6.2 Ecosystem Services
Healthy ecosystems are ecological life-support systems for every living thing on Earth, including humans. They provide a full suite of goods and services that are vital to human health and livelihood, natural assets we call ecosystem services. Figure 1
Many of these goods and services are traditionally viewed as free benefits to society, or “public goods” – wildlife habitat and diversity, watershed services, carbon storage, and scenic landscapes, for example. Lacking a formal market, these natural assets are traditionally absent from society’s balance sheet; their critical contributions are often overlooked in public, corporate, and individual decision-making.
When our forests, deserts, wetlands, and other biomes are undervalued, they are increasingly susceptible to development pressures and conversion, to pollution and other human waste, or to other types of degradation. Recognizing ecosystems as natural assets with economic and social value can help promote conservation and more responsible decision-making.
Ecosystem Services are commonly defined as benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These services can be categorized as:
- Provisioning Services or the provision of food, fresh water, fuel, fiber, and other goods;
- Regulating Services such as climate, water, and disease regulation as well as pollination;
- Supporting Services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling; and
- Cultural Services such as educational, aesthetic, and cultural heritage values as well as recreation and tourism.
As population, income, and consumption levels increase, humans put more and more pressure on the natural environment to deliver these benefits. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment – a four-year United Nations assessment of the condition and trends of the world’s ecosystems conducted by over 1300 international experts – found that 60% of ecosystem services assessed globally are either degraded or being used unsustainably. Seventy percent of the regulating and cultural services evaluated in the assessment are in decline. Those scientists predicted that ecosystem degradation could grow significantly worse in the first half of the 21st century, with important consequences to human well-being.
Climate change, pollution, over-exploitation, and land-use change are some of the drivers of ecosystem loss, as well as resource challenges associated with globalization and urbanization. Land use change is an immediate issue. In the United States we are losing open space, and seeing a decline in forest health and biodiversity, particularly on private lands. Approximately 57% of all forestland in the United States, or 429 million acres, is privately owned. Recent trends in parcelization and divestiture of private lands in the United States suggest that private landowners are commonly under economic pressures to sell their forest holdings. Rising property values, tax burdens, and global market competition are some of the factors that motivate landowne