The benefits and administrative costs of conservation by government agencies are well documented in academic literature and popular media. The advantages of biodiversity conservation, watershed protection, clean air, ecotourism and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage for posterity are widely acknowledged.

Ecological goods are achieved by various types of land and water management, either creating resources or buffering resource consumption.

The concern over ecological goods and services arises because of a perception that we are losing them at an unsustainable rate, and therefore land use managers must devise a host of tools to encourage the provision of more ecological goods and services. Rural and suburban settings are especially important, as lands that are developed and converted from their natural state lose their ecological functions. Therefore, ecological goods and services provided by privately held lands become increasingly important.

A market may be created wherein ecological goods and services are demanded by society and supplied by public and private landowners. Some believe that public lands alone are not adequate to supply this market, and that privately-held lands are needed to close this gap. What has emerged is the notion that rural landowners who provide ecological goods and services to society through good stewardship practices on their land should be duly compensated. The main tool to accomplish this to date has been to pay farmers directly to set-  aside portions of their land that would otherwise be in production. This exemplifies a shift in thinking from the “polluter pays” to the “beneficiary pays”.

Financial incentives to landowners is one approach, but provision of EG&S can also be achieved through regulation, stewardship incentives under existing programmes such Environmental Farm Plans, market-based instruments, and tax rebates.

A nature reserve is a public good providing ecological goods and services as the benefits arising from the management of ecological functions of diverse productive ecosystems. Such benefits accrue to all living organisms, including animals and plants, rather than to humans alone. However, there is a growing recognition of the importance to society that ecological goods and services provide for health, social, cultural, and economic needs.