Biodiversity: a resource as well as a burden? Potential and limits of the concepts of ecosystem services and disservices to rethinking human-nature interactions in rural territories
The degradation and preservation of natural resources are often sources of tensions and conflicts between stakeholders in territories. The ecosystem service (ES) framework has been widely used to analyse these processes and design more effective governance arrangements. In this contribution, we develop the non-conventional idea that integrating the contested concept of ecosystem disservice (EDS), which refers to the nuisances associated with ecosystems, improves the understanding of these processes, and may eventually help towards more environmental justice. We focus on three case studies where environmental issues provide both ES and EDS: wild boar in the Mont Lozère (France), farm trees in the coteaux de Gascogne (France), and elephant in Hwange (Zimbabwe). In total, 119 semi-structured interviews or anonymous essays were conducted and analysed through two axes: i) people’s representations and practices around E(D)S, and ii) E(D)S governance. Our results show that the concept of EDS, associated with ES, helps reveal the complexity and ambivalence of stakeholders’ representations. It also allows to assess the role of practices in reinforcing or mitigating ecological nuisances that are not necessarily linked with ecological dynamics. This concept also enriches the understanding of stakeholders’ positions and governance issues, for example in revealing contradictions and side effects of certain environmental policies. Despite the existent controversies around it, the concept of EDS seems promising for rethinking environmental governance in territories.