No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Monetary accounting of ecosystem services: A test case for Limburg province, the Netherlands
... Četné studie zjistily, že zlepšení kvality zdrojové vody snižuje její náklady na úpravu [2]. Vzhledem k většímu přirozenému čištění podzemních vod je podzemní voda obvykle považována za čistější než voda povrchová [3] a náklady na úpravu podzemních vod jsou nižší než povrchových vod [4]. ...
... Přestože poptávka po oceňování ekosystémových služeb spojených s vodou roste [6], výzkum v této oblasti je stále vzácný [7]. Ocenění ekosystémové služby čištění podzemních vod bylo dosud provedeno jen v Nizozemí použitím metody náhradních výdajů [4]. Při použití této metody lze hodnotu čištění podzemních vod vypočítat jako rozdíl nákladů na úpravu povrchových a podzemních vod. ...
... Výsledky předkládané studie je možné použít k vypočítání peněžní hodnoty čištění podzemních vod, jež se používají k výrobě pitné vody. K ocenění je vhodná metoda náhradních výdajů, která již byla použita k ocenění čištění podzemní vody v Nizozemsku [4,14] i povrchových vod [15]. Pro použití této oceňovací metody je třeba znát rozdíl ve výrobních nákladech pitné vody z povrchových a podzemních zdrojů, což bylo náplní tohoto výzkumu. ...
... The proportion and pattern of different land covers/land uses in the landscape [51,67,68] Air quality The amount of polluting substances in the air [75][76][77][78] Soil condition Condition of biotic and abiotic components of soil [57,58,79] Surface water condition Condition of biotic and abiotic components of surface water [63,80,81] Ground water quality The amount of polluting substances in the ground water [63,73,80] Ground water quantity The amount of water in the groundwater bearing soil layers [63,73,80] Biodiversity Diversity of local plants and animals [82][83][84] Local thermal regulation The regulation of extreme temperatures on the local scale [85] Water related recreation Recreation/education activities depending on watercourses/-bodies [86,87] Mediation of solid/liquid wastes Decomposition of harmful substances by ecosystem components [88,89] Freshwater provision The provision of freshwater for human needs (drinking, washing, irrigation, etc.) [90][91][92] Land related recreation Recreation/education activities in (semi-) natural landscape settings [45,91] Erosion control Prevention of the loss of topsoil due to the kinetic energy of airor waterflows. [45,93,94] Hunting Hunting including recreational/sports (both provisioning/cultural ES) [91] Agricultural production Production of food, fibres, and energy by farming and rearing animals [45,95,96] ...
... The proportion and pattern of different land covers/land uses in the landscape [51,67,68] Air quality The amount of polluting substances in the air [75][76][77][78] Soil condition Condition of biotic and abiotic components of soil [57,58,79] Surface water condition Condition of biotic and abiotic components of surface water [63,80,81] Ground water quality The amount of polluting substances in the ground water [63,73,80] Ground water quantity The amount of water in the groundwater bearing soil layers [63,73,80] Biodiversity Diversity of local plants and animals [82][83][84] Local thermal regulation The regulation of extreme temperatures on the local scale [85] Water related recreation Recreation/education activities depending on watercourses/-bodies [86,87] Mediation of solid/liquid wastes Decomposition of harmful substances by ecosystem components [88,89] Freshwater provision The provision of freshwater for human needs (drinking, washing, irrigation, etc.) [90][91][92] Land related recreation Recreation/education activities in (semi-) natural landscape settings [45,91] Erosion control Prevention of the loss of topsoil due to the kinetic energy of airor waterflows. [45,93,94] Hunting Hunting including recreational/sports (both provisioning/cultural ES) [91] Agricultural production Production of food, fibres, and energy by farming and rearing animals [45,95,96] ...
... The proportion and pattern of different land covers/land uses in the landscape [51,67,68] Air quality The amount of polluting substances in the air [75][76][77][78] Soil condition Condition of biotic and abiotic components of soil [57,58,79] Surface water condition Condition of biotic and abiotic components of surface water [63,80,81] Ground water quality The amount of polluting substances in the ground water [63,73,80] Ground water quantity The amount of water in the groundwater bearing soil layers [63,73,80] Biodiversity Diversity of local plants and animals [82][83][84] Local thermal regulation The regulation of extreme temperatures on the local scale [85] Water related recreation Recreation/education activities depending on watercourses/-bodies [86,87] Mediation of solid/liquid wastes Decomposition of harmful substances by ecosystem components [88,89] Freshwater provision The provision of freshwater for human needs (drinking, washing, irrigation, etc.) [90][91][92] Land related recreation Recreation/education activities in (semi-) natural landscape settings [45,91] Erosion control Prevention of the loss of topsoil due to the kinetic energy of airor waterflows. [45,93,94] Hunting Hunting including recreational/sports (both provisioning/cultural ES) [91] Agricultural production Production of food, fibres, and energy by farming and rearing animals [45,95,96] ...
Mining in general, and particularly mining for energy resources such as coal and lignite, results in massive impacts on the surrounding landscape and ecosystems. Post-mining reclamation that takes account of the disturbed ecosystem services requires a research approach that links the mining impact to ecosystem functions and ecosystem service potentials. The method used in this paper combines the Driving Forces–Pressures–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework and the ES cascade approach by complementing the limitations of each approach with the strengths of the other. The DPSIR framework is extended to a causal network to account for the multiple interconnected causal chains of coal and lignite mining impacts. The presented causal network supports the identification of ES indicators for the assessment, planning, and monitoring of post-mining reclamation in coal/lignite mining landscapes. The presented approach can also inform political and administrative decisions by identifying the ecosystem elements at risk of being degraded from mining.
... damages associated with an incremental increase in carbon emissions in a given year) as estimated by the United States Government (2013) and converted to euros using August 2019 exchange rates. Due to the absence of a Dutchspecific social cost of carbon, this U.S.-based approach was also applied in a previous Dutch case study by Remme et al. (2015) resulting in a carbon price of €150 per metric ton. The variation in the carbon price between the two studies can largely be attributed to the changes in the dollar-euro exchange rates. ...
... However, the reliance on U.S.-derived carbon pricing in i-Tree Eco raises concerns about the accuracy of valuations in a European context. The application of local social cost estimates for carbon emissions is crucial for future iterations of i-Tree Eco (Remme et al., 2015). ...
... Research has examined the application of the SEEA-EA method to water management at national or sub-national territories: agencies report water assets from a natural resource perspective following SEEA Central Framework with the view to inform government policy and sustainability reporting (Remme et al., 2015;Salminen et al., 2018;Mahdavi et al., 2019;López et al., 2019;Bagstad et al., 2020;Esen and Hein, 2020). Very little research has moved to the next step up the ecosystem services chain or taken a broader ecosystem perspective to consider the role of vegetation in filtering water before it enters water bodies, a process which is a regulating rather than provisioning ecosystem service. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of natural capital accounting for the purpose of strengthening sustainability claims by reporting entities. The study showed how riparian land improvement influenced ecosystem services which could be measured in the context of financial reporting. The authors tested options for incorporating natural capital concepts into financial accounting practices under existing accounting standards specifically: on the balance sheet.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach was used with an Australian water utility that has accountabilities to protect the environment, including maintaining and enhancing riparian land assets. The authors examined internal data sources, stakeholder engagement outcomes, physical assets, monetary valuation processes and financial recognition of natural capital income and assets. Natural capital income was estimated by process-based ecological modelling and ecosystem services were valued in relation to stormwater filtration and carbon storage using data from both internal and external sources.
Findings
The authors demonstrated how an environmental agency can disclose natural capital as a class of assets on the balance sheet. The authors also found that current accounting standards allow the recognition of some types of environmental assets where ecosystem services were associated with cost savings. The proof-of-concept used for asset measurement through ecosystem service modelling proved useful to strengthen sustainability claims or report financial returns on natural capital investment.
Originality/value
While many studies have examined environmental disclosures in voluntary reports, this study established that natural assets can be included on the balance sheet of financial statements, offering a robust approach to measuring and reporting on natural capital. It did so by applying financial accounting processes and principles to a real-world natural capital management scenario with direct participation and cooperation between the asset manager, academic researchers and a government environment agency, bridging the gap between theory and practice.
... The majority of studies exploring the application of the SEEA to water management have been applied to national or sub-national territories, reporting on water assets from a natural resource perspective (SEEA Central Framework) with the view to inform government policy and sustainability reporting (Remme et al., 2015;Salminen et al., 2018;Mahdavi et al., 2019;Torres-Lopez et al., 2019;Esen and Hein, 2020;Bagstad et al., 2020;Esen and Hein, 2020;Esmail et al., 2023). Very little research has taken a broader ecosystem perspective to consider the role of vegetation in filtering water before it enters water bodies, which is a regulating ecosystem service (Warnell et al., 2020;Bagstad et al., 2020;Esmail et al., 2023;Boschetto et al., 2023). ...
Purpose The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of natural capital accounting for the purpose of strengthening sustainability claims by reporting entities. The study linked riparian land improvement to ecosystem services and tested options for incorporating natural capital concepts into financial accounting practices, specifically on the balance sheet. Methodology To test the approach, the study used a public asset manager (the water utility) with accountabilities to protect the environment including maintaining and enhancing riparian land assets. Research activities included stakeholder engagement, physical asset measurement, monetary valuation and financial recognition of natural capital income and assets. Natural capital income was estimated by modelling and valuing ecosystem services relating to stormwater filtration and carbon storage. Findings This research described how a water utility could disclose changes in the natural capital assets they manage either through voluntary disclosures, in notes to the financial statements or as balance sheet items. We found that current accounting standards allowed the recognition of some types of environmental income and assets where ecosystem services were associated with cost savings. The proof-of-concept employed to estimate environmental income through ecosystem service modelling proved useful to strengthen sustainability claims or report financial returns on natural capital investment. Originality/value This study applied financial accounting processes and principles to a realistic public asset management scenario with direct participation by the asset manager working together with academic researchers and a sub-national government natural resource management agency. Importantly it established that natural assets could be included in financial statements, proposing a new approach to measuring and reporting on natural capital. 2
... Following Costanza et al.'s (1997) foundational work on ecosystem service principles and valuation, leading to global ecosystem service value mapping, the field has seen intensive exploration in the valuation of ecosystem services, spawning concepts like natural capital, Ecosystem Service Value (ESV), and Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) (Remme et al., 2015;Zou et al., 2020;Jiang et al., 2021;Shen et al., 2021). Research in developed countries has predominantly focused on integrating natural capital valuation into environmental-economic accounting frameworks, utilizing Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), Ecosystem Service Assessment (ESA), and market and non-market valuation methods (Farber et al., 2002;Acosta et al., 2020;Capriolo et al., 2020). ...
Sustainable spatial planning increasingly emphasizes the protection and restoration provided by nature to human welfare, yet scientifically assessing and managing the societal utilization status of natural ecological assets (EAs) remains a challenge. This study introduces a novel classification of EAs based on the degree of dependency of human societies, and establishes an assessment framework for the spatial utilization status of EAs, incorporating indicators related to “pattern-quality-supply-demand-risk”. These indicators are integrated into the construction of ecological security patterns to optimize the management of EAs. Validated in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, China, key findings include: (1) In 2020, the EAs of Changxing provided a value of CNY 77.936 billion, with livable climate assets dominating and carbon assets least prevalent. (2) Urban development has led to EA loss, with the most significant losses in high-supply areas and the highest loss risks in areas with scarce EAs, yet maintaining an overall balance of supply and demand. (3) In 2020, the total area of EA sources in Changxing was 487.34 km², accounting for 34% of the total land area, with 42.34% classified as high-security zones and 11.21% as high-alert zones. This study proposes an approach to ecological spatial optimization management that integrates the spatial utilization status of EAs, providing planners with practical tools and illustrative cases for seamlessly incorporating localized ecological elements into spatial planning. Our research applies to regions facing challenges related to EA loss and striving for sustainable development, offering strategies for ecological restoration, compensation, and optimization management.
