Tools for participative prioritization of ecological restoration in the Region of Valencia (southeastern Spain)

Abstract

The effective integration of ecological restoration (ER) into land management requires the definition of priority areas and actions. At large spatial scales, priorities are commonly defined by experts in terms of ecological factors, particularly species distribution or a small set of ecosystem services. However, management decisions must deal with different habitats, and respond to society multiple demands and aspirations. New tools for identifying and analyzing priority criteria and determining best management alternatives, integrating ecological and socio-economic perspectives are needed. We developed a participatory approach to identify priority areas for restoration in a 224,472 Ha area in Crevillent Forest Demarcation, southeast semi-arid Spain. The challenge was to develop a rigorous yet accessible methodology that could be extrapolated to other regions. An 88-stakeholder platform was asked to identify and weight priority criteria for ER. Stakeholders identified five groups of criteria corresponding to natural and semi-natural environments, highly-humanized environments, criteria related to ecosystem functions, criteria related to landscape-scale processes, and socio-economic and cultural criteria. The integrated weight of the studied criteria showed that highly-humanized environments (landfills and waste dumps, river margins, unused quarries, rainfed crops, and irrigated crops) and criteria related to ecosystem function (key areas to reduce wildfire risk and vulnerability, key areas to reduce erosion, key areas to reduce water pollution) received the highest priority, together with areas with high cultural and ethnologic value. In contrast, the priority for natural and semi-natural environments and landscape-scale features was lower. We discuss these results and the feasibility of using this protocol to support decision making concerning ecological restoration actions in this Mediterranean landscape.