An introduction to ecosystem services

Transcription

1 An introduction to ecosystem services

2 Links between people & ecosystems

3 History of ecosystem services

4 History of ecosystem service valuation

5 Mainstream science

6 Multidisciplinary origin

7 Conceptual framework The conceptual framework for the MA places human well-being as the central focus for assessment while recognizing that biodiversity and ecosystems also have intrinsic value and that people take decisions concerning ecosystems based on considerations of both well-being and intrinsic value Any assessment empowers some stakeholders at the expense of others by virtue of the selection of issues and of expert knowledge to be incorporated. People seek many services from ecosystems and thus perceive the condition of an ecosystem in relation to its ability to provide desired services.

8 Core Questions 1. What is the rate and scale of ecosystem change? 2. What are the consequences of ecosystem change for the services provided by ecosystems and for human-well being? 3. How might ecosystems and their services change over the next 50 years? 4. What options exist to conserve ecosystems and enhance their contributions to human wellbeing?

9

10 Definitions Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life. They maintain biodiversity and the production of ecosystem goods, such as seafood, forage timber, biomass fuels, natural fiber, and many pharmaceuticals, industrial products, and their precursors (Daily 1997b:3). Ecosystem goods (such as food) and services (such as waste assimilation) represent the benefits human populations derive, directly or indirectly, from ecosystem functions (Costanza et al. 1997:253). The MA definition follows Costanza and his colleagues in including both natural and human-modified ecosystems as sources of ecosystem services, and it follows Daily in using the term services to encompass both the tangible and the intangible benefits humans obtain from ecosystems, which are sometimes separated into goods and services respectively. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems

11 Classification

12 Findings Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth The changes that have been made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs These problems will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations obtain from ecosystems. The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century and is a barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals The challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands for their services can be met under some scenarios involving significant policy and institutional changes, but these changes are large and not currently under way Many options exist to conserve or enhance specific ecosystem services in ways that reduce negative trade-offs or that provide positive synergies with other ecosystem services

13 ES explosion

14 From useful metaphor to complexity blinder - Norgaard 2012

15 Explosion of ways of understanding & valuing ES Management/ Restoration Ecosystems & Biodiversity Institutions & human Judgments determining (the use of) services Feedback between value perception and use of eco - system services Biophysical Structure or process ( eg. vegetation cover or Net Primary Productivity Function* ( eg. slow water passage, biomass) *) subset of biophysical structure or process providing the service Service ( eg. flood - protection, products 1) Human wellbeing (socio - cultural context) Benefit(s ) (contribution to health, safety, etc) (econ) Value ( eg. WTP for protection or products) Adapted from Haines - Young & Potschin, 2010 and Maltby (ed.), 2009

16 Any assessment empowers some stakeholders at the expense of others by virtue of the selection of issues and of expert knowledge to be incorporated.

17 What do we know?

18

19 Meta-analysis Valuation

20 Why are production functions so hard?

21

22 Elements & functions Supply Beneficiary location, access Irrigation, feed, breeds, tenure, management ` Benefit Preferences, markets Value

23 The Anthropocene

24 New directions

25 Social-ecological production functions Food production = f (primary productivity + soil fertility + soil water + species + pollination) Food production = f (primary productivity + soil fertility + soil water + species + pollination + pesticides + soil management + irrigation)

26

27

28