Local Residents’ Perceptions for Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Fenghe River Watershed

To make environmental management decisions more executive and targeted, it is essential for decision-making to include local residents’ perceptions and preferences for ecosystem services (ES) and biodiversity (BD). This study conducted a questionnaire survey with 386 local residents to explore social perceptions for ES and BD in the Fenghe River watershed. ES contain food from agriculture (AGR), food from livestock (LIV), fresh water (FW), air purification (AP), water purification (WP), water retention (WR), soil retention (SR), aesthetics (AES), recreation (RE), and spirit (SP) in this study. Ranking and Likert scales are combined to identify residents’ preferences for ES and BD. The hypothetical market method is used to identify the willingness to pay for BD and ES. Independent sample T-test, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman correlation are used to analyze preference heterogeneity. The results show that: (1) residents prefer WP, AP, AGR, and FW; (2) 51.3% of respondents are willing to pay a fee for improving ES while 48.7% of respondents are unwilling to pay; (3) residents’ personal and residential factors affect preference heterogeneity. Last, we put forward three management suggestions on controlling environmental pollution, improving residents’ awareness of ES, and establishing a multi-channel fund based on government financial resources for improving ES in the Fenghe River watershed. Integrating stakeholders’ perceptions for ES into decision-making can promote the sustainable development in Fenghe River watershed.