1. Measuring the Social Value of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES)
Hannah Fay Curzon1
, Piran White1
, Julia Touza1
, Kathryn Arnold1
1
Environment Department, Wentworth Way, Heslington, The University of York, York, YO10 5NG
hfc501@york.ac.uk
This Study will:
 Identify and assess cultural ecosystem
services (CES) on the Humberhead
Peatlands NNR
 Use a non-monetary socio-cultural
valuation approach to quantify CES
 Use a multi-phased mixed methods
design
 Explore how cultural values are linked to
landscape features
 Evaluate the impacts of peatland
restoration on CES value and provision
2. Archival Analysis
 Analysis of ‘Oral Histories’ made up of
interviews with local residents about their
lives on the Moors
 Mixture of qualitative and semi-quantitative
techniques (content analysis) to analyse the
text and themes therein
 Oral histories will be used to understand how
people have historically used and valued the
Moors
 Insight into historic value of CES to inform the
themes in later interviews
Humberhead Peatlands NNR:
 Largest lowland raised bog habitat in Britain
 Recognised as a Distinctive Landscape
 Attracts 35,000 visitors per year
 Site currently in an unfavourable condition due
to centuries of commercial peat extraction
 Natural England has been awarded LIFE+
funding to restore the degraded peat bog
 A fully restored peat bog will deliver a range of
vital ecosystem services providing significant
benefits to society
 An internationally important Neolithic Trackway
discovered on Hatfield Moors in 2002 is at risk
of being lost unless the peat is rewetted
3. Key Informant Interviews
 15-20 in-person interviews will be
conducted with key informants who
have local or specialist knowledge
about the Moors
 Semi-structured interviews will scope
out the CES associated with the
Moors
 Use of photographs and maps of the
site to help generate responses
 Participants will be asked to rank
specific CES in order of importance
 Analysis of transcripts to produce a
‘Typology of Cultural Values’
 Comparison of historical and present
values to explore the change in socio-
cultural values over time
4. Focus Groups
 A series of focus groups to facilitate a
more in-depth assessment of CES on
the Moors
 Participants will be purposively
selected to represent a specific
stakeholder ’type’ or specialist interest
group
 Participants will be asked to share
their experiences and express what is
important to them and why
 Qualitative analysis will tease out
cultural values and compare the views
of different stakeholder groups
Socio-Cultural Valuation of CES:
 Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are the non-
material benefits obtained from ecosystems
 Study will use an alternative non-monetary
valuation technique to quantify the socio-
cultural value of CES from a peatland area
 Socio-cultural valuation looks at people’s
preferences for (cultural) ES and the perceived
importance in terms of the contribution to their
mental and physical well-being
5. Participatory Mapping
 Focus group sessions will also be used to
facilitate a participatory mapping (P-GIS) exercise
to provide a spatially explicit assessment of CES
 Participants will be asked to identify places that
have different cultural values or special meaning
on a map of the landscape
 GIS analysis will be used to show the density and
distribution of cultural values and the differences
between stakeholder groups
6. Choice Models
 An image-based choice survey will be used to
investigate the heterogeneity of cultural
landscape preferences and explore value trade-
offs associated with the Moors
 Participants’ preferences for sets of photographs
will be analysed to reveal the most valued
attributes and management approaches
 Results will be used to predict the impact of
restoration and habitat modification on the future
socio-cultural value of the site
1. Mail-Based Survey
 Mail-based survey of 20,000 local
households
 Prize incentive of £100 worth of vouchers
 Survey will capture base-line data on how
visitors use the Moors and socio-
demographic variables
 Mixture of open and closed questions and
ranking exercises will be used to explore
why people visit the site and what
contributes to their enjoyment
A Mixed Methods Approach
Summary
Context
Framework
Cultural
Ecosystem
Services
Inspiration
Aesthetic
Beauty
Cultural
Heritage
Social
Relations
Sense of
Place
Ecological
Knowledge
Recreation
Spirituality
Related Reading: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC
Brown, G., 2005. Mapping spatial attributes in survey research for natural resource management: methods and applications. Society and Natural Resources,18: 1-23
Schaich, H., Bieling, C. & Plieninger, T., 2010. Linking ecosystem services with cultural landscape research. GAIA, 19: 269-277
Klain, S.C. & Chan, K.M.A., 2012. Navigating coastal values: participatory mapping of ecosystem services for spatial planning. Ecological Economics, 82: 104-113
Plieninger, T., Dijks, S., Oteros-Rozas. E. & Bieling, C., 2013. Assessing, mapping and quantifying cultural ecosystem services at community level. Land Use Policy, 33: 118-129
Scholte, S., van Teeffelen, A. & Verburg, P.H., 2015. Integrating socio-cultural perspectives into ecosystem service valuation: a review of concepts and methods. Ecological Econom-
ics, 114: 67-78
Fig 4. Map of Thorne and Hatfield Moors, collectively known as
the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve, situated
northeast of Doncaster in South Yorkshire.
Fig.1. An area of dense heather on Hatfield Moors
Fig.2. A group of walkers looking for Nightjars
Fig.3. A wetland area on Hatfield Moors