Ecosystem Services in Africa: What and Why?
Hello and welcome to my blog! This blog forms part of a
module I am currently undertaking on Water and Development in Africa, and aims to
develop discussion and insight into issues this important and interesting area.
Within this broad topic I have chosen to focus on the
specific aspect of water as ecosystem services in Africa, and in this first
entry I will attempt to explain what ecosystem services are, and subsequently
why I feel they are such an interesting aspect of the relationship between
water and development in Africa.
The
concept of Ecosystem Services is essentially the valuation of what an ecosystem
produces for human consumption, or the ‘benefits of ecosystems’ (Boyd, 2007) . This is defined by de
Groot as ‘the capacity of natural processes and components to provide goods and
services that satisfy human needs, directly or indirectly’ (de Groot, et
al., 2002) .
It may seem arbitrary and somewhat bizarre to feel the need to economically
quantify nature, but the reasoning for this monetisation revolves around Cost
Benefit Analysis, with arguments it can help guide decision making (Fisher, et
al., 2009) .
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| The huge number of possible understandings of ecosystem services. Source: Metrovancouver.org |
These ecosystem services cover a huge array of areas. They include processes which regulate the environment we live in, support
and conserve species, allow cultural and recreational activities, and produce
goods for consumption. In regards to Water and Development in Africa the focus
will be confined predominantly to the production of goods, with water integral
for domestic/health uses, but also also a huge amount involved in industry, agriculture and fisheries (Falkenmark, 1989).
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| Representation of the Water Scarcity Index across Africa |
The importance of water for this variety of applications is
obvious, whilst issues with variation in access to water in Africa is an incredibly
important issue. Its distribution is varied over both space and time in Africa, with varied distributions of surface and ground-water, as well as seasonally (UNEP, 2012). This further complicates concerns over the availability of water afflicting much of the continent.
These issues of water availability in Africa makes the
valuations associated with ecosystems services particularly interesting, with conflicting
needs for water impacting and complicating understandings of waters worth. There are a huge variety of
factors which affect the use and worth of water for individuals, and hopefully
through undertaking this blog I can attempt to address at least a few of them.
