Local people in both frontier and intensifying landscapes in Ecuador desire forest restoration that provides multiple benefits
Gabriela Barragán, Jeanine M. Rhemtulla
Abstract
Abstract Forest restoration is being promoted globally as an action that addresses multiple challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty. But restoration projects will only persist over the long term if their goals are aligned with local people's interests and priorities. Few projects, however, assess local interests, or how these might be influenced by factors, such as local landscape condition and need for ecosystem services (ES). We hypothesized that inhabitants in highly degraded, intensifying landscapes, would prefer the restoration of regulating and cultural ES to improve ecological function and relational values, whereas people in fast‐changing frontier landscapes with large areas of remaining intact ecosystems would prefer provisioning ES. We surveyed local community members in both intensifying and frontier landscapes in Ecuador, which has been implementing an ambitious national reforestation programme, to assess local preferences and priorities for restoration. Participants selected and ranked potential restoration sites and explained their selection criteria. We categorized these criteria by ES classes to analyse local intentions, interests (frequency of ES) and priorities (ranking) at local and landscape scales. At a landscape scale, contrary to our expectations, inhabitants in both landscapes showed higher interest and priority for regulating and cultural ES than for provisioning ES. Interest in regulating ES was higher in the intensifying landscape (56%) than in the frontier (46%), whereas interest in provisioning ES was higher in the frontier (26%) than in the intensifying (15%). At a local scale (by site type), interest and priority of ES varied within landscapes. Our results show that local communities are motivated to engage in restoration to recover scarce ES. Moreover, the results invoke a pro‐active precautionary ‘Ecosystem service enhancement‐path’ to enhance and prevent ES scarcity. Framing interest and priorities through the lens of ES can help local communities and stakeholders formulate restoration goals that align with the particular socio‐ecological contexts of their landscapes, thereby improving local well‐being while meeting the ambitious global climate targets for restoration. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.