Handling Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs: the Importance of the Spatial Scale at Which No-Loss Constraints Are Posed

Managing land use to promote an ecosystem service (ES) without reducing others is challenging. The spatial scale at which no-loss constraints are imposed is relevant. We examined the influence of the spatial scale of no-loss constraints on ESs when one ES was optimised. Specifically, we investigated how carbon sequestration could be maximized at different spatial scales in France with constraints of no-loss on other ESs. We used a statistical model linking land use and land cover variables to ESs [carbon sequestration (CS), crop production (CP), livestock production, timber growth] in French small agricultural regions (SARs). We optimised CS at the country scale posing no-loss constraints on other ESs at increasing spatial scales, i.e., SARs (scenario ‘SARs’), department (‘DEP’), administrative region (‘REG’), and France (“FRANCE”). We analysed differences between optimized and initial configurations. Optimized CS at the country scale increased with the spatial scale at which no-loss constraints were posed ( + 0.51