Thus in the current literature the term ‘ecosystem services’ lumps
together a variety of ‘benefits’, which in economics would normally be
classified under three different categories: (i) ‘goods’ (for example products
obtained from ecosystems, such as resource harvests, water and genetic
material), (ii) ‘services’ (for example recreational and tourism benefits or
certain ecological regulatory functions, such as water purifi cation, climate
regulation, erosion control, and so on), and (iii) cultural benefits (for
example, spiritual and religious, heritage, and so on).