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Human Health as an Ecosystem Service: A Conceptual Framework

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Integrating Ecology and Poverty Reduction

Abstract

To live in good health and, in many ways, to live at all, people need a wide array of life-support benefits that derive from ecosystems. Collectively these are called ecosystem services, a term referring to the conditions and processes through which ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1981; Daily 1997; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). These processes underpin the production of goods (such as seafood and timber), life-support functions (water purification and flood control), and life-fulfilling conditions (beauty and inspiration), as well as the preservation of options (such as genetic diversity for future use).

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Acknowledgments

Much of the content of this chapter was discussed in a workshop held at Stanford University in December, 2008. During this workshop, the authors received very constructive input from K. Arkema, B. Brosi, J. Davis, P Ehrlich, D. Ennaanay, R. Gould, A. Luers, H. Mooney, and G. Schoolnik.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Karen Levy

  2. Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    Gretchen Daily

  3. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Samuel S. Myers

Authors
  1. Karen Levy
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  2. Gretchen Daily
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  3. Samuel S. Myers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Levy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society, Southern Blvd. 2300, Bronx, 10460, New York, USA

    Jane Carter Ingram

  2. CATIE, CATIE 7170, Cartago, Turrialba, Costa Rica

    Fabrice DeClerck

  3. Rockefeller Foundation, Fifth Ave. 420, New York, 10018-2702, New York, USA

    Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio

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Levy, K., Daily, G., Myers, S.S. (2012). Human Health as an Ecosystem Service: A Conceptual Framework. In: Ingram, J., DeClerck, F., Rumbaitis del Rio, C. (eds) Integrating Ecology and Poverty Reduction. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0633-5_14

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