Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital - Part Two
A multi-part series on why your life depends on nature and why it is under threat
If you read part one of this series, you will understand that there are some fundamental realities in environmental systems that ultimately determine whether or not those systems will survive and thrive. You’ll have learned that resilience is the most important attribute to prevent systemic collapse.
This piece lays the groundwork for next week’s piece, which will explore how and why that should matter to you.
What are Ecosystem Services?
Ecosystem Services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being, and have an impact on our survival and quality of life.
While it’s not a common narrative among ‘the masses’ and certainly not discussed by mainstream media, the reality of our existence is that we are 100% reliant on nature to provide what we need to survive. Whether you believe in creation, the big bang, and/or evolution, doesn’t matter. The fact remains that we as humans are contained within a biosphere and the other components of that biosphere are what keep us alive. There can be no denying it.
Those other components are ecosystem services, to a greater or lesser degree.
What is Natural Capital?
Natural Capital is the world’s stocks of natural resources, which include plants, animals, soils, air, water and minerals.
When you think about your financial value or that of your business, you separate out the capital from the cash on the asset side of your balance sheet.
Cash/savings + any assets you own - your liabilities (eg debt) = your net worth.
What is now known, is that all of us, and virtually every business, has nature sitting on the asset side of the balance sheet; and this value has been quantified.
In 2022, a group of experts from 163 industry sectors and their supply chains did some analysis. Their findings, pulled into a report by PWC, were staggering to many and unsurprising to those of us who have been involved in this space for a while.
Some key facts:
Industries rely on either the direct harvest of resources from forests and oceans or are dependent on healthy systems for the provision of these resources, such as healthy soils, clean water, pollination, and a stable climate.
Over half of the world’s GDP ($44 Trillion) is moderately ($31 trillion) or highly ($13 trillion) dependent on nature and its services. In total that’s nearly half of the world’s GDP, reliant on nature.
Construction, agriculture, and food and beverages are the three largest industries that depend most on nature with a combined $8.0 trillion dollars of natural capital harvested per annum. In total that’s around twice the size of the German economy (the 4th largest economy in the world).
Categories of Ecosystem Services
The list of ecosystem services is long. Very long (especially if you’re an ecologist and naturally explore the world of indirect dependencies). But there is a way of categorizing them in a way that allows your critical mind to begin to understand how our society depends on them.
There have been 4 categories identified historically and while one could split the difference into a couple of areas, using these four categories is helpful when you think about our dependencies.
Provisioning Services - These are products that human beings gain directly from nature. Examples include food, wood, and fiber.
Regulating Services - These are services that enable us to benefit from ecological processes. Examples include sand dune systems protecting us from oceanic storms, and atmospheric gases that regulate climate.
Cultural Services - These are the non-material benefits we gain from nature. Many are intrinsic, such as spiritual connection or beauty/aesthetics. Many are extrinsic like recreation, science, and education.
Support services - These are the ecosystem processes that are essential for providing all the other ecosystem services (and to life on Earth). Examples are photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, and hydrological cycles (how the ocean gets turned into rain, then back into the ocean).
Linking Ecosystem Services and Resilience
While there is a myriad of really important services that nature provides to us, the reality is that the availability of these services is predicated on natural systems operating well. As I discussed in Part One nature is under enormous pressure these days, and suffice to say that the resilience of nature, and in particular the resilience of some of the systems within nature, is being tested. If those systems have low resilience and are disturbed, it is likely they will flip into a new basin of attraction, eliminating the provision of these critical ecosystem services we have become dependent on.
To extend that reality, not only will it happen, but it is happening. And you need to be aware of what is causing this if you are to have a say in how we deal with the fallout because there are plenty of parties who want us to think there’s “nothing to see here”.
Next week, I will outline some of the most essential services, what system or systems they are dependent on, and what the resilience of those systems is, in different parts of the world.