Journal article
The valuation of ecosystem services can play an important role in conservation planning and ecosystem-based management. Unfortunately, gathering primary, site-specific data is costly. As a result, a popular alternate method is to conduct a “benefit ransfer” (applying economic value estimates from one location to a similar site in another location). Among the potential pitfalls of such an...
The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocksthat produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth’s life-support system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the planet.We have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published...
Environmentalists have argued that ecological degradation will lead to declines in the well-being of people dependent on ecosystem services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment paradoxically found that human well-being has increased despite large global declines in most ecosystem services. We assess four explanations of these divergent trends: (1) We have measured well-being incorrectly; (2)...
Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being...
For far too long, conservation scientists and practitioners
have depended on intuition and anecdote to guide the design of conservation investments. If we want to ensure that our limited resources make a difference, we must accept that testing hypotheses about what policies protect biological diversity requires the same scientific rigor and state-of-the-art methods that we invest in...
<b>1.</b> There is great interest among policy makers in the potential of carbon-based payments for eco-
system services (PES) to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and protect forests in tropical
countries. We discuss the contributions that ecologists can make to the interdisciplinary research
required to inform the design of these initiatives.
<...
Payments for environmental services (PES) represent a new, more direct way to promote conserva-
tion. They explicitly recognize the need to address difficult trade-offs by bridging the interests of landowners
and external actors through compensations. Theoretical assessments praise the advantages of PES over indirect
approaches, but in the tropics PES application has remained...
Agricultural landscapes can provide many valuable ecosystem services, but many are externalities from the perspective of farmers and so tend to be under-produced. This paper examines an effort to make direct payments for ecosystem services (PES) in an agricultural landscape. The Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project is piloting the use of PES to induce adoption of...
The losses that are being incurred of the Earth’s biological diversity, at all levels, are now staggering.
The trend lines for future loss are steeply upward as new adverse drivers of change come into play. The political processes for matching this crisis are now inadequate and the science needs to address this issue are huge and slow to fulfil, even though strong advances have been...
Humans are altering the composition of biological communities through a variety of activities that increase rates of species invasions and species extinctions, at all scales, from local to global. These changes in components of the Earth's biodiversity cause concern for ethical and aesthetic reasons, but they also have a strong potential to alter ecosystem properties and the goods and...
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