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Summary: Ecosystem Services and Human Welfare
Citation:
KEPNER, W. G., D. A. Mouat, J. M. Lancaster, AND P. H. Liotta. Summary: Ecosystem Services and Human Welfare. Chapter 0, P. Liotta, W. Kepner, J. Lancaster and D. Mouat (ed.), Achieving Environmental Security: Ecosystem Services and Human Welfare. IOS Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 69:97-111, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
Since the publication of the Millennium Assessment, the concept of ecosystem goods and services has become a widely popularized assessment framework for broad use by decision makers. The challenge, however, is one of a historical nature: to develop applications that work across both political and discipline boundaries to intelligently inform and support effective policy making. The actual translation of theory into responsible action has yet to be fully realized, and the real potential for the purpose of maintaining human well-being and reducing risks to sustainable societies remains mostly untested.
Description:
The ecosystem services paradigm is a framework conceived to engage support among people, especially policy- and decision-makers, for the recognition that human welfare, prosperity, security, and well-being are intrinsically linked to the health of the environment. Simply stated, “ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” [1]. The concept is designed to address the sustainability of natural assets within the context of human activity, and thus it establishes an anthropogenic perspective to conservation and the management of natural capital. The ecosystem services paradigm promotes the inclusion of natural capital value in all policy, management, and business components in order to inform decisions and positively change individual and collective state behavior to more environmentally sustainable practices. Conceptually, the framework is still evolving and the science is being defined and investigated across multiple government and nongovernment sectors, scales, and through a variety of natural and social disciplines. In the past, much of the work has focused on a single service, such as soil erosion mitigation, or a small set or bundle of related services [2]. Also, typically the topic has been investigated for the benefit of two distinct communities (conservation and economic development), which have historically lacked integration and agreement. We have now added to the complexity with the challenge of addressing how nontraditional security threats coming from environmental, social, or economic stressors factor into the ecosystem services paradigm.
URLs/Downloads:
KEPNER 10-041 FINAL BOOK CHAPTER 24_SUMMARY.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 134 KB, about PDF)www.iospress.nl
