Ecosystems & Ecosystem services

This sub-section documents the methods and concepts that are useful to assess the conditions and trends of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Often, but not always, ecosystem services results from the functioning of ecosystems as flows of renewable resources. Overexploitation of ecosystem services may jeopardize ecosystems integrity thereby affecting those services.

The assessment of ecosystems aims at examining the sustainable use of the natural capital. This requires evaluating both stocks and flow of ecosystem services, as well as ecosystem integrity, through indicators and proxies. Environmental accounting techniques are being used for that purpose.

Different sets of indicators are sometimes aggregated into indices (e.g. the ecological footprint) for communication purposes.

References

• MA. 2010. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: A Manual for Assessment Practitioners. Chapter 4 of this manual is devoted to “Assessing state and trends in ecosystem services and human well-being”.
• MA. 2005. Ecosystems and human well-being, Vol. 1: Current state and trends. Washington, DC: Island Press. > Part 1 of this report is devoted to “General concepts and analytical approaches”.
• CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity). 2003. Monitoring and indicators: designing national level monitoring programmes and indicators. Montreal: CBD Secretariat.

Case-studies

• MA. 2005. Ecosystems and human well-being, Vol. 1: Current state and trends. Washington, DC: Island Press.
• Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010). Global Biodiversity Outlook 3. Montréal, 94p.
• TEEB Report 2011. "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in National and International Policy Making", Chapter 3 on "Strengthening indicators and accounting systems for natural capital".
• UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011), chapters 4-20.
• The biodiversity baseline for Europe.
• SEBI - Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators.
• Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol 19, issue 10: "Ecosystem services and Biodiversity COnservation.