Paulo Augusto Lourenço Dias Nunes

• Ph.D Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
• Member of the Fianance Task Force, UN Decade at World Bank

This paper critically evaluates the notion and application of economic, monetary valuation of biological diversity, or biodiversity. For these purpose four levels of diversity are considered: genes, species, ecosystems and functions. A large number of perspectives on biodiversity value are identified: intrinsic vs. functional, local vs. global, lif...

This paper examines the welfare dimension of the recreational services of coastal ecosystems. First, we construct a global database of primary valuation studies that focus on recreational benefits of coastal ecosystems. Second, the profile of each of the 253 individual observations is enriched with characteristics of the built coastal environment (...

Finance for nature: Bridging the blue-green investment gap to inform the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Open access until 11th Feb 2024: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1iIj35Ce0rnpAJ Robust, regular and integrated evidence on the environment and its relationship with the economy and human well-being is needed to deliver effective environmental policy. This paper highlights the role the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosy...

This paper is an output from the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting Working Group on Forest Ecosystems. It highlights the role the SEEA EA can play in delivering robust, regular and integrated evidence on the environment and its relationship with the economy and human well-being to deliver effective environmental policy. It uses forest ecosystems as a polic...

Safeguarding the future of Venice is a globally recognised challenge of urban sustainability. We propose a sustainable management model, alternative to the current strategy, that primarily focuses on the built heritage and which interprets the city together with its encircling lagoon as a matrix of interlinked natural, cultural and social capital....

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) includes a set of natural capital-based measures to adapt to climate change. UN Environment has called for measuring EbA costs and benefits before promoting the adoption of such a policy. Within such policy input, the paper objective is twofold. It first performs a critical survey of economic and valuation studies t...

There is a growing impetus to increase marine protected areas coverage globally from 6% to 30% in 2030. Successfully establishing and maintaining marine protected areas require incorporating public preferences into their establishment and management. We investigate the role of alternate management regimes (top-down and bottom-up) on preferences for...

Survey Questionnaire (centrally-managed MPA management regime) in Japanese. This pdf file shows the actual online survey document that was used by Nikkei Research Inc. to collect data from residents in Okinawa over the age of 18. The survey in this pdf represents the centrally-managed MPA regime. (PDF)

Survey Questionnaire (community-based MPA management regime) in Japanese. This pdf file shows the actual online survey document that was used by Nikkei Research Inc. to collect data from residents in Okinawa over the age of 18. The survey in this pdf represents the community-managed MPA regime. (PDF)

English Translation of Survey Questionnaire (centrally-managed MPA management regime). This pdf file provides an English translation of the centrally-managed MPA management regime survey document. In the translated version, we only include one choice scorecard. However, in the actual survey each respondent was provided with seven choice scorecards....

English Translation of Survey Questionnaire (community-based MPA management regime). This pdf file provides an English translation of the community-based MPA management regime survey document. In the translated version, we only include one choice scorecard. However, in the actual survey each respondent was provided with seven choice scorecards. (PD...

The Northern Mozambique Channel hosts one of the world's most outstanding terrestrial and marine biodiversity rich areas. So far, the region has been only moderately impacted by human activities but rapidly evolving socioeconomic pressures call for sustainable management of the region's ecosystem service flows, which play a key role in supporting c...

Consideration of the spatial dimension in the provision of ecosystem services is fundamental for the calculation of the economic value of ecosystem services and the distribution across beneficiaries and ecosystems. In the context of Small Island Developing States, the islands of Trinidad and Tobago are characterized by a rich natural capital, which...

Marine ecological change is likely to have serious potential economic consequences for coastal economies all over the world. This article reviews the current literature on the economic impacts of marine ecological change, as well as a number of recent contributions to this literature carried out under the VECTORS project. We focus on three main typ...

In the paper, we take an economic perspective in order to assess the impact of ocean acidification (OA) on the aquaculture sector. We define a simple microeconomic model, where society is represented by a representative consumer of aquaculture products, a representative producer of aquaculture products and a policy maker. OA affects production and...

The trans-disciplinary thematic areas of oceans management and policy require stocktaking of the state of knowledge on ecosystem services being derived from coastal and marine areas. Recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially Goals 14 and 15 explicitly focus on this. This Handbook brings together a carefully chosen set of worl...

Jellyfish blooms in coastal areas usually generate public alarms and socio-economic impacts. Delivering up-to-date information is a strong countermeasure against this problem and developing mitigation tools helps reduce its impact. Considering this, the Medusa research group of the Institute of Marine Science (ICM-CSIC) from Barcelona developed the...

