Ecosystem services: the benefits of nature that we couldn’t live without
Imagine a world without chocolate, coffee, or clean air. It might seem surprising, but all of these depend on nature’s invisible work. However, nature and biodiversity are in steep decline, and the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth. What does this mean for us, and why should we care?
What are ecosystem services?
Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect benefits that nature and biodiversity provide to humans. These are broadly grouped into four separate categories, which are provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services:
- Provisioning services are tangible products that biodiversity provides, including food, water, materials, and medicinal resources.
- Regulating services are the benefits humans derive from the regulation of natural processes, such as erosion control, air quality regulation, climate regulation, and pollination.
- Cultural services are the intangible advantages that people obtain from nature, including recreation, spiritual and cultural significance, and aesthetic appreciation.
- Supporting services are the ecological processes that underpin all other ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling, water cycling, and photosynthesis.
Although the types of ecosystem services are wide-ranging, they’re often intangible or completely invisible to most people. Key services such as nutrient cycling, fresh water, and climate regulation are often not thought about, while it’s easy to forget about the importance of things like pollination and photosynthesis.
This, as well as the fact biodiversity isn’t incorporated into economic decision-making, is part of the reason why we’ve been destroying nature so quickly. This is despite food production, for example, being entirely dependent on ecosystem services. In fact, industrial farming relies on intensive monocultures, heavy pesticide use, and livestock production, which are all responsible for biodiversity decline. This has been previously explored by allmanhall, along with the potential of regenerative agriculture.
There are also other surprising benefits to humans from biodiversity too, including that around 25% of modern pharmaceutical drugs are derived from rainforest plants. This includes the derivatives of the Madagascar periwinkle (pictured below), or Catharanthus roseus, helping to increase survival rates of leukaemia, and snake venom helping with high blood pressure. This nicely demonstrates the various and sometimes obscure benefits that biodiversity offers to humans, alongside more obvious examples like clean air.
However, despite their enormous value, these services are under threat as biodiversity rapidly declines.
A rapidly declining natural world
The statistics surrounding biodiversity are concerning. Since 1970, global wildlife populations have declined by 73% on average, while in the UK, 16% of species are threatened with extinction. Also, many studies suggest that the world is approaching irreversible ecosystem tipping points, which include the potential collapse of the Amazon rainforest, the thawing of polar ice, and ocean exploitation, all of which will accelerate changes in the Earth’s climate. If such tipping points are reached, then limiting global warming in line with the Paris Agreement and ensuring a stable global economy could become unachievable.
These issues exemplify how climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and food security are intertwined. Indeed, research by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES, has shown that despite the greater levels of attention paid to the climate, dealing with these issues separately won’t work. Incorporating key environmental metrics into economic decision making has a key role to play in tackling these issues simultaneously.
The economic value of nature
The economic value of ecosystem services is often not recognised. This is despite previous research that has attempted to raise awareness and encourage decision-makers to consider its importance. One well-renowned example is that from Costanza et al, who estimated that ecosystem services provided $33 trillion per year in services, which is nearly double the gross national product at the time. Figures such as this do surprise people, but they make sense given that the economy is ultimately a subsystem of the biosphere. In other words, all the products and services that humans produce are derived from natural capital, and all wastes from the economy return to the environment.
Thinking about the economy in this way is useful, as it illustrates how everything humans need comes from nature, meaning that the more it declines then the less likely we’ll be able to meet people’s basic needs. These include things such as food, clothing, shelter, as well as sanitation, education, and healthcare facilities. Despite this, conventional economic models that policymakers use generally don’t take biodiversity loss (or other environmental variables) into account. Notably, research has suggested that no country meets its citizens’ basic needs, including food security, at a sustainable level of resource use.
What can you do to protect biodiversity and secure ecosystem service provision?
It’s often the case that people think that all of this isn’t directly relevant to the food we eat, but we all have an opportunity to make a difference through our consumption choices.
As an EcoVadis Gold-rated food procurement company, allmanhall are well-placed to help organisations align with legislation and sustainability goals that protect biodiversity.
Our sustainability team can offer guidance on ingredient sourcing with our sustainability dashboards, menu planning with The Brighter Burger and our plant-rich Hero Recipes, and strategies for effective food waste reduction. All of this goes a long way to reducing your catering operation’s carbon and biodiversity footprints.
Please do contact us if you need support achieving your sustainability goals.