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Using trade-offs and synergies in ecosystem services for resource management

Abstract

Trade-off analysis can be defined as an approach to natural resource management that incorporates multiple objectives for the management of a given area (and its resources) within a decision framework. The analysis of trade-off or synergetic relationships among multiple objectives for a given system is essential for the implementation of interdisciplinary (ecological, social and economic) research results into policy making. While research concerning trade-offs in ecosystem services (ESS) is still nascent, several types of trade-offs/synergies have already been investigated, including spatial trade-offs in the provision of ESSs, temporal trade-offs, trade-offs related to stakeholder values, as well as trade-offs between causally related ESSs (such as provisioning and regulating or supporting services), and trade-offs between economic, social and ecological objectives in land use. The last two types of trade-offs address directly the issue of sustainability. Methods of investigation aim at (1) the quantification of tradeoffs/ synergies using an array of tools borrowed from modeling, behavioral economics, econometrics, etc.… or/and (2) at ranking ESSs via e.g. multicriteria analyses (MCA). The Future Okavango (TFO) research project intends to incorporate trade-off analysis in its assessment of ESS in order to support management decisions at the scale of the river basin in the Okavango region. It uses a variety of methods which complement one another and enable the incorporation of the concept of ESS into decision making. A description of the ESSs compared using trade-off analysis, as well as of the methods used and their interrelations constitutes the second part of the paper.

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