Introduction to the Special Issue on Valuing Ecosystem Services for Improved National Accounting https://link.springer.com/journal/10640/64/1/page/1

It is widely acknowledged that landscape features can play a major role in determining tourism demand. The present article assesses the impact of vinery landscape and high-quality wine production on regional tourism flows in Tuscany, an important tourist region in Italy and renowned for its enchanting countryside. Thus, vinery landscape and high-qu...

This special symposium focuses on the analysis of climate change impacts on the spatial dimension of vineyard land use. This includes the analysis of projections of current vineyard areas that are lost due to climate change, those that are retained despite climate change, and new vineyard areas that are created due to climate change. The analysis e...

Marine ecological change is likely to have serious potential economic consequences for coastal economies all over the world. This article reviews the current literature on the economic impacts of marine ecological change, as well as a number of recent contributions to this literature carried out under the VECTORS project. We focus on three main typ...

Communication Update || UNEP November 2015

The Project for Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ) is UNEP's flagship project focused on the valuation and mainstreaming of ecosystem services into policy design within the larger ambit of sustainable development. Implemented in Chile, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Vietnam over four years, ProEcoServ has facilitated policymakers in the four pi...

Article by Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Programme, on the Economic benefits of ecosystems extend far beyond exploiting them for resources, illustrating this thinking with the main results of the UNEP's flagship and GEF's funded Project on Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ) that has Paulo A.L.D. Nunes as global coordinator.

A choice experiment is undertaken to elicit preferences of scuba divers in the Marine Protected Area of Medes Islands (Spain). This is the first non-market valuation study of a typical Mediterranean habitat, the Coralligenous, which is characterized by high biodiversity, geomorphologic complexity and iconic species like gorgonians. This habitat is...

We adopted an economic analysis to evaluate and discuss the management of conservation and commercial exploitation of whales. In particular, the paper starts from the recent proposal to create and implement a quota market for whale trading and attempts to address and develop selected economic issues, in order to move towards understanding the econo...

We adopted an economic analysis to evaluate and discuss the management of conservation and commercial exploitation of whales. In particular, the paper starts from the recent proposal to create and implement a quota market for whale trading and attempts to address and develop selected economic issues, in order to move towards understanding the econo...

Jellyfish outbreaks and their consequences appear to be on the increase around the world, and are becoming particularly relevant in the Mediterranean. No previous studies have quantified tourism losses caused by jellyfish outbreaks. We used a stated-choice questionnaire and a Random Utility Model to estimate the amount of time respondents would be...

Ocean and marine ecosystems provide a range of valuable services to humans, including benefits such as carbon sequestration, whose economic value are as yet poorly understood. This paper presents a novel contribution to the valuation of carbon sequestration services in marine ecosystems with an application to the Mediterranean Sea. We combine a sta...

This comprehensive volume describes how ecosystem services-based approaches can assist in addressing major global and regional water challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and water security in the developing world, by integrating scientific knowledge from different disciplines, such as hydrological modelling, environmental economic...

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Valuation and accounting of island ecosystem services is fundamental to our ability to achieve sustainable green growth in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), also known as large ocean states. SIDS are characterized inter alia by (a) a well-defined set of in situ socio-economic-cultural and governance conditions; (b) a population’s clear percept...

ABSTRACT Valuation and accounting of island ecosystem services is fundamental to our ability to achieve sustainable green growth in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), also known as large ocean states. SIDS are characterized inter alia by (a) a well-defined set of in situ socio-economic-cultural and governance conditions; (b) a population’s clea...

Manual de orientación sobre la valoración y contabilización de los servicios de los ecosistemas para los pequeños Estados insulares en desarrollo Resumen Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente El PNUMA promueve las prácticas favorables al medio ambiente en todo el mundo y en sus propias actividades. Esta publicación está impresa en...

Le PNUE encourage les bonnes pratiques environnementales dans le monde comme dans ses propres activités. Cette publication est imprimée sur du papier issu de forêts gérées de manière durable, comprenant des fibres recyclées. Le papier est blanchi sans chlore et les encres sont végétales. Notre politique d'impression vise à limiter l'empreinte écolo...

Jellyfish outbreaks in the Mediterranean Sea are part of an anthropogenic alteration of the marine ecosystem and have been documented as health hazards and threats to tourism. Their impacts on human welfare have, however, been poorly quantified. A socioeconomic survey, carried out in summer 2013, captures the impacts of an outbreak of Rhopilema nom...

