Scalar organization of reality and social diversity in the ecosystem services assessment

Since late 90s, the valuation of ecosystem services (ES) has become a fundamental principle for fulfilling poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. As a result, scientific studies as well as management projects applying ES have proliferated, scarcely proposing a proper integration of ecological and social issues. Here, we question the universality of the ES concept and its capacity to fulfill ecological and socio-economical demands. First, we consider ES concept origin among scientific arenas and the international institutionalization process from bibliometric and content analysis of scientific papers and policy reports. We further investigate its effectiveness for assuring a harmonious development of society as well as the maintenance of natural systems. We will address its relevance as a concept born in scientific spheres, then institutionalized in political arenas and implemented at the ground level in a diversity of situations around the world. Second, to explore the importance of scale and social issues for the management of ES by family farmers, we confront theoretical findings and a study case concerning a recently colonized area of Brazilian Amazon. We use landscape structure as a mean for measuring ES variation. We demonstrate that ES variations are well explained by the high diversity of agricultural logics among family farmers, which is directly related to their cultural backgrounds. Moreover, institutional and environmental contexts strongly influence family logics and resulting agricultural practices. We conclude by suggesting future steps required to improve ES valuation and payment for family farmers by taking into account geographical and social aspects.