Conceptual Framework: Poverty

The overall aim of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme is the development of new knowledge through excellent research, that seeks to understand and explain the complex relationship between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation, including an improved understanding of how ecosystems function, the services they provide, the full value of these services and their potential role in achieving poverty alleviation. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was the starting point for ESPA’s understanding of ecosystem services. Ecosystems are the places where biotic and abiotic components of the environment come together spatially. The natural ecosystem structures and processes underpin a variety of ecosystem functions and capabilities, such as primary production, water regulation and nutrient cycling that ultimately support ecosystem services, such as timber production or freshwater provision, from which people benefit. Ecosystem services are defined as the final point in the delivery chain from ecosystems that are used by people for material goods, such as food or fuel, or for non-material goods such as climate regulation, cultural benefits or flood prevention. Both material and non-material goods have values which can be measured in monetary or non-monetary terms (e.g. health status, cultura