Ecosystem services are nature's contributions to people: A response to: Assessing nature's contributions to people

Rudolf de Groot, Robert Costanza, Leon Braat, Luke Brander, Benjamin Burkhard, Luis Carrasco, Neville Crossman, Benis Egoh, Davide Geneletti, Bernd Hansjuergens, Lars Hein, Sander Jacobs, Ida Kubiszewski, Beria Leimona, Bai-Lan Li, Junguo Liu, Sandra Luque, Joachim Maes, Christo Marais, Simone MaynardLuca Montanarella, Simon Moolenaar, Carl Obst, Marcela Quintero, Osamu Saito, Fernando Santos-Martín, Paul Sutton, Pieter van Beukering, Martine Van Weelden, Louise Willemen

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

Abstract

By Rudolf de Groot, Robert Costanza, Leon Braat, Luke Brander, Benjamin Burkhard, Luis Carrasco, Neville Crossman, Benis Egoh, Davide Geneletti, Bernd Hansjuergens, Lars Hein, Sander Jacobs, Ida Kubiszewski, Beria Leimona, Bai-Lian Li, Junguo Liu, Sandra Luque, Joachim Maes, Christo Marais, Simone Maynard, Luca Montanarella, Simon Moolenaar, Carl Obst, Marcela Quintero, Osamu Saito, Fernando Santos-Martin, Paul Sutton, Pieter van Beukering, Martine van Weelden, Louise Willemen

In their article, Diaz et al present the concept of nature's contributions to people (NCP) as 'building on' but 'extending beyond' the concept of ecosystem services (ES). However, a hurried and top-down introduction of NCP as if it were a 'new' term risks plunging the large and diverse ES/NCP community into unnecessary paralysing debates and will confuse policy makers and practitioners.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages7
JournalScience
Volume359
Issue number6373
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jan 2018

Keywords

  • nature's contribution to people
  • ecosystem services
  • human dependence on nature

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