Valuing ecosystem services on the basis of service-providing units: A potential approach to address the 'endpoint problem' and improve stated preference methods

Standardized methods are required to measure ecosystem services in order to value them. In this paper, we argue that the service-providing unit (SPU) concept may help achieve this objective by promoting the systematic quantification of the key components of nature that provide services (e.g., population density of a key pollinator) and linking these with measurable outcomes for human well-being. We discuss and provide examples of the potential role of the SPU concept in improving economic valuation of ecosystem services. Further, we suggest the concept may contribute to addressing the endpoint problem, which can be defined simply as the inability of researchers to communicate the implications of environmental change in a way that is understood by a broad cross-section of society. The endpoint problem is of particular relevance to stated preference approaches, and we discuss the capacity of the SPU concept to refine these approaches. We argue that the concept enhances interdisciplinary collaboration, promoting more validated, well-informed valuation applications. It also has the potential to minimize 'warm glow effects' and put the notion of marginal changes in the provision of ecosystem services in a new light.

[1]  P. Gerber,et al.  Valuation of ecosystem services supporting aquatic and other land-based food systems , 2008 .

[2]  J. Losey,et al.  The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects , 2006 .

[3]  T. Söderqvist,et al.  Economic valuation of a seed dispersal service in the Stockholm National Urban Park, Sweden , 2006 .

[4]  D. Bromley.  Handbook of environmental economics , 1995 .

[5]  S. Hamilton,et al.  Ecosystem services and agriculture: Cultivating agricultural ecosystems for diverse benefits , 2007 .

[6]  G. Daily,et al.  The Ecosystem Services Framework and Natural Capital Conservation , 2008 .

[7]  W. Westman.  How Much Are Nature's Services Worth? , 1977, Science.

[8]  Lisa A. Wainger,et al.  Measuring Ecosystem Service Benefits: The Use of Landscape Analysis to Evaluate Environmental Trades and Compensation , 2003 .

[9]  Donald Ludwig,et al.  Limitations of Economic Valuation of Ecosystems , 2000, Ecosystems.

[10]  Harry Biggs,et al.  Integrating indicators, endpoints and value systems in strategic management of the rivers of the Kruger National Park , 1999 .

[11]  M. Visser,et al.  Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards , 2007, PloS one.

[12]  Nicholas E. Flores,et al.  Money, Who Needs It? Natural Resource Damage Assessment , 2002 .

[13]  K. Ninan,et al.  The economics of biodiversity conservation: a study of a coffee growing region in the Western Ghats of India , 2005 .

[14]  R. O'Neill,et al.  Complex systems and valuation , 2002 .

[15]  Y. Chee.  An ecological perspective on the valuation of ecosystem services , 2004 .

[16]  Xiangming Xiao,et al.  Hydroelectricity production and forest conservation in watersheds. , 2007, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[17]  Wenshan He,et al.  Ecosystem service values and restoration in the urban Sanyang wetland of Wenzhou, China , 2007 .

[18]  Daniel Kahneman,et al.  Valuing public goods: The purchase of moral satisfaction , 1992 .

[19]  P. Corso,et al.  Valuing Mortality-Risk Reduction: Using Visual Aids to Improve the Validity of Contingent Valuation , 2001 .

[20]  Glenn W. Suter,et al.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Generic Ecological Assessment Endpoints , 2004 .

[21]  G. Daily,et al.  Valuing ecosystem services: philosophical bases and empirical methods. , 1997 .

[22]  S. Helliwell,et al.  Pesticide toxicity endpoints in aquatic ecosystems , 1997 .

[23]  Frank Lupi,et al.  Valuing deer hunting ecosystem services from farm landscapes , 2007 .

[24]  Philip Cooper,et al.  Valuing nature: lessons learned and future research directions , 2003 .

[25]  C. Kremen.  Managing ecosystem services: what do we need to know about their ecology? , 2005, Ecology letters.

[26]  Chu Li-juan,et al.  Flood mitigation benefit of wetland soil -- A case study in Momoge National Nature Reserve in China , 2007 .

[27]  G. Daily,et al.  Population diversity: its extent and extinction. , 1997, Science.

[28]  Kenneth E. McConnell,et al.  Valuing the Environment as a Factor of Production , 2005 .

[29]  R. Carson,et al.  The Value of clean water: The public's willingness to pay for boatable, fishable, and swimmable quality water , 1993 .

[30]  S. Wratten,et al.  The future of farming: The value of ecosystem services in conventional and organic arable land. An experimental approach , 2008 .

[31]  Steve Hampton,et al.  Exploring welfare implications of resource equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments , 2007 .

