The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity:

Human well-being relies critically on ecosystem services provided by nature. Examples include water and air quality regulation, nutrient cycling and decomposition, plant pollination and flood control, all of which are dependent on biodiversity. They are predominantly public goods with limited or no markets and do not command any price in the conventional economic system, so their loss is often not detected and continues unaddressed and unabated. This in turn not only impacts human well-being, but also seriously undermines the sustainability of the economic system.It is against this background that TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project was set up in 2007 and led by the United Nations Environment Programme to provide a comprehensive global assessment of economic aspects of these issues. This book, written by a team of international experts, represents the scientific state of the art, providing a comprehensive assessment of the fundamental ecological and economic principles of measuring and valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity, and showing how these can be mainstreamed into public policies. This volume and subsequent TEEB outputs will provide the authoritative knowledge and guidance to drive forward the biodiversity conservation agenda for the next decade.

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes	p. vii
List of Contributors	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. xxix
Glossary	p. xxxi
Introduction	p. 1
Integrating the Ecological and Economic Dimensions in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Valuation	p. 9
Introduction	p. 12
Review of existing frameworks linking ecology and economics	p. 13
TEEB-conceptual framework	p. 21
Annex 1 Classification of ecosystems used in TEEB	p. 38
Annex 2 Ecosystem service classification: Brief literature survey and TEEB classification	p. 39
Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services	p. 41
Introduction	p. 45
Biodiversity and ecosystems	p. 45
The links between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services	p. 56
Managing multiple ecosystem services	p. 81
Management of ecosystem services: Dealing with uncertainty and change	p. 84
Biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being	p. 91
Conclusions and further research	p. 95
Measuring Biophysical Quantities and the Use of Indicators	p. 113
Introduction	p. 116
Existing measures and indicators	p. 119
In search of relevant indicators for ecosystem services	p. 134
Link to valuation and further work	p. 141
The Socio-cultural Context of Ecosystem and Biodiversity Valuation	p. 149
Introduction	p. 152
The trade-offs of valuation	p. 157
The challenges of valuation: Ecosystems, biodiversity and level of analysis	p. 166
Final remarks	p. 174
The Economics of Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity	p. 183
Introduction	p. 187
Economic valuation of ecosystem services	p. 189
Valuation methods, welfare measures and uncertainty	p. 196
Insurance value, resilience and (quasi-)option value	p. 218
Valuation across stakeholders and applying valuation in developing countries	p. 225
Benefit transfer and scaling up values	p. 229
Conclusions	p. 239
Annex 1 Applied sources for technical support on biodiversity valuation for national agency teams	p. 256
Discounting, Ethics and Options for Maintaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Integrity	p. 257
Introduction	p. 260
The Ramsey discounting equation and intergenerational welfare	p. 264
Recent behavioural literature on discounting, risk and uncertainty	p. 268
Ecosystems and biodiversity in the very long run	p. 271
The total value of ecosystems and biodiversity and the discounting equation	p. 272
Does a low discount rate promote conservation?	p. 274
Discounting and safe minimum standards	p. 276
Summary of the major challenges to discounting biodiversity and ecosystem losses	p. 278
Key Messages and Linkages with National Policies	p. 285
Framing of issues for economics of ecosystems and biodiversity	p. 287
Linkages of ecosystems, ecosystem services and biodiversity	p. 289
Choice of indicators and value-articulating institutions in economic valuation	p. 290
Economic value, valuation methods, non-linear changes, resilience and uncertainty	p. 292
Discounting as an ethical choice	p. 294
Identification of knowledge gaps and limitations and mapping them into national policies: Challenges and options	p. 295
Finally	p. 304
How the TEEB Framework Can be Applied: The Amazon Case	p. 307
Services and values at the global scale	p. 310
Services and values at the continental scale	p. 312
Services and values at the regional (basin) scale	p. 314
Services and values at the local scale	p. 317
Limitations and caveats	p. 320
Matrix Tables for Wetland and Forest Ecosystems	p. 325
Estimates of Monetary Values of Ecosystem Services	p. 367
Index	p. 403
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The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Ecological and Economic Foundations

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