Publications (FIS)

Incorporating environmental costs of ecosystem service loss in political decision making: A synthesis of monetary values for Germany

authored by: Johannes Förster, Stefan Schmidt, Bartosz Bartkowski, Nele Lienhoop, Christian Albert, Heidi Wittmer
Abstract: Germany faces on-going degradation and biodiversity loss. As a consequence, goods and services provided by biodiversity for human well-being, so-called ecosystem services, are being lost. The associated economic costs and benefits are often unknown. To fill this gap, we conducted a literature review and developed a database of monetary values for the changes in ecosystem services that result from ecosystem change in Germany. In total, 109 monetary valuation studies of regulating and cultural ecosystem services were identified, with the majority focusing on forests and wetlands. In collaboration with valuation experts and the German Federal Environment Agency—Umweltbundesamt (UBA), we defined a set of criteria that economic valuation studies should meet in order to qualify for being used in decision making on national policies. Only 6 out of 109 valuation studies (5.5%) fulfilled the quality criteria for informing such decisions. Overall, monetary information on regulating and cultural ecosystem services is scattered and scarce compared to information on provisioning services, which is accounted for in detail in national statistics. This imbalance in information likely contributes to the distortion in land-use policies, giving preference to maximizing provisioning services in agricultural production and forestry, while neglecting the societal relevance of regulating and cultural services. Decision makers have to rely on only a few cost estimates that are scientifically robust, while being pragmatic to include also vague estimates in cases where data is lacking. The transferability of the monetary values included in our database depends on the biophysical and socio-economic site conditions as well as the decision context of the intended application. Case specific adjustments following guidance for benefit transfer are recommended. Given the lack of applicable studies, we call for more decision-relevant economic assessments. Even in cases where monetary estimates are available, we suggest decision makers to consider also other benefit information available to capture the multiple values ecosystems provide to humans.
Organisation(s): Institute of Environmental Planning
External Organisation(s): Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
Bochum University of Applied Sciences
Type: Article
Journal: PLoS ONE
Volume: 14
ISSN: 1932-6203
Publication date: 13.02.2019
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, General
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 15 - Life on Land
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0211419 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.15488/4529 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{f4b6ec2dddbc4be1905c8ffc5d97b458,
title = "Incorporating environmental costs of ecosystem service loss in political decision making: A synthesis of monetary values for Germany",
abstract = "Germany faces on-going degradation and biodiversity loss. As a consequence, goods and services provided by biodiversity for human well-being, so-called ecosystem services, are being lost. The associated economic costs and benefits are often unknown. To fill this gap, we conducted a literature review and developed a database of monetary values for the changes in ecosystem services that result from ecosystem change in Germany. In total, 109 monetary valuation studies of regulating and cultural ecosystem services were identified, with the majority focusing on forests and wetlands. In collaboration with valuation experts and the German Federal Environment Agency—Umweltbundesamt (UBA), we defined a set of criteria that economic valuation studies should meet in order to qualify for being used in decision making on national policies. Only 6 out of 109 valuation studies (5.5%) fulfilled the quality criteria for informing such decisions. Overall, monetary information on regulating and cultural ecosystem services is scattered and scarce compared to information on provisioning services, which is accounted for in detail in national statistics. This imbalance in information likely contributes to the distortion in land-use policies, giving preference to maximizing provisioning services in agricultural production and forestry, while neglecting the societal relevance of regulating and cultural services. Decision makers have to rely on only a few cost estimates that are scientifically robust, while being pragmatic to include also vague estimates in cases where data is lacking. The transferability of the monetary values included in our database depends on the biophysical and socio-economic site conditions as well as the decision context of the intended application. Case specific adjustments following guidance for benefit transfer are recommended. Given the lack of applicable studies, we call for more decision-relevant economic assessments. Even in cases where monetary estimates are available, we suggest decision makers to consider also other benefit information available to capture the multiple values ecosystems provide to humans.",
author = "Johannes F{\"o}rster and Stefan Schmidt and Bartosz Bartkowski and Nele Lienhoop and Christian Albert and Heidi Wittmer",
note = "Funding information: Funding was provided to JF, SS, BB, NL, CA and HW by the German Federal Environment Agency - Umweltbundesamt (UBA) as part of the call on”Methodenkonvention 3.0 – Weiterentwicklung und Erweiterung der Methodenkonvention zur Sch{\"a}tzung von Umweltkosten”, which is part of the research plan (UFOPLAN) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) (funding ID: 3715 14 102 0). The Umweltbundesamt (UBA) has been involved in defining the selection criteria (a. – g.) that studies should comply with in order to qualify for being used in decision support. We are grateful to the participants of the workshop who critically reviewed our findings and provided valuable advice.",
year = "2019",
month = feb,
day = "13",
doi = "10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0211419",
language = "English",
volume = "14",
journal = "PLoS ONE",
issn = "1932-6203",
publisher = "Public Library of Science",
number = "2",
}