Value Of Natural Capital Research Articles

Measuring the value of groundwater and other forms of natural capital

Valuing natural capital is fundamental to measuring sustainability. The United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, and other agencies have called for inclusion of the value of natural capital in sustainability metrics, such as inclusive wealth. Much has been written about the importance of natural capital, but consistent, rigorous valuation approaches compatible with the pricing of traditional forms of capital have remained elusive. We present a guiding quantitative framework enabling natural capital valuation that is fully consistent with capital theory, accounts for biophysical and economic feedbacks, and can guide interdisciplinary efforts to measure sustainability. We illustrate this framework with an application to groundwater in the Kansas High Plains Aquifer, a rapidly depleting asset supporting significant food production. We develop a 10-y time series (1996-2005) of natural capital asset prices that accounts for technological, institutional, and physical changes. Kansas lost approximately $110 million per year (2005 US dollars) of capital value through groundwater withdrawal and changes in aquifer management during the decade spanning 1996-2005. This annual loss in wealth is approximately equal to the state's 2005 budget surplus, and is substantially more than investments in schools over this period. Furthermore, real investment in agricultural capital also declined over this period. Although Kansas' depletion of water wealth is substantial, it may be tractably managed through careful groundwater management and compensating investments in other natural and traditional assets. Measurement of natural capital value is required to inform management and ongoing investments in natural assets.

The marriage of business and ecology

Alongside the recent climate negotiations in Paris, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) brought the world's leading businesses together to identify new ways to align the world's economic and ecological systems. The premise: Nature is the foundation of all economies, yet decisions about the use of natural resources – both by public institutions and private enterprise – rarely account for the true value of natural capital or ecosystem services. Resulting costs, including water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, climate change, the hazards associated with extreme weather events, and food shortages, are borne by society at large. The consequences of ignoring these costs is unprecedented and rarely quantified, and create direct challenges for corporations and, correspondingly, a strong need for ecological expertise to help to manage them. Corporations and investors are increasingly realizing the importance of natural capital. They are also beginning to understand that by adopting practices that maintain the natural systems and resources upon which their operations depend, they can better ensure the long-term viability of their enterprises. Recognizing the high risk of inaction, the corporate sector is increasingly seeking ecological data and methods that can help them manage their operations and plan for an uncertain future. Ecologists have data, insights, and analytics that can help, putting us in a unique position to dramatically influence corporate decision making and to create positive outcomes for global biodiversity and ecological systems. There are now exciting opportunities to incorporate ecological science into a forum where some of the most important decisions about the future of our planet are being made. The private sector has little access to the basic data and tools that are required to fully understand the status of natural capital in specific locations. In addition to the need for ways to effectively aggregate, integrate, and apply ecological data, designing ecological research with end-users in mind provides an attractive avenue for novel scholarship. More than ever before, corporations are open to learning how they can eliminate or substantially reduce their risk, but they want to know their options in terms that are relevant to business decision making. For example, The Sustainability Consortium translates sustainability life-cycle analysis into practical business tools that Walmart and other leading consumer-goods companies use to inform purchasing decisions. Another example involves a recent life-cycle analysis that helped leaders at the Dow Chemical Company to determine that creating a wetland habitat could save the company more than $200 million in initial and operating costs, while achieving higher efficiency in water treatment and fossil-fuel energy use (DiMuro et al. 2014; Indust Ecol 18: 631–40). Similarly, a growing ecological literature on the effects of management actions (eg land acquisition) on return on investment (ROI) could be easily applied to corporate decision making (eg Murdoch et al. 2010; P Natl Acad Sci USA 107: 20855–62). ROI has been applied conceptually to consider alternative soil conservation methods and to identify optimal investments in biodiversity conservation. The key is that companies need to have the data showing that these investments will deliver results that are at least comparable to the status quo. These are ample reasons for ecologists to engage with businesses. Our challenge now is to develop a value proposition that appeals to the bottom line in the corporate world. To do so, an elementary fluency in business concepts – including incentives, corporate language, and the decision landscape – is required, thereby creating exciting new models for co-production of “translational ecology”. By providing businesses with the information they need to incorporate the environment into their decision making and long-term cost calculations, we can put our ecological expertise to use in improving outcomes, both for natural systems and for corporations. In summary, there is a high demand from the private sector for ecological science where there is promise for tackling the complex sustainability challenges facing our planet. Right now, corporations do not have access to the ecological knowledge or to the data necessary for their decision processes. As a result, corporate decision makers are not able to adequately consider the value of nature and the consequences of their activities on natural systems. We cannot think of any reason why ecologists who are motivated to use science to achieve real impact in sustaining nature's capital would not consider engaging with business. Can you? We invite you to contact us at [email protected] with your doubts, interest, and experience in engaging with the private sector.

