Exploring 1800 years of ecosystem services from West Lake, Hangzhou, China

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of West Lake, in Hangzhou, China, also is a human-made lake managed since the ninth century CE to maintain selected ecological functions and visual integrity. Using perspectives of cultural and political ecology to examine historical data, we explore the ecosystem services of West Lake and management strategies to maintain these services at different governance levels over five broad periods. Results indicate that West Lake provided varying key ecosystem services to Hangzhou over time. Cultural services, such as recreation and tourism, began to replace provisional services and today are the most important contributions of the site. National, regional, and local policies directly and indirectly enhanced and undermined different ecosystem services over time. The perspectives of cultural and political ecology help understand strategies of creating and guiding long-term change of a managed landscape, providing important implications for sustaining future ecosystem services.