Ecosystem Services: a Method for Sustainable Development

Play the TRADE-OFF game (online), meet the primary instructors of this course, and discover the key questions that we will be revisiting throughout this course in this introductory module.

Here you learn about what is valuation, the difference between a price and a value, and various ways to derive a monetary estimate for different ecosystem services. You will also learn about world views that differ radically from the anglo-saxon model with respect to concepts such as "nature" and "biodiversity".

Valuing ecosystem services is a new way of thinking about nature and the environment. Such a change reflects contemporary norms and values, and speaks to contemporary trends in social, cultural, political and economic policies.

Now that you have learned what are Ecosystem Services, as well as their strengths and limitations to be used in the environment policy arena, you should be curious to know how we can in fact monitor, model and predict their values in space and time.

The ecosystem service approach is based on the premise (and promise?) that more sustainable use of natural ressources can be identified through a scientific and social process. This module focuses on how to get governments to adopt and implement policy recommendations.

With this last optional module, we would like to give you the opportunity to move from theory to practice by encouraging you to assess a water related ecosystem services (water yield). The aim is to help you discover where you can find useful data to assess ES and how to use GIS tools.