GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE - Quantifying interregional flows of multiple ecosystem services – A case study for Germany
DOWNLOADMarch 20, 2020 - Janina Kleeman, M. Schröter, K. Bagstad, C. Kuhlicke, T. Kastner, D. Fridman, C. Schulp, S. Wolff, J. Martinez-Lopez, T. Koellner, S. Arnhold, B. Martin-Lopez, A. Marques, L. Lopez-Hoffman, Jianguo "Jack" Liu et al
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EmailGLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE - Quantifying interregional flows of multiple ecosystem services – A case study for Germany
DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102051
Despite a growing number of national-scale ecosystem service (ES) assessments, few studies consider the impacts of ES use and consumption beyond national or regional boundaries. Interregional ES flows – ecosystem services “imported” from and “exported” to other countries – are rarely analyzed and their importance for global sustainability is little known. Here, we provide a first multi-ES quantification of a nation's use of ES from abroad. We focus on ES flows that bene t the population in Germany but are supplied outside German territory. We employ a conceptual framework recently developed to systematically quantify interregional ES flows. We address four types of interregional ES flows with: (i) biophysical flows of traded goods: cocoa import for consumption; (ii) flows mediated by migratory species: migration of birds providing pest control; (iii) passive biophysical flows: flood control along transboundary watersheds; and (iv) information flows: China's giant panda loan to the Berlin Zoo. We determined that: (i) Ivory Coast and Ghana alone supply around 53% of Germany's cocoa while major negative consequences for biodiversity occurred in Cameroon and Ecuador; (ii) Africa ́s humid and sub-humid climate zones are important habitats for the majority of migratory bird species that provide natural pest control services in agricultural areas in Germany; (iii) Upstream watersheds outside the country add an additional 64% flood regulation services nationally, while Germany exports 40% of flood regulation services in neighboring,
