Mapping emergent costs and benefits of ecosystem service flows in Senegal’s small-scale fishery supply chain

Abstract

This research aims to model and map flows of ecosystem contributions to society across distances and spatial scales in a marine social-ecological system (SES). We spatially assess Ecosystem Service (ES) flows from small-scale fisheries by considering environmental costs and benefits emerging across the fisheries supply chain, and by investigating the role and contributions of intermediaries from the point of supply up to reception of the final benefit. While the existing literature on fisheries SES has predominantly focused on either the supply or demand side, in limited cases researchers examine flows by considering their spatial attributes across different spatial scales. We address this gap by defining benefit flows within the fisheries SES through the development of an ES flow index, integrating socioeconomic and environmental system attributes. Also, geographical accessibility is embedded in the index to account for access to resources, i.e. the ability to benefit from things. ES flow is assessed through plural costs and benefits emerging across intermediate activities of the supply chain. Costs are assessed as carbon emissions from catching, processing, and transportation, while benefits are those accruing to beneficiaries through nutritional benefits to jobs generated. All data and the final index are developed in a spatially explicit manner which allows for visualizing the flow of ES to both adjacent and distant to the supplying ecosystem, beneficiaries. The maps reveal distinct patterns for coastal regions compared to the regions that receive benefits away from the coast, indicating a spatial variability with a dependence on the distance from the providing ecosystem. The results of the study have implications for understanding how access to marine natural resources can impact regional beneficiaries, while revealing potential ES supply-flow and flow-demand mismatches in the distribution of marine resources, particularly in areas with communities in need and limited infrastructure.