Nature’s contributions to people across Europe: a review of stakeholder preferences

Demand for material outputs, such as food and fuel, has led to intensification of agricultural production across European landscapes. At the same time, the potential for other Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP), such as climate regulation and cultural heritage, has diminished. Understanding how stakeholders in Europe value different NCP is critical for informing equitable land use decisions. However, many large-scale NCP assessments have focused on instrumental values, and studies on stakeholder preferences have mainly focused on local or regional scales, despite the prominent role of the European Union in shaping land use policies. This paper explores NCP preferences and their potential drivers among stakeholders across 15 countries and five European regions, using a geographically stratified sample of 152 case studies in 88 peer-reviewed scientific articles. Results show that stakeholders across Europe highly value physical and psychological experiences. We also found that preferred NCP appears to be more dependent on the assessed ecosystem than on spatial context or stakeholder characteristics overall. Specifically, stakeholders in urban systems tend to place more emphasis on non-material and regulating NCPs, while those in agricultural systems seem to prioritize material NCPs. However, these patterns vary across case studies. Our main results highlight a discrepancy between the non-material NCPs most frequently mentioned by stakeholders involved in the studies and the material and regulating NCPs prioritized in key international land use policies. Insights into stakeholder preferences at the European scale can help inform and enhance the integration of the pluralistic values people ascribe to nature into such policies.