Ecosystem services and the commodification of nature

This chapter examines the way commodification processes are playing out in the domain of human-nature relationships. More specifically, it looks at how and to what extent this phenomenon has been facilitated by the concept of ecosystem services, a generic term of wide use in the environmental science and policy to denote the tangible and intangible benefits humans obtain from nature. The chapter explores the connection between the underlying tenets of the ecosystem services framework and the commodification process and discusses its most salient formulation in the form of Payments for Ecosystem Services. The chapter places this phenomenon in the context of the broader trend of neoliberalization of nature conservation and discusses its potential risks. The chapter finally discusses the idea of de-commodification and explores options through which a harmful expansion of markets into human-nature relationships may be contained or reversed.