Ecosystem services of tropical silvopastoral systems- Economic valuation and trade-offs
Ecosystems provide a variety of goods and services to humans such as food provision, climate change mitigation, soil erosion control and watershed protection. In Central America, expansion of cattle production has undermined ecological functions, limiting such environmental goods and services. To solve the problem, Silvopastoral System (SPS) was introduced as an instrument to enhance the environmental services sustaining agricultural production. In Costa Rica, there have been eorts to promote the SPS, but there are still obstacles in implementing SPS. Lack of information on current status of Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by SPS, furthermore, makes it hard to diagnose the condition of ES from SPS. This study, therefore, aimed to estimate the value of the ecosystem services from SPS and identify trade-os between the ES in case of Jesus Maria River Watershed in Costa Rica. Provision of food and ber and regulation of Climate Change were investigated. Combining with analyses on socio-economic factors, the work also examined motivations and challenges in adoption of SPS by the farmers. Results showed that the SPS provides ecosystem services equivalent to $ 3,318.7/ha/year in 2015 International Dollar. Provision of timber and non-timber products was minor accounting for 5% and 10% of the total value respectively. A synergy between carbon regulating service and biodiversity was found, whereas milk production had a negative relation with the carbon regulation and biodiversity. Socio-economic factors including farmers' dependency of income in livestock production, existence of subsidy, and capacity in SPS management tended to have relations with the adoption of SPS. It was concluded that nancial support to the farmers is necessary in order to compensate the loss in milk production for higher carbon and biodiversity value in cattle farms. Importance of technical assistance and knowledge transfer, was also highlighted in promoting SPS and maximizing the value of ES from the SPS. Despite limitations in the valuation with the scope of ES and uncertainties in estimation, this work provided approximate values of ES in SPS, aggregating multiple services into comparisons.
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| Format: | Texto biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
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University of Copenhagen Copenhague (Dinamaca)
2016
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| Online Access: | http://orton.catie.ac.cr/repdoc/A11481i/A11481i.pdf |
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