15 Facts About Ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and from healthy ecosystems.

The "provisioning Ecosystem services" include forest products such as timbers, marine products fresh water, raw materials, and biochemical and genetic resources.

Four different types of ecosystem services have been distinguished by the scientific body: regulating services, provisioning services, cultural services and supporting services.

These services make it possible for the ecosystems to continue providing services such as food supply, flood regulation, and water purification.

Understanding of ecosystem services requires a strong foundation in ecology, which describes the underlying principles and interactions of organisms and the environment.

The "provisioning Ecosystem services" include forest products, marine products, fresh water, raw materials, biochemical and genetic resources.

Provisioning services consist of all "the products obtained from ecosystems".

Weighting factors such as a service's irreplaceability or bundled Ecosystem services can allocate economic value such that goal attainment becomes more efficient.

Economic valuation of ecosystem services involves social communication and information, areas that remain particularly challenging and are the focus of many researchers.

Payment and trading of services is an emerging worldwide small-scale solution where one can acquire credits for activities such as sponsoring the protection of carbon sequestration sources or the restoration of ecosystem service providers.

In 2001, the Millennium Ecosystem services Assessment announced that humanity's impact on the natural world was increasing to levels never before seen, and that the degradation of the planet's ecosystems would become a major barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In recognition of this fact, Ecosystem services-Based Adaptation sought to use the restoration of ecosystems as a stepping-stone to improve the quality of life in communities experiencing the impacts of climate change.

Ecosystem services decisions require making complex choices at the intersection of ecology, technology, society, and the economy.

Term "environmental Ecosystem services" was introduced in a 1970 report of the Study of Critical Environmental Problems, which listed Ecosystem services including insect pollination, fisheries, climate regulation and flood control.

Ecosystem services concept has continued to expand and includes socio-economic and conservation objectives, which are discussed below.