Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

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

The Ecological Society of America.

Costanza, R., et. al. (1997). The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387, 253-260.

The United Nations: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment & Humans.

Of the different kinds of ecosystem services you learned about, discuss two that are important in your local area, village, forests, and/or nation.

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.

What is one action that people could take to help protect these services? For more information on Millennium Ecosystem Assessment check on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Ecosystem_Assessment