Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

The valuation of ecosystem services

  • Edward B. Barbier
  • , Stefan Baumgärtner
  • , Kanchan Chopra
  • , Christopher Costello
  • , Anantha Duraiappah
  • , Rashid Hassan
  • , Anna P. Kinzig
  • , Markus Lehman
  • , Unai Pascual
  • , Stephen Polasky
  • , Charles Perrings

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

    85 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    By harnessing recent results on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning to an assessment of the valued services that people obtain from the natural environment, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) has brought the analysis of ecosystems into the domain of economics. Ecosystem services are defined by the MA as the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. Since the value of any asset is simply the discounted stream of benefits that are obtained from that asset, the benefit streams associated with ecosystem services may be used to estimate the value of the underlying ecological assets. Those assets are not the traditional stocks of resource economics - minerals, water, timber and so on - but the systems that yield flows of such things. This chapter discusses the value of ecosystems and ecosystem services. It identifies the main methods for valuing different types of ecosystem service, and the role of valuation in developing sustainability indicators. The sustainability of economic development requires that the value of the assets or capital stocks supporting development be maintained over time, and since capital includes produced, human and natural capital, it is important to understand how the value of ecosystems may be changing relative to the value of other capital stocks.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationBiodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human wellbeing : An Ecological and Economic Perspective
    EditorsShahid Naeem, Daniel E. Bunker, Andy Hector, Michel Loreau, Charles Perrings
    Number of pages15
    Place of PublicationOxford [u.a.]
    PublisherOxford University Press
    Publication date30.07.2009
    Pages248-262
    ISBN (Print)978-019954795-1
    ISBN (Electronic)978-019172034-5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 30.07.2009

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © Oxford University Press 2009. All rights reserved.

    UN SDGs

    This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    1. SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
      SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

    Research areas and keywords

    • Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
    • Ecosystem services
    • Revealed preference
    • Stated preference
    • Valuation
    • Economics

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The valuation of ecosystem services'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this