More on Ecosystem Services

People and cities depend on the goods and services produced by our planet’s ecosystems. This dependent relationship between human well-being and the biophysical world is eloquently encapsulated by the relatively new notion of ecosystem services. The food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink all derive from ecosystem processes. However our dependence on these ecosystems has not prevented us from stressing them to the point where we have reduced their capacity to meet our needs (MA 2003). To maintain our valuable ecosystem services intact we must improve our management and decision making. The ecosystem services framework promises to generate the interdisciplinary tools of the future that can meet this challenge. This approach is quintessentially interdisciplinary as it weaves together the physical, biological, and social sciences into a framework for decision-making. The successful integration of these fields into a coherent and practical framework has the potential to transform environmental policy at all scales.

Proponents of ecosystem services have argued that this framework offers the most promising way forward for the field of conservation biology (Armsworth et al. 2007). Protecting our life support systems has also resonated with advocates for the global poor (Sachs & Reid 2006). Major research institutions, conservation organizations, foundations and the private sector are investing in advanced research on ecosystem services. Stanford University has selected this topic as a core area of research. Consistent with this objective, the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford has teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), to create the Natural Capital Project[1] – a bold new initiative that brings together leading intellectuals and conservation practitioners to create new decision making tools for ecosystem managers. Millions of dollars are being invested in this initiative (pers. com. P. Kareiva, 2007). These groups are gambling that a breakthrough in ecosystem services research will open new avenues for solving sustainability challenges. The vast potential of this field has not escaped attention of the popular media (Montenegro 2008). Ecosystem services research promises to find win-win solutions that have a broad appeal to government leaders, business owners, and the public at large. New ecosystem management approaches that weave together the natural and social sciences could transform conservation biology, land-use planning and environmental policy.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) defines ecosystem services as the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems (MA 2003). This concise definition has become the standard for the field. In fact, the MA has become the benchmark document for nearly every study grappling with ecosystem services. A coalition of United Nations agencies spearheaded the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment by bringing together international experts in the natural and social sciences. This team was asked to synthesize the existing scientific information on the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. Their report targeted global leaders who manage ecosystems and look after the well being of their constituents (Carpenter et al. 2006). In the process of conducting this assessment, the MA organized our understanding of ecosystem services and mapped out the health of our planet. With regular updates scheduled every 5 to 10 years, the MA process has been modeled after the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (MA 2003).

---

[1] See www.naturalcapitalproject.org