BES Facebook pageEcosystem Services
What are ecosystem services?
Ecosystem services are the benefits that people receive from the natural environment, including:
- Provisioning services – timber production, food production
- Regulating services – climate control, disease control
- Supporting services – crop pollination, nutrient cycling
- Cultural services – recreation
The recent UK National Ecosystem Assessment estimated the economic value of ecosystem services in the UK amounts to billions of pounds. The report has brought this topic to the top of the policy agenda, and raised awareness of the damage and degradation inflicted on our natural environment both in the UK and worldwide.
An 'Ecosystem Approach'
The ecosystem approach has been defined in various ways.
The Convention on Biological Diversity defines an 'ecosystem approach' as:
"a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way."
In 2011 the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published ‘The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature’ a White Paper detailing the Government’s vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years.
The Natural Environment White Paper promotes an ‘ecosystems approach’ based on:
- Re-connecting people with the natural environment
- Working together across boundaries to improve the environment
- Reflecting the value of ecosystem services in decision-making
- Respecting environmental limits, in sustainable development, and taking ecosystem functioning into account
- Making decisions at an appropriate spatial scale
- Showing leadership on environmental issues in Europe and worldwide
The BES informs the development of an ecosystem approach to policy-making, as a founder member of the Natural Capital Initiative and through our Ecosystem | Services Policy Advisory Group.
BES Activities
- Developing the National Ecosystem Assessment
Joint BES - UK Biodiversity Research Advisory Group workshop, BES Annual Meeting, 9 September 2009
Further information - Valuing our Life Support Systems
Natural Capital Initiative symposium, 29 April - 1 May 2009
Further information I Natural Capital Initiative website - Ecosystem Services
Joint BES - UK Biodiversity Research Advisory Group workshop, BES Annual Meeting, 4 September 2008
Workshop output - Projecting the Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Joint BES - Defra workshop, with the Countryside Council for Wales, Natural England and the Woodland Trust: 26 June 2008
Workshop output Natural Resource Protection: What are the appropriate public policy mechanisms to protect ecosystem services in the UK?
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and BES Seminar: May 2007
Presentations and other material: State of knowledge on Ecosystem Services | Economics of Ecosystem Services | Ecosystem Services and Policy
Discussion Document | POSTnote on Ecosystem ServicesAssessing Ecosystem Services in the UK
BES - Defra Workshop: December 2006
Workshop outputThe UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Response to the Environmental Audit Committee: October 2006The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecology for Africa
BES- Globe UK Parliamentary Meeting: May 2006Secure People Need Healthy Ecosystems
Article for Science & Public Affairs: September 2005
