Perspectives regarding the contributions and states of native forest by stakeholders linked to livestock production in the Entre Rios Espinal

Abstract

Deforestation and degradation processes have made the Espinal one of Argentina’s most threatened forested ecoregions. In the central-north part of Entre Ríos Province, forest remnants are important for biodiversity and cattle ranching integrated into the forest. Therefore, the conservation and sustainable use of the Entre Ríos Espinal requires the incorporation of different stakeholders (SH) from this productive system. Using 21 semi-structured interviews with family ranchers and specialists (researchers, extension agents, officials), we collected information about the perceptions of the benefits provided by forests and their relationship with a degradation gradient of physiognomic-floristic states. We expected that the ranchers’ lifestyle, linked more directly to the forest, would mean they perceive more benefits, but from the total of 33 recorded benefits, 32 were reported by specialists and 27 by ranchers. These benefits represented a broad spectrum of nature’s contributions to people (14 of 18 categories defined by IPBES). While both SH similarly classified the states’ capacity to provide benefits in relation to degradation models formulated based on livestock productivity, attributing the loss of benefits to greater degradation, the ranchers considered that the degradation was caused more by natural reasons, while specialists held responsible poor management as the determining driver. Despite its degradation, the Espinal forest integrated into livestock systems is perceived as a provider of multiple benefits for society. These results can contribute to supporting the research-management interface of the Espinal forest, incorporating a constructivist approach to understand the human dimension of socioecosystems from the involved ASs.