Mapping the global value and distribution of coral reef tourism

Global coral reef related tourism is one of the most significant examples of nature-based tourism from a single ecosystem. Coral reefs attract foreign and domestic visitors and generate revenues, including foreign exchange earnings, in over 100 countries and territories. Understanding the full value of coral reefs to tourism, and the spatial distribution of these values, provides an important incentive for sustainable reef management. In the current work, global data from multiple sources, including social media and crowd-sourced datasets, were used to estimate and map two distinct components of reef value. The first component is local “reef-adjacent” value, an overarching term used to capture a range of indirect benefits from coral reefs, including provision of sandy beaches, sheltered water, food, and attractive views. The second component is “on-reef” value, directly associated with in-water activities such diving and snorkelling. Tourism values were estimated as a proportion of the total visits and spending by coastal tourists within 30 km of reefs (excluding urban areas). Reef-adjacent values were set as a fixed proportion of 10% of this expenditure. On-reef values were based on the relative abundance of dive-shops and underwater photos in different countries and territories. Maps of value assigned to specific coral reef locations show considerable spatial variability across distances of just a few kilometres. Some 30% of the world's reefs are of value in the tourism sector, with a total value estimated at nearly US$36 billion, or over 9% of all coastal tourism value in the world's coral reef countries.     

Contested carbon: Carbon forestry as a speculatively virtual,falteringly material and disputed territorial assemblage

Assemblage approaches are increasingly being used to understand new socio-natural formations arising in relation to the multiple crises of capitalism, climate change and environmental degradation. The valuation of nature is key to these new formations, which the creation of new ‘valued entities’, through calculative practices, that can be accounted for, costed and circulated in monetised and financialised forms in order to ostensibly ‘fix’ certain environmental outcomes in relation to contemporary global crisis. This paper uses an assemblage approach in relation to the global’ transnational project of carbon forestry offsetting and REDD+ in a particular place, Uganda, arguing that it has utility in this respect. While Uganda has been named by Lang and Byakola (2005) as a ‘funny place to store carbon’ due to its contested land politics and history of violence its weak governance context paradoxically re-enforces the imperative for intervention. The paper argues that carbon forestry assemblages are inherently ephemeral and fundamentally contested in three ways: exhibiting a speculative virtuality, faltering materiality and disputed territoriality. Such analysis has the ability to go beyond technical and managerial, or solely pollical economic critiques of carbon forestry, to point at openings for alternatives.     

湿地生态系统服务功能价值评估问题探讨

湿地生态系统服务功能价值评估能够将湿地各项服务功能价值货币化,提供直观的经济数字,是应用较为广泛的一种评估方式。其技术仍处在探索阶段,尚不完善,在应用中反映出许多问题。分析了湿地净化污染、调节大气、调蓄洪水、物质生产等几项代表性的服务功能,总结了评估应用中存在的一些问题,并提出相应的改进建议,为今后的工作提供参考。     

安徽漳河河流生态系统服务价值评估

运用机会成本法、替代工程法、比例折算法等方法计算漳河生态系统的服务价值,包括水供给、休闲娱乐、水力发电、水产品的直接使用价值和储水、调蓄洪水、水质净化的间接使用价值。结果表明:2015年漳河南陵段生态服务价值中,直接生态服务价值为8.067亿元,间接生态服务价值约为12.491亿元。漳河生态系统价值评估中,储水价值最大,其次是调蓄洪水价值、水产品价值,说明漳河河流生态系统在调节洪水、减少和防御洪涝灾害、保护社会和经济发展等方面具有极其重要的作用。     

A place-based approach to payments for ecosystem services

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes are proliferating but are challenged by insufficient attention to spatial and temporal inter-dependencies, interactions between different ecosystems and their services, and the need for multi-level governance. To address these challenges, this paper develops a place-based approach to the development and implementation of PES schemes that incorporates multi-level governance, bundling or layering of services across multiple scales, and shared values for ecosystem services. The approach is evaluated and illustrated using case study research to develop an explicitly place-based PES scheme, the Peatland Code, owned and managed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s UK Peatland Programme and designed to pay for restoration of peatland habitats. Buyers preferred bundled schemes with premium pricing of a primary service, contrasting with sellers’ preferences for quantifying and marketing services separately in a layered scheme. There was limited awareness among key business sectors of dependencies on ecosystem services, or the risks and opportunities arising from their management. Companies with financial links to peatlands or a strong environmental sustainability focus were interested in the scheme, particularly in relation to climate regulation, water quality, biodiversity and flood risk mitigation benefits. Visitors were most interested in donating to projects that benefited wildlife and were willing to donate around £2 on-site during a visit. Sellers agreed a deliberated fair price per tonne of CO₂ equivalent from £11.18 to £15.65 across four sites in Scotland, with this range primarily driven by spatial variation in habitat degradation. In the Peak District, perceived declines in sheep and grouse productivity arising from ditch blocking led to substantially higher prices, but in other regions ditch blocking was viewed more positively. The Peatland Code was developed in close collaboration with stakeholders at catchment, landscape and national scales, enabling multi-level governance of the management and delivery of ecosystem services across these scales. Place-based PES schemes can mitigate negative trade-offs between ecosystem services, more effectively include cultural ecosystem services and engage with and empower diverse stakeholders in scheme design and governance.     

