Ecosystem services are the tangible benefits – both goods and services – that people receive from nature.
Every person deserves to live in a healthy and prosperous world—one in which societies are forever committed to caring for and valuing nature for the long-term benefit of people and all life on Earth. To realize this vision, we need a healthy environment that provides the essential services – a stable climate, fresh water, healthy soils and reliable food – upon which we all depend.
While the prevailing model of global economic development has the potential to lift so many out of poverty, too often it destroys natural ecosystems and threatens
biodiversity that we need to ensure our own and our children's well-being.
By managing our natural resources in a smarter, more sustainable way, we can create a development path that will lead us to future prosperity.
Healthy ecosystems and human well-being
Conservation International implements field programs that demonstrate how conserving and valuing nature results in positive impacts for people. Field programs provide lessons, insights and successes that are scaled-up and amplified through innovative policies, new economic opportunities, capacity building and communication efforts.
IN DEPTH: Learn more about how economic incentives improve the health of both people and nature.
The conservation of biodiversity is an essential component of our field programs. Species are the building blocks of ecosystems from which we derive so many benefits, therefore we must preserve biodiversity in order to secure our own future.
From rapid scientific assessments of targeted habitats to sustained engagement with local and indigenous groups, CI is committed to the active research and scientific investigation that is required as we partner fully with thousands of groups to develop the examples and experience required to deliver change.
Whether building a "green wall" of new trees around Jakarta, Indonesia or discovering an un-named legless lizard in Brazil, CI staff is digging into the world's most irreplaceable ecosystems – proving their value so we can protect them for generations to come.