Ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are the contributions that ecosystems make to benefits used in economic and other human activity. They include material contributions such as food and water, regulating functions such as flood moderation and pollination, and cultural contributions arising through recreation, knowledge, identity, or spiritual experience.
In simple terms
Ecosystem services connect ecological processes with benefits people receive. Provisioning contributions supply materials or energy; regulating contributions influence climate, water, hazards, and biological processes; and cultural contributions support recreation, learning, identity, and meaning. Classification systems differ in wording and accounting boundaries. In environmental-economic accounting, the service is nature's contribution to a benefit, not necessarily the final good itself, which helps avoid counting the same value twice.
Why it matters
Many decisions treat benefits from functioning ecosystems as invisible because they are not bought separately in markets. Identifying ecosystem services can show how habitat condition affects food production, infrastructure risk, health, livelihoods, and culture. The approach is strongest when it also protects biodiversity and ecological integrity and avoids implying that nature matters only for human use.
Example
For example, an upstream forest can slow runoff and reduce sediment reaching a reservoir. The regulating service is the forest's contribution to water regulation; cleaner water and reduced treatment needs are benefits that people and utilities may receive downstream.
How it differs
Natural capital
Ecosystem services are flows of contributions from ecosystems to people; natural capital describes the underlying stocks of natural resources and ecosystem assets.