... ESV studies have focused on forests [14], farmland [15], coastal [16], and mangrove [17] ecosystems. The spatial scales of ESV evaluation studies have ranged from global [18,19] and national [20][21][22] to mesoscale, such as those involving provinces [23] and basins [24], to small scales such as those involving cities [25,26] and counties [27]. Approaches to evaluating ESV include the material quality evaluation method [28] and the value quantity evaluation method [13,29]. ...
Regional ecosystem service value (ESV) is significantly influenced by factors such as land use/cover change (LUCC). In this study, from the perspective of spatio-temporal heterogeneity, we constructed a dynamic and zonal equivalence table of ecosystem service values using the equivalence factor method and analyzed the spatio-temporal changes in ecosystem service values of different agricultural plantation regions of the karst mountainous areas of southwestern China (Yunnan Province, YP) in the years from 1990 to 2020. Also, the ESV of YP in 2030 was simulated using the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model. The results showed the following: (1) land use/land cover (LULC) in YP from 1990 to 2020 was dominated by needle-leaved forestland, broadleaved forestland, grassland, and rainfed cropland. (2) The total ESV in YP fluctuated between CNY 876.74 and 1323.68 B from 1990 to 2020, expanding at a rate of 50.98%. The largest portion of the total ESV comes from climate regulation. The ESV increased from east to west, and the positive spatial correlation of the ESV gradually weakened. (3) The ESV in YP was projected to reach CNY 1320.70 B by 2030, representing a decrease of ~CNY 2.98 B since 2020. The results showed a decline in the ecological environment’s quality in YP.
... However other authors favor the replacement cost method (Barbier, 2007;Remme et al., 2015;Horlings et al., 2019), to avoid undervaluation of water use benefits (Horváthová, 2022). ...
... We employed a natural capital accounting approach using two different methods: market prices (in the main text and figures) and resource rents (Remme et al. 2015;Sumarga et al. 2015) (Supplementary Table 3). Both approaches are internationally recognised and politically relevant under natural capital accounting rules (Obst et al. 2016;United Nations 2017;Turner et al. 2019;Hein et al. 2020;Luisetti et al. 2020). ...
A billion rural people live near tropical forests. Urban populations need them for water, energy and timber. Global society benefits from climate regulation and knowledge embodied in tropical biodiversity. Ecosystem service valuations can incentivise conservation, but determining costs and benefits across multiple stakeholders and interacting services is complex and rarely attempted. We report on a 10-year study, unprecedented in detail and scope, to determine the monetary value implications of conserving forests and woodlands in Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains. Across plausible ranges of carbon price, agricultural yield and discount rate, conservation delivers net global benefits (+US10.1B), while local-rural communities bear substantial net costs (-US72M); logging, fuelwood and management costs encourage depletion (-US$148M). Substantial global investment in disaggregating and mitigating local costs (e.g., through boosting smallholder yields) is essential to equitably balance conservation and development objectives.
... For example, air is considered fully non-excludable, while water is not always fully non-excludable. Additionally, water consumption and pollution are more sensitive to location due to its different physical state and control volume compared to air [13,14]. Therefore, water holds a higher degree of rivalry compared to air considering impact criteria of climate change [15]. ...
In this paper, a sustainability framework for global and scalable payment systems is introduced. It is based on energy and resource consumption and pollutant classes and is inspired by ISO14040 principles. This paper aims to provide guidance for the implementation of blockchain-based technologies in a Life-Cycle Assessment methodology. The impact criteria adopted in this first approximation are at the stakeholders’ level. Enhancement through Enterprise Resource Planning software integration is considered to extend the impact allocation to the level of products and services. The system is designed on environmental economic models based on resources. A continuous depletion in the quality of exchangeable output is also modelled with respect to raw material consumption. We also consider the geophysical coordinates of pollutant emissions and the concurrent emission of pollutants affecting the quality of such outputs. This framework aims to be initially applied to the CO2eq indicator, which is identified by a set of aerial pollutants with global warming potential as proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nonetheless, an incentive scheme within the so-defined payment system is possible and herein suggested, including the extension to other impact criteria (e.g., pollutants released in water and soil). Multiple approximations are made in order to overcome the difficulty in sampling reservoirs of natural resources, such as (1) disregarding regeneration rate and physical limits of raw material reservoirs and (2) estimating the minimum amount of pollutants affecting the perceived quality of economic transactions. Eventually, sampling policies are outlined as fundamental tactics to foster the effectiveness of this framework.
... It is not possible to fully separate the different spiritual, intellectual, and physical links between human cultures and ecosystems (MA 2005). Existing experience in RRCES accounting includes application of different valuation methods, many of which have been used for valuation of the RRCES provided by the National Parks or other protected areas (Remme et al. 2015;Horlings et al. 2020;Barton et al. 2019, Pelletier et al. 2021, Wang et al. 2022. Pelletier et al. (2021) implement eight different accounting approaches to obtain values for the RRCES in the New South Wales (NSW) National Parks, Australia: Random Utility Method, Activitybased Method, Cost of Production Method, Simulated Exchange Value Method, Resource Rent Method, Prices from similar markets, Final Consumption Method and Mixed Contribution Method. ...
The aim of this study is to propose a method for accounting of the recreation-related cultural ecosystem services (RRES) provided by protected areas of category National Parks оn the example of Pirin National Park (Pirin NP), Bulgaria in accordance with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) framework and the System of National Accounts (SNA) principles. The suggested Tourist consumption products – based method measure the value of actual recreation-related ecosystem services (RRES) flow as a difference between demand and supply of RRES provided by a protected area. It is based on respective indicators: Total tourism products consumption by the visitors of the NP (demand) and Expenditures for maintenance of the asset’s ecosystems (supply). The results show that the average value of RRES flow is estimated on BGN 170 Million for the period 2015 – 2019. The proposed method for valuation of RRES in protected areas of category National Park gives reliable results, based on a minimum of data which are public or easily accessible.
... where S c is the value of carbon sequestration and oxygen release services (CNY/ha/a), C c is the social cost of carbon [33], and C O is the cost of industrial oxygen production. NPP(x, t) is the NPP of position x at time t, APAR(x, t) is the available photosynthetic radiation absorbed by position x at time t (MJ·m −2 ), and ε(x, t) is the light utilization efficiency of pixel x at time t (gC·MJ −1 ). ...
Human demand for natural resources has grown, leading to ecological debasement and related ecological system administration. Using Dalian as an example, we estimated the changes in the ecosystem service value (ESV) in 2005 and 2020. We used ArcGIS and spatial statistics to conduct estimations and change analyses of the ESV. Based on the results of the ESV, the geographical detector and geographically weighted regression (GWR) elucidated the contributions of different driving factors of the ESV in a 2 km grid. In summary, these results indicated that: (1) from a holistic perspective, the ESV of Dalian fell by 206.8009 billion CNY over 15 years, and the hot spots were concentrated in both the northern and the western parts, whereas the cold spots were distributed in the central part; (2) according to the results from the geographical detector, land use structure factors influenced the ESV most significantly, followed by socio-economic factors, and the impact of natural factors was relatively small; and (3) according to the results of the GWR, land use structure factors negatively affected the ESV, and the positive impact of the proportion of the natural land area was the most obvious. We conclude that the decline in the ESV reflects the impact of human activities on the ecosystem in the studied landscape. Understanding ESV changes should be made a priority in ecosystem management, and evaluating ESV drivers can contribute to developing land use strategies for policy-making.
... The possibility to harvest food products on peatlands and paludicultural plantations has received an economic value of approximately 1 -980 UAH per ha per year (Christie et al., 2011;Remme et al., 2015). ...
Research report on the socio-economic value of nature-based solutions (NbS) and their ecosystem services in Ukraine conducted within the project "INSURE: movIng Nature baSed climate solutions into Ukraine’s Reform agEnda", which was organized by WWF-Ukraine in 2022.
... The main accounts discussed in the literature on the SEEA are the ecosystem services flows accounts, both in biophysical and monetary terms ( Fig. 7; e.g. Schröter et al., 2016;Lai et al., 2018;Remme et al., 2015). The least discussed accounts are the condition account and the capacity account. ...
To better manage our environment, systematic information is needed on the state of ecosystems and their interactions with society. Efforts have been undertaken to design monitoring and recording systems, notably the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). However, the diverse conceptualizations and applications on ecosystem accounting found the scientific literature have never been assessed in a systematic way. Here, a systematic literature review on ecosystem accounting, i.e. natural capital accounting approaches that focus on ecosystems, is conducted to detail the evolving trends in concepts, methodologies, and applications, and to identify main gaps and challenges for future work. Results yielded 378 scientific articles published between
1990 and 2021. This literature is diverse in terms of frameworks developed, ecosystems studied, valuation methods used, and accounts produced. Among the eleven ecosystem accounting frameworks identified, the SEEA is the most widely used. This literature is moving from focusing on conceptual elements towards addressing implementation issues. It is primarily conducted in European countries, on forest ecosystems, using biophysical methods and monetary valuation methods consistent with exchange values to produce accounts. The gaps that should be the focus of future work include the issue of implementation: methodologies (artificial Intelligence technologies and economic valuation), data, for instance making better use of remote sensing images, collaborations,
and supporting the use of ecosystem accounts in decision-making.
... One is based on primary data; the value of ES is evaluated by using ecological model. This method usually requires many parameters, and can only express one or several services rather than the comprehensive ESVs (Rai et al. 2018;Remme et al. 2015;Msofe et al. 2020;Gedefaw et al. 2020). The other is the benefit transfer method, where ESVs are evaluated based on land use and coefficient of unit area ESV (Costanza et al. 1997(Costanza et al. , 2014. ...
The aim of this study was to provide a new method for dynamic and continuous assessment of ecosystem service value (ESV) and reveal the impact of land use change on ESV in Dasi River Basin within Jinan’s startup area from replacing old growth drivers with new ones. Based on four remote sensing images from 2002 to 2020, four ecological indicators were extracted, and the ecological environmental quality index (EEQI) was obtained through the approach of principal component analysis (PCA). Then, the traditional ESV evaluation method was modified by using the EEQI, grain yield, the biomass factor of cropland ecosystem, and the consumer price index (CPI). Finally, the impact of land use change on ESV was further analyzed based on the improved evaluation model. The result showed that (1) during 2002–2020, the area of forestland, grassland, and built-up land showed an increasing trend. The area of cropland and bare land showed a decreasing trend, and the water body area showed a slightly decreasing trend. (2) The total ESVS overall increased by 2.1759 × 107 yuan; the increased ESVS from air quality regulation, maintain biodiversity, and climate regulation were the main reasons for the increased of total ESVS, with contribution rates of 53.18%, 12.46%, and 11.29% respectively. (3) The sensitivity of ecosystem services to land use change showed a decreasing trend, and the order of elasticity index of different land use types was cropland > water body > forestland > grassland > bare land. The conversion of cropland and bare land to forestland was the main type of ESVs increase, with contribution rates of 18.35% and 10.13%, respectively. The cropland reclamation and built-up land expansion were the most significant land use changes that lead to the decline of ESVS, with contribution rates of 20.14% and 19.03% respectively. (4) The ESV showed a significant positive auto-correlation in terms of spatial distribution. The area of high–high region was mainly distributed in water body, forestland, and its surrounding areas. The area of low–low region was mainly distributed in built-up land and wasteland areas where human disturbance is relatively serious. The high–low and low–high regions were affected by landscape transition process and randomly distributed around the low–low and high–high regions, respectively. This study cannot only put forward a new method for the dynamic continuous evaluation of ESV, but also provide a reference for the rational allocation of land resources in the startup area to realize the balanced development of regional environment and economy.
