Ecosystem services: Multiple classification systems are needed
Costanza, R.
2008 Biological Conservation, 141(2): 350-352
Costanza, R., (2008), "Ecosystem services: Multiple classification systems are needed", Biological Conservation, 141(2): 350-352.
Abstract:
In a recent paper in Biological Conservation, Wallace (2007) argues that the classification systems currently used for ecosystem services are inadequate because they mix ends and means. He then proposes a system to rectify this perceived problem. While there is much interesting material in Wallace's paper, his basic premise is flawed and much of the paper suffers from a gross oversimplification of a complex reality. Wallace's solutions to the classification problem might work if the world had consistently crisp boundaries, static linear processes with no feedbacks, clear distinctions between means and ends, little uncertainty, only one use for the classification system, and people who always knew both everything about the world and how it all affects their welfare - in other words some very different planet from the one we inhabit. In the messy world we do inhabit, we need multiple classification systems for different purposes, and this is an opportunity to enrich our thinking about ecosystem services rather than a problem to be defined away.