Because Nature Matters. Disciplinary contributions of geography towards sustainability research: The example of ecosystem services
- June 2019
- DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15453.15840, License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Role: Geographer, Author, Master Student
- Supervisor: Thomas Hammer
- Affiliation: Geographical Institute of the University of Bern, Center for Development and Environment (CDE)
Abstract
Global change and its interlinked challenges are causing conflicts amongst humans in the early 21st century. Especially the exploitation of natural resources are causing inequalities among and within countries and pose a threat to human safety. In order to reframe our way of thinking about nature, the concept of Ecosystem Services (ES), an approach which assigns financial value to the various services of nature from which humans profit, emerged from a combination of ecological and economical thinking. The discipline of geography is a bridge-building discipline between social and natural sciences as well as the world beyond, as it focuses on understanding natural resources and the use and design of space. This thesis uses a meta-level analysis of current geographical standard reference literature to assess how far the concept of ES has integrated into mainstream geographical research. This is an indication for the progress of geography’s potential to apply the ES concept into science-policy dialogue for a contribute towards a sustainable future. It was found that, while the concept of ES is present in half of the identified subdisciplines of geography, it is mentioned in a minority of disciplinary publications and has not yet gained a dominant position across the discipline.
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