The study of Ecosystem services (ES) is a prolific field of research. Despite the great biological and cultural diversity, in Latin America, research in this field has been growing at a much slower rate than in the rest of the world. The study of ES is called upon to contribute to informed decision-making for the planning and conservation of the territory and to improve well-being. However, this can only be achieved if the various stakeholders' vision about their environment is considered, since they are the ones most impacted by such decisions. Our study was carried out in nine rural communities in three municipalities in central and northern Nicaragua, a rural country with high rates of rural poverty. We questioned the perceptions of rural land uses as providers of ES by rural communities, from a gender perspective. We addressed this question from the framework of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) that allowed us to interrelate such diverse topics as the study of ES, gender and land uses. In each community, we first requested the endorsement of the community leaders, and then we carried out semi-structured interviews and separate focus groups for men and women. We used participatory mapping and the pebble distribution method (PDM), to identify how gender identity influences perceptions about benefits, location, and access to ES. Both men and women recognized the benefits of nature but differed in the identification of land uses that most provide ES. Exceptions were the forest areas, agroforestry systems and rivers, all of which were recognized as providing the greatest amount of services. These results are especially useful in the development of public policies to reduce poverty and address gender gaps in rural communities.

生态系统服务（ES）的研究是一个多产的研究领域。尽管拉丁美洲拥有丰富的生物和文化多样性，但该领域的研究发展速度却比世界其他地区慢得多。要求对环境与社会进行研究，以有助于为该区域的规划和保护做出知情的决策，并改善人们的福祉。但是，只有考虑到各个利益相关者对环境的看法，才能实现这一目标，因为他们是受此类决策影响最大的人。我们的研究是在尼加拉瓜中部和北部的三个城市的九个农村社区中进行的，尼加拉瓜是农村贫困率很高的农村国家。我们从性别的角度质疑农村土地用途作为农村社区提供ES的观念。我们从可持续生计方法（SLA）的框架中解决了这个问题，该方法使我们能够相互联系诸如ES，性别和土地利用研究之类的各种主题。在每个社区中，我们首先都要求社区领导者的认可，然后我们进行了半结构化访谈和针对男性和女性的独立焦点小组。我们使用参与式映射和卵石分布方法（PDM）来确定性别认同如何影响对收益，位置和获得ES的看法。男性和女性都认识到自然的好处，但在鉴别最能提供生态系统服务的土地用途方面却有所不同。森林地区，农林业系统和河流除外，所有这些都被认为提供了最大量的服务。