A qualitative research on Spanish farmers and citizens perceptions of ecosystem services provided by mountain livestock farming

Abstract

There is a strong debate nowadays on the public goods derived from certain agro-ecosystems and their valuation for establishing payments for ecosystem services (ES). In this context, we carried out a qualitative research on the spontaneous knowledge of ecosystem services and the perceptions of farmers and citizens on relationships between mountain farming and the environment. Five focus groups (2 with farmers and 3 with citizens; n=33) were organized in north-eastern Spain. Discussions were guided according to 5 general questions on links between pasture-based mountain livestock and the environment, lasted around 1.5 hours, were video recorded and transcripts were written for text analysis. Ideas or items from discussions were interpreted and organized according to the type of ES participants referred to (provisioning, regulating, habitat, cultural). The ES that were mentioned and discussed a greater number of times were (in descending order): aesthetic (landscape/ vegetation); gene pool protection (biodiversity maintenance); disturbance prevention (forest fires); lifecycle maintenance (nutrient cycling, photosynthesis); raw materials (firewood, forage); water purification/ waste management; spiritual experience; recreation/ tourism; soil fertility/ erosion prevention; and culture/ art. Differences between farmers and citizens were observed: farmers gave more importance to regulating (in particular, prevention of forest fires and soil fertility) and provisioning (raw materials) ES, mainly related to their own farming activity or local circumstances; whereas citizens gave more importance to cultural (aesthetic landscape/ vegetation, spiritual experience, recreation/ tourism and culture/art) ES, showing in general more global concerns. This study constitutes the base for a quantitative research on valuation (including monetary valuation) of ES derived from mountain farming systems in Mediterranean and North-Alpine areas. Keywords: public goods, sustainability, valuation, focus groups.