title: From food to pest: Conversion factors determine switches between ecosystem services and disservices.
abstract: Ecosystem research focuses on goods and services, thereby ascribing beneficial values to the ecosystems. Depending on the context, however, outputs from ecosystems can be both positive and negative. We examined how provisioning services of wild animals and plants can switch between being services and disservices. We studied agricultural communities in Laos to illustrate when and why these switches take place. Government restrictions on land use combined with economic and cultural changes have created perceptions of rodents and plants as problem species in some communities. In other communities that are maintaining shifting cultivation practices, the very same taxa were perceived as beneficial. We propose conversion factors that in a given context can determine where an individual taxon is located along a spectrum from ecosystem service to disservice, when, and for whom. We argue that the omission of disservices in ecosystem service accounts may lead governments to direct investments at inappropriate targets.
authors: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark. lrasmuss@umich.edu.|International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI), School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan, 440 Church St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. lrasmuss@umich.edu.
authors: Laura Vang
authors: LV
authors: Rasmussen
authors: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors: Andreas E
authors: AE
authors: Christensen
authors: Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology (NORDECO), Skindergade 23, 1159, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors: Finn
authors: F
authors: Danielsen
authors: School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
authors: Neil
authors: N
authors: Dawson
authors: School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
authors: Adrian
authors: A
authors: Martin
authors: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors: Ole
authors: O
authors: Mertz
authors: School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Sikor
authors: Faculty of Forestry, National University of Laos, Dongdok, Xaythany District, Vientiane, Laos.
authors: Sithong
authors: S
authors: Thongmanivong
authors: Faculty of Forestry, National University of Laos, Dongdok, Xaythany District, Vientiane, Laos.
authors: Pheang
authors: P
authors: Xaydongvanh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000191:economics*; D017753:Ecosystem; D007812:Laos; D057685:Plant Weeds; D051381:Rats
keywords: Cash crop production; Conservation; Ecosystem disservices; Ecosystem services; Shifting cultivation