Ecosystem Services

topic

Ecosystem services refer to the diverse range of benefits that humans derive from ecosystems and which are essential for human survival, economic development, and quality of life. These services are the result of the functioning of ecosystems and the interactions between their components, including living organisms, such as plants and animals, and their physical environment, such as soil, water, and air. ARIES was born as an ecosystem services assessment platform and is committed to continue delivering the best science on ecosystem services to both academics and policy-makers.

How do Ecosystem Services contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals?

sdgs

Besides fostering knowledge integration for addressing the conservation and sustainable use of both terrestrial and marine natural resources (SDGs 14 and 15), ARIES work tackles the protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems (SDG 6), the preservation and enhancement of natural carbon sinks, such as forests and wetlands (SDG 13), sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG 12), and the mitigation of climate change impacts (SDGE 13). While these are the primary SDGs directly linked to ecosystem services, ARIES efforts in these areas of work also contribute indirectly to several other goals, such as those related to poverty eradication (SDG 1), food security (SDG 2), health (SDG 3), and sustainable cities (SDG 11), among others.