From fish to clean water, the ocean matters—how to quantify the benefits

Nature protection, conservation and restoration is "not a trivial matter but key to human survival," according to scientists quoted in a 2005 UN report. To demonstrate this, they developed the concept of "ecosystem services"—the benefits that people derive from nature. Over the next 20 years, this concept has been in constant development to reflect our growing understanding of how ecosystems work and how we benefit from them.