Abstract Land reform is an important socio-political strategy in many countries. Despite the importance of ecosystem health in attaining land reform objectives, human-nature interactions have been largely absent from contemporary land reform discussions. In this perspectives paper, we highlight why land reform programmes could benefit from considering ecosystem services in their planning processes, to better achieve their goals of socio-economic development and equity. Drawing on examples from South Africa, we argue that an ecosystem services lens can help achieve equity in land reform programmes by providing insight into how land-use legacies and the multi-functional nature of landscapes influence who benefits from land reform across space and through time. An ecosystem services lens also broadens understanding of how fragmentation and a changing climate may affect land reform benefits over time. In ignoring these human-nature interactions, and often unquestioningly applying one-size-fit-all approaches, land-reform policies risk missing the ultimate needs of beneficiaries and broader society. Considering these insights, we discuss practical implications of an ecosystem services lens for land reform programmes. These include the need for context-sensitive, localized land reform planning that accounts for ecosystem service heterogeneity, possible trade-offs, and beneficiaries’ preferences and capacities. Accordingly, extension services need to possess local knowledge and avoid generic, top-down and inflexible approaches. These social-ecological considerations are imperative if countries are to achieve sustainable and equitable land reform.

中文翻译：

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生态系统服务与土地改革政策的相关性：来自南非的见解

摘要 土地改革是许多国家的重要社会政治战略。尽管生态系统健康对于实现土地改革目标很重要，但当代土地改革讨论中基本上没有人与自然的相互作用。在这篇观点论文中，我们强调了为什么土地改革计划可以从在规划过程中考虑生态系统服务中受益，从而更好地实现社会经济发展和公平的目标。借鉴南非的例子，我们认为生态系统服务的视角可以通过深入了解土地利用遗产和景观的多功能性质如何影响跨空间和跨时间的土地改革受益者，从而帮助实现土地改革计划的公平. 生态系统服务视角还拓宽了人们对碎片化和不断变化的气候如何随着时间的推移影响土地改革收益的理解。由于忽视这些人与自然的相互作用，而且往往毫无疑问地采用一刀切的方法，土地改革政策有可能错过受益者和更广泛社会的最终需求。考虑到这些见解，我们讨论了生态系统服务镜头对土地改革计划的实际影响。其中包括需要考虑到生态系统服务的异质性、可能的权衡以及受益人的偏好和能力的环境敏感、本地化的土地改革规划。因此，推广服务需要掌握当地知识，避免通用、自上而下和不灵活的方法。