Ecosystem Services in Africa: What and Why?

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).

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).

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.