Revisiting the relationships between human well-being and ecosystems in dynamic social-ecological systems: Implications for stewardship and development

Non-technical summary We argue that the ways in which we as humans derive well-being from nature – for example by harvesting firewood, selling fish or enjoying natural beauty – feed back into how we behave towards the environment. This feedback is mediated by institutions (rules, regulations) and by individual capacities to act. Understanding these relationships can guide better interventions for sustainably improving well-being and alleviating poverty. However, more attention needs to be paid to how experience-related benefits from nature influence attitudes and actions towards the environment, and how these relationships can be reflected in more environmentally sustainable development projects. Technical summary In the broad literatures that address the linked challenge of maintaining ecosystem integrity while addressing poverty and inequality, there is still a need to investigate how linkages and feedbacks between ecosystem services and well-being can be taken into account to ensure environmental sustainability and improved livelihoods. We present a conceptual model towards a dynamic and reciprocal understanding of the feedbacks between human well-being and ecosystems. The conceptual model highlights three mechanisms through which people derive benefits from ecosystems (use, money and experience), and illustrates how these benefits can affect values, attitudes and actions towards ecosystems. Institutions and agency determine access to and distribution of benefits and costs, and also present barriers or enabling factors for individual or collective action. The conceptual model synthesises insights from existing but mostly separate bodies of literature on well-being and the benefits humans derive from ecosystems, and reveals gaps and areas for future research. Two case studies illustrate how recognizing the full feedback loop between how ecosystems support human well-being and how people behave towards those ecosystems, as well as intervention points within the loop, can guide better action for sustainable poverty alleviation and stewardship of the biosphere.

[1]  L. Marcus,et al.  Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool Children in Stockholm , 2023, Children, Youth and Environments.

[2]  M. Brockhaus,et al.  Development and equity: A gendered inquiry in a swidden landscape , 2019, Forest Policy and Economics.

[3]  Emilie Lindkvist,et al.  Inequality and the Biosphere , 2018, Annual Review of Environment and Resources.

[4]  R. Costanza,et al.  Natural capital and ecosystem services , 2018, The Routledge Handbook of Agricultural Economics.

[5]  S. Bowles,et al.  Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability , 2018 .

[6]  L. V. Casaló,et al.  Heterogeneity in the association between environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior: A multilevel regression approach , 2018 .

[7]  Elena M. Finkbeiner,et al.  Environmental Stewardship: A Conceptual Review and Analytical Framework , 2018, Environmental Management.

[8]  S. Polasky,et al.  Assessing nature's contributions to people , 2018, Science.

[9]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Understanding how access shapes the transformation of ecosystem services to human well-being with an example from Costa Rica , 2017 .

[10]  E. Sterling,et al.  Moving beyond the human–nature dichotomy through biocultural approaches : Including ecological well-being in resilience indicators , 2017 .

[11]  Steven A. Gray,et al.  Biocultural approaches to well-being and sustainability indicators across scales , 2017, Nature Ecology & Evolution.

[12]  G. Daily,et al.  Mainstreaming investments in watershed services to enhance water security: Barriers and opportunities , 2017 .

[13]  M. Spierenburg,et al.  Competing Place Meanings in Complex Landscapes: A Social–Ecological Approach to Unpacking Community Conservation Outcomes on the Wild Coast, South Africa , 2017 .

[14]  Tamara Ticktin,et al.  Beyond services: a process and framework to incorporate cultural, genealogical, place-based, and indigenous relationships in ecosystem service assessments. , 2017 .

[15]  J. McCarthy,et al.  The oil palm complex: smallholders, agribusiness and the state in Indonesia and Malaysia , 2017 .

[16]  Stanley T. Asah,et al.  Valuing nature's contributions to people: the IPBES approach , 2017 .

[17]  M. Quintero,et al.  To what extent have the links between ecosystem services and human well-being been researched in Africa, Asia, and Latin America? , 2017 .

[18]  M. Morgan.  Women, gender and protest: contesting oil palm plantation expansion in Indonesia , 2017, Gender and Generation in Southeast Asian Agrarian Transformations.

[19]  T. Li.  Intergenerational displacement in Indonesia’s oil palm plantation zone , 2017, Gender and Generation in Southeast Asian Agrarian Transformations.