Inclusive Wealth as a Metric of Sustainable Development

Inclusive wealth is a measure designed to address whether society is on a sustainable development trajectory. Inclusive wealth is defined as the aggregate value of all capital assets. Increases in inclusive wealth indicate an improved productive base capable of supporting a higher standard of living in the future. To be truly inclusive, measures of inclusive wealth must include the value of all forms of capital that contribute to human well-being: human capital, manufactured capital, natural capital, and social capital. Sustainability concerns have increased attention on the ways of measuring the value of natural capital. We review various attempts to measure natural capital and to incorporate these into inclusive wealth including estimates using national wealth accounts and integrated ecological and economic models used to estimate ecosystem services. Empirically measuring the value of various types of capital in terms of a common metric is hugely challenging, and no current attempt to date can be said to be fully inclusive. Despite the empirical challenges, inclusive wealth provides a clear, coherent, and systematic framework for addressing sustainable development. Combining measures of semi-inclusive wealth that capture forms of capital that can be relatively easily measured in monetary terms with a set of biophysical metrics capturing important aspects of natural capital that are difficult to measure in monetary terms may provide a good set of signals of whether society is proceeding along a sustainable development trajectory.

Valuing Supporting Soil Ecosystem Services in Agriculture: A Natural Capital Approach

Soil biodiversity through its delivery of ecosystem functions and attendant supporting ecosystem services—benefits soil organisms generate for farmers—underpins agricultural production. Yet lack of practical methods to value the long‐term effects of current farming practices results, inevitably, in short‐sighted management decisions. We present a method for valuing changes in supporting soil ecosystem services and associated soil natural capital—the value of the stock of soil organisms—in agriculture, based on resultant changes in future farm income streams. We assume that a relative change in soil organic C (SOC) concentration is correlated with changes in soil biodiversity and the generation of supporting ecosystem services. To quantify the effects of changes in supporting services on agricultural productivity, we fitted production functions to data from long‐term field experiments in Europe and the United States. The different agricultural treatments at each site resulted in significant changes in SOC concentrations with time. Declines in associated services are shown to reduce both maximum yield and fertilizer‐use efficiency in the future. The average depreciation of soil natural capital, for a 1% relative reduction in SOC concentration, was 144 € ha−1 (SD 47 € ha−1) when discounting future values to their current value at 3%; the variation was explained by site‐specific factors and the current SOC concentration. Moreover, the results show that soil ecosystem services cannot be fully replaced by purchased inputs; they are imperfect substitutes. We anticipate that our results will both encourage and make it possible to include the value of soil natural capital in decisions.

Challenges and prospects of valuation – cruise ship pollution case

Negative externalities and natural resource valuations play an important role in the debate and analysis of sustainable development. However, as yet, they have not been included extensively in tourism research or planning. As a result limited progress has been made to improve environmental management and address resource management challenges. This paper seeks to stimulate the discussion over the advantages, disadvantages, failures and successes of selected economic and development discourses. Valuation methodologies are discussed and placed within a pollution valuation impact model to identify opportunities to assess the impact of pollution and the value of natural capital in the tourism context. Cruise tourism is used to demonstrate the model due to its rapid growth and the potential for intense pollution outputs. It is considered in the context of a developing and transition state, one which sees tourism as a panacea to the problem of accessing international currency. By employing cross disciplinary research and applying valuation logic the paper aims to contribute to the decision making process in tourism.

