A PES System for Azerbaijan (Preliminary Report)

Abstract

An ecosystem (ES) is a group of plants, animals and micro-organisms in combination with the non-living physical components of their environment. All the biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems are interrelated and create unique nutrient cycles and energy flows. An ES may be considered a completely independent area with its own interdependent organisms (Flores and Abbasov, 2014). All the organisms in the ecosystems are interrelated and share same living space. ESs are the sources of many vital products and services used by human beings (Daily et al., 1997). They are the only sources of resources, which are very important to human wellbeing and survival (Costanza et al., 1997;, Flores and Adeishvili, 2011). ES provided resources include a broad basket of goods and services used in people’s daily life (Pearce and Atkinson, 1993). Goods and services provided by ecosystems will be simply called “ecosystem services” or ESS.