Social hotspots mapping: a participatory approach for identifying cultural ecosystem services of forests

The paper presents a methodology to identify and map Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) of forests and semi-natural areas. The quantification of CES represents a complicated task in the framework of ecosystem service evaluation. Compared to traditional investigations on the topic, we support the idea that the enhancement of CES knowledge is closely linked to the involvement of society on the role of recreational, spiritual and symbolic services of the natural resources. The mapping CES could therefore be functional for a planning and management activity accompanied by an increase in local communities' awareness of the resources present in the territory. Thus, we proposed a participatory webGIS approach at the national level (Italy) to obtain people's preferences on the favourite natural places, spatializing the results by the use of weighted Kernel density. Regarding people’s preferences for outdoor recreational activities and ecotourism in forests and semi-natural areas, the most valued activities are observation of nature, walking or running, journey by car and picnic/BBQ, which tends, by widening the radius of choice, to diversify in favour of various types of sports/activities related to the sea or the mountain. Our results show that on average 45% of CES areas fall back outside Nature 2000 network, suggesting a deeper understanding in the use and appreciation of different types of natural areas for different needs and moods. Indeed, among the outputs, social hotspot of CES areas are stressed, quantifying not only the recreational component, but also the other components that make up CES. This research carries major implications for policy at different levels of governance, as it makes possible to target policy instruments so that cultural dimensions are adequately considered.