Analysis of ecosystem changes, conserving ecosystems, and institutional arrangements to manage ecosystem services

Ecosystems provide a variety of provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. With human activities, some of these services are being lost at an accelerating rate. Changes in ecosystems have short-run as well as long-run implications for livelihoods and the health of natural systems. Research on ecosystems management will focus on:

a) understanding the implications of ecosystem changes for economic and social systems;

b) economic analysis of conserving ecosystems and their services by evaluating costs and benefits to different stakeholders, especially the poor; and

c) examining different institutional arrangements to manage ecosystem services.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) - See Special Feature on Ecosystem Services:
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/collection/ecosystem_services