Ecosystem services are described as "the benefits that people derive from ecosystems" (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). There are four types of services: provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services and supporting services. Can you think of any examples of ecosystem services that are applicable to the sheep flock in the Gulp Valley? Think of supply services like wool, regulatory services like soil regeneration and cultural services like ecotourism. Make a clear table of these.
Watch the video the "Tragedy of the Commons".
Describe three examples from your own environment where the principle of the “tragedy of the commons” applies?
Also give three examples from your own environment of social contracts and common agreements that people have made to protect public goods such as air, water and nature, from our own individual impulses and apply the principle "What is good for all of us is good for all of us."
Nature conservationists pay the shepherd a daily fee for grazing management during the grazing season (eight months per year). The amount is between two hundred fifty and three hundred euros. This is not enough to cover the full costs of a nature management company. Why is it not enough?
The recreation sector in South Limburg owes its annual revenue partly to the landscape. Yet it is not easy to make the recreation sector, which has an interest in maintaining the heathland landscape, share responsibility financially. What do you think is the reason for this?
Who do you think should make up the operating deficit of the shepherd's nature grazing business?
Look on the internet for a sheep adoption organisation in your own country. Would you personally be prepared to adopt a sheep in order to preserve the heathlands? Why or why not?
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