... For example, cattle are sold in market, while hunting by Indigenous people is an example of a service of largely non-market benefits (recreational and symbolic benefits), alongside benefits that can be valued monetarily using exchange values (e.g. as a food provisioning service). Consistent with other case studies in ecosystem accounting, the biophysical land assets that comprise Country, and the services produced from Country, may be valued in monetary terms as ''exchange values'' (Remme et al. 2015). In this instance, the monetary value of the ecosystem asset(s) as an exchange value could be calculated based on the present value of the flow of ecosystem services estimated in monetary terms (as an exchange value) (UN 2021, p. 177). ...
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) is widely promoted in environmental and economic policy and management. Unfortunately, the SEEA-EA has not substantively addressed the aspects of accounting that may be of interest to, or used by, Indigenous peoples. We investigate an Indigenous perspective on the potential of the SEEA-EA to support cultural and environmental management through collaborative workshops with managers of Nyamba Buru Yawuru, the Prescribed Body Corporate representing the Yawuru Traditional Owners in Western Australia. Our discussions highlight that while the SEEA-EA may be a valuable tool for empowering Indigenous people and supporting the management of their lands and seas, there are areas where the SEEA-EA needs to be broadened to better reflect cultural values, and the services to ecosystems provided by Indigenous peoples. Embedding Indigenous perspectives into the SEEA-EA would mean that it is of greater use to Indigenous peoples and their representative organisations and ensure that these values are better recognised in the policymaking of government.
... However, the other two assessment methods also have their unique advantages. In the physical quality assessment, some key service functions are evaluated through a series of ecological equations, which are more complex to calculate, applicable to smaller spatial scales and can facilitate the judgment of the interactions between various ES [51][52][53]; energy value assessment has some application potential in solving the problem of repeated calculations in ecosystem service assessment [54][55][56]. Overall, ecosystem service valuation relies on theoretical research progress and technological advances in the field of ecological economy, and there is still much room for future development. ...
The southern hilly mountains are rich in natural resources and are one of the important ecological security barrier zones in China. However, the disturbance of the ecosystem caused by human activities has led to a differentiated character of spatial ecosystem services. Such spatially differentiated characteristics have not been well studied, and thus are bound to limit our ability to manage ecosystems sustainably. Taking Ruijin City, a typical hilly mountainous area in southern China, as an example, this paper evaluates the ecosystem service values (ESV) of Ruijin City from 2000 to 2020 by using equivalent factor method combined with GIS technology. On this basis, spatial autocorrelation analysis is used to identify unique heterogeneous units of ESV. The results show that the overall ESV of Ruijin City from 2000 to 2020 showed a trend of slow increase in the first decade and a significant decrease in the second decade. The ESV in Ruijin City has a high degree of spatial divergence, showing the distribution characteristics of low value in the central region and high value in the marginal region. With the acceleration of urbanization, the ESV in the central region of Ruijin City decreases significantly from 2010 to 2020. Therefore, for the high value areas of ecosystem services, attention should be paid to the balanced development of economy and ecology. For low-value areas, it is necessary to strengthen the control of the ecological environment, protect sensitive areas with serious loss of ecosystem services, change the development model, and improve the supply capacity of ecological products. The government should calculate green Gross Domestic Product (GDP) based on the evaluation results of ESV, and formulate a green GDP evaluation system in the performance evaluation.
... Theoretically, the compartmentalised nature of accounting may not align well with Indigenous knowledge and values. For example, ecosystem accounting commonly emphasises monetary metrics for valuation (Remme et al., 2015) and this is likely to be incompatible with Indigenous relationships with Country, which are generally conceived as a reciprocal relationships between people and nature (Comberti et al., 2015). Practically, the datasets often used to inform the development of ecosystem accounts may not fully encompass Indigenous understandings of the continuity of Country. ...
Ecosystem accounting is emerging as a promising tool for environmental management by offering consistent information about ecosystem change over time. Via a United Nations process, ecosystem accounting has been standardised in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). However, there are currently no examples of ecosystem accounts developed specifically to support Indigenous people’s management of land or sea. More than 40% (3 million square kilometres) of Australia’s land and sea territory has Indigenous Title. If Indigenous managers are to use ecosystem accounting, then it is essential for them to be involved in its devel- opment. We assessed how ecosystem accounts can be developed and applied in a manner that supports the management objectives of Indigenous owners and managers. Working collaboratively with the Yawuru Tradi- tional Owners of the land and sea country around Broome, Western Australia, we constructed and assessed experimental ecosystem accounts for land cover and fire for the period 2000–2020. Three key benefits of ecosystem accounts for supporting the priorities of Yawuru managers were identified: (1) flexibility in the units used for the analysis; (2) the extended time scale of the accounts; and (3) the emphasis on consistent capturing and reporting of data. We also identified the need for further work to incorporate cultural knowledge and values within the broader SEEA, with implications for the recognition of Indigenous people, knowledge and values within accounting systems globally.
... Further work would be required to isolate the contribution of ecosystems to the value of experience the consumer enjoys. For example, following Remme et al., (2015) the resource rent approach can be used. Here the contribution of the ecosystem service to the overall value of the experience the consumer enjoys is estimated by subtracting all costs for capital and labour from the park visitor and guiding fees. ...
This report presents a set of biodiversity and tourism accounts for Uganda. The accounts are designed in an integrated way to provide a clear articulation of the status of natural capital assets underpinning Uganda’s wildlife-watching tourism sub-sector, level of tourism activity in that sector and the level of associated expenditures
... Costanza et al. (1997) first evaluated the World's natural capital in 1997 based on the 'willingness-to-pay' by individuals for ES. It has attracted much attention from the academic community (Remme et al., 2015;Sannigrahi et al., 2018;Xie et al., 2017Xie et al., , 2008Zheng et al., 2020). Many scholars have argued that it is important to account for ES in financial and monetary terms to help policy-makers assess the value of dryland ecosystems (Castro et al., 2018). ...
Ecosystem services (ESs) provided by dryland ecosystems store nearly half and one‐third of the earth's terrestrial biomass and biodiversity, respectively. Pakistan is a typical dryland region with significant land degradation and dramatic changes in ESs in recent decades, which has not been sufficiently investigated. This study explored the spatiotemporal variations in ecosystem service values (ESVs) over Pakistan (2001‐2018) by combining land use/cover data, economic modelling and hotspot analysis. From the achieved results, the total ESVs indicated an improvement in ESs before 2012 and then showed a declining trend. The largest contribution was attributed to the increase in forest/shrubland by 16.17% (2001‐2006) and 10.36% (2006–2012). However, the ESV decreased to 7.76% from 2012–2018, which was mainly attributed to the decrease in cropland and grassland. Heterogeneous changes were observed in ESVs. The hotspot of ESV change (approximately an area of 32,578 km2) was mainly located in the southern and southeastern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), the northeastern part of Balochistan, and the central and western parts of Sindh Province. The cold spot (approximately an area of 24,491 km2) showed a distribution in the northern part of KPK and Gilgit Baltistan, northeastern Punjab, coastal regions and southeastern Sindh Province. We also found that although the total ESV and gross domestic product (GDP) indicated growth, the proportion of ESV from the total ESV and GDP (%ESV) exhibited a negative trend. The provinces of Punjab and Balochistan retained the highest value of %ESV, while Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan were much lower. These results reflected the spatial imbalance of ecosystem protection and economic development in Pakistan. We recommend that necessary actions for conserving ESs are important to strengthen ecological conservation in Pakistan. Additionally, further interdisciplinary research is needed to fully explore synergies in conserving ESs and economical conservation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... By establishing a comprehensive evaluation index system of economic development and the ecological environment, the economic development level and ecological environment quality can be comprehensively explored. Researchers have published varied interpretations of the ecological, economic, social relationship and outputs, including quantitative measurement of ecological service value and its spatial evolution [8][9][10], the economy and ecological environments [11], the verification of an environmental Kuznets curve [12] and society, ecology and tourism [13], and the ecological function, production function and living function [14]. The general understanding is that ecological environment degradation and economic backwardness are interrelated and geographically coupled, and that this coupling is presented in the form of a "poverty trap". ...
The coordinated relationship between ecology, economy and transportation is essential for regional sustainable development. Does the high-quality ecological environment mean the lagging development of economy and transportation, or does the rapid growth of the economy and transportation lead to the deterioration of the ecological environment? To shed new light on the complicated relationship between ecology, economy and transportation, our study aims to construct three comprehensive indicators, including an ecological index (EI), economic development level (EC) and transport superiority degree (TR), to reflect the systems mentioned above, and to measure the coordination of the three indicators’ development and evolution using a model of the coordination degree (CD). Specifically, and by applying methods for the indicators’ normalization, including superposition analysis and principal component analysis, the three indicators’ values are reasonably evaluated for measuring their coordination relationship. The above three indicators use data from 58 counties in Fujian province from 2000 to 2018 in our study. All three indicators show differences in the west and east of Fujian province; the EI is relatively low in the eastern coastal areas and relatively high in the western mountainous areas, the EC shows a relatively discrete and irregular distribution and the distribution pattern of the TR is almost the opposite of the EI. The CD shows a relationship among the three indicators, with the EI and EC coordinated in most counties and the EI and TR coordinated in most counties, while the highly coordinated counties are mainly distributed in the northwest and east coastal regions of Fujian province in 2000, and the northwest, south and northeast of Fujian province in 2018. More than 50% of the county EC and TR values are kept in a coordinated state, and are mainly distributed in the eastern coast and central part of Fujian province. Over 50% of counties’ CD between EI and EC, EI and TR and EC and TR are in a coordinated state. The CD of the EI and EC and TR, in most counties, are in a coordinated state, mainly distributed in the eastern coast and central areas of Fujian province. In other words, the findings show that the coordinated state of ecology, economy and transportation can be achieved at the county level of Fujian province. These conclusions have significant reference value for understanding regional sustainable development.
... The functional value evaluation method is based on a series of ecological functions used to evaluate several key service functions and is very complicated [23]. Therefore, this method is more suitable for use at small scales [24]. However, this method is tremendously expensive, and researchers usually lack the background of the research region needed to customize the parameters for these functions, resulting in considerable uncertainty [25]. ...
Featured Application
This study investigated the scale effects of ESV from land use/land cover data which is not given enough attention. In addition, the results suggested that ESV values calculated from different datasets with different spatial resolution have significant difference which is very meaningful for future ESV value evaluations.
Abstract
Land use/land cover (LULC) has an important impact on the ecological environment and is crucial for calculating ecosystem service values (ESVs). However, whether and to what extent the ESVs vary when calculated by LULC product data at different spatial scales remain unclear. Data from two LULC products were used in this study, and two datasets with different spatial scales were obtained by resampling. Then, the ESVs were calculated by the equivalent factor method. Finally, the impacts of LULC on ESVs at different scales were studied, revealing the following: (1) The ESVs calculated by LULC products and by the same products at different scales are different. (2) The difference in the ESVs calculated by the two LULC datasets is approximately 28%, and the difference tends to decrease with increasing scale. (3) With an increase in the LULC scale, the overall change trend of ESVs also increases, and the increasing trend gradually moderates. In addition, the ESVs and LULC scale conform to a logarithmic relationship, and the coefficient of determination (R²) is greater than 0.7. These results have important reference value for obtaining reliable ESVs.
