256
Key Points
• Ecosystem services are fundamental to the functioning of the food, energy, and
water nexus.
• There are increasingly significant environmental impacts in providing food,
energy, and water to our growing global population.
• How we consume and manage ecosystem services within the nexus has both
trade-offs and synergies.
• How trade-offs are managed by decision makers is complex and involves political, social, economic and environmental considerations.
• Economic valuation of ecosystem services can play an important role in helping
to manage trade-offs, but economic valuations do not adequately capture the
many important contributions of ecosystem services to society.
• Payments for ecosystem services may also provide a useful tool in managing
trade-offs and interconnections across food, energy, and water.
Discussion Points and Exercises
1. Identify five recent developments on the valuation of ecosystems.
2. Identify the local/state/national agencies with responsibility for ecosystem
protection.
3. Identify the nonprofits, NGOs, and advocacy groups whose mission it is to protect ecosystem services.
4. Identify the most prominent/authoritative report on ecosystem services.
5. Identify the biggest three barriers to the protection of ecosystem services in your
country.
6. Discuss how to best manage trade-offs for ecosystem services in the context of a
development project like large-scale intensive agricultural production or a large
hydropower dam.
7. Discuss the implications of the failure of different ecosystem services (provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural) on society, politics, and economics
in your country.
8. Discuss the role that ecosystem services play in your daily lives.
9. Using the WWF Living Planet Report, identify what you think is the most important ecosystem service.
References
Allan, T., & Matthews, N. (2016). The water, energy and food nexus and ecosystems: The political economy of food non-food supply chains. In F. Dodds & J. Bartram (Eds.), The water,
food, energy and climate nexus: Challenges and an agenda for action (pp. 78–89). Routledge Earthscan: Oxon.
Andersson, J. A. & D’Souza, S., 2014. From adoption claims to understanding farmers and contexts: A literature review of Conservation Agriculture (CA) adoption among smallholder farmers in southern Africa. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 187, pp.116–132. Retrieved
January 5, 2015, from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0167880913002685.
N. Matthews et al.
Key Points
• Ecosystem services are fundamental to the functioning of the food, energy, and
water nexus.
• There are increasingly significant environmental impacts in providing food,
energy, and water to our growing global population.
• How we consume and manage ecosystem services within the nexus has both
trade-offs and synergies.
• How trade-offs are managed by decision makers is complex and involves political, social, economic and environmental considerations.
• Economic valuation of ecosystem services can play an important role in helping
to manage trade-offs, but economic valuations do not adequately capture the
many important contributions of ecosystem services to society.
• Payments for ecosystem services may also provide a useful tool in managing
trade-offs and interconnections across food, energy, and water.
Discussion Points and Exercises
1. Identify five recent developments on the valuation of ecosystems.
2. Identify the local/state/national agencies with responsibility for ecosystem
protection.
3. Identify the nonprofits, NGOs, and advocacy groups whose mission it is to protect ecosystem services.
4. Identify the most prominent/authoritative report on ecosystem services.
5. Identify the biggest three barriers to the protection of ecosystem services in your
country.
6. Discuss how to best manage trade-offs for ecosystem services in the context of a
development project like large-scale intensive agricultural production or a large
hydropower dam.
7. Discuss the implications of the failure of different ecosystem services (provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural) on society, politics, and economics
in your country.
8. Discuss the role that ecosystem services play in your daily lives.
9. Using the WWF Living Planet Report, identify what you think is the most important ecosystem service.
References
Allan, T., & Matthews, N. (2016). The water, energy and food nexus and ecosystems: The political economy of food non-food supply chains. In F. Dodds & J. Bartram (Eds.), The water,
food, energy and climate nexus: Challenges and an agenda for action (pp. 78–89). Routledge Earthscan: Oxon.
Andersson, J. A. & D’Souza, S., 2014. From adoption claims to understanding farmers and contexts: A literature review of Conservation Agriculture (CA) adoption among smallholder farmers in southern Africa. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 187, pp.116–132. Retrieved
January 5, 2015, from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0167880913002685.
N. Matthews et al.