Abstract

Modeling and mapping of cultural ecosystem services (CES) represents a significant gap in ecosystem service research. A GIS-based methodological framework was developed and applied to map agricultural heritage (AH), understood as a non-divisible combination of three cultural services (dimensions, D): the heritage value associated to a culturally significant species (i.e. Chiloe native potato) (D1); the traditional systems of knowledge of AH keepers (D2); and the social relations among them (D3). The final aim of the study was to provide indicators of the final service (AH(i), measured in a 0-100 point scale) and its benefits (AH(B), measured in US$/ha), capable to display areas where high value farmland was located. In essence, AH(i) comprised a set of biocultural variables validated and weighted by expert opinion. The experts gave the maximum importance to 5 variables: number of native potato varieties cultivated (D1), use of own seed (D1), form in which cultivation knowledge was acquired by the keeper (D2), exchange of own seed (03), and number of other potato keepers known (D3). In turn, AH(B) reflected society's willingness to pay for the norimaterial benefits of AH conservation. Since these benefits propagate across space extending from local to unknown and distant beneficiaries, and the aim was to identify the most valuable areas for their capacity to satisfy a potential demand,AH(B) was spatialized following the approach of ascribing the potential benefits to their point of provision. Thus the highest values of AH(i) coincided with the highest values of AH(B) (US$10.64-8.64 ha(-1)) a comprised 5608 ha of the landscape, and similarly the lowest values of AH(i) matched the lowest values of AH(B) (US$1.69-0.18 ha(-1)) comprising 13,070 ha of the landscape. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.