... Some studies estimated the value of RES through the incomes generated by nature-based tourism. Remme et al. (2015) calculated the average tourist expenditure in the province of Lindburg, Netherlands, to value RES as resource rent generated by recreation in nature. Popa et al. (2016) estimated the value of RES in Maramures Mountains in Romania based on the number of visitors, the percentage of tourists with longer stays and the total expenditure per visit, comprised of direct spending on hotels and meals. ...
Recreational Ecosystem Services (RES) are among the most frequently evaluated ecosystem services. RES are seen as a major opportunity for sustainable development in areas of high ecological value resulting from the presence of emblematic species, habitats or scenery, often integrated in conservation areas, in particular in mountain areas affected by depopulation, rising environmental risks and poverty. Economically, the assessment of RES has been based on Contingent Valuation and Choice Experiments, methods with limitations related to their subjectivity. Alternatively, Input-Output (IO) models provide a very accurate and effective way of valuation of RES with regional information regarding interindustry transactions. Whilst data on nature tourist expenditure may be only available annually, tourism inflows have a strong seasonal behavior, which impacts the profitability of several local economic activities. In this paper, we firstly constructed a novel regionalized IO-model based on Cross-Industry Location Quotients using employment data and, secondly, based on Monte Carlo simulation, we estimated nature tourist expenditure monthly using data on nature tourism inflows. This method allowed for a more precise RES evaluation, estimating direct, indirect and induced monthly economic impacts of nature-based tourism. The method was applied to the Ordesa and Monte Perdido (OMP) National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees. To estimate the average tourist expenditure, we collected and analyzed spending on commerce, hospitality and restaurants, leisure, and transport of 385 visitors. Results suggest that using a regionalized IO model leads to a considerable reduction of over-estimation of the economic impact of tourist expenditure estimated by conventional methods. Taking into consideration the direct, indirect and induced effects of tourist expenditure in 2016-2018, the total annual output effect in the OMP National Park amounted to €208.8 million, while the total income effect amounted to €86.29 million. Also, a total of 2,429 jobs were created which indicates that for each thousand annual visitors to the National Park, 3.8 jobs are created in the surrounding area. Overall, the proposed methodology can be easily applied to the remaining National Parks in Spain or other regions in the world, making it a valuable tool to estimate the value of RES in areas affects by strong seasonality, to set priorities and support regional policies for mountain sustainable development.
... Similar results of outdoor recreation have been found in our study while, additionally, a decrease in 1995 had been observed. Tourism is one essential indicator of cultural services indicating the attractiveness of a landscape, which has been studied by many ecosystem research (Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010;Remme et al. 2015). In this study, there is insufficient tourism data when tracing back to 1990; however, it is believed that in Yan'an area tourism coincides with outdoor recreation. ...
... Research on the demand side such as the identification of beneficiaries is ongoing and has received increased attention [21]. Some previous studies considered beneficiaries of ES, mainly by mapping them [45][46][47], by land use and landowners [48], and by regarding all residents living in a particular area as beneficiaries [23]. ...
Although researchers expect the valuation of ecosystems and their services to be used in various decision-making processes, some studies have insisted that the valuation results cannot be fully used in the real world. The so-called “information gap” was highlighted, and some reasons for the gap were raised by researchers. One of them is the lack of local-specific and demand-side information, such as who receives the benefits and to what extent. This study proposes a valuation that includes demand-side information for it to be practically useful for policy decision making, especially for local policymakers. We focus on the headwater conservation service of the forest ecosystem by referring to the case of constructing solar power plants in the Satetsu-gawa river basin in Ichinoseki, Japan. We estimate the size of the area and the number of households affected by deforestation caused by the construction of the plants. Furthermore, the lost value of ecosystem services is assessed in monetary terms to reflect information on the demand side. Based on the results, we present multiple indicators for assessing the impact of constructing the plants and discuss how the valuation can be used by local policymakers as well as how it can close the information gap.
... Currently, widely used methods include the primary-data-based method and the unit-value-based method. The former method builds on a set of biophysical calculations of ES using ecology-related models to value each of ES by using primary valuation (e.g., market price method, revealed preference method, carbon tax method, travel cost method), and has commonly been applied to a relatively small region or the specific ES (La Notte et al., 2017;Remme et al., 2015); the latter method utilizes land use as a proxy according to the benefit transfer method by assigning an economic value to each of ES per unit area to estimate multiple ESV based on a summation of the area of every ecosystem. In contrast to the other method, the unitvalue-based method neither required many model parameters nor involved complicated calculation steps; therefore, this approach is very appropriate for the multiple-scale assessment of ESV in view of its operability and practicableness (Costanza et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2014). ...
Large-scale revegetation practices have lasted approximately two decades in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China (AENC), and their impacts on hydrological and ecological effects remain poorly understood. Previous studies largely focused on assessing water yield service (WYs) based on several fixed time points, whereas time series information—continuous WYs dynamics were more reliable and valuable in decision-making about water sustainability goals. This study analyzed the interannual WYs trend and relative roles of its drivers in the last 20 years based on a newly proposed approach, and revealed the past, present and future impacts of revegetation on WYs. The final results indicated that the annual WYs averaged approximately 97 mm and exhibited an increasing trend of 1.96 mm year⁻¹ (p = 0.086) during 2000–2019, in which climate and land-use changes were responsible for 88% and 12% of WYs variations, respectively. From 2000 to 2019, WYs was pronouncedly 1.47 mm year⁻¹ (p = 0.119) lower in the afforestation area than in the nonafforestation area, but the precipitation in the two regions had a statistically insignificant difference (p = 0.97). Future revegetation scenarios showed great potential for the shrinkage of WYs provision, even approaching a maximum of 50 mm at a local scale. Even so, the afforestation-induced reductions in blue water and benefits in green water both should receive equal attention. Specifically, any attempts to assess WYs or other climate-driven ecosystem services using discontinuous years as the study period must be taken with extreme caution.
... Similar results of outdoor recreation have been found in our study while, additionally, a decrease in 1995 had been observed. Tourism is one essential indicator of cultural services indicating the attractiveness of a landscape, 123 Landscape Ecol which has been studied by many ecosystem researches (Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010;Remme et al. 2015). In this study, there is insufficient tourism data when tracing back to 1990; however, it is believed that in Yan'an area tourism coincides with outdoor recreation. ...
Context
From 1999 onwards, China has initiated a large-scale landscape restoration project in the Chinese Loess Plateau, which has had profound but variable impacts on the local ecosystem services supply. The dynamics of ecosystem services throughout the restoration process remain poorly understood.
Objectives
To analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics in ecosystem services before and after the implementation of the land restoration project, and to understand trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services.
Methods
We used the InVEST model and statistical yearbook data to quantify the ecosystem services over the period 1990–2018 for the Yan’an area and applied the concept of ecosystem service bundles to understand the dynamics of 11 ecosystem services over its 13 constituent counties.
Results
A significant increase of fruit production, sediment retention, habitat quality, aesthetic landscape value, and learning and inspiration value was found over time in the Yan’an area, while a decrease of timber production and water yield was also observed. The majority of the county-level ecosystem service bundles were transformed from having a focus on timber production to aesthetic landscape value. The dynamics of ecosystem services change induced by land restoration was discovered to start with increasing regulating services at the expense of provisioning services, while cultural services exceeded regulating services and occupied the main proportion subsequently.
Conclusion
Both trade-offs and synergies were found between provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Implementation of the large-scale restoration project is recognized as a key driving force inducing change of ecosystem services, starting with an improvement of regulating services followed by a gradually evolving prominence of cultural services.
... Different combinations of these methods generate two kinds of approaches: one is referred to as the primary data-based approach using ecological models plus economic valuation techniques; the other is referred to as the unit value-based approach using land use/land cover proxy plus benefit transfer methods. The primary data-based approach usually requires many input parameters and contains complex calculations, and is thus often applied to a single service of a single ecosystem (La Notte et al., 2017), or otherwise conducted at a small spatial scale (Remme et al., 2015). In comparison, the unit value-based approach is more convenient for aggregating comprehensive ES values into larger spatial scales, and thus finds wider applications across the world (e.g. ...
Since the turn of the millennium, studies on the value of ecosystem services have grown significantly in China, producing a rich and diverse literature. However, a systematic review of these findings remains lacking. In this paper, we examine over 3000 studies that have been published over the past twenty years (2001-2020), selecting from this vast corpus 63 articles for more in-depth analysis according to four strict review criteria, in order to provide the basis for building a national database of ecosystem services value. Based on this database, we illustrate the spatial distribution of study sites and ecosystem types, identify the methods applied to quantify physical amounts of ES supply and monetary values, analyze the spatial variation of ES values in different provinces of China, and establish a national empirical value table. We further compare our value table to other value tables in the existing literature and indicate the advantages and shortcomings of our database. Finally, we suggest future research needs in this growing field.
... In this case, it should be linked to households. There are already some examples in the scientific literature on how fodder could be accounted for: Remme et al. (2015), Remme et al. (2014) for instance, suggest combining grazing with harvested fodder (mainly grass and maize) for animals which spend the summer freely grazing and the rest of the year in barns being fed. ...
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) represents a crucial approach to incorporate the assessment of the sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems into decision- and policy-making. However, its application is constrained by challenges distinct across specific implementation contexts, including those present in developing nations. In this paper, we focus on a pilot SEEA EEA application in a local-scale case study in Kyzyl Unkur, Jalal-Abad region, the Kyrgyz Republic, characterized by a unique natural walnut forest. We summarize key methodological and empirical challenges identified through collaboration with local experts and stakeholders during the compilation of Supply and Use tables for selected ecosystem services (ES) relevant at local, national and global levels. Specifically, we focus on the methodological challenges related to a) defining and assigning benefits for own consumption; b) delineating the chain of ES flows (e.g., fodder for farm animals); c) uncovering the relevance of carbon sequestration in developing nation contexts which are often minor greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters and demand for the service lies mostly beyond their boundaries. Among empirical challenges, we highlight the issues of data collection and availability. The aim of this communication is to provide lessons learnt from building SEEA EEA accounts in a developing, data-scarce context, potentially transferable to other similar applications.
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA), adopted by UNSD, provides a standardized global framework for measuring and monitoring ecosystems' extent, condition, and services. However, its application to urban ecosystems faces conceptual and operational challenges. Building on SEEA-EA, we propose advancing the framework for thematic urban ecosystem accounting, identifying main challenges and framing potential solutions based on existing lessons and approaches. Through a literature review on ecosystem accounting and urban science, we identified 24 challenges, with lessons and approaches suggested for 17 of them. Results show that many challenges are highly interconnected and shared with accounts for other ecosystem types. Urban-specific challenges include a lack of consensus in defining urban ecosystems, their specific assets, and their classifications. Additionally, findings highlight the need for defining appropriate methods to capture socio-ecological degradation, impacts, and dependencies of urban ecosystems. Suggested solutions include adapting the accounting structure and prioritizing the resolution of urban-specific challenges.
Assigning an economic value to cultural ecosystem services is important to promote their sustainable and rational use. Valuation of such services requires a non-market approach as they are not traded on markets and, thus, have no directly observable market price. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) aims to develop a systematic approach to value ecosystem services aligned with the valuation approach of the national accounts. However, valuing cultural services in SEEA-EA is challenging and different approaches have been developed. In this study, we compare four prominent approaches for valuing cultural ecosystem services: resource rent, travel cost method, simulated exchange value and consumer expenditure. We test and compare these methods in a case study of Ugam Chatkal State Nature National Park in Uzbekistan and examine to what degree the methods are aligned with accounting valuation principles. We note that the methods assess value in a different way and, accordingly, we find considerable differences amongst approaches in recreational value: values ranged between US65.19M annually. The lowest value was provided by the resource rent approach and the highest value by the travel cost method including consumer surplus. This latter method is not aligned with SEEA-EA accounting; however, even the three methods that are aligned with accounting principles provide quite different value estimates. The two other approaches, simulated exchange value and consumer expenditure, provided an annual value of US13.5M, respectively. We find that a resource rent method is likely to underestimate the 'true' value of the service when used for accounting and that the simulated exchange value method seems to be best aligned with the valuation needs for cultural services for SEEA-EA.
