From pollination to reducing the risk of fire and soil erosion, to improving air and water quality, nature (and all biodiversity) plays a fundamental role in human survival. This role, or roles, are known as ecosystem services or environmental services.
Ecosystem services are thus the benefits that human populations obtain from ecosystems.
The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) is a system that seeks to categorise ecosystem services accurately. The CICES system has organised the different types of ecosystem services into three main “Sections”:
distinguishing them in terms of their biotic or abiotic origin.
The CICES classification further subdivides ecosystem services into “Division”, “Group” and “Class”.
Recently, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services adopted a new classification, Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP)
This classification is broader and more inclusive, recognising the existence of different cultures and subjectivity. PCNs are all of nature’s contributions (positive and negative) to people’s quality of life.
There are 18 NCPs which, in turn, are organised into three groups (regulatory, material and non-material), according to the type of contribution they make to people’s quality of life:
The European Biodiversity Strategy 2020 has developed a common strategy for assessing ecosystems and their services, called Mapping and Assessment on Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), so that all EU Member States can assess and map them.
As Biosphere Reserves are very important areas for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, under the project “Biosphere Reserves. Sustainable territories, resilient communities”, all the ecosystems present in the 12 Portuguese Biosphere Reserves have been mapped:
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The condition of an ecosystem is defined as the quality of an ecosystem measured in terms of its biotic and abiotic characteristics, and takes into account its capacity for maintenance and integrity, regulated by natural processes.
Ecosystems in good condition provide more and better services to people.
The condition of the ecosystems in Portuguese Biosphere Reserves was assessed using chemical, biophysical and biological indicators, in accordance with the MAES approach and the availability and accessibility of data for these territories. This condition assessment and its mapping made it possible to identify priority areas for intervention (i.e. low condition) and conservation (high condition), which is essential for implementing and applying conservation and action measures adapted to each territory.
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