Valuing ecosystem services in complex coastal settings: An extended ecosystem accounting framework for improved decision-making

Abstract

What gets measured gets managed is an axiom common to the business world that also applies to the management of environmental assets and processes. But what is the most adequate way to measure ecosystem value to optimise ecosystem management? In this paper, we unpack three valuation frameworks often applied in understanding ecosystem services and their benefits: 1) the Ecosystem Services framework, operationalised by the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) framework; 2) value-centric approaches operationalised by the Total Economic Value framework; and 3) First Nations Peoples (FNP) frameworks, which seek to capture values from FNPs’ perspective. By assessing the strengths and weaknesses of these value frameworks for managing the World’s largest reef ecosystem—the Australian Great Barrier Reef—we construct an extended SEEA-EA valuation framework tailored to complex coastal settings. The significance of our approach is the inclusion of the whole range of benefits from all coastal and marine uses and users and therefore the integration of non-market and FNP values into the more traditional market-based valuation approach. Assessments that jointly consider multiple values originating from these three different frameworks are more likely to produce sustainable management outcomes than more restrictive approaches.