Differences in the experience of cultural ecosystem services in mountain protected areas by clusters of visitors Felipe-Lucia, María de Frutos, Ángel Crouzat, Emilie Grescho, Volker Heuschele, Jonna Marselle, Melissa Heurich, Marco Pöpperl, Franziska Porst, Florian Portela, Ana Paula Rossi, Christian Carvalho-Santos, Claudia Stritih, Ana Vaz, Ana Sofía Bonn, Aletta Nature's contribution to people Nature tourists Non-material NCP Participatory mapping Protected areas Stakeholders Survey CES use Protected Areas contribute to the conservation of nature with associated cultural ecosystem services (CES) and values, such as recreational and educational opportunities, wildlife observation, scenic beauty, inspiration and sense of belonging. Informed management of Protected Areas needs to consider the distinct use and preferences for CES of different types of visitors to increase opportunities for nature experience while avoiding conflicts with biodiversity conservation. Therefore, it is important to understand the linkages between visitor characteristics and their demand for specific sets of CES, particularly in fragile mountain ecosystems. Here we do so by combining information from individual on-site surveys and participatory mapping of visitors in four European mountain Protected Areas. We analysed visitors’ frequency of use of eight CES and their socio-demographic information, identifying three clusters of visitors. We also assessed the spatial distribution of CES locations used by each visitor cluster. Our results highlight strong differences between clusters both in the most frequently experienced CES and in the spatial location where those CES were experienced. We suggest that a better understanding of visitors regarding the way they experience nature is relevant for the environmental management of mountain Protected Areas and their surroundings. 2025-07-22T10:47:43Z 2025-07-22T10:47:43Z 2024-09-26 journal article Felipe-Lucia, M. R., de Frutos, Á., Crouzat, E., Grescho, V., Heuschele, J. M., Marselle, M., ... & Bonn, A. (2024). Differences in the experience of cultural ecosystem services in mountain protected areas by clusters of visitors. Ecosystem Services, 70, 101663. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/105556 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2024.101663 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Elsevier