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Overview
Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems. The vast majority of these services are usually taken for granted, for example pollination of crops and natural vegetation, purification of water, flood attenuation and nutrient cycling. Ecosystem services fall into four categories:
- provisioning services (e.g. water, food, drugs and genetic resources)
- regulating services (e.g. flood attenuation, herbivory, pest control and pollination)
- supporting services (e.g. primary production, nutrient cycling)
- cultural services (e.g. recreational, spiritual and cultural benefits).
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The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Programme (BESP) |
The unit was started in November 2006, and aims to find the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services, identify thresholds of habitat loss at which provision of ecosystem services by natural systems fail and to identify biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Part of the challenge of identifying ecosystem services and the link to biodiversity lies in keeping the door open for future options. For example, 50 years ago, we had no idea that Carbon sequestration might be such an important ecosystem service – one that now has potentially large ecological and financial value.
The programme has two components, a general component aimed at ecosystem services overall and a component focusing on pollination as an ecosystem service.
Ecosystem services: General
To date, we have reviewed what is known about ecosystem services in South Africa . Most services have only really been addressed in one or two studies. In this component of the programme, we intend to further explore the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services in South Africa , focusing on the importance of how these services change in their magnitude and nature over spatial and temporal scales. Pollination ecosystem services
Insect pollination is essential in the production of several agricultural crops. These include plants that require pollination for fruit and seed production as well as those where fruit quality is enhanced and seed propagation of plants used for commercial grazing. Although all animal pollinators are important in the maintenance of natural biodiversity, this is an ecosystem function and not a service.
Insect pollination can be divided into wild and managed pollination services. Wild pollinators perform an ecosystem service while managed pollinators are a commercial (human-mediated) service. In South Africa there are two sub species of honeybee that are used as managed pollinators, namely Apis melifera capensis and A. m. scutelata. However, despite this distinction between wild and managed honeybees, there is frequent gene exchange between honeybees from managed and wild populations. Also, unmanaged honeybee colonies form an important component of the species responsible for pollination ecosystem service.
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Future research directions
• Crop pollination services in South Africa
• Insect pollinated crops and pollinator diversity
• Natural enemies in the agro-ecosystem
• Pollinator diversity and land management practices
• Valuation of ecosystem services
Contact BESP @sanbi.org for more information
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Preceding project
Conservation Farming Project
John Donaldson, Ingrid Nänni and colleagues at the National Botanical Institute (forerunnner to SANBI) coordinated the Conservation Farming Project, which was supported by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Mazda Wildlife Fund .
The aims of the Conservation Farming Project were to:
- Assess the ecological and economic costs and benefits of various agricultural practices, including both conventional and conservation farming methods.
- Promote land use practices that conserve biodiversity and provide sustainable livelihoods for farmers and rural communities.
Visit the Conservation Farming Project website
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