The nexus of common lands and ecosystem services: A systematic review and thematic insights

Sai-Leung Ng; Nien-Ming Hong; Yin-Jen  Chen

doi:10.3986/AGS.14327

Authors

Sai-Leung Ng Chinese Culture University, Taipei , Taiwan, R. O. C. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9367-8539
Nien-Ming Hong Chinese Culture University, Taipei , Taiwan, R. O. C. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0439-8901
Yin-Jen Chen Chinese Culture University, Taipei , Taiwan, R. O. C. https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2090-0465

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.14327

Keywords:

common land management, ecosystem services, sustainable resource use, biodiversity conservation, economic opportunities

Abstract

Common lands are vital for sustaining ecosystem services that support human well-being. This study systematically reviews 53 empirical articles to examine the nexus between common lands and ecosystem services. Results show that management is fundamental in determining the provision of these services. Both traditional and innovative collective approaches are essential for maintaining ecosystem services across spatial scales. These services support biodiversity conservation and generate economic opportunities. The study highlights the need for integrated strategies to enhance the resilience and sustainability of common lands.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ban, N. C., Evans, L. S., Nenadovic, M., Schoon, M. 2015: Interplay of multiple goods, ecosystem services, and property rights in large social-ecological marine protected areas. Ecology and Society 20-4. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07857-200402

Barton, D. N., Benavides, K., Chacon-Cascante, A., Le Coq, J.-F., Quiros, M. M., Porras, I., Primmer, E., Ring, I. 2017: Payments for ecosystem services as a policy mix: Demonstrating the institutional analysis and development framework on conservation policy instruments. Environmental Policy and Governance 27-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1769

Bennett, E. M., Peterson, G. D., Gordon, L. J. 2015: Understanding relationships among multiple ecosystem services. Ecology Letters 12-12. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01387.x

Berman, M., Baztan, J., Kofinas, G., Vanderlinden, J.-P., Chouinard, O., Huctin, J.-M., Kane, A. et al. 2020: Adaptation to climate change in coastal communities: Findings from seven sites on four continents. Climatic Change 159-1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02571-x

Beye, H., Taube, F., Lange, K., Hasler, M., Kluß, C., Loges, R., Diekötter, T. 2022: Species-enriched grass–clover mixtures can promote bumblebee abundance compared with intensively managed conventional pastures. Agronomy 12-5. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12051080

Biggs, R., Schlüter, M., Schoon, M. L. (eds.) 2015: Principles for building resilience: Sustaining ecosystem services in social-ecological systems. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316014240

Bogataj, N., Krč, J. 2023: Towards the efficient response of forest owners to large-scale forest damage: An example of forest commons. Acta geographica Slovenica 63-3. https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.11084

Braun, V., Clarke, V. 2006: Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3-2. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Booth, A., Sutton, A., Papaioannou, D. 2016: Systematic approaches to a successful literature review. Sage.

Carreño-Rocabado, G., Peñoa-Claros, M., Bongers, F., Díaz, S., Quétier, F., Chuviñoa, J., Poorter, L. 2016: Land-use intensification effects on functional properties in tropical plant communities. Ecological Applications 26-1. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-0340

Cavigliasso, P., Phifer, C. C., Knowlton, J. L., Licata, J. A., Flaspohler, D. J., Webster, C. R., Chacoff, N. P. 2022: Influence of landscape composition on wild bee communities: Effects of functional landscape heterogeneity. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2022.108150

Chai, Y., Zhang, H., Luo, Y., Wang, Y., Zeng, Y. 2021: Payments for ecosystem services programs, institutional bricolage, and common pool resource management: Evidence from village collective-managed irrigation systems in China. Ecological Economics 182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106906

Chan, K. M. C., Anderson, E., Chapman, M., Jespersen, K., Olmsted, P. 2017: Payments for environmental services: Rife with problems and potential—for transformation towards sustainability? Ecological Economics 140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.04.029

Costanza, R., de Groot, R., Sutton, P., van der Ploeg, S., Anderson, S. J., Kubiszewski, I., Farber, S., Turner, R. K. 2014: Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.002

