this presentation includes slides from the world resources institute publication ecosystem services:...
TRANSCRIPT
This presentation includes slides from the World Resources Institute publication Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers and a presentation by Stephen Polasky,
Professor, University of Minnesota
The Economics of Sustainability: Ecosystem Services
Elena IrwinProfessor
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics
Ohio State University
• New York City
• Western China
• Thailand
What do they have in common?
3 cases from the field
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
Water quality in New York City• Ninety percent of NYC’s drinking water is drawn from sources in the
Catskill Mountains and the headwaters of the Delaware River where it filters through nearly 1,600 square miles of watershed land
• Early 1990s: Degradation of watershed threatened drinking water for 9 million people
• Construction costs of a new water filtration plant estimated at $6 billion with $30 million annual operating expenses
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
Food production in China• 1950s: Shiyang River diverted to form the Hongyashan Reservoir
(Minqin County) to support agriculture• River has dried up, no more reservoir, groundwater will be depleted in
another 17 years• Desert is encroaching on Minqin at rate of 10 meters/year• Desertification costs China $2-3 billion each year
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
Shrimp farming in Thailand• Global shrimp production has grown at a rate of 10–20 percent per
year in last 5-10 years• Shrimp aquaculture: low-cost shrimp• Mangroves (coastal wetlands that flood w brackish water) are ideal for
aquaculture sites, but also provide habitat to native fish and storm protection
• Productive life of a shrimp farm in Thailand is 5 years on average
• Changes were made to the management of ecosystems
• These changes created unexpected costs to those dependent on nature’s services
• Some gained from the changes, but many more lost
• Most often, the economic gains are easy to see, but the ecological losses are “invisible” in the marketplace
What do these 3 cases have in common?
What’s needed, why and how?
• What: – Increased provision of ecosystem services and
reduced human impacts on ecosystems
• Why– To improve human well-being (become more
sustainable) by increasing our total wealth
• How – Account for the value of nature’s services– Provide the right incentives by developing markets for
ecosystem services
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
Understand the link between ecosystems and human well-being
Humans impact nature
Nature impacts human well-being
A few definitions
Ecosystem
Ecosystem services
• The benefits people obtain from ecosystems
• The “services of nature”
• A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and micro-organism communities and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit
Biodiversity • The variability among living organisms within species and populations, between species, and between ecosystems
• Serves as the foundation for all ecosystem services
Natural Capital
• Physical assets generated by nature that provide ecosystem services
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
• Largest assessment of the health of Earth’s ecosystems,, including trends, drivers, impacts and future scenarios
• Called for by UN Secretary General in 2000
• Partnership of UN agencies, conventions, business, non-governmental organizations with a multi-stakeholder board of directors
• Prepared by 1360 experts from 95 countries
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makerswww.MAweb.org
RegulatingBenefits
obtained from control of natural
processes by ecosystems
CulturalNon-material
benefits obtained from
ecosystems
Provisioning
Goods produced or provided by ecosystems
3 categories of ecosystem services
Capture fisheriesWild foodsBiomass fuelGenetic resourcesBiochemicalsFresh water
Air quality regulationClimate regulationErosion regulationWater purificationPest regulationPollinationNatural hazard regulation
Spiritual valuesAesthetic values
What do we know about the status of the world’s ecosystem services?
Degraded EnhancedMixed
Provisioning
Cultural
Regulating
CropsLivestockAquaculture
Carbon sequestration
TimberFiber
Water regulationDisease regulation
Recreation & ecotourism
What do these ecosystem
services have in common?
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
What’s driving ecosystem change?
Direct drivers • Physical changes that can be identified and monitored
• Alter the level or rate of change of one or more direct drivers
Indirect drivers
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
• Habitat Change
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Invasive Species
• Overexploitation
Direct drivers of ecosystem change
Impact is incrasing Impact is at a constant rate Impact is decreasing
Habitat change
Climate change
Invasive species
Over- exploitationPollution
Temperate Grassland
Tropical grassland and savanna
Desert
Mediterranean
Island
Mountain
Polar
Inland water
Coastal
Marine
Boreal forest
Temperate forest
Tropical forest
Trends in direct drivers
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
• Demographic
• Economic
• Sociopolitical
• Science and technologies
• Cultural and religious
Indirect drivers of ecosystem change?
Enhancement of some market-based ecosystem services often leads to degradation of others winners and losers
Tradeoffs Trade-offs
• Trade-offs occur because the same land area (or water body) produces both economic benefits and non-market ecosystem services that compete with (rather than complement) each other
• Synergies may be possible at a local scale• However, at an aggregate level, there is a fundamental trade-off between economic growth
and the environment
Why value nature?
• TED talk: Pavan Sukhdev: Put a value on nature!– http://www.ted.com/talks/pavan_sukhdev_what_s_the_
price_of_nature.html
• The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Report, including the TEEB for Business report
• Questions to think about as you watch this:– Why should society value ecosystem services?
– Why should businesses value ecosystem services?
