Ecosystem services: Foundations for a new rural-urban compact

The traditional rural-urban compact, now almost ten thousand years old, whereby the countryside sent products and people to the city, in exchange for the city's products, services and governance is not working anymore. The rural population is increasingly marginalized and natural environments are increasingly destroyed. A new rural-urban compact needs to arise where cities acknowledge and pay for environmental sustainability. In this new rural-urban compact there would be more employment opportunities and more income coming to the rural areas, and the cities would benefit from a sustainable supply of rural products and ecosystem services provided by restored rural environments. This paper describes why this is important and provides several ideas on how to implement programs. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.