Estudio de la percepción social del territorio y de los servicios ecosistémicos en Alto Mayo, Región San Martín, Perú

Ecosystem services (ES) are defined as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. The inclusion of the ES is being acknowledged as very important, as well as the local actors knowledge and getting an estimation of the perceived social, economic or biophysics values in order to evaluate the complete range of ecosystem values. Social values are may be described as the socio are estimated through social evaluations and other non utilitarian techniques. Alto Mayo in San Martin Region is part of an Andean variety of ES and unusual characteristics; it is also a territory that is under major transformations with different negative impacts both on human and natural capital, which could lead to a decline in the quality of life of its population. In the last ten years the Regional Government of San Martin, along with the collaboration of various NGOs and other agencies, has carried out several initiatives to revert environmental degradation of the area. In this presentation, a research project will be presented to study the knowledge and perception of local actors about the Alto Mayo territory and the ES that may contribute to the conservation of ecosystems in the area. We will focus on the work methodology used, that is, the study conducted through questionnaires, interviews and participatory mapping with various actors in the area and the use of the G.I.S. tool SolVES (the Social Values ​​for Ecosystem Services).