Global trends in nature's contributions to people

Kate A Brauman¹, Lucas A Garibaldi^{2 3}, Stephen Polasky^{4 5}, Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas⁶, Pedro H S Brancalion⁷, Fabrice DeClerck^{8 9}, Ute Jacob¹⁰, Matias Enrique Mastrangelo¹¹, Nsalambi V Nkongolo^{12 13}, Hannes Palang¹⁴, Néstor Pérez-Méndez¹⁵, Lynne J Shannon¹⁶, Uttam Babu Shrestha¹⁷, Evelyn Strombom⁵, Madhu Verma¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.
² Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
³ Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
⁴ Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108; polasky@umn.edu.
⁵ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.
⁶ Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, F-34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Department of Forest Sciences, "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁸ Agricultural Biodiversity, Alliance of Bioversity International, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, 34397 Montpellier, France.
⁹ EAT, 0153 Oslo, Norway.
¹⁰ Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
¹¹ Grupo de Estudio de Agroecosistemas y Paisajes Rurales, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, B7620 Balcarce, Argentina.
¹² Soil and Water Sciences, Institut Facultaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Yangambi, BP 1232 Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.
¹³ School of Science, Navajo Technical University, Crownpoint, NM 87313.
¹⁴ Centre for Landscape and Culture, School of Humanities, Tallinn University, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia.
¹⁵ Ebre Experimental Station, Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology, 43870 Amposta, Spain.
¹⁶ Department of Biological Sciences and Marine Research Institute, University of Cape Town, 7701 Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁷ Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, 44600 Kathmandu, Nepal.
¹⁸ World Resources Institute, 110016 New Delhi, India.

PMID:33288690
PMCID: PMC7768808
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2010473117

Global trends in nature's contributions to people

Kate A Brauman et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.2020.

.2020 Dec 22;117(51):32799-32805.

doi: 10.1073/pnas.2010473117. Epub 2020 Dec 7.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.
² Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
³ Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
⁴ Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108; polasky@umn.edu.
⁵ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.
⁶ Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, F-34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Department of Forest Sciences, "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁸ Agricultural Biodiversity, Alliance of Bioversity International, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, 34397 Montpellier, France.
⁹ EAT, 0153 Oslo, Norway.
¹⁰ Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
¹¹ Grupo de Estudio de Agroecosistemas y Paisajes Rurales, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, B7620 Balcarce, Argentina.
¹² Soil and Water Sciences, Institut Facultaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Yangambi, BP 1232 Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.
¹³ School of Science, Navajo Technical University, Crownpoint, NM 87313.
¹⁴ Centre for Landscape and Culture, School of Humanities, Tallinn University, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia.
¹⁵ Ebre Experimental Station, Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology, 43870 Amposta, Spain.
¹⁶ Department of Biological Sciences and Marine Research Institute, University of Cape Town, 7701 Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁷ Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, 44600 Kathmandu, Nepal.
¹⁸ World Resources Institute, 110016 New Delhi, India.

PMID:33288690
PMCID: PMC7768808
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2010473117

Abstract

Declining biodiversity and ecosystem functions put many of nature's contributions to people at risk. We review and synthesize the scientific literature to assess 50-y global trends across a broad range of nature's contributions. We distinguish among trends in potential and realized contributions of nature, as well as environmental conditions and the impacts of changes in nature on human quality of life. We find declining trends in the potential for nature to contribute in the majority of material, nonmaterial, and regulating contributions assessed. However, while the realized production of regulating contributions has decreased, realized production of agricultural and many material commodities has increased. Environmental declines negatively affect quality of life, but social adaptation and the availability of substitutes partially offset this decline for some of nature's contributions. Adaptation and substitutes, however, are often imperfect and come at some cost. For many of the contributions of nature, we find differing trends across different countries and regions, income classes, and ethnic and social groups, reinforcing the argument for more consistent and equitable measurement.

Keywords: biodiversity; ecosystem services; food systems; indicators.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

**Fig. 1.**
Differentiation of potential and realized contributions of nature, environmental conditions, and impact on quality of life. Nature, as altered by human management, generates potential contributions. The combination of potential along with human inputs leads to realized contributions of nature. For some types of contributions of nature, there is a difference between realized contributions and environmental conditions, because environmental conditions are influenced by additional factors such as human-caused pollution. Impacts on quality of life are further modulated by substitutes, institutions, and culture. Information about how nature’s contributions impact quality of life can be used to modify human management and inputs.

**Fig. 2.**
Global and regional trends in potential and realized contributions of nature, environmental conditions, and impact on quality of life. Colors indicate global trends since 1970 in potential and realized contributions of nature, environmental condition, and impact on people. Trends summarize a synthesis of over 2,000 articles reviewed for ref. . Further explanation of each indicator and references to underlying data are inSI Appendix, Table S1.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Global trends in nature's contributions to people

Affiliations

Global trends in nature's contributions to people

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources