Ecosystem Services as a Pedagogical Perspective for Teaching the Importance of Biodiversity to High School Students

Abstract: Reducing the rate at which biodiversity is presently being lost is one of the challenges for the coming years. Through diverse activities, humankind is currently responsible for the extinction of species worldwide, which has consequences for whole ecosystems. The preservation of biodiversity is not only important for its intrinsic values, but also for its role in maintaining the functioning of ecosystems that provide humans with services that are important for our well-being and safety. As it is a concern for all of humanity there is a demand for education that can develop in students an understanding of the complexity which lies behind the ecosystem services of which they benefit. Including how the disturbance of this complexity will lead to consequences for the whole human world. Current attempts to educate the public has failed to conjure motivation and interest. However, ecological network research create opportunity for understanding the underlying relationships between species, and the use of ecosystem services as a pedagogical perspective offers the possibility to demonstrate the importance of these relationships for ecosystem functioning. In this literature review it is examined how this could benefit environmental education in high school.