1.Front section - IUCN

Building broader support for protected areas
Ecosystem services from
protected areas
Protected areas provide significant ecological services
to local communities, the nation, and the international
community. A list of some of these services and the
functions they carry out is presented in Box 2.
Particularly important services at the community level
include soil regeneration, nutrient cycling, pollination,
recreation, regulation of disease (Osofsky et al., this
volume), provision of pure water, and maintenance of
the functioning ecosystem which yields harvestable
resources, and cultural services such as a sense of
place (MEA, 2003). Such benefits are often difficult
to quantify, and even local people may take them for
granted. Ecological services do not normally appear
in corporate or national accounting systems, but they
far outweigh direct values when they are computed;
one review estimated that coastal ecosystems provide
services worth over US$4,000 per ha per year, while
per hectare annual values of tropical forests are placed
at US$3,000, wetlands at nearly US$15,000, and lakes
and rivers at US$8,500 (Costanza et al., 1997).
While virtually all ecosystems provide at least some
of the listed services, protected areas where
biologically diverse ecosystems remain intact are
likely to be particularly valuable (e.g., Tilman et al.,
1997; Hooper and Vitousek, 1997; MEA, 2003).
One of the most important ecosystem services,
especially in view of the major investments in water
resource management, is the stabilizing of
hydrological functions. As an example of economic
costs of poorly-managed watersheds, in the USA,
about 880 million tons of agricultural soils are
deposited into reservoirs and aquatic systems each
year, reducing their flood-control benefits, increasing
operating costs of water treatment facilities, clogging
waterways, and shortening the lives of dams. The
annual damages to water storage facilities from
sediments carried by water erosion in the US amounts
to US$841 billion per year, with another $683 billion
in damage to navigable waterways, $2 billion in
damage to recreational facilities, and $1 billion for
other in-stream uses (Pimentel et al., 1995).
Watersheds whose functions are stabilized by
protected areas could greatly reduce such damages
and provide significant economic benefits.
Box 2
Ecosystem services: The benefits people obtain from ecosystems
Provisioning
Goods produced or
provided by ecosystems
food
fresh water
fuelwood
genetic resources
biochemicals
Regulating
Benefits obtained from
regulation of ecosystem processes
climate regulation
disease regulation
flood regulation
water purification
pollination
Cultural
Non-material benefits
from ecosystems
spiritual
recreational
aesthetic
inspirational
educational
cultural heritage
Supporting
Services necessary for production of other ecosystem services
Soil formation
Nutrient cycling
Primary production
Source: MEA, 2003.
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