In this paper, we conduct choice experiments in Turkey and Ukraine on the valuation of a marine restoration programme in the Black Sea, to examine whether the value of environmental goods is sensitive to the source of public financing. We contribute to the debate on the optimal composition of public expenditure, an issue that can be controversial i...

There is a multitude of ecosystem service classifications available within the literature, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Elements of them have been used to tailor a generic ecosystem service classification for the marine environment and then for a case study site within the North Sea: the Dogger Bank. Indicators for each of the ecosys...

It is clear that climate change involves changes in temperature and precipitation and, therefore, directly affects land productivity. However, this is not the only channel for climatic change to affect agro-systems. Biodiversity is also subject to climatic change. The present paper illustrates a unique attempt to economically assess the potential e...

Private provision of public goods generates a sense of warm glow, which is turn affects the overall level of provision.•The use of latent/psychological motivational variables, by means of factor analysis, allows us to identify and measure this mechanism.•Estimation results identify two distinct groups of warm glowers, including ego driven warm glow...

Changes in the coastal landscape of Southern Sinaloa (Mexico), between 2000 and 2010, were analyzed to relate spatial variations in wetlands extent with the provision and economic value of the ecosystem services (ES). Remote sensing techniques applied to Landsat TM imagery were used to evaluate land use/land cover changes while the value transfer m...

According to World Bank figures, globally 350 million jobs are linked to the oceans. One billion people in developing countries depend on fish for their primary source of protein. Global society must recognize that our oceans and coasts are in serious trouble with major implications for the entire Earth system. According to the Global Partnership f...

Key information about natural capital is missing or invisible in the System of National Accounts (SNA), and in SNA-based indicators, such as GDP. Under-valuation of natural capital and the lack of integration of these values in policy decisions have been identified as two of the main causes of environmental and natural resource degradation (MA 2005...

The recent adoption of the UN System for Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) goes hand in hand with the wide acceptance of the need to put natural capital accounting into action. As a result, there is renewed momentum with finance ministries and ministries of environment who want to show the contribution of natural capital to national income. Th...

FEEM), Italy, Nicola Lamaddalena is Head of the Land and Water Department, Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo Bari (IAMB), Italy, Daniel Osberghaus is Researcher, Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftforschung (ZEW), Germany, and Consuelo Varela Ortega is Professor of Agricultural Economics, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Spain. This policy pap...

"De gustibus non est disputandum" claims the ancient Latin proverb and the seminal economic paper by Becker and Stigler (1977). 1 This means that every rational individual can rank preferences the way she prefers. No ex-ante, axiomatic ranking can be imposed to individuals'choices, taste formation, and preferences structure. However, if one cannot...

In recent years, there has been a marked proliferation in the literature on economic approaches to ecosystem management, which has created a subsequent need for real understanding of the scope and the limits of the economic approaches to ecosystems and biodiversity. Within this Handbook, carefully commissioned original contributions from acknowledg...

"How can use of the oceans be regulated? How can the damage inflicted upon them be prevented? How can we promote more responsible and sustainable practices? In short, how can our civilization and the seas on which it depends co-exist harmoniously?" (H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, Presidential Residence, Cascais, June 3, 2013). These interdiscip...

The paper conducts an empirical investigation on the relationship between biodiversity and the values of ecosystem goods and services that are supported by biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and tries to quantify the magnitudes of this complex relationship. Climate change, here interpreted as increase in temperature, is one of the major drivers...

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate by addressing the economic valuation of the induced climate change impacts on European biodiversity and ecosystem services. Firstly, we evaluate the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services, building upon the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) conceptual framework, and encompass...

Cada vez más los pequeños Estados insulares en desarrollo y la comunidad internacional reconocen la necesidad de apoyar la transición de los pequeños Estados insulares en desarrollo hacia una economía verde, de manera que logren fortalecer la resiliencia al cambio climático e impulsar un desarrollo sostenible e integrador. Existe una interdependenc...

In recent years, there has been a marked proliferation in the literature on economic approaches to ecosystem management, which has created a subsequent need for real understanding of the scope and the limits of the economic approaches to ecosystems and biodiversity. Within this Handbook, carefully commissioned original contributions from acknowledg...

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2013/11/21/acid-test

This multidisciplinary study adopts an econometric analysis for investigating how different characteristics determine the choice of the language used in the signs of a shopping street in two selected minority language cities. We work with a dataset containing about 200 observations collected in the main shopping streets of the cities of Donostia (S...

This paper uses GIS-based mapping tools and economic valuation of ecosystem goods and services to explore the social dimension of biodiversity policy. We investigate the linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem service values, and socio-economic vulnerability indicators in a spatially explicit framework and at different geographic scales. Our focus...