Taking into account the perceptions of locals as well as visitors to La Plana de l’Empordà, a region in Girona (Spain) undergoing an agricultural intensification process, this study attempts to explore the linkages between agricultural landscapes and human well-being by performing open, single-question interviews with 241 respondents. The results show a high perception of cultural ecosystem services as benefits from agricultural landscapes, although differences across respondent groups and across a rural–urban gradient suggest important trade-offs. Our results demonstrate that potential conflicts in the study area might emerge between a rural view on agricultural landscapes and a more production-oriented landscape appreciation. We consider it relevant to take into account potential social conflicts due to the new social composition in Mediterranean rural areas where different perceptions regarding the delivery of ecosystem services coexist.
AgbenyegaOBurgessPJCookM. (2009) Application of an ecosystem function framework to perceptions of community woodlands. Land Use Policy26(3):551–557.
2.
BielingCPlieningerTPirkerH. (2014) Linkages between landscapes and human well-being: an empirical exploration with short interviews. Ecological Economics105:19–30.
3.
BuijsEPedroliBLuginbuY (2006) From hiking through farmland to farming in a leisure landscape: changing social perceptions of the European landscape. Landscape Ecology21:375–389.
4.
Calvet-MirLGómez-BaggethunEReyes-GarcíaV (2012) Beyond food production: ecosystem services provided by home gardens. A case study in Vall Fosca, Catalan Pyrenees, Northeastern Spain. Ecological Economics74:153–160.
5.
Camps-CalvetMLangemeyerJCalvet-MirL. (2016) Ecosystem services provided by urban gardens in Barcelona, Spain: Insights for policy and planning. Environmental Science and Policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2016.01.007.
6.
CartwrightNClarkLBirdP (1991) The impact of agriculture on water quality. Outlook on Agriculture20:145–152.
7.
CastroAJMartín-LópezBGarcía-LlorenteM. (2011) Social preferences regarding the delivery of ecosystem services in a semiarid Mediterranean region. Journal of Arid Environments75(11):1201–1208.
8.
Council of Europe (2000) The European Landscape Convention. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
9.
DanielTCMuharAArnbergerA. (2012) Contributions of cultural services to the ecosystem services agenda. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences109(23):8812–8819.
10.
DebPTrivediPK (2002) The structure of demand for health care: latent class versus two-part models. Journal of Health Economics21:601–625.
11.
ElmqvistTFragkiasMGoodnessJ. (2013) Stewardship of the biosphere in the urban era. In: ElmqvistT. (eds) Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Vol 4. Netherlands: Springer, pp. 719–746.
12.
FoleyJADeFriesRAsnerGP. (2005) Global consequences of land use. Science309(5734):570–574.
13.
FreemanGHHaltonJH (1951) Note on an exact treatment of contingency, goodness of fit and other problems of significance. Biometrika38:141–149.
14.
GamfeldtLSnällTBagchiR. (2013) Higher levels of multiple ecosystem services are found in forests with more tree species. Nature Communications4:1340.
15.
García-LlorenteMMartín-LópezBIniesta-ArandiaI. (2012) The role of multi-functionality in social preferences toward semi-arid rural landscapes: an ecosystem service approach. Environmental Science & Policy19:136–146.
16.
GobsterPHNassauerJIDanielTC. (2007) The shared landscape: what does aesthetics have to do with ecology?Landscape Ecology22:959–972.
17.
IDESCAT. Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya. Available at: www.idescat.cat(accessed June 2013).
18.
KarjalainenTPMarttunenMSarkkiS. (2013) Integrating ESs into environmental impact assessment: an analytic–deliberative approach. Environmental Impact Assessment Review40:54–64.
19.
LangemeyerJBaróFRoebelingP. (2014) Contrasting values of cultural ecosystem services in urban areas: the case of park Montjuïc in Barcelona. Ecosystem Services12:178–186.
20.
López-SantiagoCAOteros-RozasEMartín-LópezB. (2014) Using visual stimuli to explore the social perceptions of ecosystem services in cultural landscapes: the case of transhumance in Mediterranean Spain. Ecology and Society19(2):27.
21.
MacDonaldHDBarkRMacRaeA. (2013) An interview methodology for exploring the values that community leaders assign to multiple-use landscapes. Ecological Society18(1):29.
22.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing: Biodiversity Synthesis. Washington: World Resources Institute.
23.
Martín-LópezBGarcía-LlorenteMPalomoI. (2011) The conservation against development paradigm in protected areas: valuation of ecosystem services in the Doñana social–ecological system (southwestern Spain). Ecological Economics70:1481–1491.
24.
Martín-LópezBIniesta-ArandiaIGarcía-LlorenteM. (2012) Uncovering ecosystem service bundles through social preferences. PloS one7(6):e38970.
25.
MutzDC (1994) Contextualizing personal experience: the role of mass media. The Journal of Politics56(3):689–714.
26.
Oteros-RozasEMartín-LópezBGonzálezJA. (2014) Socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services in a transhumance social-ecological network. Regional Environmental Change14(4):1269–1289.
27.
PaquetteSDomonG (2003) Changing ruralities, changing landscapes: exploring social recomposition using a multi-scale approach. Journal of Rural Studies19:425–444.
28.
PlieningerTSchleyerCSchaichH. (2012) Mainstreaming ecosystem services through reformed European agricultural policies. Conservation Letters5(4):281–288.
29.
PlieningerTBielingCOhnesorgeB. (2013) Exploring futures of ecosystem services in cultural landscapes through participatory scenario development in the Swabian Alb, Germany. Ecology and Society18(3):39.
30.
R Core Team R (2014) A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at: http://www.r-project.org/(accessed March 2014).
31.
SaezMSaurinaCCoendersGGonzález-RayaS (2006) Use of primary health care services according to the different degrees of obesity in the Girona Health Region, Spain. Health economics15(2):173–193.
32.
SchaichHBielingCPlieningerT (2010) Linking ecosystem services and the cultural landscape. GAIA19(4):269–277.
33.
SerraPPonsXSauríD (2008) Land-cover and land-use change in a Mediterranean landscape: a spatial analysis of driving forces integrating biophysical and human factors. Applied Geography28(3):189–209.
34.
TaitJ (2001) Science, governance and multifunctionality of European agriculture. Outlook on Agriculture30(2):91–95.
35.
TEEB (2014) The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity. Available at: http://www.teebweb.org/(accessed November 2014).
36.
TengbergAFredholmSEliassonI. (2012) Cultural ecosystem services provided by landscapes: assessment of heritage values and identity. Ecosystem Services2:14–26.
37.
VenturaMRibasASauriD (2000) Gestión del agua y conflictividad social en la Cuenca del Río Muga. Geographicalia38:55–70.
38.
VoulignyÉDomonGRuizJ (2009) An assessment of ordinary landscapes by an expert and by its residents: landscape values in areas of intensive agricultural use. Land Use Policy26(4):890–900.
