People: Environmental Leadership
Robert Costanza

'Twenty years of ecosystem services: How far have we come and how far do we still need to go?'

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Twenty years of ecosystem services

Robert Costanza Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 10:18 AM
To: Solutions

Hi all.

We’d like to call your attention to our new review paper just published in Ecosystem Services titled: 'Twenty years of ecosystem services: How far have we come and how far do we still need to go?'

The abstract is below and you can download the full paper here: http://www.robertcostanza.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2017_J_Costanza-et-al.-20yrs.-EcoServices.pdf

All the best,

Robert Costanza

Abstract

It has been 20 years since two seminal publications about ecosystem services came out: an edited book by Gretchen Daily and an article in Nature by a group of ecologists and economists on the value of the world’s ecosystem services. Both of these have been very highly cited and kicked off an explosion of research, policy, and applications of the idea, including the establishment of this journal. This article traces the history leading up to these publications and the subsequent debates, research, institutions, policies, on-the-ground actions, and controversies they triggered. It also explores what we have learned during this period about the key issues: from definitions to classification to valuation, from integrated modelling to public participation and communication, and the evolution of institutions and governance innovation. Finally, it provides recommendations for the future. In particular, it points to the weakness of the mainstream economic approaches to valuation, growth, and development. It concludes that the substantial contributions of ecosystem services to the sustainable wellbeing of humans and the rest of nature should be at the core of the fundamental change needed in economic theory and practice if we are to achieve a societal transformation to a sustainable and desirable future.

Prof. Robert Costanza | VC's Chair in Public Policy | Crawford School of Public Policy | The Australian National University | 132 Lennox Crossing | Canberra, ACT 2601 | Australia | Mobile: +61 (0)47 801 2393 | Website: www.robertcostanza.com, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus

Co-Editor in Chief, Solutions (www.thesolutionsjournal.com) | Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (RSA) | Fellow, Asia and the Pacific Policy Society | Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm, Sweden | Senior Fellow, National Council on Science and the Environment, Washington, DC. | Affiliate Fellow, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont | Co-chair, Ecosystem Services Partnership (es-partnership.org) | deTao Master of Ecological Economics, deTao Masters Academy, Shanghai, China

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