Ecosystem Services: Response

Ecosystem services

Humans have always depended on nature for environmental assets like clean water, nutrient cycling and soil formation. These have been called by different names through human history, but are presently gaining global attention as 'ecosystem services'. Gretchen Daily defines ecosystem services as " the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, s...

Have Ecosystem Services Been Oversold? A Response to Silvertown.

Silvertown [1] has addressed an important topic and expresses many concerns, some of which are warranted. The paradigm of ecosystem services (ES) divides researchers and therefore debate is welcome. Since paradigms, by their very nature, constrain the way we view things, critiques of what is gained and lost in taking a particular world view is always valuable. The ‘ES paradigm’ is no exception....

Fishing for ecosystem services.

Ecosystems are commonly exploited and manipulated to maximize certain human benefits. Such changes can degrade systems, leading to cascading negative effects that may be initially undetected, yet ultimately result in a reduction, or complete loss, of certain valuable ecosystem services. Ecosystem-based management is intended to maintain ecosystem quality and minimize the risk of irreversible ch...

“forest Ecosystem Services:

1. Forests (natural but also human-made or modified) are among the most important providers of ecosystem services for the whole world. 2. Based on scientific evidence, it is certain that: (a) Ecosystem services are essential to the survival of human beings. (b) Forest ecosystems operate and provide services on such a grand scale and in such intricate and little-explored ways that most cannot ef...

Valuation of Ecosystem Services