Systematic mapping of studies on ecosystem services in Slovenia

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits people receive from ecosystems and a key tool for assessing the sustainability of natural resource use. Natural resource management requires consistent data on the state of ES; despite this, no such research has been carried out at the national level in Slovenia. The purpose of the article is to create an overview of past ES studies in Slovenia. The method of systematic mapping was used. We identified, compared, and described data on ES studies that have been published in Slovenia. The key findings are: 1) the number of ES studies in Slovenia is increasing, however the share of studies focused solely on ES has been decreasing since 2015; 2) the most represented field is forestry and the forest is the most commonly examined ecosystem; 3) the prevailing ES groups are regulating ES, while the most commonly explored individual ES are cultural ES, namely recreation and ecotourism, and 4) the most commonly implemented methodological approach is narrative analysis. Ekosistemske storitve (ES) so koristi, ki jih ljudje prejemajo od ekosistemov, in so eno ključnih orodij za presojo trajnosti rabe naravnih virov. Za upravljanje z naravnimi viri so nujni konsistentni podatki o stanju ES, a takšne raziskave na nacionalni ravni v Sloveniji še ni. Namen članka je pregledati pretekle raziskave ES v Sloveniji. Uporabili smo metodo sistematičnega kartiranja. Identificirali, primerjali in opisali smo podatke o objavljenih raziskavah o ES v Sloveniji. Ključne ugotovitve so: 1) število raziskav ES v Sloveniji raste, a se od 2015 zmanjšuje delež osredotočenih zgolj na ES; 2) najbolj zastopano področje je gozdarstvo, gozd pa največkrat preučevan ekosistem; 3) med skupinami ES prednjačijo uravnalne, najpogosteje obravnavana posamezna ES je kulturna ES, in sicer rekreacija in ekoturizem; 4) najpogosteje uporabljen metodološki pristop je narativna analiza.