Ecosystem Services and Global Trade of Natural Resources

15  Governance of ecosystem services in a world of global trade

Conclusion and outlook

Thomas Koellner

Introduction

International trade of commodities from agriculture, forestry and fisheries has large impacts on land use, water use and the use of marine environments and subsequently on ecosystem quality in the exporting and importing countries. While importing countries can reduce impacts on ecosystems, exporting ones are likely to increase them. For this reason international trade can be unilaterally or mutually unsustainable (Andersson and Lindroth 2001) and environmentally responsible trade policies must not stop at national borders (Würtenberger et al. 2004).

The ecosystem services framework provides the possibility to assess the tradeoffs ...