Economic importance of ecosystem services

The services of nature form the basis for our quality of life. In order to ensure a sustainable approach to nature, social (cost) awareness of these ecosystem services needs to be strengthened and reflected in policy decisions. The Federal Environment Agency presents various methods for monetary evaluation of ecosystem services and addresses the associated risks and potentials. Monetary values can be an additional argument in decision-making processes. However, the appreciation of nature encompasses the totality of all services — that is to say, also those which cannot be evaluated in monetary terms. A holistic analysis of ecosystem services is ideally a combination of several complementary methods (qualitative, quantitative, economic evaluation) depending on the question.