Effects of Land-Use Change on Wetland Ecosystem Services

Landscape and Urban Planning 122 (2014) 160–174 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Landscape and Urban Planning j ournal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landurbplan Research Paper Effects of land-use change on wetland ecosystem services: A case study in the Donana˜ marshes (SW Spain) a,b,∗ a c,a a P. Zorrilla-Miras , I. Palomo , E. Gómez-Baggethun , B. Martín-López , c,a a P.L. Lomas , C. Montes a ◦ Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, Autónoma University of Madrid, C/ Darwin, n 2, 28049 Cantoblanco (Madrid), Spain b ◦ Terrativa S. Coop. Mad. C/ Arganda, n 24, 28005 Madrid, Spain c Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Building C5, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallés), Spain h i g h l i g h t s • 70% of one of the last remaining wetlands in Europe, Donana˜ marshland, was converted to cropland. • Land-use change has been a result of a conservation vs. development process. • Land-use change has fostered high-economic-value provisioning services. • Land-use change has deteriorated regulating and locally used provisioning and cultural services. • Ecosystem services evaluation with biophysical and social methods provides complementary information. a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Land-use change is a major driver behind the loss of ecosystem services. We assessed changes in ecosys- Received 11 June 2012 tem services from land-use conversions during the period 1918–2006 in the Donana˜ marshland and Received in revised form estuary in southwestern Spain, one of the largest European wetlands. We contrasted those results with 18 September 2013 social perceptions of ecosystem services trends using two techniques (expert judgment by a multidisci- Accepted 25 September 2013 plinary scientific panel and semi-structured interviews of locals and visitors). The results show that by Available online 25 October 2013 2006, (1) 70.5% of the natural or semi-natural land covers had been converted to intensive agriculture and other mono-functional uses, hampering the performance of regulating services and (2) 31% of the wet- Keywords: land area had been strictly protected, affecting cultural and provisioning services. Our results show that Landscape planning land-use changes have led to a polarized territorial matrix exhibiting fundamental trade-offs in ecosys- Ecosystem service trade-offs Protected area tem service supply, where provisioning services produced for exportation and sale in the market, such Scale of beneficiaries as cash crops and fiber, have been enhanced at the expense of regulating services, such as hydrological Stakeholders regulation, flood buffering, and habitats for species and specific cultural and provisioning services used Conservation vs. development conflict traditionally by the locals. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction century, land-use change was a main driver behind the loss of wetlands and associated ecosystem services (De Fries, Foley, & Asner, Despite wetlands being known to be critical to the delivery of 2004; Foley et al., 2005; Gagne & Fahrig, 2007; MA, 2005a). The ecosystem services, they are among the ecosystems suffering the intensification of agriculture in fertile regions and the abandon- greatest transformations worldwide (MA, 2005a). During the 20th ment of farming in less favorable areas are affecting natural and cultivated ecosystems all over the world, especially in industrial- ized countries (e.g., Kristensen, 1999; van Doorn & Bakker, 2007). In Spain, land-use change for intensive agriculture and urbaniza- ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, tion is a main driver behind biodiversity loss and has led to the ◦ Autonomous University of Madrid, C/ Darwin, n 2, 28049 Cantoblanco (Madrid), conversion of 60% of the original wetland area over the last five Spain. Tel.: +34 497 6778/622644620; fax: +34 91 4978001. decades. According to the Spanish subglobal ecosystem assess- E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P. Zorrilla-Miras), ment, 62% of the ecosystem services delivered by wetlands have [email protected] (I. Palomo), [email protected] (E. Gómez-Baggethun), declined over the last fifty years, affecting regulating services in [email protected] (B. Martín-López), [email protected] (P.L. Lomas), [email protected] (C. Montes). particular (EME, 2011). The decline in ecosystem services results 0169-2046/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.09.013 P. Zorrilla-Miras et al. / Landscape and Urban Planning 122 (2014) 160–174 161 not only from land-use intensification but also from abandon- but the Donana˜ wetlands were subject to many other uses by ment (Braat & ten Brink, 2008; Schneiders, Van