Costanza, R., de Groot, R., Braat, L., Kubiszewski, I., Fioramonti, L., Sutton, P., Farber, S., Grasso, M. 2017: Twenty years of ecosystem services: How far have we come and how far do we still need to go? Ecosystem Services 28-A. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.09.008

de Araujo Barbosa, C. C., Atkinson, P. M., Dearing, J. A. 2016: Extravagance in the commons: Resource exploitation and the frontiers of ecosystem service depletion in the Amazon estuary. Science of the Total Environment 550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.01.072

De Jong, W., Pokorny, B., Katila, P., Galloway, G., Pacheco, P. 2018: Community foresty and the sustainable development goals: A two way street. Forests 9-6. https://doi.org/10.3390/f9060331

Denham, D. 2017: Community forest owners evaluate a decade of payments for ecosystem services in the Mexican cloud forest: The importance of attention to Indigenous sovereignty in conservation. Society and Natural Resources 30-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1295495

Díaz, S., Demissew, S., Carabias, J., Joly, C., Lonsdale M., Ash, N., Larigauderie, A., et al. 2015: The IPBES conceptual framework – Connecting nature and people. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2014.11.002

Diwediga, B., Wala, K., Folega, F., Dourma, M., Woegan, Y. A., Akpagana, K., Le, Q. B. 2015: Biophysical and anthropogenic determinants of landscape patterns and degradation of plant communities in Mo hilly basin (Togo). Ecological Engineering 85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.09.059

Galán, E., Garmendia, E., García, O. 2022: The contribution of the commons to the persistence of mountain grazing systems under the Common Agricultural Policy. Land Use Policy 117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106089

Gómez, R., Aguirre, J., Oliveros, L., Paladines, R., Ortiz, N., Encalada, D., Armenteras, D. 2023: A participatory approach to economic valuation of ecosystem services in Andean Amazonia: Three country case studies for policy planning. Sustainability 15-6. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064788

González, O. F., Baquero-Echeverri, S., Caicedo-García, J. P., Loaiza-Usuga, J. C., Polanía, J. 2024: Soil quality: An indicator of recovery in a nature reserve in the Colombian Andes. Agroforestry Systems 98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-023-00951-y

Guerbois, C., Brady, U., de Swardt, A. G., Fabricius, C. 2019: Nurturing ecosystem-based adaptations in South Africa’s Garden Route: A common pool resource governance perspective. Regional Environmental Change 19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01508-5

Gurney, G. G., Mangubhai, S., Fox, M., Kiatkoski Kim, M., Agrawal, A. 2021: Equity in environmental governance: Perceived fairness of distributional justice principles in marine co-management. Environmental Science & Policy 124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.05.022

Haines-Young, R., Potschin, M. 2018: Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) V5.1 and guidance on the application of the revised structure. Guidance. Fabis Consulting.

Handberg, Ø. N., Angelsen, A. 2019: Pay little, get little; pay more, get a little more: A framed forest experiment in Tanzania. Ecological Economics 156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.09.025

Hausner, V. H., Brown, G., Lægreid, E. 2014: Effects of land tenure and protected areas on ecosystem services and land use preferences in Norway. Land Use Policy 49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.08.018

Hayes, T., Murtinho, F. 2018: Communal governance, equity, and payment for ecosystem services. Land Use Policy 79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.08.001

Hristov, J., Clough, Y., Sahlin, U., Smith, H. G., Stjernman, M., Olsson, O., Sahrbacher, A., Brady, M. V. 2020: Impacts of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy “greening” reform on agricultural development, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 42-4. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13037

Kauffman, J. B., Heider, C., Norfolk, J., Payton, F. 2014: Carbon stocks of intact mangroves and carbon emissions arising from their conversion in the Dominican Republic. Ecological Applications 24-3. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-0640.1

Kaye-Zwiebel, E., King, E. 2014: Kenyan pastoralist societies in transition: Varying perceptions of the value of ecosystem services. Ecology and Society 19-3. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06753-190317

