Summary
Learn about Cultural Ecosystem Services and how to invite scientists to identify their relationship with place and community.
A recent National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) Science Collaborative Grant supported an effort to understand and highlight Cultural Ecosystem Services across multiple Reserves, including Kachemak Bay NERR. As part of this work and other initiatives in collaboration with Alaska Native Entity partners, the Kachemak Bay Reserve is developing research and engagement protocols that invite scientists to identify their relationship with place and community, and to show how their work aligns with cultural values and stewardship. By embedding reciprocity into research design, the Reserve is ensuring that they are a platform for projects that contribute to local management priorities, strengthen cultural continuity, and deepen trust between people and place. Several NERR coordinators from this project team came together to speak on these collaborative efforts and to showcase some examples of this work in their informational webinar Engaging with Cultural Ecosystem Services in the NERRS to Support Thriving Human and Natural Communities.
Here is an excerpt from the recent NERRA article, When People and Place Connect:
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are those less tangible but deeply felt benefits that estuaries provide to coastal residents: the shimmer of twilight on tidal flats, the excitement of catching a fish with your child, the calm of listening to the wind at the water’s edge. The web page and the resources it provides grew out of work supported by a NERRS Science Collaborative grant, which enabled Reserves and partners to explore how to recognize, measure, and integrate CES into everyday practice.
Visit the new Cultural Ecosystem Services webpage to learn more about this work across the NERR system.