Supplementary Information
Guide used for semi-structured interviews with marine and terrestrial managers
1. General information
a. Program description and history
b. Scale of operation
c. Land/marine cover classifications in area targeted
2. What are your organization’s/program’s natural resource management
objectives? Indicate primary or secondary objectives. (Note – ask as open-ended
question; use categories for coding only)
a. Biodiversity conservation/restoration (indicate ecosystem type)
b. Soil conservation (sediment/erosion control etc.)
c. Water conservation (indicate quality, quantity, flood regulation, etc.)
d. Carbon sequestration
e. Aesthetics
f. Goods production (indicate timber, fisheries, agriculture, etc.)
g. Socio-cultural or economic goals __________________________
h. Other _________________________
3. Does you’re your organization/program have socio-economic or outreach
objectives? If so, what are they? Indicate primary or secondary objectives. (Note
– ask as open-ended question; use categories for coding only)
a. Education
b. Land stewardship
c. Protect or restore cultural heritage
d. Goods production (indicate timber, fisheries, agriculture, etc.)
e. Recreation
f. Tourism
g. Other _______________________
4. What land/coastal use/management strategies are implemented by the
organization/program to achieve these goals? (Note – ask as open-ended
question; categories for coding only)
a. Invasive species control (terrestrial)
b. Invasive species control (marine)
c. Forest restoration
d. Protection (indicate type)
e. Agriculture (indicate type)
f. Ranching
g. Fisheries (indicate type)
h. Wetland restoration
i. Fish pond restoration
j. Forestry (indicate species)
k. Tourism
l. Education
m. Other _________________________________
5. What key management decisions does your organization make?
a. Choosing between land/coastal management options in a particular area.
Describe: ________________________
b. Choosing where to locate management or land/coastal use management.
Describe:
________________________
c. Other: ___________________
6. What tools (if any) does your organization use to make these decisions?
Opinions on Utility of Models to Incorporate Ecosystem Services/ Nature’s Benefits into
Decision Making and Spatial Planning:
7. In a number of case studies, the valuation of nature’s benefits or ecosystem
services has helped decision-makers to assess economic and environmental
synergies and tradeoffs posed by alternate terrestrial and marine management
scenarios. Ecosystem services or nature’s benefits valuation models have been
used in these cases as a spatial decision making tool to evaluate biophysical (e.g.,
kg sediment retained, mm/acre of groundwater recharge, tons of carbon
sequestered) and, in some cases, economic (e.g., avoided sediment removal
costs, value of groundwater for irrigation) outcomes of land/coastal use and
management decisions. Does your organization utilize this type of modeling?
9. How useful would each of the following be for your organization? For each please
rank as 1. Very useful, 2. Potentially useful, 3. Not useful.
a. Single scenario: Prioritization
i. Evaluate which areas contribute the highest ecosystem services
values in order to prioritize management/protection activities.
b. Multiple scenarios: Assess tradeoffs
ii. Compare different land or coastal management scenarios in terms
of ecosystem service (s) in a particular region.
c. Optimization: Return on investment
iii. Prioritize investments in conservation and restoration based on
highest return on investment for ecosystem services of interest.
d. Generation of future scenarios
iv. Agent-based modeling of land or coastal-use change based on
drivers including climate change, population growth, and policy
changes.
10. Please indicate what types of decisions each option could support?
11. In what ways do you think this tool could be useful for your organization? (Note
– ask open ended and then follow up with categories; 1 = very useful, 2= potentially
useful, 3= not useful/ not applicable).
a. Communication
b. Inter-agency dialog
c. Planning
d. Justification
e. Measure success
f. Demonstrate economic benefits
g. Secure or increase funding
h. Other _______________
12. What services/benefits would be the most useful to quantify and map to support
your management goals? (1 = very useful, 2= potentially useful, 3= not useful/
not applicable; please indicate the most useful services/benefits with an
asterick).
a. Food and goods provision
 Aquaculture
 Fisheries
 Crop yield
 Pollination
 Timber production
 Non-timber forest products (pigs, maile, etc.)
b. Water (Please indicate agricultural, industrial, or residential use and
importance of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems).
 Groundwater recharge
 Surface water
 Flood mitigation
 Water quality
 Sediment retention
c. Carbon sequestration
d. Biodiversity/habitat quality
 Terrestrial
 Freshwater
 Coral reefs
 Other
e. Coastal protection
f. Tourism
g. Cultural
 Recreation
 Aesthetic quality
 Educational
 Pig hunting
 Lo’i kalo
 Fish ponds
 Cultural plants
 Coastal fisheries
h. Other ________________________
13. Which of those selected would you want to quantify in monetary terms?
14. How important would each of the following be to your organization in choosing
a modeling platform? (1 – very important, 2 somewhat important, 3 not important)
a. Format is easy to use.
b. Inputs
v. Time and resources required to run model
vi. Resources available to collect locally-specific data
c. Outputs
vii. How important would it be to generate absolute levels of benefit
changes derived from each option/scenario (e.g., X tons of extra
fish, Y tons of reduced sediment, z additional tourists) vs. ranking
different scenarios or providing relative benefits of change (e.g.,
big increase, small decrease)?
viii. Outputs regarding spatial distribution of beneficiaries?
ix. Outputs in dollar values vs. just biophysical values?
x. Outputs in non-monetary values (including cultural and social
values)? What types of values would be important ___________
xi. Ability to connect ridge to reef.
d. Ability in incorporate land/coastal use stakeholder preferences.
e. What other factors would be important? ______________________________
15. How would you rate the GIS and/or ecological modeling capabilities of your
organization?
a. Very high capacity (specialize in GIS and/or modeling)
b. High capacity (1 or more experts in GIS and/or modeling)
c. Medium capacity (basic knowledge of GIS and/or modeling, but
lacking in GIS and/ or modeling specialists)
d. Low capacity (little knowledge of GIS and/or modeling)
e. No capacity
16. Do you see any potential risks in using this type of model for decisionmaking?
17. Additional comments and questions that were not addressed in this
interview?
Mahalo for your participation.