Ecosystem Services - a concept to change worldviews Worldviews and visions CEMUS Uppsala University October 18, 2013

Louise Hård af Segerstad, [email protected]

Albaeco Finding new ways of communicating sustainability science…

…. with a focus on Nature’s importance to society and its economy.

Sweden’s largest centre for transdisciplinary environmental research

Outline: • Sustainable Development • Ecosystem services • Why? – Antropocene – Planetary Boundaries – Resilience

• How? – Dialogue/Learning on Ecosystem Services

• Most important of all

Three pillars of sustainability ”Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” World Commission on Environment and Development’s (the Brundtland Commission) report Our Common Future 1987.

Economy

Society

Nature

Perspective • Integrated economies and societies • The living resource base as the foundation for the integration • Strengthening the ability of people to enhance Earth’s life support capacity for societal development and human wellbeing

Outline: • Sustainable Development • Ecosystem services • Why? – Antropocene – Planetary Boundaries – Resilience

• How? – Dialogue/Learning on Ecosystem Services

• Most important of all

What is an ecosystem?

Ecosystem definition:

A community of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are linked by energy and nutrient flows and that interact with each other and with the physical environment. E.g. rain forests, lakes, coral reefs and grasslands

What do ecosystems do for you?

How do you make a fish? Foto: Gunnar Aneer/Azote

Who cleans the forest? Foto: Jören Schön/Azote

Ecosystem services “The benefits people obtain from ecosystems” Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005

“Ekosystemtjänster – ett mått på vår otacksamhet.” Jesper Nyström, Forskning och Framsteg 2011

Ecosystem service definitions : 1) “The conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfil human life” (Daily, 1997): Natures Services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems, Island Press

2) “The benefits human populations derive directly or indirectly from ecosystem functions” Costanza et al., 1997. Nature 387: 253–260.

The ultimate service PHOTOSYNTHESI CICULATION No leftovers - NUTRIENT S Take a deep breath - AIR QUALITY REGULATION Origin of life - SOIL Fruitful union - POLLINATION

The cleaner - WASTE REGULATION Enemy’s enemy - PEST CONTROL Bloodstream of the biosphere

- FRESHWATER

More than just a tree Food on our plates

GOODS FROM FORESTS - CROPS AND LIVESTOCK

Källa: McNeely et al, 200

Categorising ecosystem services (from Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) Supporting services

Provisioning (e.g. food, timber and water)

Needed for sustenance of life on earth (e.g. soil formation and nutrient cycling)

Regulating: (regulation of floods, drought, and disease) Cultural:(recreational, spiritual, and other nonmaterial benefits)

Status of the world’s ecosystem services Degraded

Mixed

Enhanced

Provisioning

Capture fisheries Wild foods Biomass fuel Genetic resources Biochemicals Fresh water

Timber Fiber

Crops Livestock Aquaculture

Regulating

Air quality regulation Climate regulation Erosion regulation Water purification Pest regulation Pollination Natural hazard regulation

Water regulation Disease regulation

Carbon sequestration

Cultural

Spiritual values Aesthetic values

Recreation & ecotourism

Result: About 60 percent of the ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably.

ecosystem services = price tag ?

Multifunctionality

Natural ecosystem

Monoculture

Agroforestry

Crop Pest control

Timber

Multifunctionality EST

Water – quality

Habitat

and quantity

Erosion control/ Soil creation

Carbon sink

Pollination

Outline: • Sustainable Development • Ecosystem services • Why? – Antropocene – Planetary Boundaries – Resilience

• How? – Dialogue/Learning on Ecosystem Services

• Most important of all

•Biosphere shaped by humans – the Anthropocene

•Bild: fotoakuten.se

Unprecedented change in ecosystems “More land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850”

Cultivated Systems in 2000 cover 25% of Earth’s terrestrial surface

Deforestation: Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Source: UNEP – ONE PLANET MANY PEOPLE: Atlas of our Changing Environment

”the great acceleration of the human entreprise” Professor Will Steffen

From: Steffen et al. 2004

Resilience

- the capacity of a system to deal with change and continue to develop

Production of eco-services

Thresholds – non linear systems

Environmental stress/loss of species

Threshold effects – non-linearity

Scheffer et al. 2001. Nature; Folke et al. 2004. AREES •Threshold database www.resalliance.org

Valuable Ecosystem Services

Loss of ecosystem services

(Desirable)

(Undesirable)

1

4

coral dominance

state shift 2

overfishing, coastal clear water

3

disease,

eutrophication

hurricane

phosphorous accum-

flooding, warming,

ulation in soil and mud

overexploitation of predators

grassland fire prevention

algal dominance

good rains, continu-

ous heavy grazing

turbid water

shrub-bushland

The Resilience of the Earth System

Humanity’s 10,000 years of grace

Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity in the Anthropocene (Nature 461: 472 – 475, Sept 24 - 2009)

