ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES: VERY DIFFICULT FOR POLITICIANS' PERCEPTION AND IMPOSSIBLY UNDERSTANDABLE TO "WALL STREET"

Pricing the Priceless: Ecosystem Services Science at USGS

Reproduced from

http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/pricing-the-priceless-ecosystem-services-science-at-usgs/?from=textlink

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Nature, Inc.

So what other kinds of products and services do ecosystems provide people? There are obvious ones, such as wild fish and game for food, minerals like rare earth elements and copper, fuels like oil and gas, and fresh water for agriculture and drinking. But there are less apparent, yet still extremely important services that ecosystems provide humanity.

Coastal wetlands, for example, often serve as shock absorbers for storm surge created when ocean storms come ashore. Pollinators, such as bees –both native and honeybees –and bats, perform the lion’s share of pollinating fruit trees and other agricultural crops. River deltas like Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin provide essential habitat for the seafood that underpins billion-dollar industries.

These products and services are essential not only to the ecosystems that provide them, but also to the people and societies built on them. Factoring their value into cost-benefit analyses is an important part of smart planning. But that raises a new question—how to assign value to ecosystem services?

[Read the article on the link above]