Table 2.1. Trends in the Human Use of Ecosystem Services and Enhancement or Degradation of the Service Around the Year 2000 - Provisioning services

Legend

	= Increasing (for Human Use column) or enhanced (for Enhanced or Degraded column)
	= Decreasing (for Human Use column) or degraded (for Enhanced or Degraded column)
	= Mixed (trend increases and decreases over past 50 years or some components/regions increase while others decrease

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Regulating services

Cultural services

Supporting services

Service	Sub-category	Human Use (a)	Enhanced or Degraded (b)	Notes
Provisioning Services
Food	Crops			Food provision has grown faster than overall population growth. Primary source of growth from increase in production per unit area but also significant expansion in cropland. Still persistent areas of low productivity and more rapid area expansion, e.g., sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America.
	Livestock			Significant increase in area devoted to livestock in some regions, but major source of growth has been more-intensive, confined production of chicken, pigs, and cattle.
	Capture Fisheries			Marine fish harvest increased until the late 1980s and has been declining since then. Currently, one quarter of marine fish stocks are overexploited or significantly depleted. Freshwater capture fisheries have also declined. Human use of capture fisheries has declined because of the reduced supply, not because of reduced demand.
	Aquaculture			Aquaculture has become a globally significant source of food in the last 50 years and, in 2000, contributed 27% of total fish production. Use of fish feed for carnivorous aquaculture species places an additional burden on capture fisheries.
	Wild plants and animal food products	NA		Provision of these food sources is generally declining as natural habitats worldwide are under increasing pressure and as wild populations are exploited for food, particularly by the poor, at unsustainable levels.
Fiber	Timber			Global timber production has increased by 60% in the last four decades. Plantations provide an increasing volume of harvested roundwood, amounting to 35% of the global harvest in 2000. Roughly 40% of forest area has been lost during the industrial era, and forests continue to be lost in many regions (thus the service is degraded in those regions), although forest is now recovering in some temperate countries and thus this service has been enhanced (from this lower baseline) in these regions in recent decades.
	Cotton, hemp, silk			Cotton and silk production have doubled and tripled respectively in the last four decades. Production of other agricultural fibers has declined.
	Wood fuel			Global consumption of fuelwood appears to have peaked in the 1990s and is now believed to be slowly declining but remains the dominant source of domestic fuel in some regions.
Genetic resources				Traditional crop breeding has relied on a relatively narrow range of germplasm for the major crop species, although molecular genetics and biotechnology provide new tools to quantify and expand genetic diversity in these crops. Use of genetic resources also is growing in connection with new industries based on biotechnology. Genetic resources have been lost through the loss of traditional cultivars of crop species (due in part to the adoption of modern farming practices and varieties) and through species extinctions.
Biochemicals, natural medicines, and pharmaceuticals				Demand for biochemicals and new pharmaceuticals is growing, but new synthetic technologies compete with natural products to meet the demand. For many other natural products (cosmetics, personal care, bioremediation, biomonitoring, ecological restoration), use is growing. Species extinction and overharvesting of medicinal plants is diminishing the availability of these resources.
Ornamental resources		NA	NA
Freshwater				Human modification to ecosystems (e.g., reservoir creation) has stabilized a substantial fraction of continental river flow, making more fresh water available to people but in dry regions reducing river flows through open water evaporation and support to irrigation that also loses substantial quantities of water. Watershed management and vegetation changes have also had an impact on seasonal river flows. From 5% to possibly 25% of global freshwater use exceeds long-term accessible supplies and requires supplies either through engineered water transfers or overdraft of groundwater supplies. Between 15% and 35% of irrigation withdrawals exceed supply rates. Freshwater flowing in rivers also provides a service in the form of energy that is exploited through hydropower. The construction of dams has not changed the amount of energy, but it has made the energy more available to people. The installed hydroelectric capacity doubled between 1960 and 2000. Pollution and biodiversity loss are defining features of modern inland water systems in many populated parts of the world.

* = Low to medium certainty. All other trends are medium to high certainty.

NA = Not assessed within the MA. In some cases, the service was not addressed at all in the MA (such as ornamental resources), while in other cases the service was included but the information and data available did not allow an assessment of the pattern of human use of the service or the status of the service.

† = The categories of “Human Benefit” and “Enhanced or Degraded” do not apply for supporting services since, by definition, these services are not directly used by people. (Their costs or benefits would be double-counted if the indirect effects were included). Changes in supporting services influence the supply of provisioning, cultural, or regulating services that are then used by people and may be enhanced or degraded.

a For provisioning services, human use increases if the human consumption of the service increases (e.g., greater food consumption); for regulating and cultural services, human use increases if the number of people affected by the service increases.  The time frame is in general the past 50 years, although if the trend has changed within that time frame the indicator shows the most recent trend.

b For provisioning services, we define enhancement to mean increased production of the service through changes in area over which the service is provided (e.g., spread of agriculture) or increased production per unit area. We judge the production to be degraded if the current use exceeds sustainable levels. For regulating and supporting services, enhancement refers to a change in the service that leads to greater benefits for people (e.g., the service of disease regulation could be improved by eradication of a vector known to transmit a disease to people). Degradation of a regulating and supporting services means a reduction in the benefits obtained from the service, either through a change in the service (e.g., mangroves loss reducing the storm protection benefits of an ecosystem) or through human pressures on the service exceeding its limits (e.g., excessive pollution exceeding the capability of ecosystems to maintain water quality). For cultural services, enhancement refers to a change in the ecosystem features that increase the cultural (recreational, aesthetic, spiritual, etc.) benefits provided by the ecosystem. The time frame is in general the past 50 years, although if the trend has changed within that time frame the indicator shows the most recent trend.

Source: MA
  Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis (2005), p.33-37