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RESPONDING TO THE VALUE OF NATURE
Box 10.3: The plight of coral reefs – and the cost of exceeding nature’s tipping point
Coral reefs are now understood to have a critical range of ecosystem service values – for natural hazard
management (up to 189,000 US$/hectare/year), tourism (up to 1 million US$/hectare/year), genetic materials
and bio-prospecting (up to 57,000 US$/ha/year), fisheries (up to 3,818 US$/ha/year). These benefits are
site-specific – so a global loss of coral reefs will impact communities differently. Lost benefits will be lowest
in places with few people, poor ecosystem quality or limited accessibility – but dramatic for island and
coastal communities where fish protein can make up half the protein intake as well as for jobs and local
economic development in areas dependent on tourism. There is a large variability in the values, particularly
for tourism, which can be a major source of income in some areas and irrelevant in others. The lowest
values generally correspond to sites with limited accessibility or facilities for tourism, while the very high
values relate to international tourism hotspots.
Over 20% of coral reefs are already seriously degraded or under imminent risk of collapse (MA 2005). Human
activities are the cause, including coastal development, destructive fishing practices, over-fishing and
pollution. In the decades ahead, recent research suggests that global warming and ocean acidification may
exacerbate these effects and cause widespread losses (50% to 100%). The long-term survival of coral reefs
would depend on major reductions in CO2 emissions together with a reduction in local pressures (see TEEB
Climate Issues Update 2009).
Source: All economic values are preliminary estimates from TEEB D0, Chapter 7
10.1.3 RECOGNISING ECOSYSTEM
SERVICE VALUES CONTRIBUTES
TO BETTER DECISIONS
Decision-makers with access to information on ecosystem
service values are better placed to make more efficient,
cost-effective and fair choices and to justify their reasons
for taking action or for choosing between options. This is
a positive step towards greater transparency in handling
policy trade-offs.
Identification and measurement of such values has begun
to feed into the policy process and, to a lesser extent, into
price signals (see Boxes 10.4 to 10.6). This can reveal opportunities
for cost savings through timely or targeted
action. For example, valuation can help determine where
ecosystem services could be provided at lower cost
than man-made alternatives e.g. for water purification/
provision, carbon storage or flood control (see Box 10.5
and Chapter 9).
Valuing ecosystem services and comparing the benefits
associated with conservation of natural areas with the
benefits from conversion can provide useful information
for setting priorities in a variety of contexts, such as
development decisions in urban areas (see Box 6) and
conservation planning at the national or local scale.
Making values explicit can help build support for
new instruments to change the decision equation
facing landowners, investors and other users of
natural resources. Appropriate tools can take many
forms including payments for ecosystem services,
subsidy reform, pollution taxes, resource charges and
TEEB FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 10: PAGE 7