82 research outputs found
Ethical considerations in on-ground applications of the ecosystem services concept
The ecosystem services (ES) concept is one of the main avenues for conveying society's dependence on natural ecosystems. On-ground applications of the concept are now widespread and diverse and include its use as a communication tool, for policy guidance and priority setting, and for designing economic instruments for conservation. Each application raises ethical considerations beyond traditional controversies related to the monetary valuation of nature. We review ethical considerations across major on-ground applications and group them into the following categories: anthropocentric framing, economic metaphor, monetary valuation, commodification, sociocultural impact, changes in motivations, and equity implications. Different applications of the ES concept raise different suites of ethical issues, and we propose methods to address the issues most relevant to each application. We conclude that the ES concept should be considered as only one among various alternative approaches to valuing nature and that reliance on economic metaphors can exclude other motivations for protecting ecosystems
(Wild)fire is not an ecosystem service
In their paper entitled “Wildfires as an ecosystem
service”, Pausas and Keeley (2019)
summarize the benefits generated by – as
well as the evolutionary and socioecological
importance of – wildfires for humankind.
Although we recognize the importance of
wildfires in such a context, we argue that
presenting wildfire per se as an ecosystem
service is conceptually incorrect and can be
misleading for policy makers and resource
managers. Throughout their paper, the
authors repeatedly refer to (wild)fire as a
potential provider of multiple ecosystem
services (and not as an ecosystem service
itself, as indicated in their article’s title). We
believe that this is more than a dispute over
semantics, for such a contradiction could
lead to misperceptions about the definition
of the term “
ecosystem services”, which is
especially concerning in light of its real-world
applications to fire management.Ă‚S received support from the Portuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT) through PhD grant SFRH/BD/
132838/2017, funded by the Ministry
of Science, Technology and Higher
Education, and by the European Social
Fund–Operational Program Human
Capital within the 2014–2020 EU
Strategic Framework. AR is funded by
Xunta de Galicia (post-doctoral
fellowship
ED481B2016/084-0).
This research
was developed as part of the project
FirESmart (PCIF/MOG/0083/2017), which
received funding from the FCT. The
authors declare that they have no conflicts
of interest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Assessment of ecosystem services of an urbanized tropical estuary with a focus on habitats and scenarios
Tropical estuaries are one of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet because of the number of ecosystem services they provide. The increasing anthropogenic pressure to which these estuaries are subject has caused a reduction in their natural capital stock. Therefore, the application of a pragmatic and rational ecosystem-based management approach to sustainably manage the multiple ecosystem services provided by this ecosystem is necessary. The aim of our study is to present an approach that combines prospective scenarios with habitat-based perspective to assess the supply capacity of ecosystem services, plus determine the impact of protected areas in an urbanized tropical estuary. The current situation and two scenarios were generated to evaluate the capacity of habitats to supply ecosystem services. This type of assessment will allow the decision makers to visualize the effect of their choices or the occurrence of events which might produce significant changes in the estuary. Thus, over time, measures can be taken to sustain the supply of ecosystem services. We determined that the establishment of protected areas have a positive impact; however, the effect is not the same for all of them. Consequently, indicating that actions such as community participation, research, education, management planning and infrastructure development must accompany the development of a protected area
- …