specialized in bringing wealthy people to places where they can realize existence
values (“I really have seen a lion in the wild!”). When wealthy people accept high
travel costs to experience X, X is economically very valuable. In the next section, we
will review the parallels with the cultural services of ecosystems.
Option and existence values become bequest values when people want to preserve options and existence for future generations. We will show in Sect. 5 that this
does not lay an adequate moral foundation for questions of intergenerational justice.
4 Ecosystem Service Approach
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report introduced the concept of ecosystem
services (ESS). It was adopted by the TEEB study (The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity). This anthropocentric concept aims to bridge the gap between
nature and human well-being and make the values of nature visible to decisionmakers and the wider public. Prominent references are Costanza (2008), Daily et al.
(2009), Norgaard (2010), Sagoff (2011), Kandziora et al. (2012), Davidson (2013),
Chan et al. (2012), Jax et al. (2013) and Spangenberg et al. (2014).
ESS takes the form of a cascade ranging from nature to natural capital to a flow of
services that offers benefits to people relative to the underlying values. ESS distinguishes between services and disservices of nature, but most ESS studies abstract
disservices away. Disservices are for example pests, earthquakes, thunderstorms,
heavy snow, but also sharks that kill people. Rain (although it is not produced by
ecosystems) can be seen as a disservice for tourists, but as an important support
service for farmers.
ESS wants to close the gap between nature and man. The ESS cascade begins
with a concept in which nature is gradually transformed by human action. Nature is
not just wilderness. Many managed ecosystems produce ecosystem services. Prudent
management can increase the flow of some services, but such an increase often
comes at the expense of other services. Thus, many ecosystem services originate
from mediations between nature and human labour. The provision services of yields
often require agriculture and gardening, even if there are some berries and mushrooms out in the wild.
One should distinguish between stocks and funds of natural capitals. Stocks,
such as fossil fuels, can only be consumed away. Consumption diminishes the stock
over time. Funds, however, have intrinsic properties to self-increase by proliferation
and growth. There are non-living funds (as freshwater cycles) and living funds,
such as organisms, species, populations, and ecosystems. Funds equal “renewable
resources”. The distinction between stocks and funds explains why it is false
(non-sustainable) to treat funds as stocks. If funds are treated as being stocks, they
are over-utilized. Both stocks and funds yield flows, but details of this fund-flowcorrelation remain puzzling. A tree stores carbon (regulating service), it produces
oxygen, timber and, perhaps, eatable fruits (provisioning service). If, however, the
tree is appreciated as being beautiful, is there a series of pictures flowing from the
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K. Ott and K. C. Reinmuth
values (“I really have seen a lion in the wild!”). When wealthy people accept high
travel costs to experience X, X is economically very valuable. In the next section, we
will review the parallels with the cultural services of ecosystems.
Option and existence values become bequest values when people want to preserve options and existence for future generations. We will show in Sect. 5 that this
does not lay an adequate moral foundation for questions of intergenerational justice.
4 Ecosystem Service Approach
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report introduced the concept of ecosystem
services (ESS). It was adopted by the TEEB study (The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity). This anthropocentric concept aims to bridge the gap between
nature and human well-being and make the values of nature visible to decisionmakers and the wider public. Prominent references are Costanza (2008), Daily et al.
(2009), Norgaard (2010), Sagoff (2011), Kandziora et al. (2012), Davidson (2013),
Chan et al. (2012), Jax et al. (2013) and Spangenberg et al. (2014).
ESS takes the form of a cascade ranging from nature to natural capital to a flow of
services that offers benefits to people relative to the underlying values. ESS distinguishes between services and disservices of nature, but most ESS studies abstract
disservices away. Disservices are for example pests, earthquakes, thunderstorms,
heavy snow, but also sharks that kill people. Rain (although it is not produced by
ecosystems) can be seen as a disservice for tourists, but as an important support
service for farmers.
ESS wants to close the gap between nature and man. The ESS cascade begins
with a concept in which nature is gradually transformed by human action. Nature is
not just wilderness. Many managed ecosystems produce ecosystem services. Prudent
management can increase the flow of some services, but such an increase often
comes at the expense of other services. Thus, many ecosystem services originate
from mediations between nature and human labour. The provision services of yields
often require agriculture and gardening, even if there are some berries and mushrooms out in the wild.
One should distinguish between stocks and funds of natural capitals. Stocks,
such as fossil fuels, can only be consumed away. Consumption diminishes the stock
over time. Funds, however, have intrinsic properties to self-increase by proliferation
and growth. There are non-living funds (as freshwater cycles) and living funds,
such as organisms, species, populations, and ecosystems. Funds equal “renewable
resources”. The distinction between stocks and funds explains why it is false
(non-sustainable) to treat funds as stocks. If funds are treated as being stocks, they
are over-utilized. Both stocks and funds yield flows, but details of this fund-flowcorrelation remain puzzling. A tree stores carbon (regulating service), it produces
oxygen, timber and, perhaps, eatable fruits (provisioning service). If, however, the
tree is appreciated as being beautiful, is there a series of pictures flowing from the
140
K. Ott and K. C. Reinmuth