Perspectives on Ecosystem Services: Approaches, Development and Valuation

Ecosystem services originate from a functioning ecosystem and are of direct value to humans. They enter the utility function either directly, or along with labour, capital, and other produced goods as inputs in a production process resulting in consumable goods. Most ecosystem goods and services have produced although usually imperfect substitutes. It is the nature of economic and population growth that some ecosystem goods and services become depleted and that humans use inputs including plentiful ecosystem goods and services to produce new capital and goods that compensate for such depletion. An economic question is whether the substitutes for ecosystem services cost society more to produce than the opportunity cost of protecting the original ecosystem services. Many ecosystem services and some ecosystem goods are commonly received for free. The marketing of ecosystem goods and services is basically an effort to turn such recipients those who benefit without ownership into buyers, thereby providing market signals that serve to help protect valuable services. Some formal arrangement is needed to make this happe