Prioritising ecosystem services in Chinese rural and urban communities

- This study assesses the use and prioritization of ecosystem services in Chinese rural and urban communities.
- The rural community used more ecosystem services and prioritized them more than the urban community.
- Should there be different ecosystem services protection goals for rural and urban regions?
- If public opinions are used to inform policy, then whose values should count?

Identifying ecosystem services that are important to society can help decision-makers to prioritize specific services for protection. However, ecosystem services may be valued differently by different sections of society. This study sets out an approach for assessing the use and prioritization of freshwater ecosystem services by people in rural and urban areas in China. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 30 rural and 30 urban respondents in the same region of Shandong province. Respondents were asked about how they used their local river and to prioritize ecosystem services provided by the river. In addition, respondents were asked to state whether they would be prepared to pay to protect their local river. The rural community used more ecosystem services and prioritized them more highly than the urban community; probably because they interacted with them more frequently. The results of this study raise the question of whether there should be different ecosystem services protection goals for rural and urban regions, as well as highlighting potential trade-offs between ecosystem services prioritized by different sections of society.