Future Perfect

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ustainability

olicies

, P

rogrammes

and

their

conomic

mpact

reduce the risk of loss of ecosystem service flows in the

face of disturbances in the environment. People directly

consume provisioning and cultural services. When

combined with elements of built (or technical) and

human (labour) capitals, these services generate products

that have market values. There are buyers and sellers, and

each product’s value can be estimated from this interac-

tion. As a consequence, provisioning and cultural services

are an important part of the flows of goods and services

that compose national and global economies.

Transforming societies towards HSE

To move from a traditional economy towards HSE,

societies have to be prepared to follow a different devel-

opment path. We envision six major transformations.

The first transformation requires that societies main-

tain their critical natural capital. Critical natural capital

is the portion of a region’s natural capital that is irre-

placeable for the functioning of the ecosystem, and

hence for the provisioning of its services for local soci-

eties. We believe that without critical natural capital,

societies are not resilient against global changes and

cannot sustain socioeconomic development. The

conservation of critical natural capital requires careful

design and implementation of networks of protected

areas, as well as all other strategies that seek to maintain

or restore ecosystems outside protected areas.

perform labour so as to produce economic value. Social capital

includes institutions and social relations that determine, depending

on the context, how efficiently the first three types of capital can be

combined (for example, governance).

The four capitals outlined above comprise the productive base of an

economy. However, non-renewable natural capital (nature and its serv-

ices) underpins all other capitals. Its contribution to an economy is best

understood through an analysis of its services. Ecosystem services are

defined as the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human

well-being. There are four major categories of ecosystem services:

• Habitat or supporting – those services associated with the

maintenance of species and all ecological processes that

comprise the base for all other ecosystem services

• Regulating – those services that ecosystems provide by regulating

the ecological processes that are critical for human survival, such

as air quality, flood and disease control, pollination and biological

control

• Provisioning – those services that provide the material outputs

from ecosystems, such as water and food

• Cultural – those services that include the non-material benefits

(for example aesthetic, spiritual and psychological) that people

obtain from contact with nature.

Supporting and regulating services influence one another. They are

mostly intermediate ecosystem services; those that are not directly

consumed by people but which underpin the production and/or flow

of other services. Regulating services have insurance values, as they

The Apaporis River in the Colombian Amazon: non-renewable natural capital

must be protected

Local community, Choco Manabi corridor, Ecuador 2006