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INTEGRATING ECOSYSTEM AND BIODIVERSITY VALUES INTO POLICY ASSESSMENT
figure 4.2 illustrates the different levels of resources required
for each type of analysis. As one goes up the
pyramid, there are fewer ecosystem services that can
be assessed without increasing time and resources.
This insight is relevant because it may not always be
practical to quantify changes in ecosystem services. In
many cases, a qualitative assessment may be preferable:
more resource-intensive analysis will inevitably be
focused on the issues of most concern and potential
value.
This highlights that valuation is only one input into the
decision-making process but one that can be central.
A pragmatic approach to valuation can be summed
up as follows: “always identify impacts qualitatively,
then quantify what you can, then
monetise (where possible)”.
Figure 4.2: The benefits pyramid
Source: P. ten Brink: presentation at March 2008 workshop Review of Economics of Biodiversity Loss, Brussels
In any type of analysis, it is important to understand
the spatial relationship linking the source
supplying the ecosystem service to the various
beneficiaries. This helps to identify impacts to be
taken into account during the valuation and which stakeholders
are likely to be winners or losers from any
decision (or trend) (see Box 4.1).
Despite the importance of qualitative analysis, the
main challenge for policy-makers is to promote more
robust frameworks and capacity for quantitative and
monetary analysis to reveal economic value of ecosystem
services. This is the focus of the rest of this
chapter.
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