Question

Define the term ‘ecosystem services’ as per the MEA (2005, p.9).

Answer 1

Ecosystem services are the various and varied advantages of balanced habitats and natural environment gifts to humans. Such ecosystems include agroecosystems, forest ecosystems, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems, amongst others. Such habitats, which work in a healthy relationship, provide such things as natural crop pollination, clean air, severe weather mitigation, mental and physical well-being for people. Such benefits collectively are known as 'ecosystem services' and are often central to the provision of clean drinking water, waste decomposition, and food ecosystem resilience and productivity.

The term was popularized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) in the early 2000s. There, environmental resources are grouped into four specific categories: provisioning, such as food and water production; regulating, such as climate and disease control; support, such as nutrient cycles and oxygen production; and cultural, such as spiritual and leisure benefits. Many ecosystem services are being valued to help inform decision-makers to draw equivalent comparisons to human engineered infrastructure and services.

As per Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), ecosystem services are "the benefits people obtain from ecosystems"