Integrating Conservation and Development in the Field: Implementing Ecosystem Service Projects

Integrating Conservation and Development in the Field: Implementing Ecosystem Service Projects

Ecosystem services are the collective term to describe a range of environmental benefits for the people, directly or indirectly. These services can be divided into four main categories: (1) providing food, water, fuel and other materials, (2) regulation of natural processes such as climate, water, or air and water quality (3) culture services that natural systems contributes to our quality of life and spiritual well-being, providing beautiful scenery and opportunities for recreation and education and, finally, (4) support services that are required for all ecosystem services, such as soil formation, photosynthesis and nutrient cycling, biodiversity and space for creating and maintaining our infrastructure. Recognition of the economic value of ecosystem services or replacement cost them an opportunity to assess the broader implications of a particular development.

Before moving on, however, some conceptual clarifications are in order. First, the concept of environmental services closely resembles the concept of ecosystem services, to the extent that they are often used interchangeably in the literature. The difference between the two is that the former is a more overarching, all-encompassing concept, while the latter specifically refers to a particular, geographically bounded ecosystem (even when talking about the global ecosystem).

Second, environmental services are often framed by conservation scientists as one of two ways in which biological diversity and “the environment” in a broad sense contribute to human welfare and development. Environmental services, then, represent the “indirect values” of nature to humans by supporting the ecological processes that help regulate the natural environment that humans are part of and depend on. So-called material goods represent the “direct values” of nature to humanity, for example, in the form of sources for medicines, new varieties of food, green energy, and so forth. Another main difference between environmental services and material goods is that the former often go directly to individuals or private organizations (i.e., producers or consumers) whereas environmental services accrue to societies at large, which makes it much more difficult to quantify them in economic terms—a point we shall return to below.

Third, it should be noted that the concept of environmental services is—often implicitly—connected to a particular worldview characterized by instrumentalism, (economic) rational choice, and a belief in progress and “designability.” Hence and while often portrayed as a rather “neutral” concept, it is important to note that “environmental services” carries particular connotations to which we will return below. Next, however, we will outline some examples of environmental services.Although it is relatively easy, and certainly logically argue that ecosystem services are essential to the functioning of all human endeavors, including all economic activities, is much more difficult to translate these ideas into the daily operations of the business. On the one hand, many ecosystem services are not only appreciated, because they usually do not come with a price tag.

Although direct assessment of the market where you can ecosystem services (or goods they provide) are traded (water, soil, oil, ...