Ecosystem services
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Sustainability - World Forum on Natural Capital.
Ecosystem services, as defined by the World Forum on Natural Capital, are the benefits to humans derived from the world's stocks of natural assets.
- Natural capital - ecosystem services
- "Natural capital can be defined as the world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things.
- It is from this natural capital that humans derive a wide range of services, often called ecosystem services, which make human life possible.
- The most obvious ecosystem services include the food we eat, the water we drink and the plant materials we use for fuel, building materials and medicines.
- There are also many less visible ecosystem services such as the climate regulation and natural flood defences provided by forests, the billions of tonnes of carbon stored by peatlands, or the pollination of crops by insects.
- Even less visible are cultural ecosystem services such as the inspiration we take from wildlife and the natural environment."
- World Forum on Natural Capital.
