Demand for Cultural Ecosystem Services Provided by Natural Reserves

: The Case of LIFE Hélianthème and LIFE Pays Mosan Projects within Natagora

Abstract

The approach of Ecosystem Services (ES) for conservation of nature is bringing more insights about biodiversity protection and benefits to human well-being. Within Natagora, LIFE Pays Mosan is a European project that protects natural reserves mostly located in Wallonia in Belgium. The assessment of ES is part of the goals the LIFE Pays Mosan team has to accomplish. The team specifically required to focus on the cultural ecosystem services (CES) and their demand in natural reserves of the project. In consequence, the objectives of this thesis were to firstly assess the ES in LIFE Pays Mosan natural reserves and to estimate what is the demand in CES and how to improve them. For this matter, a research on 52 natural reserves for the individual ES assessment was carried out. To estimate the demand of CES, a market research was pursued using qualitative interviews in a case study on the “Mont des Pins” natural reserve, followed by a survey based on the Theory of Reasoned Action. We find that ES have improved over 10 years thanks to LIFE projects. The 12 qualitative interviews provide leads on how to improve CES. Through the survey analysis, we find that the intention to come back in natural reserves is driven by the attitude towards natural reserves and subjective norms related to natural reserve.

Date of Award	26 Aug 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Supervisor	Alain DECROP (Supervisor)