Supporting Services for Wetlands : an Overview

Abstract

Supporting services comprise ecosystem services necessary for maintenance of ecosystem integrity, functioning, and resilience and for the production of all other ecosystem services. They differ from provisioning, regulating, and cultural services in that their impacts on people are often indirect or occur over a very long time. Although not directly exploited by people, supporting services nevertheless have vital direct and indirect impacts on human wellbeing. However, because this category of services is currently largely excluded from markets, supporting services and the ecosystems that provide them are vulnerable to degradation in favor of other, more narrowly framed, services such as production of food and fiber.