ABSTRACT
In future, society may increasingly question the ways in which uplands are used. Growing populations will need to feed themselves under very different climatic conditions, on a shrinking land base (as sea levels rise), and compete for food with the rapidly growing middle classes of the developing world. In addition, they will need to balance the economic incentives and impacts of policies that favour land use changes towards, for example, the production of biofuels. At the same time, and under a changing climate, upland areas must continue to provide the many other services we have come to expect from them, for example, supplying surrounding cities with drinking water, without compromising biodiversity and important landscape features. This dilemma is captured well in the concept of ‘ecosystem services’, which in its simplest form refers to those services provided by nature for human well-being.
