Abstract Land use changes induced by nature conservation regulation and management
practices, especially in protected areas, often result in trade-offs between ecosystem
services (ESs). Exploring trade-offs between ESs and linking them with stakeholders
can help reveal the potential losers and winners of land use changes. In this paper,
we demonstrate that ES trade-offs do not always go hand in hand with conflicts. The
perception of local stakeholders about trade-offs between ESs at three protected sites
in the Great Hungarian Plain were assessed through qualitative methods. In all areas
significant conservation measures had been introduced since the 1990s resulting in
land use changes. Locals (farmers at each site and inhabitants at one site) were the
main ‘losers’ of the land use changes and related ES trade-offs, while there were
many winners at different spatial and temporal scales. Conflicts appeared only between
locals and the national park directorates, and not between locals and other beneficiaries
of the new ESs. Due to scale mismatch, locals might not be in direct contact with
other stakeholders, and vice versa, and therefore there is no interface between them
for confrontation and negotiation. Integrating scale into the analysis also helps
in advising policy instruments to minimise local-level conflicts.
