A citizen science approach to govern demand patterns of ecosystem services and their influencing factors – lessons learned from Austria Katrin Karner1, Florian Danzinger2, Thomas Wrbka2, Martin Schönhart3 1 Institute of Sustainable Economic Development, BOKU university, Vienna, Austria katrin.karner@boku.ac.at 2 Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Austria 3 Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research, Vienna, Austria Methods Background Nature provides many valued services to people including provisioning (e.g. food), regulating (e.g. filtration of pathogens which improves water quality) and cultural services (e.g. areas for recreation). These services contributing to human well-being are referred to as ecosystem services (ESS) in academic literature. Past research proved the importance of land use (e.g. how farmers manage their agricultural land) for ESS supply. Most academic ESS assessments focused on the supply. However, lacking information on the demand of ESS risks that areas are prioritized for the supply of ESS where the demand of society is small. In the citizen science project ServeToPe, we aim to • test methods for ESS demand assessments by citizens in the Austrian Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald (BRWW), • identify overlaps and gaps of ESS supply and demand in the BRWW, and • inform citizens and regional decision-makers about ESS and sustainable landscape governance. Aim Results Next, results from the online tool and the survey at five locations across the BRWW are presented. The surveys were taken from June 2023 to December 2023 and we obtained 268 full questionnaires/data sets and 359 partial. Results include frequencies of undertaken or observed activities in the BRWW, the importance of different ESS, improvement needs for matching supply and demand of ESS, governance criteria and good governance practices (like the mountainbike platform). 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Collecting food (Herbs /… Meditation Other Sports (Biking, Running) Learning (from/about… Nature observation Walk / Hike Daily Weekly Several times a month Once a month Several times a year Once a year Never The citizen scientists mentioned following needs for improvement regarding recreation and habitat for species. Conclusions Overall, the citizen scientists identified highest demand for cultural services but services related to biodiversity and habitat conservation were evaluated as high likewise. Our lessons learned show that (i) engaging different citizens groups leads to complementary results on ESS, (ii) effective and tailored communication to each citizen group is of key relevance and (iii) online tools proved particularly useful. However, the evaluation of the tested instruments identified the supply of ESS and the need for improvement by the citizen scientists rather than the demand. Acknowledgments This research was part of the resrach project Servives to the people – better governane of ecosystem services at local scales in the Wienerwald region (ServeToPe) funded through the Top Citizen Sciences initiative of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). N=70 N=359 Figure 2: Overview of the frequency of observed and undertaken activities in the biosphere reserve Wienerwald Figure 3: Overview of the need for improvement for recreation and habitat for species in the biosphere reserve Wienerwald (a) identification of the extent of the need of improvement and (b) word cloud on mentioned needs Figure 1: Overview of the methods applied in the research project ServeToPe We engaged with different citizen groups, applying different methods. E.g., we designed one online tool for a one-time reporting of regularly undertaken and observed uses of ESS in the BRWW, one for a regular reporting and held workshops.