Abstract
Cavender-Bares, J., S. Polasky, E. King, and P. Balvanera. 2015. A sustainability framework for assessing trade-offs in ecosystem services. Ecology and Society 20(1): 17. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06917-200117
Highlights
The projected increase in global human population to 9 or 10 billion by mid to late century makes the dual goals of meeting current human needs and sustaining the Earth’s natural capital necessary for meeting future human needs both increasingly critical and more difficult
We build upon existing literature, primarily from economics and ecology, to present an analytical framework that integrates (1) the ecological mechanisms that underpin ecosystem services, (2) biophysical trade-offs and inherent limits that constrain management options, (3) preferences and values of stakeholders, and (4) explicit analysis of how systems evolve through time to ensure the goal of meeting the needs of future generations
In its current form, it does not include analysis of the underlying ecological mechanisms for how natural capital contributes to the provision of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being; how biophysical conditions change across space, through time, and with management; how inherent trade-offs among services emerge; and how the values of services change among stakeholders (Stiglitz et al 2009)
Summary
The projected increase in global human population to 9 or 10 billion by mid to late century makes the dual goals of meeting current human needs and sustaining the Earth’s natural capital necessary for meeting future human needs both increasingly critical and more difficult. We build upon existing literature, primarily from economics and ecology, to present an analytical framework that integrates (1) the ecological mechanisms that underpin ecosystem services, (2) biophysical trade-offs and inherent limits that constrain management options, (3) preferences and values of stakeholders, and (4) explicit analysis of how systems evolve through time to ensure the goal of meeting the needs of future generations. In this paper we draw from an extensive literature in ecology, economics, and other fields to address issues of trade-offs among ecosystem services in the context of sustainability.
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