[20]  Ana L. Porzecanski,et al.  Assessing the evidence for stakeholder engagement in biodiversity conservation , 2017 .

[21]  J. S. Tjajadi,et al.  Whose Equity Matters? National to Local Equity Perceptions in Vietnam's Payments for Forest Ecosystem Services Scheme , 2017 .

[22]  Lindsay C. Stringer,et al.  A place-based approach to payments for ecosystem services , 2017 .

[23]  S. Vetter,et al.  Ways of Belonging: Meanings of “Nature” AMong Xhosa-Speaking Township Residents In South Africa , 2016, Journal of Ethnobiology.

[24]  Christina C. Hicks,et al.  Conceptualizing and operationalizing human wellbeing for ecosystem assessment and management , 2016 .

[25]  R. Bryce,et al.  Aesthetic and spiritual values of ecosystems: recognising the ontological and axiological plurality of cultural ecosystem 'services'. , 2016 .

[26]  M. Reed,et al.  The ripple effect: Institutionalising pro-environmental values to shift societal norms and behaviours , 2016 .

[27]  J. Kenter.  Editorial: Shared, plural and cultural values , 2016 .

[28]  J. Rockström,et al.  Social-ecological resilience and biosphere-based sustainability science , 2016 .

[29]  P. Raghuram.  Locating Care Ethics Beyond the Global North , 2016 .

[30]  M. Stenseke.  The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the challenge of integrating social sciences and humanities , 2016 .

[31]  R. D. Vos.  Multi-Functional Lands Facing Oil Palm Monocultures: A Case Study of a Land Conflict in West Kalimantan, Indonesia , 2016 .

[32]  A. Berardi,et al.  Community owned solutions: identifying local best practices for social-ecological sustainability , 2016 .

[33]  Unai Pascual,et al.  Towards an ecosystem services approach that addresses social power relations , 2016 .

[34]  Rachelle K. Gould,et al.  Opinion: Why protect nature? Rethinking values and the environment , 2016, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[35]  Natalie A. Jones,et al.  The study of human values in understanding and managing social-ecological systems , 2016 .

[36]  J. Bastiaensen,et al.  Towards a power-sensitive and socially-informed analysis of payments for ecosystem services (PES): Addressing the gaps in the current debate , 2015 .

[37]  Thomas F. Thornton,et al.  Ecosystem services or services to ecosystems? Valuing cultivation and reciprocal relationships between humans and ecosystems , 2015 .

[38]  M. Feldman,et al.  Natural capital and ecosystem services informing decisions: From promise to practice , 2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[39]  Stanley T. Asah,et al.  The IPBES Conceptual Framework - connecting nature and people , 2015 .

[40]  G. Mace,et al.  Ecosystem services and poverty alleviation: A review of the empirical links , 2015 .

[41]  Denis Hellebrandt,et al.  Boundary object or bridging concept? A citation network analysis of , 2015 .

[42]  F. Berkes,et al.  Defining biocultural approaches to conservation. , 2015, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[43]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet , 2015, Science.

[44]  T. Kepe,et al.  Rights of ‘passage’ and contested land use: Gendered conflict over urban space during ritual performance in South Africa , 2015 .

[45]  Unai Pascual,et al.  Social Equity Matters in Payments for Ecosystem Services , 2014 .

[46]  P. McElwee,et al.  Payments for environmental services and contested neoliberalisation in developing countries: A case study from Vietnam , 2014 .

[47]  Shona K. Paterson,et al.  The human dimensions of coastal ecosystem services: Managing for social values , 2014 .

[48]  M. Cocks,et al.  Reappraising the Concept of Biocultural Diversity: a Perspective from South Africa , 2014 .

[49]  W. J. Boonstra,et al.  The Historical Dynamics of Social–Ecological Traps , 2014, AMBIO.

[50]  Xavier Basurto,et al.  Humans and Nature: How Knowing and Experiencing Nature Affect Well-Being , 2013 .

[51]  C. Klöckner.  A comprehensive model of the psychology of environmental behaviour—A meta-analysis , 2013 .

[52]  T. Chaigneau.  Understanding Community Support Towards Three Marine Protected Areas in the Visayas Region of the Philippines , 2013 .

