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FRAMEWORK AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE POLICY RESPONSE
Box 2.2: Multiple values of wetlands: example
of the Daly River catchment (Australia)
A 2008 study to assess the value of one catchment
in the Northern Territory covering over 350,000
hectares put the current use value at about Aus$
390/hectare (almost Aus$ 139 million for the whole
catchment). Estimated values in 2004 per hectare
for different catchment benefits included:
• carrier function for crop growing, pastoralism
and crocodile hunting: Aus$ 31/ha;
• habitat function as a contribution to nature
conservation: Aus$ 1/ha;
• regulation function (water use, carbon sequestration):
Aus$ 298/ha;
• information function/cultural service (tourism,
recreational fishing): Aus$ 57/ha.
Source: de Groot et al. 2008
• demonstrate that even if biodiversity benefits are
multi-faceted and diffuse, they can be subsumed
or aggregated within certain broader values (e.g. for
forests);
• help create new markets where none previously
existed (e.g. the recently created markets for GhG
emissions are powerful examples from climate
policy of what can be achieved where market-based
approaches are developed for environmental goods
within a strong policy framework); and
• help to make future benefits visible, rather than
simply relying on today’s costs (e.g. by identifying
option values of plants from tropical forests relevant
for pharmaceutical products, or the potential of
tourism).
2.2.2 WHEN CAN ECONOMIC VALUES
HELP?
There are many steps in the policy-making process
where information on ecosystem and biodiversity values
can be systematically used. Economic information is an
important vehicle to raise public awareness and to
address new policies in the process of agenda setting
or policy formulation. It can form the basis for new
policies – and can provide starting points for policy
change (see Table 2.1).
TEEB foR NATIoNAL AND INTERNATIoNAL PoLICy MAKERS - ChAPTER 2: PAGE 7
Source: Christoph Schröter-Schlaack