Contestation and Reconstruction: Natural Capital and Post-Conflict Development in Borderland Regions

Though often remote and underdeveloped, borderlands are contested territories. The incorporation of borderlands into the post-conflict state highlights many important land-related paradigms, including the conversion of natural resources for economic, political, and civic purposes. This article explores the relationship between the natural resources of borderlands and their post-conflict development, management, and sustainability. Based on case study data and secondary material drawn from Croatia and Cyprus, the paper seeks to establish how the interplay of cross-border, national, and sub-national interests in post-conflict settings may contribute to the creation of new opportunities for economic development and the reconstruction of borderlands. It considers how the exploitation of natural resources may advance the agendas for the political development and incorporation of previous sites of contestation; and equally how their incorporation may constrain policies of sustainability, potentially giving rise to new conflicts. The paper sheds light on issues such as: the conversion of borderland natural capital to political capital as post-conflict states assert sovereignty claims and consolidate territorial identity; the ways in which the non-monetary value of natural capital is reconceived as commercial use value in post-conflict reconstruction; and the involvement of non-state actors and civil society in promoting environmental agendas, often as a counterbalance to state power.

Evaluation of a general ecosystem state indicator based on farmland birds

The comparison analysis and assessment of certain landscapes and landscape units is an effective tool for the decision makers for meeting appropriate land use decision. In our analysis we compared various groups of indices applicable for ecological landscape assessment applying them on three lowland landscape units. The assessed indices characterize the landscape from the point of view of vegetation (vegetation-based natural capital index) and birds (diversity of birds species of agricultural areas). The vegetation-based natural capital index values have been derived from the META database collected between 2003 and 2008. The ornithological survey was carried out in the spring of 2011 by modified Danish point counting system. Our sample areas were the geographical micro-regions Csepeli- sik, Hortobagy and Nagyberek, which are landscapes dominated by agricultural lands and grasslands. The major question was whether different naturalness indicators characterize basically similar but differently used landscape areas in a similar way. We found that while a higher NCI value corresponds to a higher abundance of birds, it also corresponds to a lower diversity of bird species. This contraintuitive effect partially might be explained by the variance of the large-scale landscape structure of the assessed landscape areas.

Sustainability and substitutability.

Developing a quantitative science of sustainability requires bridging mathematical concepts from fields contributing to sustainability science. The concept of substitutability is central to sustainability but is defined differently by different fields. Specifically, economics tends to define substitutability as a marginal concept while fields such as ecology tend to focus on limiting behaviors. We explain how to reconcile these different views. We develop a model where investments can be made in knowledge to increase the elasticity of substitution. We explore the set of sustainable and optimal trajectories for natural capital extraction and built and knowledge capital accumulation. Investments in substitutability through knowledge stock accumulation affect the value of natural capital. Results suggest that investing in the knowledge stock, which can enhance substitutability, is critical to desirable sustainable outcomes. This result is robust even when natural capital is not managed optimally. This leads us to conclude that investments in the knowledge stock are of first order importance for sustainability.

Human capital, tangible wealth, and the intangible capital residual

Since income is the return on wealth, the total wealth of any given country should be on the order of 20 times its GDP. Instead the average observed ratio from the balance sheet accounts of the System of National Accounts (SNA) is a factor of 2.6 to 6.6, depending on whether natural resource stocks are included in the balance sheet. The clear implication is that the SNA wealth accounts are incomplete, with the most obvious omission being human capital. Estimating the value of human capital using the lifetime income approach for a sample of thirteen (mostly high-income) countries yields a mean share of human capital in total wealth of 62% – four times the value of produced capital and 15 times the value of natural capital. But for selected high income countries in the sample there is still an average of 25% of total wealth which is unaccounted – it is neither produced, nor natural, nor human capital. This residual intangible wealth is arguably the ’stock equivalent’ of total factor productivity – the value of assets such as institutional quality and social capital which augment the capacity of produced, natural and human capital to support a stream of consumption into the future.

La ordenación de la Infraestructura Verde en el sudeste Ibérico (Comunidad Valenciana, España)

The integration of urban space and adjoining rural areas need instruments to help maintain the value of natural capital and improve infrastructure support biodiversity. In this sense, the Green Infrastructure provides natural solutions to solve problems such as flood control, climate regulation of the city, pollination or water quality, and contributes to the economic, ecological and natural sectors of society. In Valencia (South Eastern Spain), Law 4/2004 of 30 June, spatial planning and landscape protection (LOTPP) adds Article 19a called green infrastructure as a network of spaces formed by territorial areas and elements of high environmental, cultural and visual value that integrates and determines the territorial and municipal planning.

