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Ecosystem services and biodiversity in developing countries

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Abstract

The concept of ecosystem services has become important for our understanding of the role of nature for maintaining human livelihoods. But is biodiversity essential to maintain ecosystem services? Many studies suggest that higher biodiversity allows a higher level of ecosystem services, but others argue that there is little hard evidence, especially from tropical environments, to document the necessity of high biodiversity for provision of most ecosystem services. Thus, effective valuation of biodiversity for ecosystem services and long-term studies and monitoring are needed to fully understand the complex biodiversity-ecosystem service interface. This introduction briefly reviews some of the main arguments in this debate and provides an overview of the other five special issue papers. Exploring biodiversity and ecosystem interactions in the context of the provision of ecosystem services, these papers address population and biodiversity coexistence, the importance of dung beetles in agricultural landscapes, the knowledge and use of palms by local communities, bioprospecting for drugs and how biodiversity conservation may have added benefits in terms of improved watershed functions and health.

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Acknowledgements

This and the remaining five papers of the special issue were presented at the Conference on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Developing Countries held 17–18 August 2005 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference and the first draft of this paper were funded by the Research Network for Environment and Development (ReNED, now merged into the Danish Development Research Network, www.ddrn.dk) through a grant from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We would like to thank all the referees who assisted with valuable comments on the papers in this issue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen and Research Network for Environment and Development (ReNED), Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ole Mertz

  2. Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen, Denmark

    Helle Munk Ravnborg

  3. Department of Integrated Pest Management, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Århus, Århus, Denmark

    Gabor L. Lövei

  4. Department of Biology, University of Århus, Århus, Denmark

    Ivan Nielsen

  5. woodSCAPE consult, Dragør, Denmark

    Cecil C. Konijnendijk

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  1. Ole Mertz
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  2. Helle Munk Ravnborg
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  4. Ivan Nielsen
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Correspondence to Ole Mertz.

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Mertz, O., Ravnborg, H.M., Lövei, G.L. et al. Ecosystem services and biodiversity in developing countries. Biodivers Conserv 16, 2729–2737 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9216-0

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