Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Although geographers have always been eclectic in their approach, the need for broad perspectives and partnerships with other disciplines has never been as important as it is in confronting contemporary environmental problems. This special issue explores a particularly active area of debate concerning the notion of ecosystem services. It looks at new dialogues that are now developing with economists and political scientists, and considers how an understanding of the biophysical characteristics of ecosystems is essential as we seek to bridge the science-policy divide. It has been suggested that we have now entered the Anthropocene, an epoch in which we have seen a ‘quantitative shift in the relationship between humans and the global environment’ (Steffen et al., 2011: 843). Part of this shift involves recognition that while we continue to depend on the integrity of ecosystems for our well-being, we have to confront the fact that people are now one of the dominant drivers of environmental change. As a consequence our thinking about nature, and the way societies interact with it, must be transformed. If we are to solve the problems posed by global environmental change it has been argued that we need better coordinated international research that places equal emphasis on the social and natural sciences (Perrings et al., 2011). A focus on ecosystem services is potentially one way in which a balanced perspective might be achieved. Given the interest that the idea of ecosystem services has attracted in the policy arena (ten Brink, 2011) it may also provide a focus for integrated, cross-sectoral forms of decision-making. The rapid expansion of the literature dealing with ecosystem services is traced in the first paper in this special issue (Potschin and Haines-Young), which suggests that the idea has taken on many of the characteristics of a classic ‘Kuhnian’ paradigm. The relatively limited contribution that geographers have made to current debates is noted, and it is argued that this is unfortunate, in the light of our traditional disciplinary concerns. Although much of the current work surrounding ecosystem services is being driven by the possibility of making estimates of the economic value of the benefits ecosystems generate, such assessments depend on a good understanding of the sensitivity of ecosystem outputs to the different drivers of change in biophysical terms; and it is here where physical geographers can make a particular contribution. These sensitivities need to be understood if we are to estimate the marginal changes in value between different policy options or management strategies. More especially, they also need to be