Valuing Ecosystem Services: The Case of Multi-functional Wetlands

Description

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 thei? Woodrow Wilson School ofi? Public and Internationali? Affairsi? at Princeton University, USA.

'This is the definitive volume on understanding and valuing wetland ecosystem services. With rapidly growing interest in ecosystem services and applications in a broad range of contexts, this volume is absolutely essential.' Robert Costanza, Professor of ecological economics, University of Vermont, USA 'Brings the subject together in a text that combines theory, principles and practical applications - in a way that will be of interest to researchers and practitioners.' Joe Morris, Professor of resource economics and management, Cranfield University, UK 'A valuable reference' S.G. Shetron, emeritus professor, Michigan Technological University, USA