Planning wetland protection and restoration for the safeguard of ecosystem service flows to beneficiaries

Context Human activities have led to the degradation of wetlands, impinging on their capacity to deliver essential ecosystem services to society. Wetland restoration now appears an essential strategy, in complement with protection efforts, to maintain the supply of ecosystem services regionally. The limited resources available for restoration call for cost-efficient systematic planning approaches. Objectives Here we present a new framework to prioritize protection and restoration interventions in wetlands that considers their cost-efficient complementary roles in maintaining ecosystem service flows to people. Methods We identified existent and historic wetlands located within a watershed in southern Quebec (Canada), quantified anthropogenic pressures on all sites to estimate restoration costs, and modeled the supply and demand of four associated ecosystem services (flood attenuation, hunting, groundwater recharge, and aesthetics). Using the systematic planning software Marxan, we then prioritized sites to achieve a range of conservation targets (10 to 60%). Results Our analyses show how conservation targets could be reached efficiently using complementary protection and restoration interventions. Despite higher costs, some restoration actions were included in optimized solutions as substitutions for protection actions on pristine sites, covering * 50% of conservation networks on an areal basis. Conclusions These results highlight the importance of considering the cost-benefit ratios of different conservation interventions (protection vs. restoration), as well as the demand for ecosystem services by society. Furthermore, by looking at both the potential of altered sites to contribute to ecosystem service flow once restored and the complementary roles of restored and pristine sites in achieving targets cost-efficiently, the study provides key analytical tools to assist stakeholders in decision-making.

Automated summary

The study introduces a new framework for prioritizing wetland protection and restoration interventions, highlighting the cost-efficient complementary roles in maintaining ecosystem service flows to people.