The main issues
1. Valuation: how can we assess the relative value (importance) of various ecosystem services?
– Environmental economics: Methods to estimate the values of non-market ecosystem services to humans
– Inclusive wealth accounting: National accounts that assess value of all forms of capital (produced, human, natural, social)
The main issues
2. Incentives: how can we provide rewards for providing ecosystem services?
– Markets for ecosystem services, e.g., PES (payments for ecosystem services) = incentives for individuals and firms to provide ecosystem services
– Markets for ecological damages = incentives for, e.g., carbon tax, cap-and-trade, impervious surface fee = individuals and firms to reduce impacts
Types of environmental values
Use values refer to the utility arising from direct or indirect physical use of a resource including commercial use, recreational use, and aesthetic use:
» Direct use values are private benefits that are derived from resource consumption and contribute to resource depletion. Examples are farming, forestry, fishing, grazing, hunting, mining.
» Indirect use-values are generally public good benefits that do not contribute to resource depletion. Examples are swimming, boating, hiking, camping, viewing wildlife, observing scenic forests, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, etc.
» Option value arises in situations where depleting a resource would be an irreversible action. It is derived from maintaining the option to utilize it in the future. For example, extinct plants could have medicinal value that can not be discovered anymore.
• Non-use values refer to utility that is derived from environmental resources without physical interaction with the resource:
» Bequest value refers to utility derived from passing an environmental resource on to children and/or future generations.
» Existence value, or inherent benefits refer to utility derived from the knowledge of the mere existence of environmental resources. You might never see many of the endangered species but you might still value their existence.
Types of environmental values
Total Economic Value =
Direct Use Values + Indirect Use Values + Non-Use Values
Techniques for measuring the value of non-market goods
The three major categories for measuring the value of non-market goods include:
• Revealed preference techniques, which look at decisions people make in reaction to changes in environmental quality.
• Stated preference techniques, which elicit values directly through survey methods.
• Benefits-transferred techniques, which look at existing studies for value of analogous environmental change.
Techniques for measuring the value of non-market goods
• Revealed preference = Market based methods (linking information from markets to environmental cost or demand)– Production function approach– Cost of illness approach– Cost-based approaches– Travel cost method– Hedonic pricing model
• Stated preference = Non-market based methods (survey methods that elicit hypothetical values)– Contingent valuation– Conjoint analysis
Blue-green Algae Bloom circa 1970, Lake Erie
““I heard Lake Erie is the place fish I heard Lake Erie is the place fish go to die.” -- Johnny Carson, 1976go to die.” -- Johnny Carson, 1976
Example: Lake Erie
Lake Erie Today: Amenity-Driven Growth
Research Questions
• Do changes in the water quality of Lake Erie affect the value of houses in the region?
• How important is water quality relative to other factors that influence housing values?
• What is the estimated benefit (in dollars) of an improvement in water quality to homeowners?
Method: Hedonic Price Model
• Sales price is decomposed into a series of “implicit prices” that represent the marginal contribution of each attribute to overall price
• For example:
Housing pricei = p1*(Sizei) + p2*(School qualityi) p3*(Access to worki) + p4*(Access to lakei) + p5*(Water qualityi)
• Interpretation of pi = implicit price of X = the change in housing price given a marginal change in X
– For example, p5 = the change in housing price given a an increase in water quality
Measuring Water Clarity: Secchi Disk Depth
http://lakes.chebucto.org/DATA/PARAMETERS/SD/sd.html
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/management/joysmanual/secchi.html
Results: Mean Benefits to Homeowners from Improved Water Clarity
Actual secchi disk depth mean for region = 221.3 cm
Providing incentives for ecosystem services and conservation
• Demonstrating the value of ecosystem services is important: this can improve human decisions
• BUT, valuation by itself does not guarantee better decisions: this depends on the incentives that the decision-maker is facing (their own benefits and costs)
• Unless there is some form of reward for the provision of ecosystem services, the private landowner or firm may make a choice that generates too much environmental pollution or ecosystem destruction
Payments for ecosystem services (PES)
• PES = benefit (cash or other) provided to purchase one or more ecosystem services or products
• Effective markets require secure property rights, sufficient demand and supply, access to information for all stakeholders, established legal institutions.
• Markets for ecosystem services are based on these principles of a well-functioning market
– Sellers are landowners that provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat by sustainably managing their forests, wetlands, grasslands.
– Buyers of these goods and services are power plants, water treatment facilities, developers, and others who invest in conservation
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
The problem of incentivesExample: pasture versus forest
Benefits to private
landowner
Costs to downstream
populationand others
Conversion to pasture
Forest conservation
Carbon emissions
Reduced H2O services
Loss of biodiversity
Source: Engel, Pagiola & Wunder, 2008
Problem: costs > benefits, and forest conservation not profitable !
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Profits from livestock Profits from
forest
The logic of PES
PaymentsBenefits to
private landowner
Costs to downstream
populationand others
Conversion to pasture
Forest conservationwith ES payments
Reduced H2O services
Loss of biodiversity
Min. payment
Max. payment
Payment for service
Carbon emissions
Source: Engel, Pagiola & Wunder, 2008
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Profits from livestock Profits from
forest
Distribution of PES schemes in 2007
Source: adapted from USAID 2007, PES Sourcebook
In total 145 PES schemes, 15 with unclear status (excluded in graph)
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Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers
• New York City negotiated a combination of land acquisition and management agreements with other landholders to protect the watershed at a total cost of $1.5 billion,
• The payment for the natural water purification services also provides carbon storage and recreational and cultural services at no additional cost.
Elena IrwinProfessor
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics
Ohio State University
Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers