Ecosystem Services, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the Conceptual Difference between Benefits Provided by Ecosystems and Benefits Provided by People
![handle is hein.journals/jluenvl23 and id is 249 raw text is: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, THE MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM
ASSESSMENT, AND THE CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN BENEFITS PROVIDED BY ECOSYSTEMS AND
BENEFITS PROVIDED BY PEOPLE
EZEQUIEL LUGO*
I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................... 243
II. THE MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT'S DEFINI-
TION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ................................. 246
III. THE LACK OF UNIFORMITY IN THE ADOPTION OF THE
MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT'S DEFINITION
OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ......................................... 250
IV. PAYMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES AND BENE-
FITS PROVIDED BY PEOPLE ....................................... 255
V. CONCLUSION ......................................................... 259
I. INTRODUCTION
Human beings depend on the environment for their survival.1
While this idea has been around since antiquity,2 the concept of
ecosystem services developed in the late 1990s to represent criti-
cal services that facilitate the conditions and processes sustaining
human existence.3 Within the scientific community, the term eco-
system services refers to the benefits human populations derive,
* Law Clerk to the Honorable Douglas A. Wallace, Florida Second District Court of
Appeal; J.D., Stetson University College of Law, 2007; A.B., Harvard University, 1999. This
Article is a development of research conducted for the Scientific and Technical Review Panel
(STRP) of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The STRP was interested in how the terms
ecosystem services and ecosystem benefits were used and defined in various interna-
tional fora after the intense disagreement at the Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the
Parties regarding the usage of these two terms. The views expressed in this article, how-
ever, are entirely my own. I am particularly grateful to Professor Royal C. Gardner, Mr.
Randy Milton, Dr. Max Finlayson, and Mr. Dave Pritchard who provided valuable thoughts
and comments during the preparation of this Article. I am also grateful for the diligent
work of the staff of the Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law to make the publication
of this Article possible.
1. See MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT, ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMAN WELL-
BEING: SYNTHESIS 1 (2005) available at http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/
document.356.aspx.pdf [hereinafter MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT SYNTHESIS].
2. See Harold A. Mooney & Paul R. Ehrlich, Ecosystem Services: A Fragmentary
History, in NATURE'S SERVICES: SOCIETAL DEPENDENCE ON NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS 11, 11
(Gretchen C. Daily ed., 1997).
3. See EDWARD 0. WILSON, THE FUTURE OF LIFE 106 (2002); James Salzman et al.,
Protecting Ecosystem Services: Science, Economics, and Law, 20 STAN. ENVTL. L.J. 309, 310
(2001). See generally Peter Kareiva & Michelle Marvier, Conservation for the People, SCI.
AM., Oct. 2007, at 50 (discussing ecosystem services generally and comparing the protection
of ecosystem services to other conservation efforts).
243](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jluenvl23&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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