基于条件价值法评估罗源湾海洋生物多样性维持服务价值

海洋生物多样性维持服务指海洋中不仅生活着丰富的生物种群,还为其提供了重要的产卵场、越冬场、索饵场、避难所、栖息地等场所.基于条件价值法,于2009年8月对福建罗源湾周边城镇居民进行问卷调查,掌握当地居民对保护罗源湾生物多样性的支付意愿,进而评估罗源湾生物多样性维持服务价值.结果显示,2009年罗源湾4种珍稀生物的支付意愿为618.8元/户.2004-2008年罗源湾生物多样性维持服务价值分别为747.17万元、1 912.52万元、2 565.08万元、3 821.92万元、5 272.00万元.分析表明:家庭年收入、对保护生物的了解程度和环保意识是影响生物多样性维持服务价值的主要因素.对于保护海洋生物多样性来说,经济发展政策和环保政策都是必要的,如何做好这2个政策的平衡是政府应该关注的.     

条件价值法在澳门固体废弃物管理经济价值评估中的比较研究

单边界和双边界是二分式条件价值法(CVM)的2种主要问题格式。针对澳门固体废弃物管理存在的问题，应用单边界和双边界二分式条件价值法，比较研究了澳门固体废弃物管理方案改善的支付意愿及其总经济价值；结果表明，80.56%的居民对新的固体废弃物管理方案存在支付意愿。单边界二分式CVM的分析结果表明澳门居民的平均支付意愿为每人每月14.87~24.12澳门元。双边界二分式CVM的结果表明澳门居民的平均支付意愿为每人每月14.43~17.94澳门元。单边界和双边界二分式CVM的评估结果相差不大，双边界二分式CVM的评估结果较为精确。按2003年澳门总人口44.85万计算，新的固体废弃物管理方案的年总经济价值约为7.02×107澳门元。      

珠江三角洲典型基塘生态系统服务价值演变

以珠江三角洲基塘发源地——佛山市为例，采用市场价格法、影子工程法等方法，对2000、2009和2017年其基塘生态系统服务价值（ESV）进行估算，分析其变化特征，并利用地理探测器探讨其影响因素。结果表明：1）2000—2017年佛山市西、北部的芦苞镇、荷城街道等少数镇（街道）基塘面积有所增加，东、南部北滘、乐从镇等地基塘面积减少明显，期内基塘净减少19 244.47 hm²，主要转出地类为建设用地。2）2000、2009和2017年佛山市基塘ESV先降后增，3个年份中调节类功能占总价值比例均高于86%，为核心功能；各单项功能中旅游休闲价值增加最多，调节气候价值下降明显。3）佛山市基塘ESV空间变化呈西、北增而东、南降的特征，除塘鱼生产和旅游休闲功能外，其余单项功能的价值变化均呈现西南和北部增加明显的特征。4）第一产业生产总值变化量是影响佛山市基塘ESV时空变化的首要因素，其次是GDP、人口密度变化量等。建议采取控制开发规模、恢复绿色植被、加强生态监测和基塘整治、发挥基塘景观优势等措施来提高基塘ESV。     

Ecosystem-based marine spatial management: Review of concepts, policies, tools, and critical issues

Conventional sectoral management and piecemeal governance are considered less and less appropriate in pursuit of sustainable development. Ecosystem based marine spatial management (EB-MSM) is an approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including human uses, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation. Marine spatial planning and ocean zoning are emerging concepts that can support EB-MSM. EB-MSM is driven by high-level goals that managers aim to achieve through the implementation of measures. High-level goals and objectives need to be translated into more operational objectives before specific targets, limits and measures can be elaborated.Monitoring, evaluation and adaptation are necessary to ensure that marine management measures are both effective and efficient. Solid monitoring frameworks are the foundation of adaptive management, as they provide the necessary information to evaluate performance and the effectiveness of management actions. Marine protected areas (MPAs) - possibly set up in networks - constitute a key component in EB-MSM policies and practises and have been applied as a cornerstone in conservation of marine biodiversity, management of fish populations, development of coastal tourism, etc. Moreover, MPA experiences have provided methods and concepts (such as zoning) to a wider EB-MSM context. The assignment of values to biophysical features of the marine environment allows the direct assessment of related management choices and may assist EB-MSM.A range of monetary valuation techniques have been proposed to reduce attributes of goods and services to a single metric. However, in the marine environment such an approach is often over simplistic, and thus less reductive techniques may be necessary. Rather than producing a single metric, the results of non-monetary assessments guide policy allowing weight to be given as necessary to potential areas of conflict and consensus.Strategies to take into account climate change effects and geohazard risks in EB-MSM have been applied or proposed worldwide. EB-MSM regimes must be alert to such risks and flexible to account for changes.     

Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Service Valuation Database (GecoServ): Gathering ecosystem services valuation studies to promote their inclusion in the decision-making process

The main goals of the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Service Valuation Database (GecoServ), an inventory of ecosystem services (ES) valuation studies applicable to the Gulf of Mexico, are to allow for the distribution and sharing of information about said studies and to identify current gaps in the ES valuation literature.The utility of GecoServ (http://www.gecoserv.org) lies in that it fills a void left by non-ES specific environmental databases, highlights the lack of studies for some ecosystems and associated services, and provides background information for future ES valuation studies.GecoServ functions as a uniquely centralized source of information for both researchers and natural resource managers. Researchers can find information for different study sites to be used in value transfer methods. For managers, instead, GecoServ is a tool that provides them with ES values to inform their decision-making process.