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Land use-based participatory assessment of ecosystem services for ecological restoration in village tank cascade systems of Sri Lanka

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Title Land use-based participatory assessment of ecosystem services for ecological restoration in village tank cascade systems of Sri Lanka
 
Creator Ratnayake, Sujith S.
Khan, Azeem
Reid, Michael
Dharmasena, Punchi B.
Hunter, Danny
Kumar, Lalit
Herath, Keminda
Kogo, Benjamin
Kadupitiya, Harsha K.
Dammalage, Thilantha
Kariyawasam, Champika S.
 
Subject ecosystem services
environmental restoration
land use
participatory research
servicios de los ecosistemas
restauración medioambiental
utilización de la tierra
 
Description Village Tank Cascade System (VTCS) landscapes in the dry zone of Sri Lanka provide multiple ecosystem services (ESs) and benefits to local communities, sustaining the productivity of their land use systems (LUSs). However, there is a lack of adequate scientific research on the ESs of LUSs, despite the recent land use changes that have greatly impacted the provisioning of ESs. Collection of baseline ESs data is a pre-requisite for decision making on ESs-based ecological restoration and management of the VTCS. Thus, this study aimed at assessing ESs of the Mahakanumulla VTCS (MVTCS) located in the Anuradhapura district of Sri Lanka by using a participatory approach involving the integration of local knowledge, expert judgements and LUSs attribute data to assess the ESs. The methodology was designed to integrate the biodiversity and land degradation status of LUSs in a way that is directly linked with the supply of ESs. The study identified twenty-four ESs of the MVTCS based on community perceptions. The identified ESs were assessed as a function of LUSs to develop an ecosystem service supply (ESS) and demand (ESD) matrix model. The results reveal that the current overall ESD for regulating and supporting ESs is higher than the ESS capacity of MVTCS. The assessment also revealed that land degradation and biodiversity deterioration reduce the capacity to provide ESs. Downstream LUSs of the meso-catchment were found to be more vulnerable to degradation and insufficient to provide ESs. Further, the study established that ESs in the MVTCS are generated through direct species-based and biophysical-based providers. In addition, it emerged that social and cultural engagements also played an important role in association with both providers to generate certain types of ESs. Therefore, it can be concluded that VTCS ecological restoration depends on the extent to which integrated effort addresses the levels of ecological complexity, as well as the social engagement of communities and stakeholders. The results of this study provide a scientific basis that can inform future land use decision making and practices that are applicable to successful ESs-based ecological restoration and management of the VTCSs in the dry zone of Sri Lanka.
 
Date 2022-08-16
2022-08-26T08:37:25Z
2022-08-26T08:37:25Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Ratnayake, S.S.; Khan, A.; Reid, M.; Dharmasena, P.B.; Hunter, D.; Kumar, L.; Herath, K.; Kogo, B.; Kadupitiya, H.K.; Dammalage, T.; Kariyawasam, C.S. (2022) Land use-based participatory assessment of ecosystem services for ecological restoration in village tank cascade systems of Sri Lanka. Sustainability 14(16): 10180. 21 p. ISSN: 2071-1050
2071-1050
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/120947
https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610180
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format 21 p.
application/pdf
 
Publisher MDPI AG
 
Source Sustainability