SYNERGIES AND TRADE-OFFS OF ECOSYTEM SERVICES OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL PRODUCTION LANDSCAPES AT MUNICIPAL LEVEL IN ISHIKAWA PREFECTURE, JAPAN

Abstract

 A key challenge for sustainable use of natural resources is determining how to manage multiple ecosystem services across landscapes. According to Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), this challenge requires identifying trade-offs and synergies that exist among ecosystem services. We developed an inventory consisted of 35 ecosystem services and 20 socio-ecological attributes based on statistical data of 17 municipalities in Ishikawa Prefecture, which contains long-standing socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes. We analyzed how ecosystem services are interlinked as synergy and trade-off and how such relationships are influenced by the socio-ecological attributes. We found that there was a synergy among forest related ecosystem services (e.g. forest water retention, timber production) and also among agriculture related ecosystem services (e.g. rice production, agricultural water retention) and there was trade-off between forest related ecosystem services and agriculture related ecosystem services. Municipality which has larger forest area and higher heterogeneity of landscapes tends to have higher values of forest related ecosystem services, while municipality which has larger cultivated area and higher population tends to have higher values of agriculture related ecosystem services and cultural services (e.g. number of forest recreation facilities, number of cultural properties). For managing multiple ecosystem services toward sustainable society in harmony with nature, our results suggest that decision-making needs to focus on interaction among ecosystem services and recognize that these synergies and trade-offs are strongly linked to socio-ecological attributes of the municipalities. Further research is required to understand the mechanism behind the synergetic or trade-off relationships across different ecosystem services identified by this study.