Ecosystem Services Sample Clauses

Ecosystem Services. Cooperate with the Parties, as well as with other non-govemmental organizations in:

Ecosystem Services. Consultant shall define the return on investment for the current tree canopy based on, but not limited to: stormwater diversion, carbon sequestration, urban cooling, capital value, and property value increases.

Ecosystem Services. The topic of ecosystem services (ES) has attracted significant attention in the last decades. There are several national and international ongoing research initiatives in the field of ES such as MA (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment), TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity), IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), RUBICODE (Rationalising Biodiversity Conservation in Dynamic Ecosystems), etc. (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al., 2012a, ▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇ et al., 2010). The definition of ecosystem services to which we refer in this paper is from the ’Salzau Message’ on Sustaining Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital (2010): “ecosystem services are the contributions of ecosystem structure and function - in combination with other inputs - to human well-being”, where the “combination with other inputs” refers to the anthropogenic inputs in the natural systems which nowadays have increased considerably due to the technological development of humanity. The point is that ecosystems, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services are being threatened and degraded by human activities, and the situation will be exaggerated by climate change and biodiversity loss (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al., 2012a). Ecosystem services concept is an approach that integrates analysis of the ecosystems’ functions and the benefits people derive from them. It studies the human-environmental systems in a manner that provides qualitative and quantitative data that is crucial for the better understanding of the consequences of human activities on nature and humanity. Its analysis methods develop in a way that provides more efficient and comprehensive data on the interactions between these systems. The approach gives the opportunity for identification, quantification and assessment of the ecological and socio-economic trade-offs and synergies on which decision-making should be based (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al., 2012a, ’Salzau Message’). The classification of ecosystem services is structured in three main groups: provisioning, regulating and cultural. Some of them, such as water flow regulation (regulating) – maintaining of water cycle features such as water storage and buffer, natural drainage, flood regulation, irrigation and drought prevention,, water purification (regulating) - the capacity of ecosystems to purify water from sediments pesticides, disease-causing microbes, and freshwater (provisioning) - used freshwater for drinking, domestic use, irrigation, industry, etc. (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al., 2013...

Ecosystem Services. Climate change is already affecting ecosystem services by affecting forest type and area, primary productivity, species populations and migration, the occurrence of pests and disease, and forest regeneration. The increase in greenhouse gases is also affecting species composition and changing the ecosystem structure, which in turn affects ecosystem function. The interaction between elevated CO2 and climate change plays an important role in the overall response of net primary productivity. Climate change will have a profound effect on the future distribution, productivity, and ecological health of forests. There could be a significant reduction in alpine and cryospheric ecosystems and their services. A major expansion of the tropical zones would cover most of the middle mountains and inner valleys of the region, whereby the quality and quantity of ecosystem services are likely to change dramatically for the worse. Climate change can affect people‘s wellbeing in a variety of ways. It is likely to exacerbate the existing food insecurity and malnutrition. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever are likely to move to higher altitudes. Water-borne diseases are also likely to increase with the increasing water stress accompanied by the lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation in the region. Deaths and morbidity associated with extreme and erratic weather are also likely to increase. Climate change will have differentiated impacts which could be more severe for women, and poor and marginalised groups. Six countries in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region have prepared greenhouse gas inventories (Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan). Together these countries emit approximately 17% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions which is low compared with their area and population. The average emissions from the HKH part of these countries is likely to be much lower than the country average as the mountain regions are sparsely populated and much less industrialised. There is a considerable disparity between the countries with China emitting 12% of the global total, India 4%, and Bhutan acting as a net sink. The emissions from these countries are expected to increase further with future economic growth (UNFCC). The relative values are approximate as the inventories refer to different years. Climate crisis is, therefore real and requires urgent attention through joint, concerted and immediate national and cross border efforts. Mountain ...

Ecosystem Services. 57D. The Parties acknowledge the range of Ecosystem Services provided by healthy Native Forests and the benefits (both market and non-market) they provide to people and communities.

Ecosystem Services. The Conservation Easement seeks to preserve and enhance the ecosystem services of Chicory Lane Farm, “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment or MEA – United Nations Report, 2006), referenced in the Article 9

Ecosystem Services. Grantor may engage in ecosystem services markets under other programs, but such action must not adversely affect the interest granted under the Conservation Easement to the Grantee or the Grantees right of enforcement or be inconsistent with or defeat the conservation purpose for which the Conservation Easement was acquired. No agreements relating to ecosystem service markets shall be made regarding the Premises that is or is likely to become inconsistent with the FLP purposes, terms of the Conservation Easement, or other documents incorporated by reference. If the Grantor or any subsequent owner wishes to enter into such an agreement, the Grantor or any subsequent owner of the fee title will notify the Grantee of any proposed participation in ecosystem service markets the Grantor or any subsequent owner deems compatible with the Purposes and Terms of this Conservation Easement and related documents and explain why market participation may be compatible. The Grantee (in consultation with the State of Rhode Island, Department of Environmental Management if the holder is not the State Lead Agency) will determine the compatibility of the market participation. As needed and appropriate to make the determination, the State of Rhode Island, Department of Environmental Management will consult with the USDA Forest Service. If it is determined to be compatible, the Grantee will provide an approval and authorization letter to the landowner and include the letter and ESM participation documentation as an attachment to the current Plan. The Grantee may review and monitor all ecosystem service market participation for compatibility with FLP purposes and requirements.

Ecosystem Services. Services associated with natural goods and ecosystems are discussed in terms of “how those services from nature which are in crisis can be valued differently so as to make their uses more sustainable” (Pröpper 2015: 248). Ecosystem services “are supposed to function as a protective mechanism to make nature economically visible, while simultaneously contributing to economic devel- opment” (Pröpper 2015: 247), not only in emerging economies, but also in developed world. Eco- system services could be relevant for climate services in at least two ways: (i) as market to link up with, as well (ii) as a lesson in stimulating unintended consequences. Current institutional links to climate services are e.g. via Future Earth and Belmont Forum. a) Regarding the possibility that climate and ecosystem services could be linked and reinforce themselves mutually, one needs to remember that some areas, for which climate services seem useful, are also linked to ecosystem services: all those areas, in which natural goods are at stake, such as agriculture, forestry, costal zones. b) Regarding the aspect of lessons to learn, however, it would be useful to see which unintended consequences a service shaping approach could have: “The breaking up of nature into valuable and priceable market components creates an aware- ness of these values, but it can also create too great a focus on goods within supposedly bene- ficial market transactions. Such binary revaluations of components bear new consequences, es- pecially the risk of a capitalization of components under ‘messy’ live conditions with additional vulnerabilities and externalities” (Pröpper 2015: 265). Applied on climate services and on all corners of the world, not just emerging economies, this means that climate-related issues would increasingly get a price tag. But when putting a price on climate, one could also calculate how it would pay off not to consider climate at all or up to a certain point. Another lesson from the ecosystem services (discourse and policy) experience is how the precar- iousness of the concept itself, when the question is asked what it actually is to what it refers, characterises these newly emerging service worlds: “Indeed, given what ▇▇▇▇▇▇ calls the ‘mixed up, contingent, fractious, intractable, unexpected, protean, erratic, changeable, unpredictable, fickle, variable, and dodgy’ characters of ecosystems, even ecologists find them hard to pin down” (▇▇▇▇▇ 2013: 264; cf. Sagoff 2013). Climate servi...