Realising the ecosystem-service value of native woodland in Ireland

In common with many other countries, native forest in the Ireland is under pressure from a variety of sources. Although the area of forest has increased to 10.5% of the land area of Ireland, this is comprised mainly of exotic conifer species (6.8%). Native species woodland represents only 100,000 hectares (1.4%) of the land area. In addition, much of this area is fragmented and comprised of a narrow range of species. Just 20,000 hectares is represented by woodland resembling the ancient woodland that once covered much of Ireland. This paper examines the natural capital value of the existing area of woodland as represented by the value of the ecosystem services it provides. The results demonstrate a significant economic value in excess of €67 million per year. We discuss the consequences of the erosion of this value that could result from continued mismanagement of native woodland. The results show that current government policy is failing to realise the economic value of native woodland and is deficient in terms of the continuity of support. The paper demonstrates the very significant values that could be supplied by a gradual expansion of woodland area up to 100% of the current forested area, especially if this expansion is targeted at areas with the highest potential for amenity and water resource protection.

The Nature of Economic Development and the Economic Development of Nature

Contemporary models of growth and development are founded on a category error: they ignore nature as a form of productive capital. Using as backdrop two recent books on the Indian economy that are representative of the prevailing orthodoxy, I review and in part extend an emerging literature that integrates development and environmental thinking. Contributors to the literature have reworked the economics of the household, communities, and other non-market institutions, reframed national accounting, reconstructed the theory of macro-economic development and public and trade policy, and revised the theory of collective action. In this paper I focus on a small part of the literature: economic evaluation. I develop the notion of sustainable development and construct a unified language for sustainability and policy analyses. I show that by economic growth we should mean growth in wealth -- which is the social worth of an economy's entire set of capital assets -- not growth in GDP nor the many ad hoc indicators of human development that have been proposed in recent years. The concept of wealth invites us to extend the notion of capital assets and the idea of investment well beyond conventional usage. I also show that by sustainable development we should mean development in which wealth (per head) adjusted for its distribution does not decline. This has radical implications for the way national accounts are prepared and interpreted. I then provide an account of a recent publication that has put the theory to work by studying the composition of wealth accumulation in contemporary India. Although much attention was given by the study's authors to the measurement of natural capital, due to a paucity of data the value of natural capital is acknowledged by them to be under-estimated, in all probability by a large margin. The study reveals that the entire architecture of contemporary development thinking is stacked against nature. These are still early days in the measurement of the wealth of nations, but both theory and the few empirical studies we now have at our disposal should substantially alter the way we interpret the progress and regress of nations.

Green growth: From intention to implementation

The economic crises seems blinding the governments and major economic actors toward environmental troubles. Nevertheless, the impacts of population growth and economic expansion have now the potential to disrupt important regulatory functions of global ecological systems. Green growth involves transforming the production and consumption processes in order to maintain or restore these regulatory functions of the planet's natural capital. It requires that environmental facto rs be treated as an essential factor of production and not merely an externality. In practice, this transition depends on advances being made in four areas: widening the concept of efficiency; energy transitions; inclusion of the value of natural capital in economic life; and a revision of the scale of risks within the financial system whose innovations for allocating resources at low cost to green growth would be greatly facilitated by effective pricing of environmental pollution.

Valuing the Unmarketable: An Ecological Approach to the Externalities Estimate in Fishing Activities

In a rapidly changing world, sustainability, if it can be said to exist at all, is concept that has attained mythic status, often pursued and rarely reached. In order to improve our capability to cope with environmental problems, adopting an Ecosystem Approach has been suggested. One of the major challenges in the implementation of this new paradigm relates to control of externalities. The recognition and quantification of externalities is often cast as valuing the unmarketable, and there are several approaches that have been proposed. Here, we analyze the opportunity to “feed” the economic valuation with ecological concepts. From an ecological perspective, the energy required to sustain a biomass unit at a given trophic level (TL) is the same, whatever the species. We build on this central tenet of ecology to assess the value of a TL unit for each trophic position using fish market data. The results obtained were then used to assign a value to each species living in a given habitat, together with consideration of their ecological role within the community. Estimates of both natural capital and functional value were applied to assess the ecological impacts of mechanical clam harvesting versus the multi-species artisanal fishery in the Venice lagoon. Results are discussed in relation to possible contribution to the implementation of a different management strategy.

