The effect of patriarchal norms on women farmers when men migrate: a case study from West Bengal, India

of managing their household and smallholder farm plots. This paper argues that the patriarchal process and government policies prevent women to maximize the productivity of the marginal plots of land they manage in the absence of their menfolk. It is the patriarchal nature of local social structures and agrarian services, such as extension and infrastructure such as water supply, which has led to the alienation of women farmers from mainstream agricultural services. The result is that they are not able to take full advantage of the productivity of their small plots of land and market any surplus. This paper concludes that there should be more targeted policies for women in agriculture.This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Grant DP140101682 — Farmers of the Future: Challenges of a Feminized Agriculture in India

(Dis) integrated valuation - Assessing the information gaps in ecosystem service appraisals for governance support

The operational challenges of integrated ecosystem service (ES) appraisals are determined by study purpose, system complexity and uncertainty, decision-makers' requirements for reliability and accuracy of methods, and approaches to stakeholder-science interaction in different decision contexts. To explore these factors we defined an information gap hypothesis, based on a theory of cumulative uncertainty in ES appraisals. When decision context requirements for accuracy and reliability increase, and the expected uncertainty of the ES appraisal methods also increases, the likelihood of methods being used is expected to drop, creating a potential information gap in governance. In order to test this information gap hypothesis, we evaluate 26 case studies and 80 ecosystem services appraisals in a large integrated EU research project. We find some support for a decreasing likelihood of ES appraisal methods coinciding with increasing accuracy and reliability requirements of the decision-support context, and with increasing uncertainty. We do not find that information costs are the explanation for this information gap, but rather that the research project interacted mostly with stakeholders outside the most decision-relevant contexts. The paper discusses how alternative definitions of integrated valuation can lead to different interpretations of decision-support information, and different governance approaches to dealing with uncertainty. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Integrating methods for ecosystem service assessment: Experiences from real world situations

The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept highlights the varied contributions the environment provides to humans and there are a wide range of methods/tools available to assess ES. However, in real-world decision contexts a single tool is rarely sufficient and methods must be combined to meet practitioner needs. Here, results from the OpenNESS project are presented to illustrate the methods selected to meet the needs of 24 real-world case studies and better understand why and how methods are combined to meet practical needs. Results showed that within the cases methods were combined to: i) address a range of ES; ii) assess both supply and demand of ES; iii) assess a range of value types; iv) reach different stake-holder groups v) cover weaknesses in other methods used and vi) to meet specific decision context needs. Methods were linked in a variety of ways: i) as input-output chains of methods; ii) through learning; iii) through method development and iv) through comparison/triangulation of results. The paper synthesises these case study-based experiences to provide insight to others working in practical contexts as to where, and in what contexts, different methods can be combined and how this can add value to case study analyses. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Integrated assessment and valuation of ecosystem services - Guidelines and experiences

EU FP7 OpenNESS project deliverable D33 & D4

Stakeholders' perspectives on the operationalisation of the ecosystem service concept : Results from 27 case studies

The ecosystem service (ES) concept is becoming mainstream in policy and planning, but operational influence on practice is seldom reported. Here, we report the practitioners' perspectives on the practical implementation of the ES concept in 27 case studies. A standardised anonymous survey (n = 246), was used, focusing on the science-practice interaction process, perceived impact and expected use of the case study assessments. Operationalisation of the concept was shown to achieve a gradual change in practices: 13% of the case studies reported a change in action (e.g. management or policy change), and a further 40% anticipated that a change would result from the work. To a large extent the impact was attributed to a well conducted science-practice interaction process (>70%). The main reported advantages of the concept included: increased concept awareness and communication; enhanced participation and collaboration; production of comprehensive science-based knowledge; and production of spatially referenced knowledge for input to planning (91% indicated they had acquired new knowledge). The limitations were mostly case-specific and centred on methodology, data, and challenges with result implementation. The survey highlighted the crucial role of communication, participation and collaboration across different stakeholders, to implement the ES concept and enhance the democratisation of nature and landscape planning. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

The eect of patriarchal norms on women farmers when men migrate: a case study from West Bengal, India

