Sociocultural Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Southern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

Understanding sociocultural values towards ecosystem services (ES)facilitates a decision-making process across multiple management objectives. Theaim of this chapter was to analyse the stakeholders? perceptions of ES, wellbeingand connectedness to nature at regional level in Southern Patagonia (Santa CruzProvince, Argentina). For this, we designed a questionnaire and conducted 451face-to-face semi-structured interviews, in which 168 corresponded to local residentsand 283 to foreign visitors. Ecosystem services were classified depending onthe degree of perceived importance and vulnerability for wellbeing. From this, 12ES (5 provisioning, 6 cultural and 1 regulating) were perceived as important forwellbeing. Analysing the perceptions of vulnerable ES by each local stakeholder,we found that both groups of locals and decision-makers perceived provisioningservices (mainly livestock, fresh water, timber, fishing and shellfish) and regulating(erosion control, habitat for species and climate regulation) as important ones.Survey respondents generally indicated a high level of connectivity with nature being similar for both locals and visitors. Our results showed that social perceptionof values can substantially contribute to identify ES by focusing on the conflicts thatemerge among different stakeholder groups. The sociocultural information of thepresent study can provide important inputs into negotiations in a decision-makingprocess, allowing participants to compare positive and negative impacts of variousoptions for ES management.