1st Edition

Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Forests in Central America An ecosystem service perspective

Edited By Aline Chiabai Copyright 2015
    220 Pages
    by Routledge

    236 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The loss of biodiversity is a major environmental problem in nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. This loss is accelerating driven by climate change, as well as by other causes including agricultural exploitation, fragmentation and degradation triggered by land use changes. The crucial issue under debate is the impact on the welfare of current and future population, and the role of humans in the exploitation of natural resources. This is of particular importance in Central America, which it is amongst the richest and most threatened biodiversity regions on the Earth, and where the loss of ecosystems strongly affects its socio-economic vulnerability.

    This book addresses the impacts of climate and land-use change on tropical forest ecosystems in this important region, and assesses the expected economic costs if no policy action is taken, under different future scenarios and for different geographical scales.

    This innovative collection utilises both theoretical approaches and empirical results to provide a conceptual framework for an integrated analysis of climate and land-use change impacts on forest ecosystems and related economic effects, offering insight into the complex relationship between ecosystems and benefits to humans. This important contribution to forest ecosystems and climate change provides invaluable reading for students and scholars in the fields of environmental and ecological economics, environmental science and forestry, natural resource management, agriculture and climate change.

    Introduction Aline Chiabai  Part 1: Central American Tropical Forests, Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing  1. An overview of forest biomes and ecoregions of Central America Lenin Corrales, Claudia Bouroncle, and Juan Carlos Zamora  2. Ecosystem services in tropical forests: Contribution to human well-being and implications for economic valuation Aline Chiabai  Part 2: Climate, Water and Land-Use Changes in Central American Tropical Forests  3. Impacts of climate change on ecosystem hydrological services of Central America: Water availability Pablo Imbach, Bruno Locatelli, Juan Carlos Zamora, Emily Fung, Lluis Calderer, Luis Molina and Philippe Ciais  4. Climate change impacts on the water services in Costa Rica: A production function for the hydro-energy sector Elisa Sainz de Murieta, Aline Chiabai and Juan Carlos Zamora  5. Climate change economic impacts on water and recreation services in Central American forests Elena Ojea, Juan Carlos Zamora, Julia Martin-Ortega and Pablo Imbach  6. Cost-benefit analysis of alternative land-use scenarios: A sustainability study for the volcanic central Talamanca biological corridor Helen Ding, Aline Chiabai and Diego Tobar   Part 3: Economic Assessment, Adaptation, Options and Policy Implications  7. The role of economic valuation of ecosystem services in an interdisciplinary context Anil Markandya  8. Ecosystem-based adaptation: Natural responses to climate change impacts Giacomo Fedele, Raffaele Vignola and Marco Otarola

    Biography

    Aline Chiabai is a senior researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), where she coordinates the research area on health and climate change.

    "This is the definitive volume of readings on the climate change and ecosystems services in the forests of Central America. The readings provide viable insight and analysis, and should serve as inspiration for researchers not only interested in this problem but also in conducting studies of climate change impacts on ecosystems in other critical regions of the world."–Edward B. Barbier, University of Wyoming, USA

    "Tropical forests are among the most valuable ecosystems on earth in terms of their biodiversity and their contribution to sustainable human well-being. This book is a timely and valuable addition to the growing literature on tropical forest ecosystem services."Robert Costanza, The Australian National University, Australia

    "This is a worth reading volume for researchers and policy makers which presents one of the few ecological and economic comprehensive studies of how Climate Change is affecting ecosystem services. The methodological approach and analysis, combining spatially explicit different types of data within using various models and scenarios, should serve as a model for other critical regions."Maria Jose Sanz Sanchez, Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Italy