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Library Value of Landscapes in Northern Namibia: A System of Intertwined Material and Nonmaterial Services

Value of Landscapes in Northern Namibia: A System of Intertwined Material and Nonmaterial Services

Value of Landscapes in Northern Namibia: A System of Intertwined Material and Nonmaterial Services

Resource information

Date of publication
December 2015
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201600001623
Pages
941-958

It is increasingly recognized that ecosystems provide varied services that should be considered in land management decisions. One of the challenges in the valuation of landscapes is that they often provide multiple services that combine into one social–ecological system. In this article we show how overlaps of those services can be measured, visualized, and explained. The results from a case study conducted in a rural community in northern Namibia show that in some landscapes, services are intertwined. We draw on a practice approach and ethnographic data to explain this finding and argue that services are related within places and fields of action. More specifically, we show that material services such as the provision of food and income form a unified whole with nonmaterial or “cultural” services such as beauty and social interaction and are often experienced simultaneously. Research for this article is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is part of The Future Okavango (TFO) project on anthropogenic influences and cultural dimensions of environmental uses in the Okavango catchment (www.future-okavango.org). This is an Open Access article. Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.

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Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s)

Rieprich, Robin
Schnegg, Michael

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Geographical focus