Assessment of ecosystem services
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Benefits of various projects are often understood quite narrowly as financial and social benefits. However, benefits should be evaluated as a whole, i.e. economic benefits to society; these benefits include the benefits that ecosystems bring to us. In addition to providing various resources, natural ecosystems provide us with fundamental life-sustaining services such as biological purification of air and water resources, waste decomposition, climate regulation, soil restoration, biodiversity maintenance, etc. These services are also necessary for the survival of man-made activities such as agriculture, industry, etc. Ecosystems also provide cultural services – intangible benefits due to interaction with nature, spiritual experiences, the desire for future generations to enjoy nature, etc. Such benefits provided by ecosystem services are not a market object, i.e. there is no price to signal ecosystem change (improvement or deterioration) to the public, so attempts are being made worldwide to identify and monitor ecosystem services both locally and globally, and take into account their value in decision-making. There are methods that can be used to assign a value (either monetary, biophysical, or other) to an ecosystem and/or ecosystem services. We have completed several such evaluation projects.
