 Are diverse ecosystems more valuable? Economic value of biodiversity as result of uncertainty and spatial interactions in ecosystem service provisionEcosystem Services, 2017, vol. 24, issue C, 50-57 Abstract: Economic valuation mostly focuses on specific ecosystems, species or the services they provide. The diversity within ecosystems is viewed as a valuation object less frequently. In this paper, it is argued that the economic value of biodiversity highlights the relevance of the temporal and spatial dimensions in ecosystem service provision. A framework is presented in which the economic value of biodiversity is the result of uncertainty about the future, regarding both supply of and demand for ecosystem services, and of spatial interactions between ecosystems. Three sources of biodiversity’s economic value are distinguished in this context: insurance value, option value and spill-over value. Furthermore, the paper introduces biodiversity-specific methodological challenges (importance of non-market ecosystem goods; uncertainty and subjectivity; complexity and abstractness) which can be used to identify suitable methods for the economic valuation of biodiversity. Keywords: Biodiversity; Ecosystem services; Economic valuation; Insurance value; Option value; Stated preference methods (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:24:y:2017:i:c:p:50-57 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.02.023 Access Statistics for this article Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.