6. Conclusions and future challenges

5. Discussion

108 Tropical Forests - New Edition

The findings of this research revealed that local residents living nearby or within Ceiba and Arenillas perceive and appreciate a wide range of ES provided by TDFs in southern Ecuador. The social actors in both areas mentioned provisioning services and cultural services, and to a lesser degree regulation services but hardly mentioned any supporting services. Supporting services were difficult to identify by social actors' especially those who are not familiar with ecological and biophysical processes. This finding supports conclusions from other studies

Our results suggest that there are two underlying forces that influence how people perceive their ecosystem: (1) the management strategies undertaken in each protected area, and, (2) the involvement of the different social actors with the reserves. Regarding the management strategies, we argue that the perceptions of ES provided by TDF are influenced by the models applied in the management of the protected areas. While in both areas the access to resources such as timber or pastures is restricted and regulated, in Ceiba sustainable activities, including agriculture, are allowed inside its territory if the owners permit it, whereas in Arenillas any

The exclusionary model applied in Arenillas follows the trend applied in protected areas whereby these areas are set aside for recreation and restricted from other uses [34]. This conservation approach, as Pimbert et al. [35] pointed it out, seeks to exclude local communities from all forms of participation. Because conservation initiatives, namely protected areas, have mainly focused on protecting the regulation services and promoting the cultural services, it is not surprising that in Arenillas the ES that were most highly rated were cultural services. On the contrary, in terms of conservation, the inclusive management approach developed in Ceiba has positively influenced in that people perceive and value provisioning services as well as

While these results are promising for the conservation purposes, it is worthy to note that we have not analyzed how this inclusive management is influencing on the access to natural

Regarding the second force, some authors have argued that the perception of ES and its further conservation depends on the beneficiaries of such services [9, 14, 36]. For instance, Benez et al. [37], and Verón et al. [38] indicated that ES are appreciated according to cultural values wherein the same service, namely water provision, could be perceived as human consumption or as hydroelectric power. Likewise, Reid et al. [39] suggested that ES are valued according to the level of urbanization and modernity wherein food supply is perceived differently in urban or non-urban areas. For example, mammals' abundance in the Arctic is highly valued as a food source whereas in urban environments meat suppliers may be less critical to the well-being of metropolitan populations given the wide array of protein substitutes and therefore are less

suggesting that supporting services are harder to identify by the people [4].

production activity is banned by the Ministry of Environment.

being aware of the impacts they have on the ecosystem.

resources and on the people's livelihoods.

valued.

This study is a first step to build on the knowledge of TDF in an Ecuadorian context. It highlights the necessity to incorporate people's voices in the management of protected areas to achieve better conservation results. The integration of local people in policy making leads to a better compliance with conservation objectives [45–48], the results of our study also confirm these findings. This is especially important in developing countries where the stakeholders have not been fully integrated in the management process and where policymakers tend to prefer a top-down organization system. We argue that while this approach to conservation might be useful to conserve the natural environment, it doesn't necessarily guarantee the acquiescence of local communities with conservation policies on the long run, as the case of Arenillas showed us. We suggest that local governments should double their efforts in promoting a truly inclusive decision-making process.

The findings of this research also revealed that social assessment methods are useful in the initial phase of studying ecosystem services as it permits managers to have an in-depth knowledge of the values, needs, preferences, and strains of the different stakeholders involved in a protected area. However, it fails to reveal some important supporting and regulation ecosystem functions and services that are invisible to local communities. Further studies should be carried out from an economic and ecologic point of view to obtain more rigorous assessments.