The Research Methods Based on Emergy Theory of the Value of Natural Capital

Emergy is the condensation by the energy forming substances, is the new achievements of development of systems ecology and ecological economics in recent years. This article briefly describes the generating process of energy value theory and analysis methods, and makes a discussion on theory of emergy and regard the energy input of natural process as nature’s work. The value of substance is the condensation of work. Use the emergy as the main Dimensionless to measure the value, and regard natural ecosystems as natural capital. We discussed the new developments of the international ecology Emergy analysis methods and principles, and pointed out that the theoretical research and practical application has important scientific significance and application.

RIO+20 outcomes recognize the value of biodiversity and ecosystems: Implications for global, regional and national policy

More than 190 countries gathered in Rio de Janeiro during 20–22 June 2012 for the United Nations Conference on SustainableDevelopment and charted a pathway of expectant hope for thefuture of people and our planet. During the meetings, represen-tatives from around the world agreed that the recent global crisisshows old-fashioned views about development which are mis-leading and it is now time to rethink the very foundations of howwe consider development, wellbeing and wealth. Over the pastfour decades, the world has increasingly realized that our eco-systems and biodiversity are under serious pressure.These concerns are reflected particularly in points 39 and 40 ofthe outcome document of the Rio deliberations ‘The Future WeWant’: ‘‘We recognize that planet Earth and its ecosystems are ourhome and that ‘‘Mother Earth’’ is a common expression in a numberof countries and regions, and we note that some countries recognizethe rights of nature in the context of the promotion of sustainabledevelopment. We are convinced that in order to achieve a justbalance among the economic, social and environmental needs ofpresent and future generations, it is necessary to promote harmonywith nature. We call for holistic and integrated approaches tosustainable development that will guide humanity to live in harmonywith nature and lead to efforts to restore the health and integrity ofthe Earth’s ecosystem.’’This shows that world leaders believe that the rights of naturemust be preserved while balancing the economic, social andenvironmental needs of present and future generations forsustainable development and opens a window of opportunity totransition towards a sustainable development pathway by incor-porating the multiple values of biodiversity and ecosystemservices into policy and management decisions.RIOþ20 outcomes: Implications for global, regional andnational policy for biodiversity and ecosystemsEcosystems and biodiversity underpin human survival and liveli-hoods. As a result they must be protected, restored where damaged,and managed sustainably within a so cio-ecological context to ensurecontinued provision of their services for human wellbeing. Thehuman population is expanding, rising to over nine billion by 2050and an increasing number of peopl e expect living standard improve-ment and material gain, placing additional demands on resource use.Current consumption rates of natural resources are a trade-offbetween human demands and mainta ining the long-term capacityof ecosystems to supply goods and s ervices. A sustainable use ofbiodiversity and ecosystems requires a shift in human expectationsand aspirations, behavior and immediate resource use. At the sametime it must be recognized that poverty alleviation is a primaryobjective. The aspirations of the poor need to be respected andsupported, especially in cases where impoverished people causebiodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in their struggle forsurvival using scarce resources. This is often due to a lack of solid, up-to-date science to inform polic y processes that would enablecountries and regions to reverse the decline through ecosystemrestoration and also lack of effective governance of natural capitalthrough the collaboration of the public and private sectors, civilsociety and local communities. Central to many of the solutions interms of practical application is the need to achieve behavioralchange through supportive and enabling policies that redress thecurrent imbalance in trade- offs. Building on the RIO þ20 outcomesrecognizing the value of natural capital can help in input to policydevelopment that leads to the realization of these possibilities.This could be done through Strengthening ecosystems and biodiversity governance andinstitutions at local and national levels, as a basis for supportingeffective policy development. Recognizing that the effectiveContents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirectjournal homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoser

Environmental accounting of natural capital and ecosystem services for the US National Forest System

