ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the conceptual framework of ‘ecosystem services’ (ES) and explores the growing influence of ES in environmental governance. Over the past two decades, diverse communities of practitioners around the world have increasingly come to accept, and even to embrace, the policy discourse of ES. But what does it mean to put an economic value on nature? And why do conservationists now perceive ES as necessary to save nature? Controversies continue to swirl around this burgeoning field of research, as proponents, critics, and practitioners of ES vie to shape, and contest, its emergence.