Lomba, A., Moreira, F., Klimek, S., Jongman, R. H. G., Sullivan, C., Moran, J., Poux, X., et al. 2020: Back to the future: Rethinking socioecological systems underlying high nature value farmlands. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 18-1. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2116

Makhubele, L., Chirwa, P. W., Sheppard, J. P., Tshidzumba, R. P., Araia, M. G., Kahle, H.-P. 2022: Conservation of tree species richness in a traditional agroforestry landscape in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. Forests 13-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111766

Måren, I. E., Bhattarai, K. R., Chaudhary, R. P. 2014: Forest ecosystem services and biodiversity in contrasting Himalayan forest management systems. Environmental Conservation 41-1. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892913000258

Mengist, W., Soromessa, T. 2019: Assessment of forest ecosystem service research trends and methodological approaches at global level: A meta-analysis. Environmental Systems Research 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-019-0150-4

Meinzen-Dick, R., Chaturvedi, R., Kandikuppa, S., Rao, K., Rao, J. P., Bruns, B., Eldidi, H. 2021: Securing the commons in India: Mapping polycentric governance. International Journal of the Commons 15-1. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1079

Mekuria, W., Getnet, K., Yami, M., Langan, S., Amare, D. 2021: Perception of communities when managing exclosures as common pool resources in northwestern Ethiopia. Land Degradation & Development 32-1. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3689

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005: Ecosystems and human well-being: Synthesis. Report.

Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., The PRISMA Group 2009: Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Medicine 6-7. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097

Mirza, M. U., Richter, A., van Nes, E. H., Scheffer, M. 2019: Technology-driven inequality leads to poverty and resource depletion. Ecological Economics 160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.02.015

Muradian, R., Corbera, E., Pascual, U., Kosoy, N., May, P. H. 2010: Reconciling theory and practice: An alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services. Ecological Economics 69-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.11.006

Nave, L. E., DeLyser, K., Butler-Leopold, P. R., Sprague, E., Daly, J., Swanston, C. W. 2019: Effects of land use and forest management on soil carbon in the ecoregions of Maryland and adjacent eastern United States. Forest Ecology and Management 448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.05.072

Nguyen, V. T. H., McElwee, P., Le, H. T. V., Nghiem, T., Vu, H. T. D. 2022: The challenges of collective PES: Insights from three community-based models in Vietnam. Ecosystem Services 56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2022.101438

Nkhata, B. A., Breen, C., Hay, D., Wilkinson, M. 2017: Property rights, institutional regime shifts, and the provision of freshwater ecosystem services on the Pongola River floodplain, South Africa. International Journal of the Commons 11-1. https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.615

Nkhwanana, N., Adam, E., Ramoelo, A. 2022: Assessing the utility of Sentinel-2 MSI in mapping an encroaching Seriphium plumosum in South African rangeland. Applied Geomatics 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-022-00423-5

Nogueira, J., Araújo, J. P., Alonso, J. M., Simões, S. 2023: Common lands, landscape management and rural development: A case study in a mountain village in northwest Portugal. Acta geographica Slovenica 63-3. https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.11081

Ostrom, E. 1992: Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807763

Pagot, G., Gatto, P. 2024: Challenges for community-owned forests between traditional and new uses of forests: A Q-methodology study applied to an alpine case. Trees, Forests and People 18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2024.100688

Pantshwa, A. O., Buschke, F. T. 2019: Ecosystem services and ecological degradation of communal wetlands in a South African biodiversity hotspot. Royal Society Open Science 6-6. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181770

Pascual, U., Phelps, J., Garmendia, E., Brown, K., Corbera, E., Martin, A., Gomez-Baggethun, E., et al. 2014: Social equity matters in payments for ecosystem services. BioScience 64-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu146

Pipan, P., Šmid Hribar, M., Urbanc, M. 2023: Motivation, robustness and benefits of water commons: Insights from small drinking water supply systems. Acta geographica Slovenica 63-3. https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.11592

