Abstract
Policy-makers and practitioners often struggle or fail to define and quantify the economic impacts that can be achieved through ecologically sustainable investments in dryland ecosystems. This paper reviews the current state of the art in the characterization and valuation of environmental benefits in drought-prone areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Benefit streams from ecosystem services associated with the production of food, energy and water are characterized, as well as those from supporting and regulating hydrological systems. For each value type, valuation approaches and examples of their application in Sub-Saharan African contexts are presented. The review is drawn from a series of recent methodological discussions, working papers and field research reports focusing on the benefits of locally determined and ecosystem-based adaptations under dryland climate extremes. The focus is on the challenges faced by practitioners and researchers tasked with developing benefit-cost assessments for investments in the adaptive management and conservation of dryland ecosystems, particularly in marginalized dry and drought-prone areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Recommendations could also interest a wider global community of dryland researchers and development practitioners.
Highlights
Policy-makers and practitioners often struggle or fail to define and quantify the impacts that development projects can have on dryland ecosystems
To identify some of the key benefit streams in the dryland systems of Sub-Saharan Africa and methods that can and have been applied to assess their economic value, this review draws on insights and examples from a series of recent working papers and field research reports focusing on economic assessment of the benefits from ecosystem-based adaptations in the dry areas of East and West
Even though economic evaluation of ecosystem service benefit streams from the dryland ecosystems have been relatively rare and limited, a significant body of relevant examples is available in Sub-Saharan Africa, as identified in this review
Summary
Policy-makers and practitioners often struggle or fail to define and quantify the impacts that development projects can have on dryland ecosystems. There is a lack of baseline assessments of benefit streams from dryland ecosystems against which to compare new management alternatives. Insights on questions currently faced by researchers and practitioners developing benefit-cost calculations and economic impact assessments are drawn from a series of recent working papers and field research reports focusing on economic assessment of the benefits from ecosystem-based adaptations in the dry areas of East and West Africa. These are contextualised within the broader available published literature from across the region
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