Ecosystem services provided by the Baltic Sea ... - Naturvårdsverket

SWEDISH ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Report 5873 • Ecosystem services provided by the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak
Economic Marine Information
and services. It should perhaps be pointed out that the ecosystem service concept
does not challenge already established ecological concepts; it merely looks at ecosystems
from a utilitarian perspective.
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Conservation is the act of preserving our ecosystems as well as their functions and
processes. There are several reasons for environmental conservation. When species,
populations, ecosystems or their associated services are life-supporting we
really have no choice other than to preserve them. When economically important,
incentives are strong, and yet not always sufficient. When nature is merely attractive,
conservation is usually in the hand of public opinion. Finally, when a species
or a service just is, far from spectacular and without price tag, conservation measures
are rarely taken at all.
Historically, nature and its values have largely been ignored until malfunction or
loss has drawn the attention to their importance. Although the wealth of prosperous
nations has originated in natural resources, little has been done to safeguard them.
Although often taken for granted, and in many cases inadequately managed, ecosystem
services are, no doubt, the foundation for human life and development. The
links between ecosystem services and various aspects of human well-being are
many (4). Certain services such as the production of food for harvest are well
documented. Less appreciated are life-supporting services such as atmospheric and
climate regulation, detoxification of waste and the maintenance of biodiversity,
from which key ingredients for e.g. our industrial, pharmaceutical and chemical
enterprises are derived.
Ecosystem services have been categorised in various ways (5-10). The classification
used in this report follows the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; dividing
goods and services into four categories according to the type of service they provide
(Fig. 2). The categorisation does not in itself explain how the ecosystem services
interact. Interactions between services as well as their relative importance to
human society will be discussed for each of the services in the coming chapters and
are summarised in the beginning of the report (p. 13).
In the marine environment, the most readily understood services include those that
are labelled goods or provisioning services, meaning resources used by humans,
originating in the sea. Among these, production of food for harvest is perhaps the
most obvious, but this category also includes the production of genetic, pharmaceutical
and chemical resources, as well as fertilizer, fodder, and energy.
Less attention has been given to the regulating services, among which we find
many services vital to mankind including gas- or atmospheric regulation. The
ocean provides the oxygen (O 2 ) that we breathe and represents the largest natural
sink for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) on Earth. Without the carbon sequestration of our
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