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INTEGRATING ECOSYSTEM AND BIODIVERSITY VALUES INTO POLICY ASSESSMENT
Analysis of ecosystem services can be done at
three levels - qualitative, quantitative and monetary.
Qualitative analysis generally focuses on nonnumerical
information, quantitative analysis focuses on
numerical data and monetary analysis focuses on
translating this data into a particular currency.
All three types of analysis are useful, but they
provide different levels of information to a decisionmaker.
We can illustrate this through the example of
a scheme to increase agricultural production by converting
grazing land to intensive cropping. If the financial
benefits of intensification outweigh the financial cost of
land clearance, this may seem appealing at first sight.
however, this would only be a partial analysis as it only
considers costs and benefits of the market transactions
associated with the change of land use. To determine
whether the policy would be beneficial at a societal level,
we also need to consider non-market impacts, including
impacts on untraded ecosystem services and biodiversity.
for example, land conversion could release significant
emissions of greenhouse gases and also reduce
the land’s capacity to absorb flood waters.
What would the different types of analysis deliver in this
type of case?
• Qualitative analysis would simply describe the
potential scale of these impacts (e.g. increased
flood risk): the decision-maker would have to
make a judgement as to their importance relative
to any financial costs and benefits.
• Quantitative analysis would directly measure the
change in ecosystem services resulting from the
change in land use (e.g. frequency/volume of
estimated increase in flood risk/carbon dioxide
emissions). The decision-maker would then have
a scientific measure of impacts to weigh up
against financial costs and benefits.
Figure 4.1: Understanding ecosystem changes
Source: Own representation, Stephen White
• Monetary analysis attaches monetary values to
the change in the flow of ecosystem services, to
give an impression as to whether a policy is likely
to have a net benefit to society as a whole. It
usually builds on quantitative analysis.
Which type of analysis to adopt will largely
depend on the type of benefit being measured, the
time and resources available and the significance
of the decision. Qualitative analyses are usually easier
and less expensive to conduct than quantitative analyses.
Likewise, quantitative analyses usually require
fewer resources than monetary analyses.
TEEB for NATIoNAL AND INTErNATIoNAL PoLIcy MAKErs - chAPTEr 4: PAGE 5
Source: Getty Images.