[53]  Sonja Deppisch,et al.  Social-ecological resilience thinking as a bridging concept in transdisciplinary research on climate-change adaptation , 2013, Natural Hazards.

[54]  S. Vetter,et al.  Development and sustainable management of rangeland commons – aligning policy with the realities of South Africa's rural landscape , 2013 .

[55]  J. Rockström,et al.  Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet , 2013, Nature.

[56]  E. Diener,et al.  Culture and Subjective Well-Being , 2013 .

[57]  Frances Cleaver,et al.  Development Through Bricolage: Rethinking Institutions for Natural Resource Management , 2012 .

[58]  M. Côte,et al.  Resilience thinking meets social theory , 2012 .

[59]  J. Gonzalez,et al.  Uncovering Ecosystem Service Bundles through Social Preferences , 2012, PloS one.

[60]  J. Sachs.  From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals , 2012, The Lancet.

[61]  M. Krasny,et al.  Civic ecology: a pathway for Earth Stewardship in cities , 2012 .

[62]  B. White,et al.  Gendered experiences of dispossession: oil palm expansion in a Dayak Hibun community in West Kalimantan , 2012 .

[63]  S. Vetter,et al.  'God is my forest' - Xhosa cultural values provide untapped opportunities for conservation : research article , 2012 .

[64]  J. K. Summers,et al.  A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services , 2012, AMBIO.

[65]  Sarah Coulthard.  Can we be both resilient and well, and what choices do people have? Incorporating agency into the resilience debate from a fisheries perspective. , 2012 .

[66]  K. Chan,et al.  Rethinking ecosystem services to better address and navigate cultural values , 2012 .

[67]  M. Brockhaus,et al.  Is Adaptation to Climate Change Gender Neutral? Lessons from Communities Dependent on Livestock and Forests in Northern Mali , 2011 .

[68]  T. Daw,et al.  Applying the ecosystem services concept to poverty alleviation: the need to disaggregate human well-being , 2011, Environmental Conservation.

[69]  G. Pretty,et al.  Assessing Environmental Stewardship Motivation , 2011 .

[70]  K. Brown,et al.  Agency, Capacity, and Resilience to Environmental Change: Lessons from Human Development, Well-Being, and Disasters , 2011 .

[71]  R. Buckley.  The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity: Ecological and economic foundations , 2011 .

[72]  Edward B. Barbier,et al.  Poverty, development, and environment , 2010, Environment and Development Economics.

[73]  W. Powell,et al.  Institutions , 2010 .

[74]  J. Aronson,et al.  The economics of valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity , 2010 .

[75]  J. Ribot,et al.  A Theory of Access. , 2009 .

[76]  G. Daily,et al.  Ecosystem Services in Decision Making: Time to Deliver , 2009 .

[77]  L. Whitmarsh.  Behavioural responses to climate change: Asymmetry of intentions and impacts , 2009 .

[78]  Terry P. Dawson,et al.  A conceptual framework to assess the effects of environmental change on ecosystem services , 2010, Biodiversity and Conservation.

[79]  C. Folke,et al.  Navigating social–ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change: Fikret Berkes, Johan Colding and Carl Folke (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2003. xxi + 393 pages. ISBN 0-521-81592-4 (hardback), £65 , 2004 .

[80]  B. Campbell,et al.  Links between the Local Trade in Natural Products, Livelihoods and Poverty Alleviation in a Semi-arid Region of South Africa , 2008 .

[81]  T. Elmqvist,et al.  Taboos and Forest Governance: Informal Protection of Hot Spot Dry Forest in Southern Madagascar , 2007, Ambio.

[82]  Edward R. Carr,et al.  The Co-Production of Livelihoods and Land Use Change: Case Studies From South Africa and Ghana , 2006 .

[83]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Trade-offs across Space, Time, and Ecosystem Services , 2006 .

[84]  Maria Tengö,et al.  The value of small size: loss of forest patches and ecological thresholds in southern Madagascar. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[85]  A. Ainslie.  Farming Cattle, Cultivating Relationships: Cattle Ownership and Cultural Politics in Peddie District, Eastern Cape , 2005 .

[86]  Juan Camilo Cárdenas,et al.  Real wealth and experimental cooperation: experiments in the field lab , 2003 .

[87]  A. Escobar,et al.  Constructing Nature: Elements for a poststructural political ecology , 2002 .

