Dealing With the Ambiguous Nature of Cultural Ecosystem Services - Participatory Mapping and Assessment of Non-material Values of Nature in the Czech Republic
Abstract
Recently, there is an increasing attention to the assessment and mapping of cultural ecosystem services (CES) which have long been the odd and overlooked part of the ecosystem services framework. However, reductionist terminology, problematic generalizability, fuzzy category boundaries or contrasting paradigms and other discrepancies hinder faster advancement of the CES field.
In our research we conduct a comprehensive assessment and mapping of CES combining various qualitative and quantitative approaches with participatory mapping of non-material values of nature. We conducted focus groups with experts on case study areas, field mapping of objects indicating their use related to CES and questionnaire survey with participatory mapping with visitors in order to explore both potential CES and actual benefits people obtain from nature and landscape.
This endeavour, however, posits epistemological challenges related to the character of methods and ways of interpretation. One relates to the contrast between realism and (social) constructionism and manifests for instance when combining field data and data obtained from visitors.
There is also tension, which Gould and colleagues identified as universalism v. anti-universalism, between choosing whether to interpret data in terms of universal CES categories or to seek to inductively develop a more specific account of people's perception and relations to places. In this contribution we will elaborate on these discords using the example of our research and discuss possibilities of bringing these diverse approaches and the produced knowledge together.
Should we struggle to integrate them into a consistent whole or choose a rather pluralistic approach of complementarity?