So, where are we at?
The first summary of NZ's ecosystem services.
Dr John Dymond is the editor of the first comprehensive overview of the state of ecosystem services – the benefits people obtain from nature – in New Zealand.
New Zealand’s leading scientists and academics have penned chapters for the new book, called Ecosystem Services in New Zealand – Conditions and Trends.
Dr Dymond says the book was produced to improve understanding of the functioning of New Zealand’s ecosystems.
‘It’s important that our management of ecosystem services is based on sound knowledge.
‘We didn’t set out to create a scorecard but it’s inevitable that people will look at a publication like this and ask “How are we doing?”
‘When we consider that in the past 50 years, humans have transformed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other period in human history, I think that on the whole New Zealand’s story is a reasonably balanced one.
‘If we take a fairly simplistic, high-level view of the trending of indicators over the past 20 years, most have shown no net change, or both improvements and deterioration at different locations.’
However, Dr Dymond says the number of gains have been fairly evenly matched by losses.
‘On the positive side, we are seeing improvements in pest management in cities and native forest, growth in indigenous forest and shrubland, and health and environmental benefits from less use of open fi res and better home insulation.
‘On the negative side, some examples are the decline in pollination services. We are losing biodiversity, particularly rare species and in freshwater and wetland environments, and also water is being over-allocated in some catchments.
‘There are no surprises there,’ he says.
He notes that in New Zealand most of our natural resources are managed at regional or local scales. ‘So we hope that this assessment of ecosystem services at these scales will benefi t resource management decision-making across New Zealand.’
The book is available for $120 from Nationwide Book Distributors http://www.nationwidebooks.co.nz/