Ecosystem
An area containing living organisms interacting among themselves and with their physical & chemical environment.
Ecosystem services
The outcomes of ecosystem processes that are important to human life and wellbeing.
Benefits
The material and non-material ways in which ecosystem services contribute to human life and well-being
Value
The measure of benefits provided to humans by ecosystems, which can be in monetary (₪), physical (-/+) or qualitative terms.
Regulating services
The outcomes of ecosystem processes that regulate conditions of the biotic and abiotic environment in ways that are crucial and beneficial to humans.
Provisioning services
The outcomes of ecosystem processes that provide products obtained by humans.
Cultural services
The outcomes of ecosystem processes that enrich the lives of humans in non-material ways.
Biodiversity
The variability among living organisms on earth including diversity within species, between species and between ecosystems.
Geodiversity
The variety of rocks, minerals, fossils, landforms, sediments and soils in a place.
Ecosystem Processes
The result of complex interactions between biotic (living organisms) and abiotic (chemical and physical) components of ecosystems through the universal driving forces of matter and energy (De Groot 2002).
Supporting ecosystem processes
Those ecosystem processes that directly underlie or are necessary for the provision of ecosystem services and their related benefits.