Valuation and management of desert ecosystems and their services

Haojie Chen and Robert Costanza

Ecosystem Services, 2024, vol. 66, issue C

Abstract: Based on different definitions, deserts may constitute 13% to 33% of the global terrestrial surface. This is larger than the area of tropical forests and all types of wetlands combined. However, desert ecosystems are among the least studied in terms of their ecosystem services (ES), especially those that arise from species and processes unique to deserts. There are numerous research gaps that need to be filled including: (1) ignorance of unique desert ES, as well as deserts’ special effects on ES; (2) limited application of sophisticated approaches for economic valuation of desert ES; and (3) lack of diverse approaches to values and valuation. Moreover, payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes are often used to combat desertification rather than for conserving well-functioning deserts. Valuation of desert ES is crucial to implementation of PES through raising awareness of overlooked deserts, motivating investment, designing payment amounts, and estimating the social benefit-cost ratios of payments. In addition to market-based voluntary PES, common asset trusts (CATs) following Ostrom’s eight core design principles may also contribute to sustainable management of desert ecosystems. Future research should explore unique desert ES, investigate the relationships between desert ES and geosystem services, improve accuracy of economic valuation of desert ES, and integrate diverse perspectives of values. The research results may potentially aid in both combatting desertification and conserving important deserts.

Keywords: Desert ecosystem services; Diversity of values; Payment for ecosystem services; Common asset trusts; Biodiversity; Geodiversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041624000135
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:66:y:2024:i:c:s2212041624000135

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2024.101607

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().