Environmental

 

go to these weblinks and learn about ecosystem services, and also  learn about the economic value of protecting natural ecosystems and  their services.

  • Costanza, R., et. al. (1997). . Nature, 387, 253-260.
  1. Of the different kinds of ecosystem services you learned about,  discuss two that are important in your local area, village, forests  and/or nation.
  2. How are these services endangered and what economic costs to society do you foresee with their loss?

For example, when people built homes  and buildings over wetlands in Florida, then the wetlands were  destroyed. Normally, wetlands are important to help control flooding,  and without them, there were more floods and water damage in cities,  which caused a lot of economic costs to the citizens. So, now Florida is  trying to restore many lost wetlands in order to have the ecosystem  service of flood control returned.

  1. What is one action that people could take to help protect these services?