Enhancing ecosystem services by introducing multifunctional land use management in a semiarid pastoral system in Portugal

Conventional land management practices (CM) often concentrate on single objectives, prioritizing economic gains over environmental quality, leading to a decline in ecosystem services (ES). To address this problem, there has been an increasing focus on ecosystem-based management approaches based on Multifunctional Land Use (MFU) practices – diversifying land use strategies based on the principles of sustainable land management. This study aimed to compare the ES and economic viability of an MFU management framework introduced in 2018 on a farm under desertification risk in Portugal with its previous CM management system. To complete this comparison, biophysical and monetary assessments were conducted using an integrated ecosystem services assessment frameworks and the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework. Data were gathered through field surveys, laboratory analysis, interviews with stakeholders and landowners, and modelling. MFU resulted in substantial improvements across various ES categories, including a 75 % reduction in soil erosion, a ~50 % decrease in water runoff, a 118.71 % increase in soil organic carbon, and up to 24 % increase in soil water storage. Economically, MFU increased gains from provisioning services by 19 %, and reduced costs associated with environmental degradation by approximately 37 % (i.e., the combined costs of topsoil erosion and soil fertility maintenance) over a 5-year period. The TEV of MFU surpassed CM by 116 % providing evidence that sustainable adaptive management can be both ecologically and economically advantageous.