TY - JOUR

T1 - Multi-scale mapping of cultural ecosystem services in a socio-ecological landscape: A case study of the international Wadden Sea Region

AU - Sijtsma, Frans J.

AU - Mehnen, Nora

AU - Angelstam, Per

AU - Munoz-Rojas, Jose

N1 - Funding information: This publication is part of the activities performed within the framework of the Wadden Sea Long-Term Ecosystem Research (WaLTER) Project, funded by the Dutch Waddenfonds and the Provinces of Noord-Holland and Friesland. The case study described in this paper was conducted with additional support of the Wadden Academy, Leeuwarden. Funding from FORMAS (2017:1342) to Per Angelstam is also acknowledged. We thank Minne Oostra for Greenmapper data handling. We thank Eelke van der Veen for supporting data work on Tables 1 and 2. We thank native speaker Susan Davis for improving the English.

PY - 2019/7/1

Y1 - 2019/7/1

N2 - Context: The governance of international natural World Heritage sites is extremely challenging. In the search for effective multilevel governance there is a need to identify the community of people which have place attachment to the areas, i.e. ‘the community of fans’ at local to international levels. Objectives: Focusing on the landscape of the international Wadden Sea coastal area in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark as a case study, we address three key questions: What is the spatial distribution of the community of fans? How does the size of this community relate to the overlapping communities of locals and actual visitors to the Wadden Sea coastal area? Which parts of the Wadden Sea coastal area are most appreciated by the community of fans, and how does this relate to its formal protection status? Methods: We analysed 7650 respondents’ answers to a tri-lateral web survey (the standardized Greenmapper survey) conducted in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Results: We estimated that 14 million German, Dutch and Danish citizens can be regarded as the potential—national level—community of fans. The correlation between place or landscape attachment and distance was varied among the three countries. Furthermore, only 37% of the markers placed by fans of the Wadden Sea coastal area are within the protected UNESCO World Heritage limits, suggesting that a broader demarcation could be possible. Conclusions: We discuss how the identification of fans can potentially contribute to more effective public involvement in the governance of valuable landscapes.

AB - Context: The governance of international natural World Heritage sites is extremely challenging. In the search for effective multilevel governance there is a need to identify the community of people which have place attachment to the areas, i.e. ‘the community of fans’ at local to international levels. Objectives: Focusing on the landscape of the international Wadden Sea coastal area in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark as a case study, we address three key questions: What is the spatial distribution of the community of fans? How does the size of this community relate to the overlapping communities of locals and actual visitors to the Wadden Sea coastal area? Which parts of the Wadden Sea coastal area are most appreciated by the community of fans, and how does this relate to its formal protection status? Methods: We analysed 7650 respondents’ answers to a tri-lateral web survey (the standardized Greenmapper survey) conducted in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Results: We estimated that 14 million German, Dutch and Danish citizens can be regarded as the potential—national level—community of fans. The correlation between place or landscape attachment and distance was varied among the three countries. Furthermore, only 37% of the markers placed by fans of the Wadden Sea coastal area are within the protected UNESCO World Heritage limits, suggesting that a broader demarcation could be possible. Conclusions: We discuss how the identification of fans can potentially contribute to more effective public involvement in the governance of valuable landscapes.

KW - Nature attractiveness

KW - UNESCO Natural World Heritage

KW - Participatory GIS

KW - The Netherlands

KW - Germany

KW - Denmark

KW - Multiscale measurement

KW - Value mapping

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067311677&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10980-019-00841-8

DO - 10.1007/s10980-019-00841-8

M3 - Article

VL - 34

SP - 1751

EP - 1768

JO - Landscape ecology

JF - Landscape ecology

SN - 0921-2973

IS - 7

ER -