Plumb, S. T., Paveglio, T., Jones, K. W., Miller, B. A., Becker, D. R. 2018: Differentiated reactions to payment for ecosystem service programs in the Columbia River Basin: A qualitative study exploring irrigation district characteristics as local common-pool resource management institutions in Oregon, USA. International Journal of the Commons 12-1. https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.806

Pranckutė, R. 2021: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The titans of bibliographic information in today’s academic world. Publications 9-1. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9010012

Polman, N., Reinhard, S., van Bets, L. K. J., Kuhlman, T. 2016: Governance of ecosystem services on small islands: Three contrasting cases for St. Eustatius in the Dutch Caribbean. Island Studies Journal 11-1. https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.347

Pulhin, J. M., Fajardo, A. R., Predo, C. D., Sajise, A. J., De Luna, C. C., Diona, D. L. Z., II. 2022: Unbundling property rights among stakeholders of Bataan Natural Park: Implications to protected area governance in the Philippines. Journal of Sustainable Forestry 41-5/6. https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2021.1894950

Ratinger, T., Čamská, K., Pražan, J., Bavorová, M., Vančurová, I. 2021: From elite-driven to community-based governance mechanisms for the delivery of public goods from land management. Land Use Policy 107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104560

Reithe, S., Armstrong, C. W., Flaaten, O. 2014: Marine protected areas in a welfare-based perspective. Marine Policy 49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2014.04.002

Renes, H., Kruse, A., Potthoff, K. 2023: Transhumance, commons, and new opportunities: A European perspective. Acta geographica Slovenica 63-3. https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.11097

Ricart, S., Kirk, N., Ribas, A. 2019: Ecosystem services and multifunctional agriculture: Unravelling informal stakeholders' perceptions and water governance in three European irrigation systems. Environmental Policy and Governance 29-1. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1831

Rodríguez-Ortega, T., Oteros-Rozas, E., Ripoll-Bosch, R., Tichit, M., Martín-López, B., Bernués, A. 2014: Applying the ecosystem services framework to pasture-based livestock farming systems in Europe. Animal 8-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731114000421

Sattler, C., Schröter, B., Jericó-Daminello, C., Sessin-Dilascio, K., Meyer, C., Matzdorf, B., Wortmann, L. et al. 2015: Understanding governance structures in community management of ecosystems and natural resources: The Marujá case study in Brazil. Ecosystem Services 16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.10.015

Silva, V., Catry, F. X., Fernandes, P. M., Rego, F. C., Paes, P., Nunes, L., Caperta, A. D. et al. 2019: Effects of grazing on plant composition, conservation status, and ecosystem services of Natura 2000 shrub-grassland habitat types. Biodiversity and Conservation 28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01718-7

Squires, D., Vestergaard, N. 2016: Putting economics into maximum economic yield. Marine Resource Economics 31-1. https://doi.org/10.1086/683670

Šumrada, T., Erjavec, E. 2023: Will farmers cooperate to conserve biodiversity? The use of collective bonus in the High Nature Value farmland in Slovenia. Acta geographica Slovenica 63-3. https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.11015

Tucker, C. M., Šmid Hribar, M., Urbanc, M., Bogataj, N., Gunya, A., Rodela, R., Sigura, M. et al. 2023: Governance of interdependent ecosystem services and common-pool resources. Land Use Policy 127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106575

Urbanc, M., Hori, K., Šmid Hribar, M. 2023: Commons, collective actions and landscapes: A short introduction. Acta geographica Slovenica 63-3. https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.13206

Wagner, B., Egerer, M. 2022: Application of UAV remote sensing and machine learning to model and map land use in urban gardens. Journal of Urban Ecology 8-1. https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/juac008

Wang, G., Zhang, F.-R. 2024: Spatial and temporal evolution and impact factors analysis of ecosystem service value in the Liaohe River Delta over the past 30 years. Huanjing Kexue 45-1. https://doi.org/10.13227/j.hjkx.202301081

Wells, G. J., Ryan, C. M., Das, A., Attiwilli, S., Poudyal, M., Lele, S., Schreckenberg, K. et al. 2024: Hundreds of millions of people in the tropics need both wild harvests and other forms of economic development for their well-being. One Earth 7-2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.12.001