This month, February 2009, the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment has published a special issue dedicated to ecosystem services, and it includes the most current ideas from the fields’ most well reputed scholars. Gretchen Daily and her team publish a piece entitled Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver, where they point out that the value of natural capital has not been incorporated into resource and land-use decisions on a large scale. To reach this goal, they present a conceptual framework that outlines the steps needed for ecosystem services to deliver on its promise.
The authors also briefly mention a software tool being developed, called Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs – InVEST, which is being designed to help decision makers quantify the benefits and tradeoffs associated with ecosystem services and relevant land-use decisions. However details regarding the software remains sparse, and it is unclear what distinguishes InVEST from other modeling tools used by environmental economists. That being said, it appears that the Natural Capital Project has recently released its first beta version of the InVEST software (1.001 beta) and its respective user guide. It looks like the software is being distributed as an ArcGIS toolbox. This looks like a smart move that should facilitate easy user adoption.
Daily, Gretchen C., Stephen Polasky, Joshua Goldstein, Peter M. Kareiva, Harold A. Mooney, Liba Pejchar, Taylor H. Ricketts, James Salzman, and Robert Shallenberger. 2009. Ecosystem services in decision making: Time to deliver. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 7(1): 21-28.
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