[88]  A. Kollmuss,et al.  Mind the Gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? , 2002 .

[89]  C. Shackleton,et al.  The role of land-based strategies in rural livelihoods: The contribution of arable production, animal husbandry and natural resource harvesting in communal areas in South Africa , 2001 .

[90]  T. Satterfield,et al.  In Search of Value Literacy: Suggestions for the Elicitation of Environmental Values , 2001, Environmental Values.

[91]  James Blake.  Overcoming the ‘value‐action gap’ in environmental policy: Tensions between national policy and local experience , 1999 .

[92]  Carmen Tanner,et al.  CONSTRAINTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOUR , 1999 .

[93]  M. Leach,et al.  Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management , 1999 .

[94]  Maarten A. Hajer,et al.  The Politics of Environmental Discourse , 1997 .

[95]  T. Li.  Images of community: Discourse and strategy in property relations , 1996 .

[96]  Thomas Dietz,et al.  Values, Beliefs, and Proenvironmental Action: Attitude Formation Toward Emergent Attitude Objects1 , 1995 .

[97]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1993 .

[98]  R. Hinde,et al.  Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action Collective Action , 2010 .

[99]  P. Homer,et al.  A structural equation test of the value-attitude-behavior hierarchy. , 1988 .

[100]  E. Diener,et al.  Subjective well-being. , 1984, Psychological bulletin.

[101]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior , 1980 .

[102]  M. Rokeach.  The Nature Of Human Values , 1974 .

[103]  Xiaoxi Li.  Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: An Appeal of Global Cooperation for Building Green Civilization , 2020, Green Civilization.

[104]  B. Vira,et al.  Poorer without It? The Neglected Role of the Natural Environment in Poverty and Wellbeing , 2018 .

[105]  S. Lindley,et al.  Assessing nature ’ s contributions to people Recognizing culture , and diverse sources of knowledge , can improve assessments , 2018 .

[106]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Traps and Sustainable Development in Rural Areas: A Review , 2018 .

[107]  Johan P. Enqvist.  Stewardship in an urban world : Civic engagement and human–nature relations in the Anthropocene , 2017 .

[108]  E. Bennett,et al.  Disentangling the Pathways and Effects of Ecosystem Service Co-Production , 2016 .

[109]  T. Li.  Social impacts of oil palm in Indonesia: A gendered perspective from West Kalimantan , 2015 .

[110]  Suneetha M. Subramanian,et al.  Community well-being in biocultural landscapes , 2014 .

[111]  Suneetha M. Subramanian,et al.  Community Well-Being in Biocultural Landscapes : Are We Living Well? , 2014 .

[112]  P. Hebinck,et al.  Reforming Land and Resource Use in South Africa : Impact on Livelihoods , 2011 .

[113]  Carl Folke,et al.  A Framework for Understanding Change , 2009 .

[114]  Louise Chawla,et al.  Growing Up Green : Becoming an Agent of Care for the Natural World , 2009 .

[115]  F. Chapin,et al.  Principles of ecosystem stewardship : resilience-based natural resource management in a changing world , 2009 .

[116]  M. Noland.  Inequality, Cooperation and Environmental Sustainability , 2008 .

[117]  B. Emerton.  Rights of passage. , 2008, Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987).

[118]  M. Sheridan,et al.  African Sacred Groves: Ecological Dynamics and Social Change , 2008 .

[119]  B. Büscher,et al.  Linking Neoprotectionism and Environmental Governance: On the Rapidly Increasing Tensions between Actors in the Environment-Development Nexus , 2007 .

[120]  J. McGregor,et al.  Researching Human Wellbeing: From Concepts to Methodology. , 2007 .

[121]  John A. Glaser,et al.  Environmental values , 2008 .

[122]  Millenium Ecosystem Assessment.  Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis , 2005 .

[123]  Daniel M. Kammen,et al.  Annual review of environment and resources , 2003 .

[124]  Amartya Sen.  Development as Freedom , 1999 .

[125]  C. Folke,et al.  Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience , 1998 .

[126]  S. Schwartz.  Are There Universal Aspects in the Structure and Contents of Human Values , 1994 .

[127]  L. Doyal,et al.  A Theory of Human Need , 1991 .

[128]  M. Sherif,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1946, Psychological review.