[32]  C. Tisdell,et al.  The Net Benefit of Saving the Asian Elephant: A Policy and Contingent Valuation Study , 2004 .

[33]  J. Boyd,et al.  What are Ecosystem Services? The Need for Standardized Environmental Accounting Units , 2006 .

[34]  A. Vatn,et al.  Choices without Prices without Apologies , 1994 .

[35]  William H. Desvousges,et al.  The use of habitat equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments , 2004 .

[36]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Ecosystem experiments : Frontiers in biology : ecology , 1995 .

[37]  T. Dawson,et al.  Quantifying the Contribution of Organisms to the Provision of Ecosystem Services , 2009 .

[38]  Vincent Kerry Smith,et al.  Estimating Economic Values for Nature: Methods for Non-Market Valuation , 1996 .

[39]  T. Swanson,et al.  The Willingness to Pay for Property Rights for the Giant Panda: Can a Charismatic Species Be an Instrument for Nature Conservation? , 2003, Land Economics.

[40]  Stefano Pagiola,et al.  Assessing the Economic Value of Ecosystem Conservation , 2004 .

[41]  P. Gerber,et al.  Comparative assessment of the environmental costs of aquaculture and other food production sectors. Methods for meaningful comparisons, FAO/WFT Expert Workshop, 24-28 April 2006, Vancouver, Canada , 2007 .

[42]  M. Shaffer.  Minimum Population Sizes for Species Conservation , 1981 .

[43]  C. Oyarzún,et al.  Forests and water: The value of native temperate forests in supplying water for human consumption , 2006 .

[44]  J. Settele,et al.  Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline , 2009 .

[45]  P. Balvanera,et al.  Quantifying the evidence for biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning and services. , 2006, Ecology letters.

[46]  B. Cobb,et al.  An Experimental Approach , 1957 .

[47]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[48]  C. Folke,et al.  Primary and secondary values of wetland ecosystems , 1994 .

[49]  K. McConkey,et al.  Flying foxes cease to function as seed dispersers long before they become rare. , 2006, Ecology.

[50]  Harvey Alexander.  Nature's services: Societal dependence on natural ecosystems: Edited by Gretchen C. Daily Island Press, 1997, $24.95, 392 pages , 1999 .

[51]  Jim Schieck,et al.  Indices for monitoring biodiversity change: Are some more effective than others? , 2009 .

[52]  Robin Gregory,et al.  Valuing environmental resources: A constructive approach , 1993 .

[53]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Incorporating plant functional diversity effects in ecosystem service assessments , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[54]  Naeem,et al.  Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis , 2005 .

[55]  David B. Lindenmayer,et al.  Synthesis: Thresholds in conservation and management , 2005 .

[56]  Xiangming Xiao,et al.  AN ASSESSMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: WATER FLOW REGULATION AND HYDROELECTRIC POWER PRODUCTION , 2000 .

[57]  C. Perrings.  Ecological Economics after the Millennium Assessment , 2006 .

[58]  J. Bergh,et al.  Ecological theories and indicators in economic models of biodiversity loss and conservation: A critical review , 2007 .

[59]  E. Sanderson.  How Many Animals Do We Want to Save? The Many Ways of Setting Population Target Levels for Conservation , 2006 .

[60]  G. Daily,et al.  Population diversity and ecosystem services , 2003 .

[61]  G W Suter.  Generic assessment endpoints are needed for ecological risk assessment. , 2000, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[62]  R. D. de Groot,et al.  Ecosystem services and economic theory: integration for policy-relevant research. , 2008, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[63]  Klaus Glenk,et al.  Confronting unfamiliarity with ecosystem functions: The case for an ecosystem service approach to environmental valuation with stated preference methods , 2008 .

[64]  Li Tianhong,et al.  Variations in ecosystem service value in response to land use changes in Shenzhen , 2010 .

[65]  Ian J. Bateman,et al.  Use and Nonuse Values for Conserving Endangered Species: The Case of the Mediterranean Monk Seal , 2001 .

[66]  R. Costanza,et al.  SPECIAL ISSUE: The Dynamics and Value of Ecosystem Services: Integrating Economic and Ecological Perspectives Economic and ecological concepts for valuing ecosystem services , 2002 .

[67]  Claire A. Montgomery,et al.  Where to put things? Spatial land management to sustain biodiversity and economic returns , 2008 .

[68]  Timothy O'Riordan,et al.  Valuing Environmental Goods: An Assessment of the Contingent Valuation Method , 1987 .

[69]  Ian J. Bateman,et al.  Reducing gain-loss asymmetry: A virtual reality choice experiment valuing land use change , 2009 .

[70]  S. Foster,et al.  The value of ecosystem services provided by the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System in the contiguous U.S. , 2008 .