ABSTRACT
Economic literature has devoted much attention to the individual valuation of landscapes, providing direct services that are consumed over time. As with many other ecosystems, landscapes provide a variety of benefits to people, including provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. Provisioning services are the products people obtain from the landscape, such as food, bio-fuels, fiber and timber, etc. Regulating services are the benefits people obtain from the regulation of ecosystem processes, including air quality maintenance, climate regulation, control of erosion and runoff, and water purification, for example. Cultural services are the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation, and aesthetic experiences. Supporting services are those that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services, such as primary production, production of oxygen, and soil formation. 1