Seasonal migration of men is a global trend, with the women left on the family farms with the responsibility of managing their household and smallholder farm plots. This paper argues that the patriarchal process and government policies prevent women to maximize the productivity of the marginal plots of land they manage in the absence of their menfolk. It is the patriarchal nature of local social structures and agrarian services, such as extension and infrastructure such as water supply, which has led to the alienation of women farmers from mainstream agricultural services. The result is that they are not able to take full advantage of the productivity of their small plots of land and market any surplus. This paper concludes that there should be more targeted policies for women in agriculture

The eect of patriarchal norms on women farmers when men migrate: a case study from West Bengal, India

Seasonal migration of men is a global trend, with the women left on the family farms with the responsibility of managing their household and smallholder farm plots. This paper argues that the patriarchal process and government policies prevent women to maximize the productivity of the marginal plots of land they manage in the absence of their menfolk. It is the patriarchal nature of local social structures and agrarian services, such as extension and infrastructure such as water supply, which has led to the alienation of women farmers from mainstream agricultural services. The result is that they are not able to take full advantage of the productivity of their small plots of land and market any surplus. This paper concludes that there should be more targeted policies for women in agriculture

Stakeholders’ perspectives on the operationalisation of the ecosystem service concept: results from 27 case studies

The ecosystem service (ES) concept is becoming mainstream in policy and planning, but operational influence on practice is seldom reported. Here, we report the practitioners’ perspectives on the practical implementation of the ES concept in 27 case studies. A standardised anonymous survey (n = 246), was used, focusing on the science-practice interaction process, perceived impact and expected use of the case study assessments. Operationalisation of the concept was shown to achieve a gradual change in practices: 13% of the case studies reported a change in action (e.g. management or policy change), and a further 40% anticipated that a change would result from the work. To a large extent the impact was attributed to a well conducted science-practice interaction process (>70%). The main reported advantages of the concept included: increased concept awareness and communication; enhanced participation and collaboration; production of comprehensive science-based knowledge; and production of spatially referenced knowledge for input to planning (91% indicated they had acquired new knowledge). The limitations were mostly case-specific and centred on methodology, data, and challenges with result implementation. The survey highlighted the crucial role of communication, participation and collaboration across different stakeholders, to implement the ES concept and enhance the democratisation of nature and landscape planning. 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.acceptedVersio

When we cannot have it all: ecosystem services trade-offs in the context of spatial planning

Spatial planning has to deal with trade-offs between various stakeholders’ wishes and needs as part of planning and management of landscapes, natural resources and/or biodiversity. To make ecosystem services (ES) trade-off research more relevant for spatial planning, we propose an analytical framework, which puts stakeholders, their land-use/management choices, their impact on ES and responses at the centre. Based on 24 cases from around the world, we used this framing to analyse the appearance and diversity of real-world ES trade-offs. They cover a wide range of trade-offs related to ecosystem use, including: land-use change, management regimes, technical versus nature-based solutions, natural resource use, and management of species. The ES trade-offs studied featured a complexity that was far greater than what is often described in the ES literature. Influential users and context setters are at the core of the trade-off decision-making, but most of the impact is felt by non-influential users. Provisioning and cultural ES were the most targeted in the studied trade-offs, but regulating ES were the most impacted. Stakeholders’ characteristics, such as influence, impact faced, and concerns can partially explain their position and response in relation to trade-offs. Based on the research findings, we formulate recommendations for spatial planning

Integrating methods for ecosystem service assessment: experiences from real world situations

The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept provides great potential to highlight the breadth of services provided by the environment to humans. In the OpenNESS project research teams from 26 case studies across Europe and the world worked with case study practitioners to assess and select ES methods to target the specific management challenges of each case. The methods available included a range of biophysical, monetary and non-monetary approaches and were capable of addressing case study questions regarding both the supply and demand of ecosystem services and their value to the people benefiting from them. This paper draws on an analysis of case study experiences, to detail both the diversity of ways that methods were combined in practice, and the reasons driving method selection in different contexts. The paper attempts to synthesise these experiences to provide take-home messages that illustrate where, and in what contexts, different methodological combinations were used. It provides suggestions for those working in ecosystem service assessment drawn from experience of the 26 cases. The findings of the OpenNESS case studies stress that methodological plurality, flexibility and creativity are key if the ES concept is to best address the practical challenges posed by real world situations.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource