‘Ecosystem Services’ issue of Science for Environment Policy now online
Ecosystems have a significant impact on human welfare and they must be sustainably managed to continue to provide essential goods and services, such as timber, clean water and natural carbon storage. This thematic issue explores research which will help decision makers develop successful conservation and sustainability policies that promote ecosystem services provision. The articles offer easy-to-read summaries of key studies in the field, to give a comprehensive view of the latest developments. They explore topics including: • How can we put an economic value on ecosystems and biodiversity? • Do biodiversity protection and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) enhance ecosystem services? • How can we map the potential of a landscape to provide ecosystem services? Damage to the natural environment has considerable economic and social repercussions, but as ecosystem services are typically provided ‘free’, their loss is often undetected by our current economic incentive system. To this end, the European Commission has helped initiate a global research project, 'The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)', which calculates the economic value of biodiversity, the cost of biodiversity loss and the cost of failure to take action to prevent biodiversity loss. TEEB’s findings will be presented in October this year. Science for Environment Policy is a free news service designed to strengthen links between environmental research and policy. Ecosystem Services is the twentieth in a series of special Thematic Issues which take an in-depth look at issues high on the policy agenda. It is guest-edited by Dr Dolf de Groot of Wageningen University, the Netherlands. In addition to monthly special issues, subscribers to Science for Environment Policy receive a weekly news alert by email covering a range of environmental research. All news alert articles and Thematic Issues can be viewed on the service’s website: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/index_en.htm(opens in new window) To subscribe to the service, simply send an email to sfep@uwe.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Subscribe SfEP’. Science for Environment Policy is published by the European Commission’s DG Environment and has 12,000 subscribers. It is edited by the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England.