TY - JOUR
T1 - In the eye of the stakeholder
T2 - Changes in perceptions of ecosystem services across an international border
AU - Orenstein, Daniel E.
AU - Groner, Elli
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge our Jordanian colleagues for their indispensable assistance in all aspects of this research. We thank Hila Sagie, Inna Kaplan, Danielle Cohen, Roy Zaidenberg, Margorie Strom and Avigail Morris for their research assistance, and Ayala Cohen and Nadia Bordo for their assistance with the statistical analyses. Funding was provided through a trans-border cooperation grant from the Israel Ministry of Regional Cooperation to the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center.
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Integration of the ecosystem service (ES) concept into policy begins with an ES assessment, including identification, characterization and valuation of ES. While multiple disciplinary approaches should be integrated into ES assessments, non-economic social analyses have been lacking, leading to a knowledge gap regarding stakeholder perceptions of ES.We report the results of trans-border research regarding how local residents value ES in the Arabah Valley of Jordan and Israel. We queried rural and urban residents in each of the two countries. Our questions pertained to perceptions of local environmental characteristics, involvement in outdoor activities, and economic dependency on ES.Both a political border and residential characteristics can define perceptions of ES. General trends regarding perceptions of environmental characteristics were similar across the border, but Jordanians tended to rank them less positively than Israelis; likewise, urban residents tended to show less affinity to environmental characteristics than rural residents. Jordanians and Israelis reported partaking in distinctly different sets of outdoor activities. While all groups reported little economic dependence on ES, rural Israelis reported the highest dependency.We suggest that social approaches to ES assessment can complement the predominant ecological and economic approaches thereby strengthening the relevancy of ES assessments to policy-making.
AB - Integration of the ecosystem service (ES) concept into policy begins with an ES assessment, including identification, characterization and valuation of ES. While multiple disciplinary approaches should be integrated into ES assessments, non-economic social analyses have been lacking, leading to a knowledge gap regarding stakeholder perceptions of ES.We report the results of trans-border research regarding how local residents value ES in the Arabah Valley of Jordan and Israel. We queried rural and urban residents in each of the two countries. Our questions pertained to perceptions of local environmental characteristics, involvement in outdoor activities, and economic dependency on ES.Both a political border and residential characteristics can define perceptions of ES. General trends regarding perceptions of environmental characteristics were similar across the border, but Jordanians tended to rank them less positively than Israelis; likewise, urban residents tended to show less affinity to environmental characteristics than rural residents. Jordanians and Israelis reported partaking in distinctly different sets of outdoor activities. While all groups reported little economic dependence on ES, rural Israelis reported the highest dependency.We suggest that social approaches to ES assessment can complement the predominant ecological and economic approaches thereby strengthening the relevancy of ES assessments to policy-making.
KW - Ecosystem services
KW - Hyper-arid ecosystems
KW - Social research methods
KW - Stakeholders
KW - Trans-border
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84902286393&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84902286393
SN - 2212-0416
VL - 8
SP - 185
EP - 196
JO - Ecosystem Services
JF - Ecosystem Services
ER -