Ecosystem Services

Healthy ecosystems form the basis for a wide range of economic, environmental and aesthetic goods and services: for instance, healthy forest ecosystems purify air and water and help mitigate droughts and floods. The products of these ecosystem processes are collectively termed ecosystem services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (2005) defines ecosystem services as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems, and identifies four broad categories.

Supporting services include processes such as nutrient cycling, primary production, soil formation, habitat provision and pollination, all of which maintain the underlying balance of the ecosystem. Provisioning services include the direct goods an ecosystem yields — food (including seafood), raw materials (timber, animal skins, fuel wood), genetic resources (including crop-improvement genes and resources for health care), water, medicinal resources (including test and assay organisms), and ornamental resources (furs, feathers, ivory, orchids, butterflies and the like). Regulating services include carbon sequestration, the way predation naturally regulates prey populations, waste decomposition and detoxification, purification of water and air, and natural pest control. Cultural services include the cultural, spiritual and historical value people derive from ecosystems, recreational experiences, opportunities for science and education, and even therapeutic applications such as animal-assisted therapy. …