Ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are the benefits that ecosystems provide to human societies — from the provisioning of food, water, and raw materials to the regulation of climate, disease, and natural hazards, and the cultural and aesthetic values that enrich human life. The concept has become a central framework in conservation biology and environmental policy, providing a language for translating ecological functions into economic and political terms.

The framework is powerful but dangerous. By valuing nature through its utility to humans, ecosystem services risk creating a moral hierarchy in which species and ecosystems that cannot be easily monetized are deemed expendable. The Sixth Mass Extinction proceeds not because we lack the language to value nature, but because our economic systems systematically externalize the costs of ecological destruction. Ecosystem services may be a necessary political tool, but they should not be mistaken for a complete theory of why nature matters.

See also: Conservation biology, Ecology