Daele, Van Reeth, the locals, including hunting, snail harvesting, fishing, and grass & Van Landuyt, 2012). This process may be especially important cropping for soap and glass making (González-Arteaga, 1993). The in the context of Mediterranean ecosystems and cultural land- outstanding ecological values of the Donana˜ wetlands persisted scapes (Bugalho, Caldeira, Pereira, Aronson, & Pausas, 2011), where throughout a long history of human utilization of its ecosystems traditional management coupled with ecosystem dynamics has (Menanteau, 1984; Ojeda, 1987). This long history of co-evolution historically contributed to diversifying ecosystem service supply between humans and nature produced cultural landscapes where (García-Llorente et al., 2012; Martín-López et al., 2012). multifunctional ecosystems deliver a diverse range of services to The aim of this study was to assess the effects of land-use change society (see García-Llorente, Martín-López, Díaz, & Montes, 2011; on ecosystem services delivered by wetlands. As a case study, we Gómez-Baggethun, Mingorría, Reyes-García, Calvet, & Montes, assessed land-use changes in the Donana˜ marshes and estuary 2010; Martín-López, Montes, & Benayas, 2007). (in southwestern Spain) during the period 1918–2006 and their During the 18th and 19th centuries, several attempts were made impacts on ecosystem service supply. Our specific objectives were to drain the marshes (González-Arteaga, 1993). Within a general- to (1) identify the primary drivers and stages of land-use change, (2) ized context of policies to reclaim wetlands across Europe, public provide quantitative measures of land-use changes for each of these bodies promoted conversion of marshes in Donana˜ for purposes stages, and (3) assess the effects of land-use change on ecosystem of sanitation (e.g., to fight malaria) and risk reduction (e.g., flood service delivery. control), while private companies promoted further conversion Our analysis was conducted using a combination of biophys- plans in search of economic profit from agriculture (Ojeda, 1987). ical and social science methodologies. Our research contributes These interventions failed due to insufficient capital investment to advancement of the understanding of how wetland conversion and lack of appropriate technology and infrastructure (González- affects human well-being through changes in ecosystem service Arteaga, 1993). Consequently, the attempted engineering works supply. By quantifying social, ecological, and economic impacts of were destroyed by periodic flooding of the marsh (Ojeda & del wetland conversion that are not always accounted for in traditional Moral, 2004). The only stable transformation before the 20th cen- territorial planning, our research can contribute to preventing fur- tury consisted of a set of engineering works that shortened the ther wetland transformations involving loss of critical ecosystem Guadalquivir River by 40 km for navigation purposes (Menanteau services in other areas. & Vanney, 1985). Apart from these works, the other durable transformations in the Donana˜ marsh began only in the 20th century. 2. Study area 3. Methods 2.1. Site description 3.1. Characterization of drivers of change Donana˜ is located at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River on the southwestern coast of Spain. Montes, Borja, Bravo, and Moreira Our research covers the period 1918–2006. Following method- (1998) defined the Greater Fluvial–Littoral Ecosystem of Donana˜ ological guidelines proposed by Ruiz and Domon (2009), we 2 (2207 km ) as an ecological unit whose structure and functions identified and characterized the main factors driving land-use are shaped by the interactions of the Guadalquivir River and the change from an historical analysis of the primary socio-economic Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 1). The Greater Fluvial–Littoral Ecosystem of and political changes that have affected the Donana˜ marshes and Donana˜ consists of four main ecosystem units at the eco-district estuary. The main stages in the recent history of the Donana˜ scale: marshes (72%), sand dunes (23%), coastal systems (2%), and marshes were reconstructed from an in-depth literature review estuary (3%). Our analysis of land-use change includes two Donana˜ covering more than 70 publications dealing specifically with the wetland ecosystems: marshes and the estuary, which together Donana˜ marshes and estuary (see Appendix A). The sources of infor- 2 cover 1660 km . We focused our research on the Donana˜ marshes mation included scientific literature (i.e., peer-reviewed papers and estuary because (1) they constitute one of the largest and most and books) and “gray literature”, including historical documents, emblematic wetlands in

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