UPSC Civil Services Examination — Environment & Ecology (Prelims GS and Mains GS-III) · India · Union Public Service Commission
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe services nature provides to farming and farming provides back: pollination, pest control, soil formation, water regulation, carbon storage. The economics of valuing them (contingent valuation, travel cost, hedonic pricing) is taught in the Agribusiness subject natural-resource-environmental-economics; this subject covers the ecology, the classification systems, the mapping tools and natural-capital accounting.
In the exams: ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 2 (values of biodiversity); UGC NET Unit 3; TNFD-related professional work; PG research
How our questions for UPSC Civil Services Examination spread across the units of Ecosystem Services & Pollinators in Agricultural Landscapes. Difficulty: 11 easy, 12 medium, 1 hard.
| Pollination services, pollinator decline and pollinator-friendly farming | 7 | |
| Payments for ecosystem services: design and examples | 6 | |
| Supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services | 4 | |
| Ecosystem service frameworks: MA, TEEB, CICES, IPBES nature's contributions to people | 3 | |
| Natural capital accounting: SEEA Ecosystem Accounting | 3 | |
| Ecosystem disservices to agriculture | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which four categories of ecosystem services did the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) use?
A. Provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting
The MA's categories were provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting. Material/non-material/regulating is the IPBES grouping; direct/indirect/option/existence are value types.
Further reading: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005
Which initiative, launched by G8+5 environment ministers in 2007 and hosted by UNEP, aimed to make nature's economic values visible?
C. TEEB
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) produced reports from 2008 and later TEEB for Agriculture and Food (2018). The IPCC assesses climate science; UNCCD and CITES are conventions.
Further reading: TEEB
Flood regulation by a wetland is which type of ecosystem service?
D. Regulating
Regulating services arise from the regulation of ecosystem processes, such as floods, climate and water quality. Provisioning are products; cultural non-material benefits; supporting underlying processes.
Further reading: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005
Which honey bee species, native to South, South-East and East Asia, is widely kept in hives there alongside the introduced western honey bee?
C. Apis cerana
Apis cerana, the Asian hive bee, is native across South, South-East and East Asia and is managed in hives; Apis mellifera was introduced to the region. Bombus terrestris and Osmia cornuta are European bumble and mason bees.
Further reading: Oldroyd and Wongsiri, Asian Honey Bees (2006)
In most countries, which body compiles SEEA ecosystem accounts and publishes them with national environment statistics?
B. The national statistical office, working with environment agencies
SEEA is a statistical standard, so national statistical offices compile the accounts, usually with environment ministries and agencies (for example in Australia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Colombia and India). The other bodies have unrelated mandates.
Further reading: UN SEEA Ecosystem Accounting 2021
Which feature is essential in Wunder's (2005) definition of payments for ecosystem services?
B. Conditionality: payment only if the service is secured
Wunder defined PES as voluntary, with at least one buyer and one provider, paid if and only if the service is secured. Compulsion, state ownership and taxes are not part of the definition.
Further reading: Wunder 2005
Which country created a national payments for environmental services programme under its 1996 Forestry Law, funded partly by a fuel tax?
D. Costa Rica
Costa Rica's programme pays landowners for forest protection, reforestation and agroforestry, financed partly by fuel tax and water charges.
Further reading: Costa Rica Forestry Law 7575
New York City protected the Catskill–Delaware watersheds instead of building what?
A. A water filtration plant
By paying for watershed protection and farm practices, the city avoided a filtration plant estimated to cost several billion dollars.
Further reading: NYC watershed programme
China's Sloping Land Conversion Programme ('Grain for Green'), begun in 1999, paid farmers to do what?
C. Convert steep cropland to forest or grassland
The programme paid farmers to retire sloping cropland to reduce erosion and flooding. The other options would increase degradation.
Further reading: Grain for Green literature
Which crop is largely wind-pollinated and does not depend on animal pollinators?
C. Wheat
Wheat is self- and wind-pollinated; apple, mustard and cucumber benefit from insect pollination.
Further reading: Klein et al. 2007
Ten here, 24 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to UPSC Civil Services Examination in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
An AI operating system for agriculture: free guides, manuals and tools written for every country.