Ecosystem Services - Brief History

Brief History

The simple notion of human dependence on Earth’s ecosystems reaches to the start of our species’ existence, when we benefited from the products of nature to nourish our bodies and for shelter from harsh climates. Recognition of how ecosystems could provide more complex services to mankind date back to at least Plato (c. 400 BC) who understood that deforestation could lead to soil erosion and the drying of springs. However, modern ideas of ecosystem services probably began with Marsh in 1864 when he challenged the idea that Earth’s natural resources are unbounded by pointing out changes in soil fertility in the Mediterranean. However, his observations and cautions passed largely unnoticed at the time and it was not until the late 1940s that society’s attention was again brought to the matter. During this era, three key authors – Osborn, Vogt, and Leopold – awakened and promoted recognition of human dependence on the environment with the idea of ‘natural capital’. In 1956, Sears drew attention to the critical role of the ecosystem in processing wastes and recycling nutrients. An environmental science textbook called attention to “the most subtle and dangerous threat to man’s existence... the potential destruction, by man’s own activities, of those ecological systems upon which the very existence of the human species depends”. The term ‘environmental services’ was finally introduced in a report of the Study of Critical Environmental Problems, which listed services including insect pollination, fisheries, climate regulation and flood control. In following years, variations of the term were used, but eventually ‘ecosystem services’ became the standard in scientific literature.

Modern expansions of the ecosystem services concept include socio-economic and conservation objectives, which are discussed below. For a more complete history of the concepts and terminology of ecosystem services, see Daily (1997).