This chapter introduces the concept of monetary valuation of ecosystem services (ES) and lists the available methods. It discusses what exactly can be valued and the possible use of economic valuation in valuing ecosystem services. Examples of valuation exercises in Belgium are given. We conclude that monetary valuation is promising to value the impact of small changes in ecosystem services on human welfare. The different methods used to value these changes all have advantages and disadvantages. Although some relevant issues concerning the methods themselves remain, the most important issue is to determine how to make practical use of the available data in policy decisions. Guidance is needed on how the data should be used for value transfer.

"The international community has committed itself to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional, and national levels. Yet, despite growing awareness, and major efforts in all countries, the latest evidence indicates that biodiversity continues to be lost at a terrifying pace, resulting in what some call the greatest mass extinction since dinosaurs roamed the planet, 65 million years ago. A range of methods have been developed to value ecosystems, and the services they provide, as well as the costs of conservation. The methods available are increasingly sensitive, and robust, but they are often incorrectly used. One reason is poor understanding of the purposes of valuation and what questions it can, or cannot, answer. As a result, decision makers may get misleading guidance on the value of ecosystems, and their conservation. In this context, the Bank, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, and the Nature Conservancy have worked together to clarify the aims and uses of economic valuation, focusing on the types of questions that valuation can answer, and the type of valuation that is best suited to each purpose. How Much is an Ecosystem Worth? is the result of that cooperation. It aims to provide guidance on how economic valuation can be used to address specific, policy-relevant questions about nature conservation."

Nutrient recycling, habitat for plants and animals, flood control, and water supply are among the many beneficial services provided by aquatic ecosystems. In making decisions about human activities, such as draining a wetland for a housing development, it is essential to consider both the value of the development and the value of the ecosystem services that could be lost. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services, their value is often overlooked in environmental decision-making. This report identifies methods for assigning economic value to ecosystem servicesâ€"even intangible onesâ€"and calls for greater collaboration between ecologists and economists in such efforts.

The practical importance of economic valuation information can hardly be overstated. Coastal and marine resource policy planning and management benefit from complete information on the impact of policy decisions. In addition, proper accounting of the impacts of these policy decisions is necessary for benefit-cost analyses and measurements of economic growth over time. This special issue focuses on economic valuation of coastal and marine ecosystem services. Economic valuation provides methods and techniques to determine how changes in coastal and marine ecosystem services can be translated into benefits and costs to society. Economic values play an important role in everyday life and provide useful information about human welfare and happiness. Valuation provides a consistent framework to understand human-nature interactions across a broad range of coastal and marine resources, and to evaluate the costs and benefits of these interactions. The focus on ecosystem services provides new research on this perspective of human-nature interactions that has profoundly changed the academic dialogue on natural systems, but has had limited impact on public dialogue and the policy process.

Policy and management decisions are often made on financial grounds. However, the economic value of the benefits that people derive from ecosystems, that is, ecosystem services, may not be fully recognised and hence ecosystem considerations may not be incorporated adequately into decision-making processes. This is particularly true for regulating services, the benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes, the valuation of which requires an interdisciplinary approach. In essence, valuation is a problem solving strategy and a problem is a problem, it does not respect the boundary of any particular discipline. The valuation of regulating services is an evolving field of ecological economics. In this book, Professor Pushpam Kumar and Professor Michael D. Wood have invited some of the foremost international experts in the field of ecosystem services valuation to contribute chapters on the valuation of regulating services and highlight some of the main obstacles to the implementation and acceptance of these methodologies in the context of decision-making. The contributors explore the theoretical underpinning of valuation of ecosystem services and demonstrate ways in which these theories can be applied to case-specific problems in order to inform decision-making processes. This collection clarifies some of the doubt and uncertainty regarding the valuation of regulating services. Innovative methodologies in this field have started to emerge and in coming years there may be much further discussion on this topic as methodologies and understanding continue to evolve. This is a highly active area of interdisciplinary research with far reaching social and environmental implications, and this book should be of interest to those who are new to the field, as well as established experts, in moving both theory and practice forward.

The degradation of ecosystems, including forests, and the associated loss of biodiversity, particularly due to human-induced threats and climate change, has gained increased attention from scientists and policymakers. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment presented a new conceptual framework that puts ecosystem services at the centre and links human well-being to the impacts on ecosystems of changes in natural resources. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity initiative drew further attention to the economic benefits of conserving ecosystems and biodiversity, supporting the idea that economic instruments – if appropriately applied, developed and interpreted – can inform policy- and decision-making processes. Only a few ecosystem services, however, have explicit market value and are traded in open markets: many – especially those categorized as having “passive-use” value – remain invisible and are rarely accounted for in traditional economic systems. The failure to appropriately consider the full economic value of ecosystem services in decision making enables the continued degradation and loss of ecosystems and biodiversity. Most ecosystem services are considered public goods and tend to be overexploited by society. Many methods have been applied to the economic valuation of ecosystem services. The use of these methods, as well as the interpretation of their results, requires familiarity with the ecological, political, normative and socio-economic context and the science of economics. Recognizing, demonstrating and capturing the value of ecosystem services can play an important role in setting policy directions for ecosystem management and conservation and thus in increasing the provision of ecosystem services and their contributions to human well-being. The aim of this manual is to enhance understanding of ecosystem services and their valuation. The specific target group comprises governmental officers in planning units and field-level officers and practitioners in key government departments in Bangladesh responsible for project development, including the Ministry of Environment and Forests and its agencies. Most of the examples and case studies presented herein, therefore, are tailored to the Bangladesh context, but the general concepts, approaches and methods can be applied to a broad spectrum of situations. This manual focuses on valuing forest-related ecosystem services, including those provided by trees outside forests. It is expected to improve valuation efforts and help ensure the better use of such values in policymaking and decision making. Among other things, the manual explores the basics of financial mathematics (e.g. the time value of money; discounting; cost–benefit analysis; and profitability and risk indicators); the main methods of economic valuation; examples of the valuation of selected ecosystem services; and inputs for considering values in decision making.

In recent years, there has been a marked proliferation in the literature on economic approaches to ecosystem management, which has created a subsequent need for real understanding of the scope and the limits of the economic approaches to ecosystems and

This thought provoking book draws together prominent international authorities to discuss the key methodological issues and challenges in valuing ecosystem services. Covering a cross-section of ecosystems and services in different sites, countries and

Monetary valuation methods appropriately applied and based on sound biophysical data can deliver robust estimates of ecosystem service values useful for policy. However key challenges remain for full incorporation into policy appraisal. This chapter provides an overview of some of the key challenges as well as opportunities in the economic valuation of ecosystem services in practice. It is largely based on overviews made at DEFRA, 2007, Morse-Jones et al., 2010, and TEEB, 2012. There are two main groups of challenges: challenges in the availability of data and challenges on the concrete use of data into policy appraisal.