ECOSYSTEM  SERVICES

Ecosystem services are the direct or indirect contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being. Although ecosystem processes and functions exist whether or not humans benefit from them, these relationships generate ecosystem services only if they contribute to human well-being.
The Millennium Assessment (MEA 2005) divides these services in to four categories:

• supporting,
• regulating
• provisioning
• cultural services

• Ecosystem structure includes the physical and biological components of the ecosystem itself, such as the quantity of water in a reservoir, the soil characteristics, or the density of trees (Moore et al, 2011)
• Ecosystem processes link the components of structure with function. For example, water supply and wildlife growth are ecosystem functions that depend on the underlying ecosystem structure.
• Ecosystem processes support the production of ecosystem goods and services.

Distinction can also be made between ecosystem goods and ecosystem services.

• Ecosystem goods are the tangible products of nature, such as timber, minerals, water, and wildlife. Ecosystem goods more easily identified as the direct benefits to society.  In other words, people can “see” what they are getting.
• ecosystem services are less recognized aspects of nature’s services. For example improvements or maintenance of the condition of ecosystem services such as cleansing, recycling, and renewal which provide many intangible aesthetic and cultural benefits that are difficult to “value”.

We would like to measure all Cockpit Country Ecosystem service values. But note that we are not trying to measure the costs of social impacts nor the opportunity costs relating to alternative community development strategies.