Valuing Ecosystem Goods & Services

VALUING ECOSYSTEM GOODS AND SERVICES

PROJECT 6

Sharing the knowledge required by policy-makers to incorporate ecosystem services valuation into land-use decision making in the Peruvian Amazon

Brazil nut white box (Chris Kirkby) tran

It is generally understood that humans benefit from wild nature via the provision of ecosystem goods and services such as harvestable animals and plants used for food, fuel, and fibre; climate regulation; nutrient cycling; pollution control, and so forth. These benefits should provide strong incentives to conserve nature, however a lack of quality information on the economic value of these goods and services, and their rate of provision, means that they are frequently overlooked or downplayed when it comes to making important decisions regards retaining or converting wild habitats (e.g. rainforest), especially when short-term private economic gains (i.e. profits) from conversion are at stake.

Although it may be difficult or sometimes impossible for certain ecosystem goods and services to be marketed (i.e. bought and sold), and thus will lack a price signal for comparable valuation with competing human-made goods and services, it is necessary to furnish decision-makers in government and civil society with reliable estimates of the value of ecosystem goods and services, so that they can be properly considered.

What is really important for decision-makers in our geographical area of interest, the Peruvian Amazon, to know is the rate of provision of ecosystem goods and services associated with tropical forests, and how these are related to the ecosystem processes that underpin them. This can provide data on both the marginal value as well as the total value of ecosystem goods and services for a particular area. In addition, showcasing the negative impacts of perverse incentives resulting from existing government legislation, which can act to artificially increase the economic value of habitat conversion, is also very important for decision-makers to fully understand the potential repercussions of their decisions.

We have begun this process by understanding the value of intact rainforest for ecotourism development, from a private and social cost-benefit perspective. We are also focused on understanding the rate of provision of non-timber forest products in forests under different management regimes.

Aims and Objectives

To understand the ecosystem processes that underpin the key ecosystem goods and services that flow from the Peruvian Amazon rainforest;

To understand the flow rate of ecosystem goods and services from rainforests and the marginal value of this rate, how this varies across a landscape;

To calculate the total economic value of ecosystem goods and services for a rainforest landscape, taking into account double counting and other potential pitfalls;

To provide decision-makers with quality information pertaining to existing and potential policy options associated with habitat change and forest conversion based on ecosystem valuation, including solutions to problems and identifying opportunities to monetise ecosystem services where appropriate.