Human culture has an important influence on how forests are utilised, yet its influence on ecosystem service (ES) use and valuation remains underexplored. We address this gap by investigating how livelihood strategy and ethnicity affect local peoples’ perceptions of forest ES in Cameroon. Data were collected through 20 focus-group discussions in villages of farmers (Oku and Banso) and pastoralists (Fulani) in two mountains.

Pastoralists identified fewer ES than farmers, and used some ES differently (e.g. wildlife was only valued for aesthetics instead of as food). Some differences were also observed between farmer groups (e.g. identity link with the forest unique to Oku farmers). While water availability was perceived as the most important forest ES for all groups, the second most important was fodder for pastoralists and medicine resources for farmers. Pastoralists also identified fewer useful forest species, most likely related to their origin in the lowlands.

Our findings help highlight trade-offs in important ES for different groups (fodder vs. medicine resources), and in access to certain ES (e.g. Fulani pastoralists’ unequitable access to tourism and forest income). We show that locals dependent on provisioning ES are not a homogenous group and that the wider socio-cultural context has to be taken into account for conservation and development projects to be successful.

人类文化对森林的利用方式具有重要影响，但其对生态系统服务（ES）的使用和评估的影响仍未得到充分开发。我们通过调查生计策略和种族如何影响喀麦隆当地人民对森林生态系统的认知来解决这一差距。通过在两个山区的农民（奥库和班索）和牧民（富拉尼）的村庄进行的20次焦点小组讨论收集了数据。

牧民识别出的生态系统比农民少，并以不同的方式使用了一些生态系统（例如，野生动植物仅出于美学目的而不是作为食物被重视）。农民群体之间也观察到一些差异（例如，与奥库农民独有的森林之间的身份联系）。尽管对所有群体来说，水的可获得性是最重要的森林生态系统，但第二重要的是牧民的饲料和农民的医药资源。牧民还发现有用的森林物种较少，这很可能与低地的起源有关。

我们的发现有助于强调重要的生态系统在不同群体之间的权衡（饲料与药物资源），以及在获得某些生态系统（例如富拉尼牧民获得旅游业和森林收入的机会不平等）方面的权衡。我们表明，依赖供应ES的当地人不是同质群体，为了使保护和开发项目取得成功，必须考虑更广泛的社会文化背景。