Natural capital is the foundation of the human economy. Everything that is made, served or sold in markets consumes natural resources. Fossil fuel, land, water, gases, minerals, each of these are supplied by nature, and form the ‘Natural Capital’. The human economy is the system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods that are made from this natural capital. The marketplace converts the manufactured goods and services into money.
The scope for environmental management accounting (EMA) has perpetually received attention in recent years, and it has become a pillar of sustainability in addressing environmental and service delivery challenges. Most scholars focused on EMA in a corporate context, limited attention has been given to local governments in available scholarly articles except for various initiatives by the United Nations to guide local governments in adopting and implementing sustainable environmental management practices. This has continued to affect the uptake of EMA in local governments, particularly in developing economies, as the question concerning the role of EMA practices (EMAPs) in environmental and service delivery remains unexplored. A systematic literature review (SLR) through the use of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to identify EMAPs and their role in promoting environmental and service delivery performance (SDP) in local governments was employed. Articles from Google Scholar and Scopus published between 2000 and 2023 were considered. The researchers identified and evaluated energy accounting, material flow accounting, water management accounting, carbon management accounting and biodiversity management accounting as effective EMAPs to address local governments’ environmental and service delivery challenges. Furthermore, a conceptual framework to integrate EMAPs with environmental improvement and service delivery plans was developed and has implications for policymakers, communities, government and environmental specialists. The lessons learned from the research are pertinent to developing sustainable cities in emerging economies and further expose the need for further research to consider accounting approaches from higher-income countries as benchmarks for future development of ecosystem accounting to assist local governments in managing environmental challenges.
This report presents a pilot SEEA EA urban ecosystem account for EU-27 and EFTA Member States in 2018. It discusses challenges for the development of urban ecosystem accounts and potential solutions. The outputs illustrate where re-greening efforts should be applied and discusses feasibility and potential issues of targets. The report also presents key insights to operationalise SEEA EA for urban ecosystem accounts. It provides an instructive guiding example to national and local authorities starting to draft their own urban ecosystem accounts.
Integrating ecosystem services supply–demand relationships into ecological management zoning is a hot topic. Most studies have focused on the matching relationship between the supply and demand of ecosystem services. However, the extent to which both are coordinated at different matching levels is ignored, that is, whether ecosystem services supply and demand tend to reinforce each other at high levels or constrain each other at low levels. Therefore, taking Dalian as an example, this study constructed a research framework for ecological management zoning by integrating the matching and coupling coordination relationship of ecosystem services supply–demand. We found that the supply of ecosystem services in Dalian decreased by 23.70% and the demand increased by 22.54% from 2005 to 2019. There was an obvious mismatch and disharmony in the supply and demand of ecosystem services, and the matching and coordination often did not exist simultaneously. Overlay analysis was used to divide Dalian into four ecological management zones: eco-conservation, eco-development, eco-improvement, and eco-restoration zones. This study helped in integrating the matching and coupling coordination relationship of ecosystem services supply–demand into the environmental management system, which has practical significance for the sustainable development of ecosystem services.
Pilot monetary ecosystem accounts were compiled for KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, in order to highlight any data, methodological or process issues in their compilation and to contribute towards charting a strategy for ecosystem accounting. The Province is highly diverse, with eight biomes, large proportions under communal, private and state tenure, globally important biodiversity, variable landscape condition and encompassing catchment areas of nine river systems. We accounted for the supply and use of wild biomass, reared animal production, cultivation (including silviculture), nature-based tourism, property value, carbon storage and sequestration, pollination, flow regulation (maintenance of base flows), sediment retention, water quality amelioration and flood attenuation. For each ecosystem service, we devised conceptually valid methods that were suitable for the existing data to produce values consistent with the System of National Accounts. These were then summed to estimate total annual flows from each 100 x 100 m spatial unit and its asset value. Challenges encountered included lack of data on small-scale and subsistence production, mismatches in the classification of landcover and government production statistics, unreliable measures of ecosystem condition, the large scale of hydrological modelling and lack of centralised data organisation relating to hydrological services. There was heavy reliance on past empirical research and on global ‡ § § § © Turpie J et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. datasets. The combined value of the annual flow of the ecosystem services valued was R52.5 billion in 2011, equivalent to 12% of the provincial GDP. However, the values of many of the services have decreased over the accounting period, due to a combination of changes in demand and ecosystem condition. Asset value was undermined to some extent by unsustainable use of provisioning services. Some areas will require careful messaging, particularly in regard to the contentious issue of valuing carbon retention and the use of exchange values rather than welfare values that are used in economic analysis.
For decades, societies have been planting the seed of their own destruction. The environmental degradation catastrophe has become so voluminous and complex, seen in many forms and extending across various dimensions of nature. Air pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution have caused tremendous amounts of damage. Species extinction and the loss of various forms of life have been massively increasing at an unprecedented rate. It is calculated that approximately 0.01–0.1% of all known species will become extinct each year. This raises a major concern: Could biodiversity loss affect the wellbeing of nations through hindering economic growth? If so, to what extent? This is the question that this study aims to investigate. The case of COVID-19 has been a powerful example enabling the world to witness how biodiversity loss could affect economic growth, which has posed as an economic threat to all nations. This study, therefore, investigates the relationship between biodiversity and economic growth utilizing a fixed effects panel regression conducted using a selected sample of OECD countries. Findings of this study indicate that biodiversity does in fact hinder GDP growth in the long run.KeywordsBiodiversitySustainabilityEconomic growthCOVID-19Green economic growthOECDFixed effectsPanelExtinctionConservationEcosystemEnvironmental economicsFarmland birds indicatorGDP
Understanding the factors affecting drinking water production costs is crucial for choosing a cost-effective solution for public drinking water supply systems. An important determinant of water treatment costs is the purification of raw water. Despite water purification being a well-acknowledged ecosystem service, its monetary value has not been assessed much yet. We present the first study analysing the determinants of drinking water production costs and valuating groundwater purification in the Czech Republic. We tested the impact of the type of raw water, the amount of drinking water produced, electric power consumption and treatment technologies and chemicals. The results suggested that drinking water production from groundwater was cheaper than from surface water. Even though drinking water production from groundwater was cheaper than from surface water, the application of some technologies, for example, chlorine or manganese removal, increased the production cost. Hence groundwater production costs can exceed surface water production costs. The outcome of the regression was applied for the valuation of groundwater purification. The valuation was further used for the development of monetary drinking water accounts within the System of Environmental- Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting.
Vegetation restoration has brought about remarkable landscape evolution in arid regions, and it is of great significance to evaluate its ecological benefits. However, the landscape evolution and ecological effects of different vegetation restoration measures have yet to be distinguished, and their future trends remain to be revealed, especially from the perspective of fine vegetation classification. In this study, we evaluated the ecosystem service value (ESV) of the northern sand prevention belt (NSPB) based on the fine land use/cover classification and benefit transfer method. Then, we analyzed changes in landscape and ESV induced by vegetation restoration from 2000 to 2015 and designed 9 future vegetation restoration scenarios to improve ESV. The results showed that the built-up area and dry farmland expanded by 35.37% and 3.48%, respectively, and paddy field and bush decreased by 19.00% and 6.80% from 2000 to 2015, respectively. Total ESV decreased by 0.62% (1.76 billion USD) during 2000–2015. The reduction in bush led to a loss of 0.85% (2.41 billion USD) in ESV. Vegetation restoration involved grassland restoration (1.99 million ha), bush restoration (0.26 million ha), and forestland restoration (0.18 million ha), which increased ESV by 1.21, 1.17, and 4.29 billion USD, respectively. Anthropogenic disturbance resulted in the loss of 2.97 million ha of vegetation and 9.23 billion USD in ESV. Current vegetation restoration in the NSPB is insufficient to counteract the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on ESV. Riparian vegetation buffer and grain for green scenarios have limited ecological benefits. Desertification control scenarios have the potential to increase ESV by at least 8.94% (25.12 billion USD) and to reverse ESV losses. Bush and grassland can be used instead of forestland for restoration in arid regions. This study can provide important support for the formulation and adjustment of landscape restoration in arid regions.
Due to rapid urbanization and economic development, the natural environment and ecological processes have been significantly affected by human activities. Especially in ecologically fragile karst areas, the ecosystems are more sensitive to external disturbances and have a hard time recovering, thus studies on the ecosystem services in these areas are significant. In view of this, we took Guizhou (a typical karst province) as the research area, evaluated the ecosystem service value (ESV) according to reclassified land uses and revised equivalent factors, and investigated the determinants of ecosystem services based on geographic detection. It was found that the total ESV showed a prominent increase trend, increasing from 152.55 billion CNY in 2000 to 285.50 billion CNY in 2020. The rise of grain prices due to growing social demands was the main factor in driving the increase of ESV. Spatially, the ESVs of central and western Guizhou were lower with cold spots appearing around human gathering areas, while that of southern and southeastern Guizhou were higher with hot spots that formed in continually distributed woodland. Moreover, the ESV per unit area and its change rate in karst regions were always lower than that in non-karst areas. Precipitation and temperature were the dominant nature factors while cultivation and population density were the main anthropogenic effects driving the evolution of ecosystem services. Therefore, positive human activities as well as rational and efficient land-use should be guided to promote the coordinated and high-quality development of ecology and the economy.
The ecosystem of inland river basin is of great significance to the socio-economic stability in arid area. Therefore, to evaluate the ecosystem service values (ESVs) is necessary for monitor ecosystem changes. In this paper, the response of land use/land cover (LULC) during 1990 to 2020 in Aksu River Basin (ARB) to ESV was explored. The advanced equivalent factor which modified by biomass factor and socio-economic was used to evaluate the ESVs of the ARB. A patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) was used to simulate the ESV spatial distribution considering the influences of temperature (TEM), precipitation (PRE), NDVI, DEM, Soil organic matter content (SOMC) and Human Activity Intensity of Land Surface (HAILS) of the ARB in 2030. The results show that the total ESV in the study area showed an increasing trend (1.63 × 10¹⁰ yuan to 5.64 × 10¹⁰ yuan) from 1990 to 2020. The grassland had the highest ESV, accounting for nearly 50% of the total ESV for the ARB. The factor detection results showed that q value had the following explanatory power to ESV: HAILS (0.332) > NDVI (0.126) > TEM (0.125) > PRE (0.108) > DEM(0.096) > SOMC(0.089)and the interaction between HAILS and PRE had an effect of 0.493 on ESV. The shape index (SI) was negatively correlated with the ESV, and the correlation coefficient was −0.794. The aggregation index (AI) and Shannon's Diversity Index (SHDI) were positively correlated with the ESV, and the correlation coefficients were 0.872 and 0.878, respectively. The simulation results showed a rapid increase in ESVs in 2030, the ESV of grassland would still be the largest, and the per unit ESV of plowland, forestland, unused land and water area would be 20131.07 yuan/km², 64743.29 yuan/km², 3054.21 yuan/km², 41398.54 yuan/km², respectively. This paper can help decision-makers achieve sustainable ecosystem service management and develop land-use strategies in inland river basins in arid oases.
