(A collaborative series by David Zaks, Chad Monfreda, and Hassan Masum.)
You don’t miss it ’till it’s gone. That sums up the thinking behind ecosystem good and services, which is all about reconnecting an economic system that has forgotten its ecological roots.
That may mean putting a monetary value on ecosystem services. Indeed, a lot of people are trying to put a dollar figure on nature by asking questions like, “How much is a forest’s carbon sequestration worth?“. But even before broaching monetary valuation, we need to ask which services we care about, and how we should go about measuring them. In other words, the first thing we need to ask about is the biophysical basis of ecosystem services.
Fortunately, ecology is ready to help. Ecologists are still doing the esoteric studies they’re good at, but they’re increasingly using ecosystem services to frame and even direct their research. Ecosystem services as a legitimate research topic came of age in the 1990s with the kinds of pioneering research collected in places like Gretchen Daily’s seminal book, Nature’s Services.
More recently, the idea that we need to take better stock of the link between ecosystems and human well-being was the rationale for the biggest international ecological assessment ever. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (which is summarized nicely by GreenFacts) made a massive contribution to decision-makers, but, perhaps more importantly, created a common language to cut through complex problems. The MA divides ecosystem services into four types:
Provisioning services are the products people obtain from ecosystems, such as food, fuel, fiber, fresh water, and genetic resources.
Regulating services are the benefits people obtain from the regulation of ecosystem processes, including air quality maintenance, climate regulation, erosion control, regulation of human diseases, and water purification.
Cultural services are the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.
Supporting services are those that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services, such as primary production, production of oxygen, and soil formation.
So what do these services mean on the ground? (more…)