BC3 Seminar: “Exploring national survey data to quantify household dependence on ecosystem services”

BC3 Seminars

“Exploring national survey data to quantify household dependence on ecosystem services”

Postdoctoral Researcher Odirilwe Selomane

Stockholm Resilience Centre

Abstract:

Although ecosystem services are inherently at the interface of society and nature, most of the indicators used to measure them are still predominantly either biophysical or social. As ecosystem services are increasingly understood as outcomes of interactions of the social-ecological systems interactions, rather than as unidirectional benefits from nature to people, it is becoming important to distinguish between potentially available ecosystem services benefits, and those that are actually used/realised. This is because availability alone does not guarantee access and use, which are mediated by factors such as infrastructure, institutions, and others. National statistics data and other similar sources are potentially useful as alternative sources of data for ecosystem service use. They are available overtime, already exists in most cases, and are largely consistent, providing an opportunity to assess ecosystem service use and dependence at scales beyond local contexts and across time periods. I will talk about how such data were used in South Africa.

Lecturer´s Personal Webpage

http://www.stockholmresilience.org/contact-us/staff/2017-12-01-selomane.html

About the Lecturer

Odirilwe Selomane is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm Resilience Centre exploring how complex systems dynamics apply to sustainability monitoring. He has a background in agricultural and environmental economics and his PhD work focused on social-ecological systems approaches to sustainability monitoring. He is also a researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa but currently on a long term leave from this position.