*3.2.4. Ecological service: The new mantra*

Early warnings about environmental challenges were typically pollution problems, because they were visible locally, for instance in the 1960's. The next decade focused as much on the limitation of resources like minerals, wood, oil, etc., often in combination with population growth. *The Limits of Growth* from 1972 [24] was a book about the computer modelling of unchecked economic and population growth with finite resource supplies. None of these topics have lost their importance. But today, we have also developed an ecosystem way of thinking, realising that nature is servicing us through a number of vital "ecological services". Species diversity represents a large potential for new ways of producing food, medicines or other products, and these options imply that species diversity represent a "gene bank". Healthy ecosystems perform several functions - or services - on which we depend. They enable pollination of agricultural crops, provide clean water, air and soil, allow for decomposition of our wastes and neutralize pollution. The concept of ecological service is to an increasing degree used in national and international fora to promote nature conservation, and to implement the Biodiversity Convention. In order to illustrate the more or less hidden values of ecosystem services, some have tried to transform them into their economical value, including the astronomical costs of manual pollination of agricultural crops, for example, see [25]. The term ecological service is strongly "anthropocentric", which means that we focus on humankind's egoistic interests: *What is in it for me?* A broader perspective is the "biocentric" view: Life in general is in focus, respecting the intrinsic value of all life forms. Wilson [22] used both perspectives, but waiting for the intrinsic value to be seriously respected, he strongly argued for the anthropocentric motivation in nature conservation. Here, we find many duty-based arguments versus future generations.
