The role of private landowners for generating cultural ecosystem services in Mediterranean rural landscapes: a case study in Andalusia (Spain)

More than 60% of the European population lives in areas considered rural. In many cases, this rural population has been consolidating cultural landscapes regarded as socio-ecological systems preserving traditional agrarian practices and biocultural diversity. These landscapes are threatened by land intensification and rural abandonment, thus decreasing the supply of cultural ecosystem services (CES). In this context, it is important to study the current and potential activities of landowners to generate CES. With this objective, a Spanish rural area was analysed, based on 55 surveys with landowners on the territory’s general characteristics and their current and potential activities that should be promoted to increase the contribution of CES. The results showed four distinct clusters, which could be representative of the farms in the area studied. Two of them distinguished by a high presence of natural vegetation without livestock and the remaining two by a low presence of natural vegetation and livestock. In all four clusters, landowners are aware of the importance of generating CES related to the sense of belonging to the region and recreational hunting. Finally, actions by landowners, the role of public institutions and different strategies have been presented to conserve and implement CES-generating activities. This research constitutes a basic study aimed at ascertaining the current and potential CES, the awareness of the generators of these services and the support options of public institutions to promote traditional rural areas facilitating their revaluation, using multi-scale policies (European, national, and regional) to encourage their maintenance and that of their CES.