-sponsored WaterSES project, we used four place-based SES research sites to analyze patterns in perceptions of ecosystem services. Our data come from about 1,500 face-to-face surveys conducted in southern Spain, the south-central Great Plains of Oklahoma (USA), and the Portneuf and Treasure Valleys, Idaho (USA). Specifically, this study aimed to (1) describe and compare perceptions of ecosystem services within and across SES sites, (2) explore how perceptions of ecosystem services vary among local respondents and by sociodemographic factors, and (3) evaluate the overall relationship between place-based SES contexts and ecosystem service perceptions. Our results revealed that cultural ecosystem services were the most highly mentioned among those surveyed across all four sites. However, we found differences in how ecosystem services were perceived among the four SES contexts. For instance, both, social (e.g., gender, education) and local ecological (e.g., land use and climate) characteristics play roles in influencing people's perceptions of which services are important. Overall, our findings suggest the relationship between people's perceptions of ecosystem services and their social-environmental context is complex, which highlights the value of the PECS approach for crafting more effective and inclusive landscape management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, environmental and social change in water-scarce regions challenge the sustainability of social-ecological systems. WaterSES, a sponsored working group within the Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, explores and compares the social-ecological dynamics related to water scarcity across placed-based international research sites with contrasting local and regional water needs and governance, including research sites in Spain and Sweden in Europe, South Africa, China, and Alabama, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Texas in the USA. This paper aims to provide a commentary on insights into conducting future solutions-oriented research on water scarcity based on the understanding of the social-ecological dynamics of water scarce regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]