Valuing water is difficult and contentious owing to water’s physical, political, and economic characteristics. Combining household-level and county-level data at the county level could clarify the responsibilities of both the government and users. In the Thousand Island Lake Water Distribution Project (TILWDP), the upstream ecosystem services provider, Chunan County, is assumed to sustain a tremendous opportunity cost due to the extremely strict environmental protection requirements of the project. To estimate the opportunity cost of supplying fresh water that meets the standards of the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, a synthetic control model is introduced, and county-level macroeconomic data are used. A funding gap was estimated in the current government-financed situation. Meanwhile, willingness to pay is calculated based on household-level data collected in the downstream area. The estimate indicates that the combination of ecological compensation payments from governments and downstream stakeholders’ willingness to pay for water services could completely cover the upstream service provider’s opportunity cost. Specifically, the related central and downstream governments would need to take on approximately 1/3 of the total cost, while the users from the downstream area would take on the rest. The proposed policies include adopting government–user joint-financing payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes for regional ecological and environmental cooperation in China, implementing diversified payment vehicles, launching additional environmental education projects, etc.
Im Freistaat Bayern wird derzeit intensiv diskutiert, wie die nach wie vor hohe Freiflächeninanspruchnahme für Siedlungs- und Verkehrszwecke nachhaltig reduziert werden kann. Wissenschaftliche Grundlage für Steuerungsansätze in der Stadt- und Regionalentwicklung sollte ein verbessertes staatliches Flächenmonitoring sein, welches über die amtliche Flächenstatistik und deren Hauptindikator „Siedlungs- und Verkehrsfläche“ (SuV) hinaus auch die qualitative bzw. strukturelle Dimension der Flächeninanspruchnahme einbezieht. Zu diesem Zweck stellt dieser Beitrag methodische Erweiterungsansätze für das Flächenmonitoring vor, welche kleinräumige Analysen der Zersiedelung, Freiraumstruktur, Flächenversiegelung und Ökosystemleistungen am Beispiel des Landkreises Rhön-Grabfeld aufzeigen. Diese werden im Kontext der relevanten Debatten zu Ursachen und Steuerung der Flächeninanspruchnahme sowie zu aktuellen Anforderungen an das Flächenmonitoring diskutiert, sowie deren Bedeutung für das Monitoring rechtlicher Vorgaben und politischer Ziele zur nachhaltigen Flächennutzung betont.
In recent years, the Chinese government has attached greater importance to marine ecological protection. To contribute to scientific understanding of the importance of marine ecosystems to human well-being, this paper analyzes marine ecosystem service and its accounting, and introduces the concept of “quaternary industry” on the basis of current marine economic accounting framework. Marine ecosystem accounting, marine economic accounting and marine ecological-economic accounting of coastal areas in China during the time series of 2005–2017 are calculated. The results show that compared with Gross Ocean Product (GOP), the average annual growth rate of Gross Marine Ecological-Economic Product (GMEEP) stays stable. The proportion of the added value of quaternary industry in marine ecological economy is relatively large, which is between 46% and 51%. And the ratio of GMEEP and GOP is around 1.9, suggesting a quite close association between GMEEP and GOP.
Peatland plays a pivotal role in providing natural resource production and environmental services for human welfare. However, many studies have mentioned the impact of dryland cultivation in peatland on the shifting carbon balance in the ecosystem that clearly will alter the interaction of these two ecosystem services. The goal of this study, conducted under the framework of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework, was to monetary value the ecosystem services (ES) of provisioning and carbon regulating services of the Gaung-Batang Tuaka Peat Hydrological Unit (KHG). We focused on KHG in response to Regulation No.57/2016, which highlights ecosystem boundary as a new basis for peatland management. Under the SEEA framework, ecosystem services become a benefit when utilized by ecosystem beneficiaries. In this case, provisioning services will be valued only for cultivated land, while carbon services calculated for the entire study area (global beneficiaries). Our study showed that the provisioning services and carbon services are under the trade-off condition, where the monetary value of provisioning services increased at a slower rate (0.50 million USD annually) than the monetary loss of the benefit of carbon services (5.28 million USD annually), greatly exceeded the monetary value of provisioning services. We highlight two main strategies to increase the monetary value of the KHG towards a synergy condition, namely increased value-added by reducing the productivity gap among ES beneficiaries and large-scale adoption of a profitable cultivation system with minimum peat disturbance. The main enablers required include financing access and incentives (e.g., reduce tax) and disincentives to allow for peat-adaptive commodities to compete with dryland commodities in the future market.
Recreation has been an important policy impetus for the creation of protected area networks worldwide. This paper reviews valuation techniques for recreation ecosystem services, a subset of cultural services provided by New South Wales national parks, guided by recent conceptual developments and applications in the context of the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting revision process. Drawing from an extensive population survey on national park visitation and existing welfare valuation work, we apply eight different valuation methods suitable to environmental-economic accounting. Methods are compared using four criteria: their degree of conceptual fit, their information cost in a range of contexts, their degree of spatial explicitness and their sensitivity to assumptions or exogenous factors. We offer a pragmatic, applied perspective on recent conceptual advances in environmental economic accounting, including a discussion of the relative merits of production versus consumption approaches. The results of this analysis will be used in statewide and regional ecosystem services accounts in New South Wales. They will subsequently be used to estimate national park asset values and to monitor the productivity of government investment in the New South Wales National Parks Estate.
Accounting information is a core element of economic decision-making at both national and corporate levels. It is widely accepted
that much economic activity is dependent upon natural capital and natural resources—generically termed environmental assets
in an accounting context. Environmental assets are under threat of depletion and degradation from economic activity. Consequently,
the incorporation of information on environmental assets into standard accounting frameworks is an essential element in mainstreaming
environmental information and broadening the evidence base for economic decisions and the assessment of sustainability. This
paper describes the treatment of environmental assets within the national economic accounts and summarizes recent developments
that extend the accounting approaches as described in the United Nations’ System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA).
The potential for implementation of accounting standards for environmental assets is shown through a description of work in
Australia on environmental-economic accounting.
Safeguarding the benefits that ecosystems provide to society is increasingly included as a target in international policies. To support such policies, ecosystem service maps are made. However, there is little attention for the accuracy of these maps. We made a systematic review and quantitative comparison of ecosystem service maps on the European scale to generate insights in the uncertainty of ecosystem service maps and discuss the possibilities for quantitative validation. Maps of climate regulation and recreation were reasonably similar while large uncertainties among maps of erosion protection and flood regulation were observed. Pollination maps had a moderate similarity. Differences among the maps were caused by differences in indicator definition, level of process understanding, mapping aim, data sources and methodology. Absence of suitable observed data on ecosystem services provisioning hampers independent validation of the maps. Consequently, there are, so far, no accurate measures for ecosystem service map quality. Policy makers and other users need to be cautious when applying ecosystem service maps for decision-making. The results illustrate the need for better process understanding and data acquisition to advance ecosystem service mapping, modelling and validation.
Mapping key areas for ecosystem service (ES) supply is essential for the development of strategies that will ensure their future supply. Given the rapid development in this area of research, we performed a review of different approaches used to map ES, with a special focus on those that use social–ecological data. We used an analytical framework based on five criteria for analyzing and comparing the methodological approaches: the types of ES, availability of data sources, types of data sources, spatial scale, and methods used to model ES. We found that regulating services were the most commonly mapped, followed by provisioning, cultural, and supporting services. Secondary (readily available) data were used more frequently than primary data to map ES. Biophysical data (land-cover variables) and mixed sources (databases like global statistics) were the most commonly employed ones. Most studies were performed at the regional or at the national scale. The most commonly used method to model services was the development of models based on the well-known causal relationships between environmental variables, followed by the extrapolation of ES values from primary data to the total analyzed area frequently using land-cover maps. Our synthesis reveals that the majority of studies are based on secondary data, applied at broad scales, without validation techniques. There is an urgent need to develop methods for deepening our understanding of the social–ecological processes behind the supply of ES in order to improve our ability to map ES for decision making.
Indonesia is subject to rapid land use change. One of the main causes for the conversion of land is the rapid expansion of the oil palm sector. Land use change involves a progressive loss of forest cover, with major impacts on biodiversity and global CO2 emissions. Ecosystem services have been proposed as a concept that would facilitate the identification of sustainable land management options, however, the scale of land conversion and its spatial diversity pose particular challenges in Indonesia. The objective of this paper is to analyze how ecosystem services can be mapped at the provincial scale, focusing on Central Kalimantan, and to examine how ecosystem services maps can be used for a land use planning. Central Kalimantan is subject to rapid deforestation including the loss of peatland forests and the provincial still lacks a comprehensive land use plan. We examine how seven key ecosystem services can be mapped and modeled at the provincial scale, using a variety of models, and how large scale ecosystem services maps can support the identification of options for sustainable expansion of palm oil production.
We describe and reflect on seven recurring critiques of the concept of ecosystem services and respective counter-arguments. First, the concept is criticized for being anthropocentric while others argue that it goes beyond instrumental values. Second, some argue that the concept promotes an exploitative human-nature relationship, while others state that it re-connects society to ecosystems, emphasizing humanity's dependence on nature. Third, concerns exist that the concept may conflict with biodiversity conservation objectives while others emphasize complementarity. Fourth, the concept is questioned because of its supposed focus on economic valuation, while others argue that ecosystem services science includes many values. Fifth, the concept is criticized for promoting commodification of nature, while others point out that most ecosystem services are not connected to market-based instruments. Sixth, vagueness of definitions and classifications are stated to be a weakness, while others argue that vagueness enhances transdisciplinary collaboration. Seventh, some criticize the normative nature of the concept implying that all outcomes of ecosystem processes are desirable. The normative nature is indeed typical for the concept, but should not be problematic when acknowledged. By disentangling and contrasting different arguments we hope to contribute to a more structured debate between opponents and proponents of the ecosystem services concept.
C. Obst et al. provide a welcome opportunity to clarify the difference between environmental-economic cost-benefit analyses (such as ours) and environmental accounting exercises [such as the UN-SEEA ([ 1 ][1], [ 2 ][2]) initiative]. Accounting studies attempt to assess the total value of goods
In their Research Article “Bringing ecosystem services into economic decision making: Land use in the United Kingdom” (5 July, p. [45][1]), I. J. Bateman et al. demonstrate the importance of considering nonmarket ecosystem services in economic decision-making. It is an excellent example of the
Recent developments in economics make it possible to design and create markets in sectors of the economy where they have previously been missing or inefficient. Although of interest from an economic efficiency perspective, market-based approaches to environmental management also reveal information and valuations that could have a role in environmental accounting. Using data from a pilot, involving the creation of a market (auction) for conservation contracts, we demonstrate a methodology to calculate the contribution of purchased ecosystem services to GDP, and create selected physical environmental asset accounts consistent with the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts. The paper also examines the role this information might play in developing monetary valuations for environmental assets.
While technological progress has fostered the conception of an urban society that is increasingly decoupled from ecosystems, demands on natural capital and ecosystem services keep increasing steadily in our urbanized planet. Decoupling of cities from ecological systems can only occur locally and partially, thanks to the appropriation of vast areas of ecosystem services provision beyond the city boundaries. Conserving and restoring ecosystem services in urban areas can reduce the ecological footprints and the ecological debts of cities while enhancing resilience, health, and quality of life for their inhabitants. In this paper we synthesize knowledge and methods to classify and value ecosystem services for urban planning. First, we categorize important ecosystem services and disservices in urban areas. Second, we describe valuation languages (economic costs, socio‐cultural values, resilience) that capture distinct value dimensions of urban ecosystem services. Third, we identify analytical challenges for valuation to inform urban planning in the face of high heterogeneity and fragmentation characterizing urban ecosystems. The paper discusses various ways through which urban ecosystems services can enhance resilience and quality of life in cities and identifies a range of economic costs and socio‐cultural impacts that can derive from their loss. We conclude by identifying knowledge gaps and challenges for the research agenda on ecosystem services provided in urban areas.
