All too often Service employees stop reading the mission statement after the word “habitats.” Sometimes I hear the term “save the dirt” as an encapsulation of the Service’s mission. That phrase addresses “conserve, protect, and enhance fish and wildlife and their habitat,” but it does not address “the continuing benefit of the American people.” I think this lack of focus on our ultimate employer diminishes support for our work. I think the Service does not relate well to the public, and many people do not connect with us because we “only care about fish and wildlife.” To many, fish and wildlife are like “ice cream and cake,” not essential to most people’s daily lives. Most people focus on “meat and potato” or “bread and butter” issues, such as the economy.
An article by Costanza et al., published in Nature, “The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital,” addresses the value of goods and services the ecosystem provides. The authors evaluated 17 different services, valuing the items at about $33 trillion. The authors found that most of the biosphere’s economic value is not fully “captured” in commercial markets, so natural goods and services are often ignored in policy decisions. Wrote Costanza, “This neglect may ultimately compromise the sustainability of humans in the biosphere. The economies of the Earth would grind to a halt without the services of ecological life-support systems, so in a sense their total value to the economy is infinite.”
Karl-Henrik Robert, of Sweden, developed The Natural Step, a good tool for placing the Service’s work into people’s economic understanding. The Natural Step is based on four principles: nothing disappears, everything disperses, biological and economic value is in concentration and structure, and green cells are the only net producers of concentration and structure.
The Natural Step has four system conditions: 1. Material form the earth’s crust must not be allowed to systematically increase in nature; 2. Persistent substances produced by society must not systematically increase in nature; 3. The physical basis for the earth’s productive, natural cycles and biological diversity must not be systematically deteriorated; and 4. There must be fair and efficient use of resources in meeting human needs.
When we discuss “systems conditions” and think “systems” it shows our growing understanding of interconnections. As the Service continues its mission for the benefit of all Americans, it is important we do not lose sight of the many interconnections between fish, wildlife, and people.
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