TY - JOUR
T1 - Governance, nature’s contributions to people, and investing in conservation influence the valuation of urban green areas
AU - Pineda-Guerrero, Alexandra
AU - Escobedo, Francisco J.
AU - Carriazo, Fernando
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: We thank the Jardin Botánico de Bogotá-José Celestino Mutis for funding and leading this project particularly Carlos Fonseca, José Lopez, Catalina Lopera, and Maribel Vasquez for their assistance and coordination of field crews. We are also grateful to the Universidad del Rosario´s Biology Program’s undergraduate Socio-ecological Systems class for their valuable contribution to this work. In particular, we thank Mari Paula Otero, Sara Pedraza, Andrea Aragon, Daniel A Quevedo, and Nubia Vazquez.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Li-censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - There is little information concerning how people in the Global South perceive the benefits and costs associated with urban green areas. There is even less information on how governance influences the way people value these highly complex socio-ecological systems. We used semi-structured surveys, statistical analyses, and econometrics to explore the perceptions of users regarding governance and the benefits and costs, or Ecosystem Services (ES) and Ecosystem Disservices (ED), provided by Neotropical green areas and their willingness to invest, or not, for their conservation. The study area was the El Salitre sub-watershed in Bogota, Colombia, and 10 different sites representative of its wetlands, parks, green areas, and socioeconomic contexts. Using a context-specific approach and methods, we identified the most important benefits and costs of green areas and the influence of governance on how people valued these. Our modelling shows that air quality and biodiversity were highly important benefits, while water regulation was the least important; despite the sub-watershed’s acute problems with stormwater runoff. In terms of costs, the feeling of insecurity due to crime was related to poor levels of maintenance and infrastructure in the studied green areas. Perceived transparency, corruption, and performance of government institutions influenced people’s Unwillingness to Invest (UTI) in green space conservation. Results show that socioeconomic backgrounds, government performance, and environmental education will play a role in the value or importance people place on the benefits, costs, and UTI in conservation efforts in urban green areas. Similarly, care is warranted when directly applying frameworks and typologies developed in high income countries (i.e., ES) to the unique realities of cities in the Global South. Accordingly, alternative frameworks such as Nature’s Contributions to People is promising.
AB - There is little information concerning how people in the Global South perceive the benefits and costs associated with urban green areas. There is even less information on how governance influences the way people value these highly complex socio-ecological systems. We used semi-structured surveys, statistical analyses, and econometrics to explore the perceptions of users regarding governance and the benefits and costs, or Ecosystem Services (ES) and Ecosystem Disservices (ED), provided by Neotropical green areas and their willingness to invest, or not, for their conservation. The study area was the El Salitre sub-watershed in Bogota, Colombia, and 10 different sites representative of its wetlands, parks, green areas, and socioeconomic contexts. Using a context-specific approach and methods, we identified the most important benefits and costs of green areas and the influence of governance on how people valued these. Our modelling shows that air quality and biodiversity were highly important benefits, while water regulation was the least important; despite the sub-watershed’s acute problems with stormwater runoff. In terms of costs, the feeling of insecurity due to crime was related to poor levels of maintenance and infrastructure in the studied green areas. Perceived transparency, corruption, and performance of government institutions influenced people’s Unwillingness to Invest (UTI) in green space conservation. Results show that socioeconomic backgrounds, government performance, and environmental education will play a role in the value or importance people place on the benefits, costs, and UTI in conservation efforts in urban green areas. Similarly, care is warranted when directly applying frameworks and typologies developed in high income countries (i.e., ES) to the unique realities of cities in the Global South. Accordingly, alternative frameworks such as Nature’s Contributions to People is promising.
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U2 - 10.3390/land10010014
DO - 10.3390/land10010014
M3 - Research Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098861842
SN - 2073-445X
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Land
JF - Land
IS - 1
M1 - 14
ER -