This report presents the methods and results of compiling physical and monetary balance sheets of oil and gas reserves in the Netherlands for the period 1990-2005. The net present value method is used to discount expected future incomes, which are based on a physical extraction scenario and an expected resource rent. The resource rent is calculated as the gross operating surplus less the user cost of capital in the industry 'extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas.' Sensitivity analyses show that monetary values are relatively insensitive to changes in the physical extraction scenario, but extremely sensitive to the use of alternative discount rates and different valuation methods. This report presents the physical and monetary balance sheets of oil and gas reserves in the Netherlands for the years 1990 until 2005. Within the National Accounts, the compilation of physical and monetary balance sheets of oil and gas reserves has three main purposes. First, the results of this project will be used for measuring multi-factor productivity. Second, the results are published in the Dutch environmental accounts. Third, the balance sheets of oil and gas reserves will be a component of non-financial balance sheets. Providing physical and monetary values to subsoil assets is essential for the measurement of multi-factor productivity (mfp) in mining and quarrying (Van den Bergen et al., 2007). Subsoil assets are important capital inputs, if not the most important input, in the production process of mining companies. If the extraction of subsoil assets is not considered a capital input, then changes in extracted subsoil assets will be reflected in mfp change. Including subsoil assets into the productivity calculations by considering them as capital inputs provides a better understanding of the production process and helps to provide meaningful interpretations of mfp. Compiling physical and monetary balance sheets for subsoil assets is based on the premise that non-renewable assets have a finite capacity to supply materials. Taking depletion of subsoil assets into account provides a more complete view on the link
While applied national accounts are based on market costs and outputs, non-market valuation techniques yield estimates for consumer or Hicksian surplus. To integrate non-market values in national accounts we propose the Simulated Exchange Value method, which simulates the whole market (demand and cost functions) to obtain exchange values. We focus on forest public recreational services because they are relatively close to markets and have been frequently valued using non-market valuation techniques. We apply this method to the public visitor recreational services of the woodlands of Alcornocales Natural Park (southwestern Spain). We estimate the cost function using available data on government costs incurred in the provision of recreational services and we estimate the demand function through contingent valuation. Using both functions, we analyze two potential solutions for the simulated market: monopoly and perfect competition. The results show for monopoly and for perfect competition, respectively, a net operating margin of €0.74/ha and of €0.61/ha, and a total social income of €3.14/ha and of €3.23/ha.
The world's leaders, business leaders and the public at large are beginning to question, amidst the multiple social, environmental and economic crises, whether our present trajectory of economic growth is sustainable. We seem to force ourselves to believe that we can grow ourselves out of the multiple crises we face today. The notion of sustainable development and the call for going beyond just material wealth to gauge our wellbeing has long featured in much of the sustainable development, environmental and ecological economics literature. We are afraid the present preoccupation with the green economy will not provide the change we are looking for if we don't address the fundamental problem of what we are aiming to achieve and how we measure our progress towards achieving those goals. We fall into the trap many international agencies have made over the past six decades, where the means become the ends and the ends become an academic exercise (Chang, 2001).
Recent estimates by J. Gosselink, E. Odum, and R. Pope of the economic value of natural wetlands have had considerable impact on analyses and discussions of public policies concerning natural wetlands management. However, these economic value estimates are neither conceptually nor empirically correct. First, these workers failed to recognize the nature of the process by which economic values are determined and made an illegitimate marriage of the principles of systems ecology and economic theory. Second, where Gosselink et al. attempted to apply proper economic principles, their calculations resulted in economic value estimates that are most likely in error.
Eliciting the economic benefits provided by protected areas is important in order to ensure that they are properly considered in policy and decision making. There are relatively few studies that provide a comprehensive overview of the economic benefits provided by European forest ecosystems, in spite of the large share of forests in the protected area system in most countries. An economic valuation of the ecosystem services supplied by the Hoge Veluwe forest in the Netherlands is presented. The Hoge Veluwe forest is one of the largest and most well-known protected areas in the country. The services included in the study are wood production, supply of game, groundwater recharge, carbon sequestration, air filtration, recreation, and nature conservation. A conservative estimate of the total economic benefits generated by the forest is around 2000 Euro/ha/year, which is more than three times higher than the per hectare-value generated by nearby agricultural land. The study provides an analysis of the economic value of eight ecosystem services, discusses the uncertainties of the value estimates, and examines the implications for financing protected area management.
Ecosystem service approaches have become a prominent basis for planning and management. Cultural services and non-use values are included in all major typologies and present some of the most compelling reasons for conserving ecosystems, though many barriers exist to their explicit characterization. The values that conform least well to economic assumptions—variously lumped together with/as cultural services—have proven elusive in part because valuation is complicated by the properties of intangibility and incommensurability, which has in turn led to their exclusion from economic valuation. We argue that the effectiveness of the ecosystem services framework in decision-making is thwarted by (i) conflation of services, values, and benefits, and (ii) failure to appropriately treat diverse kinds of values. We address this challenge by (1) distinguishing eight dimensions of values, which have implications for appropriate valuation and decision-making; (2) demonstrating the interconnected nature of benefits and services, and so the ubiquity of intangible values; (3) discussing the implications of these propositions for ecosystem-services research; and (4) outlining briefly a research agenda to enable decision-making that is ecologically appropriate and socially just. Because many ecosystem services (co-)produce ‘cultural’ benefits, full characterization of services must address non-material values through methods from diverse social sciences.
The paper seeks to contribute to the expanding literature on ecosystem service assessment by considering its integration with
economic analyses of such services. Focussing upon analyses for future orientated policy and decision making, we initially
consider a single period during which ecological stocks are maintained at sustainable levels. The flow of ecosystems services
and their contribution to welfare bearing goods is considered and methods for valuing resultant benefits are reviewed and
illustrated via a case study of land use change. We then broaden our time horizon to discuss the treatment of future costs
and benefits. Finally we relax our sustainability assumption and consider economic approaches to the incorporation of depleting
ecological assets with a particular focus upon stocks which exhibit thresholds below which restoration is compromised.
Jerez (Spain) and Iteimia (Tunisia) cork oak agroforestry systems have close natural environments but they differ in land
property rights, labour market and economic development contexts. These human induced differences result in similarities and
dissimilarities on natural resources multiple use management. In this study we apply a simplified agroforestry accounting
system (AAS) in two publicly owned cork oak agroforestry systems (COAS) for an average year, assuming steady state situation,
without considering both environmental outputs (private and public) and government expenditures. The study objectives are
to analyse the multiple Jerez and Iteimia agroforestry system activities intra-relationships taking into account intermediate
outputs and to estimate a set of on-site cork oak agroforestry economic indicators related to single activity and the COAS
as whole aggregated activities. In addition, in order to estimate separately the Iteimia open access grazing resource rent
and the household's self-employed labour cost, we propose a simulated pricing approach trade-off as an alternative to close
substitute goods pricing method. The study results show that Jerez generates a commercial capital income loss and employees
receive competitive wage rate, while undertakes a significant investment on agroforestry natural resources conservation and
improvements. Opposite to Jerez, Iteimia actual management offers a positive capital income and a high household self-employed
labour income on hectare basis, mainly from livestock and, in a less extent, other agroforestry land uses carried out in the
local subsistence-economy. The noteworthy dependence of Iteimia households on cork oak multiple use, with a current negative
impact on that resources conservation, make household subsistence-economy highly sensitive to nature conservationist policies
and measures.
The paper seeks to contribute to the expanding literature on ecosystem service assessment by considering its integration with
economic analyses of such services. Focussing upon analyses for future orientated policy and decision making, we initially
consider a single period during which ecological stocks are maintained at sustainable levels. The flow of ecosystems services
and their contribution to welfare bearing goods is considered and methods for valuing resultant benefits are reviewed and
illustrated via a case study of land use change. We then broaden our time horizon to discuss the treatment of future costs
and benefits. Finally we relax our sustainability assumption and consider economic approaches to the incorporation of depleting
ecological assets with a particular focus upon stocks which exhibit thresholds below which restoration is compromised.
KeywordsEcosystem services–Economic valuation–Stocks and flows–Wellbeing–Spatial and temporal issues–Sustainability–Irreversibility–UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK NEA)
Recent high-profile efforts have called for integrating ecosystem-service values into important societal decisions, but there are few demonstrations of this approach in practice. We quantified ecosystem-service values to help the largest private landowner in Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, design a land-use development plan that balances multiple private and public values on its North Shore land holdings (Island of O'ahu) of ∼10,600 ha. We used the InVEST software tool to evaluate the environmental and financial implications of seven planning scenarios encompassing contrasting land-use combinations including biofuel feedstocks, food crops, forestry, livestock, and residential development. All scenarios had positive financial return relative to the status quo of negative return. However, tradeoffs existed between carbon storage and water quality as well as between environmental improvement and financial return. Based on this analysis and community input, Kamehameha Schools is implementing a plan to support diversified agriculture and forestry. This plan generates a positive financial return ($10.9 million) and improved carbon storage (0.5% increase relative to status quo) with negative relative effects on water quality (15.4% increase in potential nitrogen export relative to status quo). The effects on water quality could be mitigated partially (reduced to a 4.9% increase in potential nitrogen export) by establishing vegetation buffers on agricultural fields. This plan contributes to policy goals for climate change mitigation, food security, and diversifying rural economic opportunities. More broadly, our approach illustrates how information can help guide local land-use decisions that involve tradeoffs between private and public interests.
Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfil human life. Ecosystem service valuation is being developed as a vehicle to integrate ecological understanding and economic considerations to redress the traditional neglect of ecosystem services in policy decisions. This paper presents a critical review on the neoclassical economic framework, tools used for economic valuation of ecosystem services and the economic welfare approach to collective decision-making, from an ecological perspective. The applicability of the framework and techniques for valuing ecosystem services are evaluated in light of the challenges posed by the complex, non-linear nature of many ecosystem services. Decisions concerning ecosystem management are often complex, socially contentious and fraught with uncertainty. Although judicious application of economic valuation techniques to ecosystem services can provide valuable information for conceptualizing decision choices and evaluating management options, there are serious limitations in the economic welfare approach to decision-making. These shortcomings and their implications for ecosystem management are elucidated and alternative approaches that emphasize participation, explicit treatment of uncertainty and transparent decision-making processes are discussed.
We are interested in three related questions: ( 1) How should accounting prices be estimated? ( 2) How should we evaluate policy change in an imperfect economy? ( 3) How can we check whether intergenerational well-being will be sustained along a projected economic programme? We do not presume that the economy is convex, nor do we assume that the government optimizes on behalf of its citizens. We show that the same set of accounting prices should be used both for policy evaluation and for assessing whether or not intergenerational welfare along a given economic path will be sustained. We also show that a comprehensive measure of wealth, computed in terms of the accounting prices, can be used as an index for problems ( 2) and ( 3) above. The remainder of the paper is concerned with rules for estimating the accounting prices of several specific environmental natural resources, transacted in a few well known economic institutions.
Historically, wetlands within metropolitan areas have been filled almost indiscriminately and used for residential or commercial development. As a result, some states have enacted legislation based on either regulation or compensatory taking to preserve these open spaces and to protect public health and welfare. This paper serves to quantify some of the economic benefits of wetlands in the Charles River Basin. The paper also presents some of the legal issues surrounding wetland preservation and suggests the role that economic analysis can play in these land use decisions.
