CIFOR–ICRAF publishes over 750 publications every year on agroforestry, forests and climate change, landscape restoration, rights, forest policy and much more – in multiple languages.

CIFOR–ICRAF addresses local challenges and opportunities while providing solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.

We deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises. In short, improving people’s lives.

An ecosystem service perspective on benefits provided by trees

Export citation

This chapter gives a synopsis of the benefits and resilience that people derive from trees and forests in Eastern African drylands. The synopsis is structured according to the four categories of ecosystem services used by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [40]; provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. Provisioning services such as the supply of charcoal, for example, and cultural services are generally well recognized and appreciated because they provide direct benefits to people, and some are traded in markets and regulated by policies. Regulating and supporting services pro - vide indirect benefits, which in spite of their critical significance to human well-being tend to be under-appreciated, go unnoticed and are typically ignored and not consid - ered in decision-making [41]. Among the regulating services it describes the regulation of the micro- and macro-climate, the water cycle and soil conservation and erosion prevention. The cultural services treated in this synopsis include aesthetic, landscape, inspiration, tourism and other benefits. The supporting services include the cycling of nutrients and soil moisture and biodiversity, which support the primary production of trees that underpins the delivery of provisioning, cultural and regulating services. The chapter further reviews seven categories of provisioning services which trees provide including food, fodder, medicine and pesticide materials, oil, construction materials, wood fuel and gums and resins. Each section gives a general description of the service, its demand, markets and value chains, supply including production system, management and harvesting practices and social aspects including benefits to households. The sections also address gender and equity, sustainability, partnerships, supporting policies and institutions and regional variations across countries and tenure of land and trees and how these issues influence benefits and management of trees. Some of these issues are more explicit in the provi - sioning services than other services. The chapter begins with a summary, which reviews how the benefits derived from trees influence the five types of livelihood capitals that are important for the provisioning of resilience
    Publication year

    2014

    Authors

    de Leeuw J M; Njenga, M.; Jamnadass, R.

    Language

    English

    Keywords

    drylands, supporting services, regulating services, cultural services, environmental management, trees, resilience

Related publications