Planetary boundaries

Climate 350 ppm CO2 Chemical pollution

+1

W/m2

Ocean acidification

Not yet quantified

Aragonite saturation ratio > 2.75

Aerosol loading

Ozone

Not yet quantified

depletion 276 DU

Biodiversity loss

Nitrogen &

10 E/MSY

Phosphorus loading 35 MT N/yr

11 MT P/yr Land use

Freshwater use

15%

4000 km3/yr

Illustration: Erik Rosin, based on Rockström et al., Nature, 2009

Klimatpåverkan

Ozon

Partiklar i luften Kväve och fosfor

Syranivån i haven

Förlust av biologisk mångfald

Färskvatten

Omvandling av mark

Resilience 1.

PERSISTENCE

2.

ADAPTABILITY

3.

TRANSFORMABILITY

It's rather like a city. If the human population drops by ten per cent, the city may still function adequately. But if the city loses its transport workers or garbage collectors or food traders or firemen or doctors, the city would collapse. The jobs people do are really important – just like the work of biodiversity for human well-being.

Responsdiversitet ”The multitude of responses to environmental change and disturbances, among species contributing to the same ecosystem function.” Functional groups: primary producers, pollinators, grazers, predators, seed dispersers, decomposers, or organisms that fix nitrogen, generate soils or modify water flows Elmqvist, T. And others. 2003. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(9):488-494.

Outline: • Sustainable Development • Ecosystem services • Why? – Antropocene – Planetary Boundaries – Resilience

• How? – Dialogue/Learning on Ecosystem Services

• Most important of all

Goals for ecosystem services • Nagoyaplan 2010 + EU-strategy on biodiversity

• Governments Generation Goal include ecosystem services • Environmental goals - since 2012 – important ecosystem services and factors that influence their continued funtion are identified and systemized by 2013. – by 2018 the importance of biodiversity and the value of ecosystem services should we commonly known and factored into decisionmaking.

Highlighting the value of ecosystem services - Measures for welfare through biodiversity and ecosystem services Synliggöra värdet av ekosystemtjänster - Åtgärder för välfärd genom biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster

Maria Schultz – Investigator Lars Berg - Headsecretary Louise Hård af Segerstad &

Thomas Hahn – Commission secretaries

V A L U E S N O R M S

Identifying processes relevant for the management of ecosystem services

Identify ecosystem services

Valuation of ecosystem services

Integration of ecosystem services – Beslut, planer, sektorer, styrmedel

K N O W L E D G E L E A R N I N G

Naturlig tillväxt – den ekonomiska värderingen av ekosystemtjänster och välfärd i nordiska kommuner

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity • What does nature provide us at the local level, what ecosystem services are most important?

• How valuable is this? • How do we evaluate ecosystem services or value them in monetary terms? • What ecosystem services are threatened? • Who is affected by changes in services? • How might those affected by these changes alter their behavior

”Naturlig tillväxt” • • •

Trying out TEEBs methodology in three municipalites Workshop with civil servants, NGOs, business, reserach, (politicians) Going through the first three steps of TEEBs methodology: 1) Specify and agree on policy issues with s stakeholders. 2) Identify which ecosystem services are most relevant. 3) Define the information needs and select appropriate methods. 4) Assess ecosystem services. 5) Identify and appraise policy options. 6) Assess the distributional impacts of policy

WORKSHOP DESIGN Opening discussions on values of the municipality and on monetary valutation Presentation:

Planetary boundaries: Research update on global challenges for human wellbeing

Discussion:

What challenges faces our municipality in the long and short term?

Presentation:

Resilience: The capacity of a system to deal with disturbance through persisting, adaptation or transformation.

TEEB Step 1:

Decide which problem to solve – scope of the analysis
 Participatory process, important to acknowledge absent stakeholders intrests.

Presentation:

Ecosystem services: MA and TEEB

TEEB Step 2:

Identify the ecosystem services in the selected scope; threats; stakeholders

Presentation:

Institutional context; Methods for economic valuation

TEEB Step 3:

Methodology and next steps: What do we need to proceed? What questions will we want to answer?


Outline: • Sustainable Development • Ecosystem services • Why? – Antropocene – Planetary Boundaries – Resilience

• How? – Dialogue/Learning on Ecosystem Services

• Most important of all

We are one • Come out of the dicotomy of man and nature • Come out of guilt • We are an animal species with the same right to live and use/interact in the biosphere as any other species • Right now we are doing this in an unsustainable manner – and we are intelligent enough to understand that • Let us act differently – more clever, creative and efficient – with a feeling of grace rather than guilt

Thanks! [email protected]