Land cover-based ecosystem service assessment of irrigated rice cropping systems in southeast Asia—An explorative study

Continuing global population growth requires an increase in food production, but also new strategies to reduce negative effects of intensive land use on the environment. Rice as key staple food for a majority of the human population is of crucial importance for global and particularly Southeast Asian food supply. As food provision is one key ecosystem service (ES), it is important to know which ESs are provided at which places. Therefore, an ES scoring exercise harnessing local experts’ knowledge in a ‘rapid assessment’ was conducted in seven rice cropping regions in Vietnam and the Philippines. The expert-based scoring values were linked in an ‘ES-matrix’ to the different land use/land cover (LULC) classes abundant in the study areas. The LULC classifications were based on SPOT satellite image interpretation. The matrices were used to compile ES supply maps that give first indications about ES in regions with different intensive agriculture. The outcomes provide a first ‘screening’ of ES supply related to different LULC types in rice-dominated regions enabling the communication of the relevance of specific ecosystems for local communities and decision makers. Uncertainties inherent in expert- and land cover-based ES assessments are discussed and recommendations for improvements of future studies are given.