Valuing Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem services can be broadly defined as the aspects of ecosystems that provide benefits to people. This book provides guidance on the valuation of ecosystem services, using the case of multifunctional 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 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 that can be applied to other types of ecosystem assets.

R Kerry Turner, CBE, 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. Stavros Georgiou is an economic advisor, UK Health and Safety Executive and an honorary research fellow at CSERGE. Brendan Fisher is a Research Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, USA.

Introduction * The Ecosystem Services Approach to Natural Resource Management * Policy Appraisal Perspectives and Socio-economic Appraisal Approaches * The Ecosystem Services Approach: Valuation of Multi-functional Wetlands * Economic Valuation of Wetland Ecosystem Services in Practice * Valuation of Multi-functional Wetland: Case Studies * Conclusions and Future Prospects * Bibliography * Index