 The Ecosystems Services Framework It asks us to account for the ways in which we're going to fit from nature and when you think about it There's different ways we benefit So people often categorize these different kinds of benefit into some into some major groups And I just want to talk about those a little bit in a way The most obvious one is other ones that we call provisioning services So that means where where ecosystems provide something directly to us ecosystems provide food They provide water then they do even more surprising things like they provide There are plants that produce compounds that we use to make drugs so pharmaceuticals. So that's a direct provisioning service We have other services that where the provisioning is less direct It's more about regulating an environment that is good to live in so the best example of that would be Carbon sequestration so when trees grow they bring carbon Into their into their roots and into the wood they keep carbon In the in the living system takes carbon out of the atmosphere and that reduces the effects of Global warming so we benefit by that because we give us a slightly better climate to live in that's a good example of a regulating ecosystem service another one would be Especially for people that live by the coast where you might be influenced by storm surges if you have a Sloping beach or a mangrove Between you and the ocean then that environment reduces the the risk that floods will damage your home So that again creates a better environment for people to live in it's a regulating service a third one and this is Perhaps the most obvious of all is the enjoyment that we derive from Environments so these are normally called cultural services and we can think of it as just the actual Recreational values, you know, we like to we go to natural places to enjoy them to ride bikes to climb trees to do Whatever you like to do to enjoy nature For some people, it's a spiritual connection Nature is core to the the philosophies of lots of people around the world That's the spiritual philosophies and then there can be Other forms of cultural connection through art and through literature and so on so that's a third category and then the fourth category The ecosystem services that support all those other three categories So there's an example of a supporting ecosystem service would be the process of Soil formation and the cycling of nutrients in soil So on a day-to-day basis you and I don't think much about what the soil is doing We don't use soil in a direct way But of course if that wasn't all happening Then we couldn't be growing the crops and growing the trees and doing all the other things that benefit from soil Another one would be the recycling of waste. So For example flies we think of flies sometimes as pesky things But another thing they're doing is going out there and they're eating waste the eating animal waste And turning it back into soil. So again, we don't think about that But if that wasn't happening we wouldn't have those other services being supported by natural systems So one of the interesting things about the New York water story The story I told was happening largely in the 90s And I was actually living in the US in that period because I did my PhD studies there But people who talk about it nowadays make the point that It's such a success that people barely know it's happening anymore, right? People would know if you had to build that enormous water treatment plant in the city it would be creating Problems for the people of the city They'd be having to pay those taxes to support the plant That have to live with the smell and the noise of a big industrial facility in the city There would be that kind of impact on people's lives, but there's better solution Was such a happy solution that people are almost blissfully unaware that it's happening And I can tell you that if you go to New York It's actually got really good water to drink not on New Yorkers Realize how lucky they are, but it's got really good water. Australians are also used to good water. So that's maybe you know Less surprising to us, but a lot of cities all around the world do especially really big cities Don't have great water to drink. So the water is fantastic But then also if you visit the Catscore Mountains now, there are for an Australian It's an amazing landscape of water and waterfalls and lakes and rivers So it's actually a really beautiful environment And it's actually quite a vibrant Community that by design is not being heavily urbanized. So it's part of the secret is that they've said You know, yes, we need places for people to live But we also need landscapes that are not full of people, but they have enough nature to provide these ecosystem services And even if people don't use the language of ecosystem services Most people actually appreciate those kinds of landscapes So it's not a wilderness at all. It's it's got people. It's got villages and roads and all that stuff It's not free of people people are part of the landscape But it's a beautiful Landscape that supports a local economy as well as the economy of New York City