Review of Future Energy Supply and Targets for Climate Change: The Idea of Ecosystem Services - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 125

Ecosystem Services (ES) Ecosystem Services (ES)

Regulating Regulating Regulating

Natural Ecosystem Natural Ecosystem Natural Ecosystem Cultural Cultural Cultural Providing Providing Providing

Supporting Supporting Supporting Preserving Preserving Preserving

Fig. 12.2. Ecosystem Services and their linkage to the natural ecosystem

ES can be seen as an anthropogenic and anthropocentric concept based on the un-
derstanding that it provides society with various benefits. For example, they pro-
vide humans with valuable resources such as minerals (source functions); and act
as a sink for wastes released by industrial processes through metabolism (sink
functions) (Albrechts 2008). It is easy to grasp the importance of tangible services
produced by ecosystems like timber from woodland, food from agricultural land
(tangible ES). However, the importance of those services, which are less tangible,
such as climate control, the nitrogen cycle, and the pollination of plants are not
easy to discern. The following is a list of them produced by Hawken (1999),
though the list is itself not exhaustive:

• Fixation of solar energy and conversion of material
• Production of oxygen
• Biological and genetic diversity
• Purification of water and air
• Storage, cycling and distribution of fresh water
• Regulation of the atmosphere
• Migration and nursery of habitats for wildlife
• Decomposition, sequestration and detoxification of human and industrial waste
• Genetic library for human application
• Natural pest and disease control
• Management of erosion and sediment runoff
• Flood prevention and regulation of runoff
• Protection against cosmic radiation
• Regulation of chemical composition of the oceans
• Regulation of climate
• Formation of topsoil and maintenance of fertility