Integrated quantification of forest total economic value

Abstract

Climate change and biodiversity loss represent major challenges for both developing and developed countries. It is necessary to demonstrate that conservation efforts designed to address such challenges, such as national parks or nature protection areas, are not at odds with regional development goals. Forests’ carbon sequestration is well known, but they also provide a range of other ecosystem services. Additionally, they support local socio-economic dynamics such as cultural value and sustainable tourism. However, ecosystem assessments are time and resource consuming endeavors, and, in order to encourage consideration of forest conservation, a methodology applicable to any natural forest type in the world was created that allows quick total economic value (TEV) estimations. Existing methodologies and the scientific literature were reviewed. Given the prominence of carbon markets, this estimation is divided into carbon sequestration, other ecosystem services, and socio-economic impacts, which are combined into one monetary value. This tool is capable of offering policy makers, companies, and communities a quick assessment of a forest’s TEV, thus it is a step towards the complete valuation of various land uses and ecosystems often found in nature protection areas. Following the results, the tool’s contribution to the literature and future research needs are discussed.