Access to Ecosystem Benefits: More than Proximity

Abstract

This article responds to a gap in existing research on access to environmental spaces in rural and coastal areas, especially of less advantaged members of society who could potentially benefit the most from exposure to such environments but face a whole host of constraints. We build on existing theorisations of access to natural resources and ecosystem services in the development literature and integrate insights from the sociology of access to environmental spaces, health geography and environmental psychology in industrialized contexts. We employ semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation with socio-economically disadvantaged respondents in Cornwall, UK. Participants’ accounts reveal four mechanisms that mediate access to ecosystem benefits: rights-based, physical, structural and relational, and psychosocial, and we thus extend Ribot and Peluso’s access framework. We conclude that socio-economic disadvantage mediates access to environmental spaces, in particular through psychosocial mechanisms, and highlight the interlinked and complementary nature of the four types of access mechanisms.

Keywords:

• Ecosystem benefits
• environmental spaces
• psychosocial access mechanisms
• qualitative approach
• socio-economic disadvantage
• United Kingdom

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Cornwall Neighborhoods for Change for facilitating our work with members of the community, and our study participants for their time and openness. We are grateful for helpful feedback from Jesse Ribot and Marja Spierenburg on an earlier draft of this paper, as well as for insightful discussions with colleagues during our workshop in Utrecht. We are also thankful to the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive advice.

Notes

1 Concessions are available to children from low-income families, but not adults at present.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the College of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Exeter.