Ecosystem services provided by agricultural areas : Evaluation and characterisation approaches

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) can be defined as the components of ecosystems from which humans derive benefits, such as crop pollination and climate regulation. In a bid to ensure that biodiversity is taken into account in public and private decision-making, the French Ministry in charge of the Environment has commissioned INRAE (former Inra) to assess the ES provided by agricultural ecosystems. This book summarises the main results of this work, carried out between 2014 and 2017 by a multidisciplinary group of experts. Fourteen ES are described and assessed using an ad hoc conceptual framework that takes account of the specific features of these anthropised areas. Among the original advances, the estimation of the current contribution of ES to agricultural production and the representation of interactions between ES provide the knowledge needed to design production systems that consume fewer artificial inputs (synthetic fertilisers, pesticides) and respond to societal challenges such as conserving biodiversity and limiting environmental impacts. Finally, this book underlines the caution with which economic evaluation should be used.