Environmental Goods and Services

ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS AND SERVICES

by Antonio C. Antonio

QUESTION:  “What are the environmental goods and services provided by our earth?” (Dr. Consuelo De Luna-Habito)

A service is an intangible and insubstantial commodity; therefore, cannot be touched, gripped, handled, looked at, smelled or tasted.  Services, however, can be sold, resold and owned by individuals or groups which could be called service providers. 

Mother earth too is a service provider although it is very hard to quantify it in terms of monetary value.  There are those, however, who think that a monetary value can actually be estimated for the goods and services the earth gives to humanity.  Collectively, the value of these goods and services has been estimated at US$33 trillion, higher than the entire world gross national product. (http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/protected_areas/arguments_for_protection/goods_services/) 

My research also brought me to even more estimated figures:

·         $2 trillion to $4.5 trillion per year – estimated losses in the forestry industry;

·         $100 billion per year – estimated losses in the fishery industry;

·         $240 to $310 billion per year – estimated losses in fossil fuel subsidies;

·         $255 to $275 billion per year – estimated losses in agricultural subsidies;

·         $27 billion per year – estimated losses in fisheries subsidies;

·         $50 billion per year – estimated losses due to unsustainable fishing;

·         $3 trillion per year – estimated losses from potential output from Fisheries;

·         $5  to 10 billion per year – estimated cost for strictly managed forest areas in developing countries; and,

·         $45 billion per year – estimated cost in effective management, compensation for direct costs, and payment of opportunity costs for acquiring new land.

Services from Mother Earth could be classified into the following categories: 

1.     Supporting Services which make possible all other ecosystem services;

2.     Cultural Services that meet our aesthetic, spiritual and intellectual needs;

3.     Provisioning Services like supplying food, fuel and medicines; and,

4.     Regulating Services like purifying air and water, mitigating floods, and detoxifying soils. 

Examples of ecosystem services are:

1.     Pollination – Honey bee populations pollinating many agricultural crops contribute to the distribution and spread of plants.

2.     Photosynthesis – Photosynthesis in plants capturing carbon and provides oxygen for human and animal consumption.

3.     Shoreline Stabilization – Keeping shorelines equilibrium.

4.     Flood and Storm Protection – Mitigation and attenuation of the effects of wind, waves and flood waters to downstream communities.

5.     Water Flow Regulation – Retention and storage of fresh water.

6.     Water Quality – Filtering and purification of water.

7.     Human Disease Control – Undisturbed ecosystems keep in check organism which can cause disease in humans.

8.     Water Processing – Detoxification or absorption of natural or human-made contaminants.

9.     Carbon Sequestration – The capture and long-term storage of carbon is part of the global carbon cycle.

10.  Nutrient Regulation and Cycling – Transfer of nutrients from one place to another, transformation of critical nutrients from unusable to usable forms.

11.  Primary Productivity – Fixing of carbon by plants; provides basis of all terrestrial and most marine food chains.

12.  Scientific and Educational – Ecosystems are the subject of much scientific study and public education for both basic knowledge and for understanding the contribution of functioning ecosystems to human well-being.

13.  Tourism – The explicit role that intact land and seascapes play in attracting people to areas for vacationing.  Tourists and campers enjoying the beauty of natural ecosystems.

14.  Aesthetic – The role which natural beauty plays in attracting people to live, work and recreate in an area.  Mother Nature inspiring people in their artistic expressions… Vincent Van Gogh created flowers and natural sceneries in most of his paintings.

15.  Recreation – The contribution of ecosystem features like biological diversity and clean water play in attracting people to engage in recreational activities.  Nature playing a vital role in preserving people’s spiritual well-being.

On the other hand, the following are examples of goods Mother Earth provides:

1.     Water – Water provided by the water cycle, climate, topography, ecology and geology of natural systems.

2.     Food – Biomass for human consumption, provided by a web of marine organisms and a functioning marine ecosystem.

3.     Materials – Biological materials used for medicines, fuel and building.  The forests not only absorb carbons but also provide timber for shelter and heating.  Animals, like sheep, do not only supply food but clothing and transport as well.  Naturally occurring substances from plants form the basis of more than 50% of prescription medicines.

4.     Habitat – Providing for the life history needs of plants and animals.

There are different ways and methods classifying/categorizing natural resources.  These include (a) source of origin, (b) stage of development, and (c) their renewability.  On the basis of origin alone, resources may be clustered into:

1.     Biotic resources (living and organic materials) which are obtained from the biosphere, such as animals and forests and subsequent materials that can be obtained from them.  Fossil fuels (such as coal and petroleum) are also included in this category since they are products from decayed organic matter; and,

2.     Abiotic resources are those which come from non-living and non-organic materials such as air, land and water.  Heavy metals, including ores, like gold, iron, copper, nickel, silver, etc. are also included in this category.

Natural resources could also be classified depending on their stage of development:

1.     Potential resources are those that are available in a particular area and may be used in the future like fossil fuel.

2.     Actual resources are those that have been measured in quantity and quality and are presently being used.

3.     Reserve resources are part of actual resources which can be developed and utilized in the future.

4.     Stock resources are those that have already been measured but cannot yet be utilized because the technology for their use is not yet available.

Natural resources are commonly labeled and classified as renewable and non-renewable.  Renewable resources are resources that can be replenished naturally like sunlight, water and air.  Non-renewable resources, on the other hand, are resources that formed in an extremely slow process and those that do not naturally form in the environment like minerals and fossil fuels.

Just my little thoughts…

REFERENCES:

·         http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/823

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_(economics)

·         http://www.eartheconomics.org/Page24.aspx

·         http://chge.med.harvard.edu/topic/ecosystem-services

·         http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/protected_areas/arguments_for_protection/goods_services/

·         http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/info/pubs/docs/ecosystem.pdf

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resource

·         http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resource