1st Edition

Valuation of Regulating Services of Ecosystems Methodology and Applications

Edited By Pushpam Kumar, Michael Wood Copyright 2010
    256 Pages 19 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    256 Pages 19 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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, Dr. Pushpam Kumar and Dr. 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.


     

    Part 1: Concepts 1. An introduction to the valuation of regulating services Pushpam Kumar and Michael D. Wood 2. Valuing Ecosystem Services: Benefits, values, space and time Brendan Fisher, Ian Bateman and R. Kerry Turner 3. Ecosystem services: managing trade-offs between provisioning and regulating services Thomas Elmqvist, Magnus Tuvendal, Jagdish Krishnaswamy and Kristoffer Hylander 4. The "Ecosystem Service Framework": A Critical Assessment R. David Simpson Part 2: Methodological applications 5. Evaluating the economic impacts of water harvesting in Burkina Faso Rodney B.W. Smith, Laura A. Hildreth and Kimsey Savadago 6. Accounting for regulating services Karl-Göran Mäler, Sara Aniyar and Åsa Jansson 7. Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Coastal Ecosystems: Asian and European perspectives Premachandra Wattage 8. Valuing the Storm Protection Services of the Mangroves: Methodological and Data challenges Saudamini Das 9. European Forests and Carbon Sequestration Services: An Economic Assessment of Climate Change Impacts Helen Ding, Paulo A.L.D. Nunes and Sonja Teelucksingh 10. Valuing the Services of Coral Reef Systems for Sustainable Coastal Management: A Case Study of the Gulf of Kachchh, India Arun M. Dixit, Lalit Kumar, Pushpam Kumar and Kinjal Pathak Part 3: Synthesis 11. Institutions and Ecosystem Functions: The Case of Keti Bunder, Pakistan John M. Gowdy and Aneel Salman 12. Valuation of Ecosystem Services: methods, opportunities and policy implications Nicolas Kosoy, Makiko Yashiro, Carlota Molinero and Anantha Duraiappah 13. Conclusions on the valuation of regulating services: current status and future perspectives Pushpam Kumar and Michael D. Wood

    Biography

    Pushpam Kumar is Reader in Environmental Economics at the University of Liverpool, UK.

    Michael D. Wood is an environmental scientist at the University of Liverpool, UK.