Valuing Ecosystem Services

by Turner, R. Kerry; Georgiou, Stavros; Fisher, Brendan

• ISBN13: 9781844076154
• ISBN10: 1844076156
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Ecosystem services can be broadly defined as the aspects of ecosystems that provide benefits to people. The aim of this book is to provide guidance on the valuation of ecosystem services, using the case of multi-functional wetlands to illustrate and make recommendations regarding the methods and techniques that can be applied to appraise management options. It provides a review of ecosystem service valuation rationale, including its importance from both a policy and project appraisal perspective, and a useful reference when considering policy and appraisal of ecosystem management options. It shows how legal obligations and other high-level management targets should be taken into account in valuation exercises, thus giving important policy context to the management options. The authors argue that it is not only ecosystems themselves that should be valued but also the goods and services provided, which affect human welfare. They build upon the idea of ecosystem services as the aspects of ecosystems consumed or utilized to produce human well-being, thus including ecosystem organization (structure), operation (process) and outflows. They set out what they call an Ecosystem Services Approach to the full appraisal of the role of ecosystem services in the economy and society. Although concentrating on wetlands, the approaches suggested provide an assessment framework, which can be applied, to other types of ecosystem assets.

Author Biography

Brendan Fisher is a senior research associate at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE). Stavros Georgiou is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE). Robert Kerry Turner is director of the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) and director of the Zuckerman Institute for Connective Environmental Research (ZICER), both at the University of East Anglia, UK.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes	p. v
Acknowledgements	p. vii
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Ecosystem Services Approach to Natural Resource Management	p. 3
Ecosystem services defined	p. 5
The ecosystem services approach	p. 9
Policy Appraisal Perspectives and Socio-economic Appraisal Approaches	p. 19
Policy contexts	p. 19
Existing socio-economic appraisal approaches	p. 21
The Ecosystem Services Approach: Valuation of Multi-functional Wetlands	p. 25
Overview of approach and analytical stages	p. 25
Stage 1 Wetland classification: The simplified hydrogeomorphic method (HGM)	p. 31
Stage 2 Wetland ecosystem functioning and the services of wetlands	p. 32
Stage 3 Wetland functioning service benefits	p. 36
Stage 4 Wetland valuation/evaluation	p. 39
Economic Valuation of Wetland Ecosystem Services in Practice	p. 59
Practical constraints	p. 59
Wetland benefits	p. 66
Valuation of hydrological service benefits	p. 68
Valuation of biogeochemical service benefits	p. 84
Valuation of ecological service benefits	p. 96
Valuation of Multi-functional Wetland: Case Studies	p. 111
Conclusions and Future Prospects	p. 143
Economic Valuation Techniques	p. 147
Wetland Ecosystem Services: Overview of Empirical Studies	p. 171
Case Studies Used for Policy Review and Survey	p. 193
Bibliography	p. 209
Index	p. 225
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