Your parents were wrong: money does grow on trees. Cities routinely rake up tens of millions of dollars from their urban forests annually in ways that are not always obvious. Leafy canopies lower summer air conditioning bills, but more shade also means less blade to maintain thousands of acres of grass. Health-wise, trees contribute to […]
Most of us would agree that human well-being depends to a large extent on healthy ecosystems and the services they provide. For example, fertile soil enables us to grow food crops, and nutrient cycling in watersheds is needed for water purification to ensure we have clean water to drink. But what role does biodiversity play […]
Have you ever walked into a forest and felt its immediate cooling and calming effect? Have you ever marveled at a large and old tree and wondered how much longer than you it has been around? No wonder that forests are deeply intertwined with many nation’s history and mythologies, and trees crown the banknotes of […]
In some of the most biodiverse regions of the world, people have farmed for centuries, shaping magnificent agricultural landscapes. Multifunctionality recognizes agriculture as a multi-output activity producing not only private (market) goods such as food, feed, or fibre, but also public (nonmarket, non-excludable, non-rival) goods such as agricultural landscapes, farmland biodiversity, water quality, or soil […]
