A tree is a service provider, did you realise? It provides us with oxygen. And shadow. It is called eco-services.
The service perspective of an ecosystem was introduced some 10 years ago in a book called ”Nature services”. Today it is named as the big topic following climate change.
The expertgroup of Global Challenge that I am chairing met this afternoon and the topic was eco-services. Louise Hård af Segerstad at Albaeco gave us an amazing presentation.
What researchers have discovered is that when the ecosystem is harmed in one way or another, it has difficulties repairing itself. Up until now it seems that we haven’t fully understood the consequences of extinction of species within an ecosystem.
Louise mentioned the example of watching a play at the theatre. The main character always has a few stands in, in case of getting hit by the flu. In an eco-system so far, we have all been focused on the main character staying well. But what has happened is that some stands in are already dead. We have very little backup.
When lack of backup occurs we face colony collapse disorder. Does it sounds like Battle star galactic to some? It is worse. A colony collapse disorder among bees means that they stop providing the service of pollination. 90% of the flowers in the world are provided by pollination. And 75% of the crops.
In US this is a well known phenomena. Truckers sell pollination as a service to farmers. They drive to farms, bring bees on a truck, let them out in the morning and they return in the evening to the truck. By themselves.
Obviously there are loads of business opportunities where nature stops delivering services and I am sure the global business community will do it’s best to new find opportunities.
However – if we cannot breathe, we cannot eat and we cannot start another business for profit or non profit. We will all be dead.
So thank you trees and bees for good work today. For being my most precious service providers.
