Ecosystem services
From Envirowiki
Contents |
[edit] 1 Why Recognize Ecosystem Services?
Currently, many people are unaware or do not realize the extent to which the world’s different ecosystems provide for life as we know it. People often take the important services provided by ecosystems, such as clean air and water, for granted; thus, there is a need to educate the general public of these services, so people will appreciate them and help protect the integrity of ecosystems. Environmental activists need to find and encourage various solutions that will incorporate these services into the mindset of the public and will aid in the protection of these services. The current problem associated with the lack of recognition for the importance of ecosystem services is that ecosystems and their organisms are being influenced and shaped by human beings in all regions of the world. Even in the remote area of Borneo, a part of Indonesia, the sounds of logging can be heard. [1] With the current and impending human activities destroying and threatening to further destroy current ecosystems, it is necessary for more humans to realize the crucial role ecosystems play, so then significant steps to protect the life of plants and animals and their intertwined relationships can begin to occur.
[edit] 2 What Ecosystem Services Provide
In order to successfully protect and encourage others to protect ecosystem services, one must have an understanding of what they are. Ecosystem Services include:
[edit] 2.1 Watershed Protection
Forests and other ecosystems help maintain the watershed systems that affect drinking water, fisheries, hydroelectric power generation, and the overall hydrological system. Healthy ecosystems help recycle water, and deforestation and other destructive activities can result in flooding and other dangers.
[edit] 2.2 Nutrient Cycling for Soil and Vegetation Maintenance
The different organisms and their numerous activities and interactions bring about pollination as well as the recycling of nutrients including decomposition. This leads to vegetation growth which numerous organisms and animals (including humans) utilize for energy. Vegetation also helps prevent soil erosion which aids in the prevention of flooding. The balance of different levels of animals and organisms can also control the problem of pests.
[edit] 2.3 Climate Control
Biodiversity also helps maintain the different distribution of gases in the atmosphere; forests and ocean algae help absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen (See impact of forests on the atmosphere).
[edit] 2.4 Clean Air and Water
Healthy ecosystems maintain the important cycles explained above that bring about clean air and water.
[edit] 2.5 Genetic Information for Science and Medicine
Studying the complex relationships between organisms is important for scientific knowledge, and the discovery of new species and learning how these species have adapted can help advance this knowledge. Endemic species (those present only in one area of the world) provide science with new and different combinations of genes and also act as research models; this additional understanding of ecological relationships and the discovery of new plants can aid in creation of new medicines.
[edit] 3 Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services
The economic valuation of the above services is the main way economists and scientists have tried to make people understand the important ecosystem functions by using monetary terms that people can relate to; this involves assigning numeric figures to a particular ecosystem service to represent its value. What is implied in this process is that if people see the monetary value of an ecosystem, they will protect it, but this assumes that money or a quantifiable value is necessary for people to regard something as a priority. While it is important to recognize that ecosystems have worth in their own and serve functions beyond those defined by humans, valuation of ecosystems is a practical way of making change towards more conservation and is an important tool to use in ecosystem protection. To start the process of economic valuation, first, one must find a way to measure all the different goods and services of an ecosystem and determine an economic value for these goods and services. Then market tools must be utilized to incorporate these values into the international market.
Economists measure environmental benefits like ecosystem services by calculating consumer surplus or how much people are willing to pay for such benefits and then subtracting the costs associated with these benefits [2]. This helps them determine actual values for environmental services. These values can be classified four different ways: direct use values which are consumptive uses such as logging for timber; indirect use values, these can be calculated from harder to quantify services like carbon dioxide removal and watershed protection; option values, which rest on the willingness to pay for the future option of use; and non-use/existence values, these reflect the willingness to pay to conserve or sustainably use natural resources which are supposed to reflect the intrinsic values of ecosystems (how they have worth of their own). Total economic value, then, is the sum of both the use and non-use values for environmental services.[3]
However, it can be difficult to determine actual monetary figures for these values, with some being easier to determine than others. An example of a direct use value good or service that is not consumptive and easier to determine is ecotourism or sustainable recreation. Ecotourism usually involves foreign visits to parks or reserves and has the goal of protecting biodiversity while providing for the development of the surrounding communities; the value can be easier to find because one can use actual revenue generated from the tourists at the particular park or reserve visited. The genetic information of biodiversity can be considered a direct use value and can be determined from how much pharmaceutical companies are willing to pay for discovery of new medicines. Some values, particularly indirect values (which can encompass some of the more important services of ecosystems like maintaining nutrient and water cycles) can be very hard to determine, so only aspects of these services have been measured and defined in terms of economic values with many important services being disregarded from economic calculations. Existence values are also highly subjective and difficult to actually quantify. Economists have found numbers for these by looking at expenditures at parks or reserves (assuming people are visiting parks because they appreciate and have value for the existence of these places), as well as surveying individuals about their willingness to pay for these values.
These difficulties in economic valuation point out the limitations with defining the worth of biodiversity in economic terms. It is also important to note that when determining values for things, many aspects or factors are not included in calculations. In the example of ecotourism, usually park revenue is the only measurable value and thus the intrinsic worth of the actual plants and animals and the value of the ecosystem to the native people are not really being captured by the amount of money spent by tourists visiting the area. Also, it is difficult to determine who these values apply to and whether, if these values are incorporated into the market, the people who actually value or are most affected by these services are receiving the economic benefits. Another problem is the challenge of incorporating these values into the market. Still, there are current examples of these ecosystem services being present on the market such as debt relief for developing countries who conserve their land. Another includes polluting countries paying other countries that have areas of forests that can absorb or balance out the carbon being produced by the polluting country.
Therefore, the valuation of ecosystems can be an useful tool for conservation, but it must be used carefully. Economic valuation does incorporate the importance of ecosystems into the economic system, and with the vast influence of the global market, ecosystems can then start to be included in the decision-making process of different policies and projects throughout the world (where they couldn't before due to the economic mindset of the majority of policy makers). However, it’s important to remember the numerous factors economic valuation can disregard, so while policies should be encouraged that try to incorporate payments for ecosystems, environmental activists must be careful overseers and must mandate that these factors and perspectives left out of economic valuation must be brought to light and included in decisions. It is particularly important that benefits from these ecosystem payments be distributed equally to those people who rely more heavily on the products of the ecosystems. Besides the economic valuations, environmental activists must also encourage steps that encourage the education about ecosystems and the important functions they serve. While education on certain issues usually happens as a result of another process, any policies or projects that can include education should be encouraged. Once people can understand ecosystems and take into consideration all the factors of how they’re valued, motivation for protection and means to protect these ecosystems will ensue.
[edit] 4 References
- ↑ Expedition Borneo. Discovery Channel, 2007.
- ↑ Goodstein, Eban S. Economics and the Environment. 4th ed. Portland: Wiley, 2005.
- ↑ Pearce, David W. “The Economic Value of Forest Ecosystems”. Ecosystem Health 7.4 (2001): 284–296.
- Bingham, Nick, Andrew blowers and Chris Belshaw, eds. Contested Environments. UK: The Open University, 2003.
- Myers, Norman. “Environmental Services of Biodiversity”.
Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences 93 (1996): 2764-2769.
- Speth, James Gustave. Red Sky at Morning. New Haven: Yale University, 2004.
