Ecosystem Services Partnership

The Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP)s a worldwide network to enhance the Science and practical application of ecosystem services assessment. There is a growing demand for integrating ecosystem services research into policy and practice. ESP seeks to enhance this integration by coordinating collaborative efforts on ecosystem services at the global, national and local level. The ES-Partnership is a network organization that will link practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders around the world who are working toward better understanding, modeling, valuation and management of ecosystem services and natural capital.

UK Values Nature In Urban and Economic Policy

Nature 'is worth billions' to UK, By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News

The UK's parks, lakes, forests and wildlife are worth billions of pounds to the economy, says a major report.

The health benefits of merely living close to a green space are worth up to £300 per person per year, it concludes.

"Urban green space, for example, is unbelievably important - if affects the value of houses, it affects our mental wellbeing.

"This report is saying 'this has got incredible value, so before you start converting green space into building, think through what the economic value is of maintaining that green space' - or the blue space, the ponds and the rivers."

On the global stage, several countries have previously evaluated the economic worth of specific factors such as forests or fisheries.

And two international studies - the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) - have given broader views of society's environmental trajectory, and the costs and benefits.

But the UK is the first nation to produce such a detailed assessment across the piece.