Ecosystem goods and services
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Ecosystem goods and services are the benefits resulting from a healthy nature; example are drinking water, clean air and a biodiversity. They are of great importance since they are related to biological, social and economic human needs.
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Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (UN)
The United Nations Millenium Ecosystem Assessment helped to popularize the definition of ecosystem services. This four years study, including more than 1000 scientists throughout the world, elaborated ecosystem services classification in 2004. These are divided into the following four categories:
1. Provisioning services, such as water, food, genetic resources and gas.
2. Regulation services, such as fresh air, climate stabilizition, water purification and pest and disease control.
3. Supporting services, such as soil formation, nutrient and oxygen cycling.
4. Cultural services, such as tourism, recreational activity and spirituality.
This framework helps improve people's comprehension of ecosystems by binding them directly to needs.
Economic values
Ecosystem goods and services are public goods which can generate resource's abuse. Thus, goods that don't have economic values tend to be overexploit, involving the disturbance of our ecosystems. In order to facilitate decision maker's comprehension, economic values are more and more associated with ecosystems goods and services. The latest is often based on opportunity costs; which is to say, alternative costs.
Why evaluating?
- 1.3 billion people depend on forests for income. (IUCN, 2007)
- 70% of the world’s people rely on traditional, plant-based medicine. (CBD, 2008)
- The world’s poor, particularly in rural areas, depend on biological resources for as much as 90% of their needs. (CBD, 2008)
- Aid effectiveness is threatened by poor attention to the environment - 40 % of aid to Bangladesh is at risk from Climate Change. (OECD)
Moreover,
- Total estimates of services rendered by ecosystems 33 trillion $. (Costanza et al. 1997)
- Annual losses from forest ecosystems range between 2 and 5 trillion $. (TEEB, 2008)
- Biodiversity loss costs 6% of Global GDP. (TEEB, 2008)
- Economic value of pollination from bees is estimated at 117 billion $. (Costanza et al. 1997)
It can prove to be difficult to establish economic value of ecosystem services, since most of it is not associated with commerce. Thus, natural capital only gets a tiny weight in political decisions. It is quite important to evaluate the environment for real benefits that are brings to people.
Advantages of the economic evaluation to decision making
- Provided a justification
- Helps to build an argumentation
- Helps to develop awarness
- Identification and quantification improve planning processes
Ecosystem services examples
- Oxygen production
- Pollination
- CO2 capture by trees
- Wastes decomposition
- Landscape
- Erosion prevention
- Seeds dispersion
External links
- Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity [1]
- Convention Biological Diversity , ONU [2]
- International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN [3]
- Organization for Economic Coopération and Development [4]
