The Final Ecosystem Goods & Services (FEGS) Approach: A Beneficiary-Centric Method to Support Ecosystem Based Management

Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) and other social-ecological environmental management frameworks recognize that most environmental problems are ultimately social problems, requiring the reconciliation of human needs with the limits of ecosystem productivity and resilience. Using a social-ecological perspective in management practice can be greatly facilitated by identifying the attributes of ecosystems that are directly used, enjoyed or appreciated by people connected to the environmental issue at hand. These are the final ecosystem goods and services (FEGS), which are specific to ecosystem types and how people use or appreciate ecological attributes of those ecosystems. This article: (1) reviews the conceptual basis of a FEGS approach for linking people’s well-being to ecosystems; (2) describes how FEGS are identified, organized, and measured using classification systems, and metrics and indicators; and (3) present examples of how the FEGS approach can be integrated into EBM and other decision-making frameworks.

Impact/Purpose

This book chapter provides an overview of the utility of final ecosystem goods and services (FEGS) concepts and tools to assist in ecosystem based management (EBM) decision-making. FEGS are useful because they explicitly identify the biophysical attributes of ecosystems that matter to people – i.e., those that people directly use, enjoy or appreciate for a specific purpose. FEGS facilitate identifying, quantifying, and assigning value to biophysical attributes of ecosystems that are of greatest relevance to people who care about or depend on those ecosystems. FEGS are useful for communicating with stakeholders and policy-makers about how people obtain specific benefits from specific aspects of an ecosystem. Tools have been developed to identify FEGS within all types of ecosystems found on earth, for working with stakeholders to prioritize which FEGS are of greatest concern within a given decision context, and to identify mathematical models useful for estimating FEGS production. Along with 25 other chapters by US and European authors, this chapter will appear in an internationally-edited book, Ecosystem Based Management and Ecosystem Services: Theory, Tools, and Practice, that is expected to be published in 2020.

Citation

DeWitt, Ted, W. Berry, Tim Canfield, R. Fulford, M. Harwell, J. Hoffman, JohnM Johnston, T. Newcomer-Johnson, P. Ringold, M. Russell, L. Sharpe, AND S. Yee. The Final Ecosystem Goods & Services (FEGS) Approach: A Beneficiary-Centric Method to Support Ecosystem Based Management. Timothy G. O’Higgins, Manuel Lago. Theodore H. DeWitt Ecosystem Based Management and Ecosystem Services: Theory, Tools, and Practice. Springer, Heidelberg, GERMANY127-145, (2020). [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-45843-0_7]

DOI: The Final Ecosystem Goods & Services (FEGS) Approach: A Beneficiary-Centric Method to Support Ecosystem Based Management