The valuation of water resources is an important element for sustainable water resource management. Valuation exercises depend on their purpose and context of use. The objective of this paper is to investigate methods to value water resources that are consistent with national accounts principles. This implies that we look for exchange values that exclude consumer surplus. While water resources provide a range of benefits, in this paper we follow the measurement boundary of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) Central Framework and restrict ourselves to the extractive use or provisioning service of various types of water resources, surface- ground-, and soil water as recorded in the physical supply and use tables. The main users/uses that we value are agriculture (predominantly soil water), the water supply sector (mainly surface and groundwater) and industries (surface and sea water primarily for cooling). We obtain a value of water resources for the Netherlands in 2010 of approximately 35 billion euros, which is about 3 percent of the value of natural capital currently included in the Dutch balance sheet. We find that the resource rent method has limited feasibility due the occurrence of negative rents or difficulties to identify the return to water in the rent. The replacement cost method has better potential but more research is clearly needed to improve estimates.
The 1992 Earth Summit and its message of sustainable development drove the launching of a System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, the SEEA. Since then, sustainable development and the SEEA have given way to green growth and green economy indicators in the latest 2012 Summit. A lengthy revision process has now produced a curtailed “SEEA central framework.” The new framework focuses on expenditures for environmental protection and resource management, and stocks and flows of “economic” resources; both are covered by the conventional national accounts. Environmental degradation, notably from pollution, is left to “experimental” ecosystem accounts. Further revision of the SEEA should reverse this retrenchment from integrative environmental–economic accounting. A comprehensive satellite system, rather than a limited statistical standard, might put the SEEA back on the policy agenda.
The value of wildlife, visual-cultural benefits, water supply, and flood control benefits of wetlands (varied by benefit productivity
levels) are determined with help from appropriate scientists. Comparison of benefit value with opportunity cost of wetland
preservation is demonstrated as the basis for decisions concerning permits for wetland alteration.
This paper describes how economists ascribe values to the things people can choose. The economic value of an ecosystem function or service relates to the contribution it makes to human welfare, where human welfare is measured in terms of each individual's own assessment of well-being. After developing how this definition is used, the paper describes problems and opportunities for advancing the state-of-the-art in measuring economic values for nature. These arguments are developed using recent studies that attempted to estimate economic values for ecosystems on a global scale. One implication of this evaluation is that there is a need for greater communication between ecologists and economists. Economic analyses must reflect the intricate web of physical interrelationships linking activities that have harmful effects in one part of an ecosystem to the potential effects on other parts. At the same time, economic values for ecosystems accept consumer sovereignty and should be interpreted as descriptions of the tradeoffs involved in evaluating well-defined changes to specific ecosystems.
1. Ecosystem services are defined as the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems. Employing the ecosystem service concept is intended to support the development of policies and instruments that integrate social, economic and ecological perspectives. In recent years, this concept has become the paradigm of ecosystem management.
2. The prolific use of the term ‘ecosystem services’ in scientific studies has given rise to concerns about its arbitrary application. A quantitative review of recent literature shows the diversity of approaches and uncovers a lack of consistent methodology.
3. From this analysis, we have derived four facets that characterise the holistic ideal of ecosystem services research: (i) biophysical realism of ecosystem data and models; (ii) consideration of local trade-offs; (iii) recognition of off-site effects; and (iv) comprehensive but critical involvement of stakeholders within assessment studies.
4. These four facets should be taken as a methodological blueprint for further development and discussion. They should critically reveal and elucidate what may often appear to be ad-hoc approaches to ecosystem service assessments.
5. Synthesis and applications: Based on this quantitative review, we provide guidelines for further development and discussions supporting consistency in applications of the ecosystem service concept as well as the credibility of results, which in turn can make it easier to generalise from the numerous individual studies.
There are several policy tools available for the provision of ecosystem services. The economic characteristics of the ecosystem service being provided, such as rivalry and excludability, along with the spatial scale at which benefits accrue can help determine the appropriate policy approach. In this paper we provide a brief introduction to ecosystem services and discuss the policy tools available for providing them along with the dimensions, political feasibility and appropriateness of each tool. Throughout the paper we focus primarily on payments as a mechanism for ecosystem service provision. We present a framework for determining the characteristics of an ecosystem service and when payments are a viable policy tool option based on the characteristics. Additionally, we provide examples of when payments do not provide a socially desirable level of ecosystem benefits. We conclude with a summary of policy recommendations, specifically desirable property rights and payment types based on the particular classification of an ecosystem service. We also discuss the advantages of creating monopsony power to reduce transaction costs, delineating and bundling ecosystem services and utilizing existing intermediaries.
Trees are efficient scavengers of particulate matter and are characterised by higher rates of dry deposition than other land types. To estimate the potential of urban tree planting for the mitigation of urban PM10 concentrations, an atmospheric transport model was used to simulate the transport and deposition of PM10 across two UK conurbations (the West Midlands and Glasgow). Tree planting was simulated by modifying the land cover database, using GIS techniques and field surveys to estimate reasonable planting potentials. The model predicts that increasing total tree cover in West Midlands from 3.7% to 16.5% reduces average primary PM10 concentrations by 10% from 2.3 to 2.1 μg m−3 removing 110 ton per year of primary PM10 from the atmosphere. Increasing tree cover of the West Midlands to a theoretical maximum of 54% by planting all available green space would reduce the average PM10 concentration by 26%, removing 200 ton of primary PM10 per year. Similarly, for Glasgow, increasing tree cover from 3.6% to 8% reduces primary PM10 concentrations by 2%, removing 4 ton of primary PM10 per year. Increasing tree cover to 21% would reduce primary PM10 air concentrations by 7%, removing 13 ton of primary PM10 per year.
Besides their ecological and production function, the social function of forests and nature areas is becoming more and more important However, data, norms, and planning tools for this social function are limited. This makes it difficult for policy makers to do justice to this function, especially in the Netherlands, where spatial claims for different functions often exceed the available amount of land. In this paper we describe the development of a GIS-based planning tool for the recreational function of forests and nature areas. The tool focuses on the number of visits that may be expected. Besides the size of destination areas also the quality of the areas is taken into account. This quality is assessed using GIS-data on e.g. land-use, relief, noise, and the density of walking and cycling opportunities. Airline distances, as well as road distances (for cars) between residential areas and destination areas are calculated using GIS-analysis. The number of trips generated by a local population is then divided over the available areas within a pre-set range, taking each destination's quality and distance into account. The tool is suited not only for predicting present numbers of visits, but also for simulating the effect of new areas being developed, residential as well as natural. Also it can indicate residential areas where the local supply of forests and nature areas is wanting. Preliminary results for the city of Breda are presented.
Despite the growing body of literature on ecosystem services, still many challenges remain to structurally integrate ecosystem services in landscape planning, management and design. This paper therefore aims to provide an overview of the challenges involved in applying ecosystem service assessment and valuation to environmental management and discuss some solutions to come to a comprehensive and practical framework.First the issue of defining and classifying ecosystem services is discussed followed by approaches to quantify and value ecosystem services. The main part of the paper is focussed on the question how to analyze trade-offs involved in land cover and land use change, including spatial analysis and dynamic modelling tools. Issues of scale are addressed, as well as the question how to determine the total economic value of different management states.Finally, developments and challenges regarding the inclusion of ecosystem services in integrative landscape planning and decision-making tools are discussed.It is concluded that the ecosystem service approach and ecosystem service valuation efforts have changed the terms of discussion on nature conservation, natural resource management, and other areas of public policy. It is now widely recognized that nature conservation and conservation management strategies do not necessarily pose a trade-off between the “environment” and “development”. Investments in conservation, restoration and sustainable ecosystem use are increasingly seen as a “win-win situation” which generates substantial ecological, social and economic benefits.
The present national accounting system for forests measures only the commercial flows of the production account and the consumption of durable goods produced by human intervention, and focuses particularly on final output, while ignoring any intermediate output not arising from harvested agricultural crops. Environmental goods and services, whether for public consumption or for the landowner's private use (owner's self-consumption), are ignored in conventional measurements of the net domestic product of forests. This paper presents and applies a forest accounting methodology that overcomes these limitations and allows for homogeneous aggregation of commercial and environmental values (using exchange values, and not welfare measurements, for the latter). We have applied the accounting system proposed here to two major types of multiple-use forest of the Iberian peninsula: Mediterranean forest (Monfragüe cork oak dehesa) and conifer forest (Scottish pine in the Guadarrama mountain range). Our results show that non-commercial incomes are relatively more important in the pine forest under consideration, both in private and in social terms. Cork oak forest is notably more profitable in private terms than pine forest, however. Conventional national accounting measures only 24% and 77% of social total income in Guadarrama Scottish forest and Monfragüe cork oak dehesa, respectively.
In this paper, a decision framework designed for spatially explicit value transfer was used to estimate ecosystem service flow values and to map results for three case studies representing a diversity of spatial scales and locations: 1) Massachusetts; 2) Maury Island, Washington; and 3) three counties in California. In each case, a unique typology of land cover and aquatic resources was developed and relevant economic valuation studies were queried in order to assign estimates of ecosystem service values to each category in the typology. The result was a set of unique standardized ecosystem service value coefficients broken down by land cover class and service type for each case study. GIS analysis was then used to map the spatial distribution of each cover class at each study site. Economic values were summarized and mapped by tributary basin for Massachusetts and California and by property parcel for Maury Island. For Maury Island, changes in ecosystem service value flows were estimated under two alternative development scenarios. Drawing on lessons learned during the implementation of the case studies, the authors present some of the practical challenges that accompany spatially explicit ecosystem service value transfer. They also discuss how variability in the site characteristics and data availability for each project limits the ability to generalize a single comprehensive methodology.
This paper advocates consistently defined units of account to measure the contributions of nature to human welfare. We argue that such units have to date not been defined by environmental accounting advocates and that the term “ecosystem services” is too ad hoc to be of practical use in welfare accounting. We propose a definition, rooted in economic principles, of final ecosystem service units. A goal of these units is comparability with the definition of conventional goods and services found in GDP and the other national accounts. We illustrate our definition of ecological units of account with concrete examples. We also argue that these same units of account provide an architecture for environmental performance measurement by governments, conservancies, and environmental markets.
The purpose of this study is to determine how the spatial scale of measurement influences ecosystem service valuation. Two land cover datasets were compared: one classified from 1-km imagery and one classified from 30-m imagery. The coarse resolution biome dataset used in this study (called the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Dataset) was classified from 1-km NOAA-AVHRR imagery and includes 17 biome types. The finer resolution National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) used in this study was classified from 30-m Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery and has 21 land-cover classes. A common land-cover classification scheme containing eight land-cover types was developed in order to compare the two datasets. The areal extent of these land-cover types in each dataset was determined and then multiplied by the value of the ecosystem services to arrive at a total value for ecosystem services. Generally, the areal extent of Lakes/Rivers, barren areas, urban areas, and wetlands in the NLCD showed the largest increases when compared to their extents in the IGBP dataset. The total value of ecosystem services for every state except New Mexico increased using the NLCD. The total value of ecosystem services for the conterminous US increased by almost 200%. The total value according to the 1 km resolution IGBP data was 259 billion/yr whereas the total value according to the finer resolution (30 m) NLCD data was over 8.6 trillion). These methods use landcover as a proxy measure of ecosystem service. Some of the pitfalls and promise of this assumption are discussed in the context of spatially explicit remotely sensed image data.
The rural landscapes of Europe are in both a homogenisation and a fragmentations process. Regional differences are disappearing due to the dominating equalising impact of the worldwide market. If regional differences are not maintained and protected then the cultural landscapes of Europe and their biological diversity will decline and only remnants will remain. Models on agricultural management and data on landscape changes from all Europe confirm this. Regional differences have to be maintained through conscious environmental and ecological planning. Concepts for this have been developed in all countries in Europe, such as the ecostabilisation concept and the concept of ecological networks. Nature management by farmers is more and more accepted. Landscape planners should be aware of their changing role from designer towards negotiator with the actors in the landscape with different landscape functions and planning tasks in mind.
Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream - attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from Hawai‘i. We describe key advances in the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments.