Natural systems support human lives and livelihoods, and these ecosystem services can provide novel motivation and funding for conservation. Decision-makers, however, lack the information and tools needed to operationalize this intuitively appealing concept. Here, we use a new set of general models and available data to map five ecosystem services in the
Results/Conclusions
Our maps identify win-win areas, where concentrations of ecosystem services and biodiversity coincide, as well as areas of trade-off, where conservation will likely contribute fewer benefits to people. Simple but plausible scenarios of future land use change illustrate the likely consequences for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and their spatial concordance. These results illustrate the early findings of a 5-year collaboration among Tanzanian, UK, and US researchers, with continual input from leaders in the Tanzanian business, government, NGO, and donor communities. Using these general tools to map ecosystem services within conservation priorities will help clarify links between nature and human well-being, target payment schemes for ecosystem services, and align goals of conservation, economic development, and poverty alleviation.
