Abstract
The role of local biodiversity to cultural ecosystem services (CES) has been increasingly recognized. Yet, it is still unclear how local species can represent multiple CES in the same area for different people. We comprehensively evaluated the role of local biodiversity to the provision of multiple CES in the Pantanal, the largest continuous wetland in the world. First, we assessed the use of names of local species by screening and mapping tourist accommodations and rural properties names. Second, we evaluated the tourist demand for species by screening tourist accommodation websites. Finally, we assessed differences between demand and supply using two questionnaires. While mammals and birds were more common in the names of tourist accommodations, plants were more frequent in the names of rural properties. We did not record a significant correlation between the number of records on tourist accommodation websites and the mean research interest from Google Trends (considering all species, terrestrial vertebrates, or fish). Finally, we found a mismatch between demand and supply for terrestrial vertebrates, while we found a significant and positive correlation between demand and supply for fish. Our findings emphasize the importance of Pantanal biodiversity for different CES, such as tourism and recreation, which may support biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. The use of species names varied according to the economic activity (tourism or agriculture), a novel finding for the Pantanal. Future studies should focus on the role of local biodiversity for others CES, such as spiritual and inspirational values, as well as indigenous culture.