Ranchers benefit from nature’s contributions to people in grasslands while at the same time co-producing them through, for example, their knowledge and experience.
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By Jana Kachler, Roman Isaac, Berta Martín-López, Aletta Bonn, and Maria Felipe-Lucia.

Read the full paper here.

People benefit from nature in many ways. We benefit directly from materials and goods, such as food. We also benefit in non-material ways, such as by going outdoors for bird-watching. Furthermore, we benefit from the regulating functions of nature such as the pollination of plants and crops.

These benefits are provided through natural resources such as soil and water, which are then modified through human inputs. These human inputs may be visible, such as machines harvesting crops. However, they can also be invisible, such as the experience of herders using pastoral lands. But how much do scientists know about the importance of human inputs in creating benefits from nature? What methods do scientists use when studying these interactions? And what is the relevance of this knowledge for policymakers?

To answer these questions we reviewed what scientists have already published on human inputs to the creation of benefits from nature. Next to a general overview, we illustrate this evidence through case study examples. For instance, we refer to a study where farmers used organic manure on coffee plantations to support pollination and increase coffee harvest.

Most of the evidence that we reviewed was on material benefits from nature. Non-material and regulating benefits appear less studied. Our results show that invisible human inputs such as knowledge and social networks seem to be helpful in the creation of non-material and regulating benefits.

In all, the published evidence we found was relatively scarce. There is a need to study the role of people in creating benefits from nature further: over time, at different spatial scales, and in different landscapes. Different methods may be applied to study the diverse visible and invisible human inputs. Policymakers can use this information when deciding how to live and work in nature. For example, what happens when knowledge of traditional agricultural practices is overlooked? Nature benefits that are generated by these traditional systems may be lost.