The National Forests of the United States encompass 192.7 million acres (78 million hectares) of land, which is nearly five percent of the total land area of the nation. These lands are managed by the US Forest Service (USFS) for multiple uses, including extraction of timber, production of fossil fuels and minerals, public recreation, and the preservation of biodiversity, clean air, water, and soils. The USFS is interested in valuing the natural capital within, and the ecosystem services provided by, their lands. This is in part to justify expenditures in a time of limited resources. We used emergy and an environmental accounting approach, to quantify the ecosystem services, the exported environmental goods and information provided by National Forest System (NFS) lands, and the natural capital residing on those lands. Environmental accounting using emergy provides a method to value these flows of services and storages of capital using a common biophysical unit, the solar emjoule and its monetary equivalent the emdollar. We compare emdollar values to economic values gleaned from the literature. In 2005, the ecosystem services provided by USFS lands were equivalent to 197 billion emdollars, and the value of NFS natural capital was 24.3 trillion emdollars. Our evaluation suggests that the Federal Government budget allocation for the NFS ($5.55E+09 in 2005) was well spent, protecting 24.3 trillion emdollars in natural capital and insuring annual ecosystem services totaling 197 billion emdollars. Monetary values for some natural capital and ecosystem services are similar to emergy-derived values (resources like fish, wildlife, water, and firewood extracted from forests), and others are widely different (biodiversity, fossil, and mineral resources). There is large uncertainty associated with computing the environment’s contributions to society whether using emergy or accepted economic techniques; yet, the magnitude of these emergy-derived estimates suggests that even with the uncertainty, the values are significant and monetary expenditures for the Forest Service are justified.

Effects of eutrophication and exotic crayfish on health status of two Spanish lakes: a joint application of ecological indicators

Lake Sentiz and Lake Chozas are two small water bodies in the Province of León (NW Spain). The former is mesotrophic and the latter went from oligotrophic to turbid in 1997, due to introduction of an invasive allochthonous crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Rodríguez et al., 2003, 2005; Marchi et al., 2011a,b). We set out to study health status of the two ecosystems by the joint use of different but correlated ecological indicators, supplementing the values obtained by monitoring campaigns. We examine three scenarios: (1) Lake Sentiz, (2) Lake Chozas before and (3) Lake Chozas after the biological invasion. We evaluate eco-exergy, emergy and eco-exergy–empower ratio, three holistic ecological indicators based on the thermodynamics of far-from-equilibrium systems. When structural changes take place in ecosystems it is recommended to apply holistic thermodynamic indicators as presented in Jørgensen et al. (2010a,b). We propose their joint application for a complete overview of the monetary value of natural capital, because they provide information added to statistical analysis and direct measurement. The aim is to determine which of these indicators best represents the effects of eutrophication and perturbations caused by alien species in the two freshwater systems. The eco-exergy–empower ratio gives the best results, since it clearly indicates lake efficiency in transforming direct and indirect solar energy inputs into organization. The eco-exergy (work capacity) results are used to estimate ecosystem services and quantify the economic value of lake natural capital. Calculation of ecosystem services on an eco-exergy basis provides good indications of monetary gains or losses possible in perturbed systems, including eutrophic or invaded ecosystems. This is not surprising, because work capacities include all possible services offered by ecosystems, not only the services actually used by humans. Eco-exergy and the eco-exergy–empower ratio can be guidelines for the calculation of ecosystem services, although they give only a partial indication of the environmental costs and benefits of a given level of information. The present results suggest political and economic considerations and solutions, and are a useful example for organisations involved in environmental management of pollution and biological invasions by exotic species.

The impact of human activities on natural capital and ecosystem services of natural pastures in North Xinjiang, China

The implementation of systemic modeling methods to understand the variation of natural capital and ecosystem services in response to economic activities has huge significance for sound decision-making also at local scale. This paper reports the results of an investigation performed on the grassland ecosystem in North Xinjiang. The Emergy Synthesis method introduced by H.T. Odum in the 1980s was used to dynamically simulate the trend of grassland natural capital and its related ecosystem services. The simulation of natural capital was based on indexes of standing biomass, soil organic matter, soil nitrogen and soil water storages; ecosystem services were assessed by means of indexes of annual CO 2 uptake, O 2 release, forage supply as animal feed, food supply for human nutrition, and finally soil conservation. Results indicate that an upper limit of livestock carrying capacity in the region was reached in the year 1994; after that year the natural capital and main ecosystem services of the grassland ecosystem declined steadily. The emergy based currency equivalent value of the grassland ecosystem in terms of ecosystem services was higher than 87.3 billion Yuan RMB/yr in 1990. Such a value declined to 62.3 billion Yuan RMB/yr in 2010. Similarly, the total emergy based value of natural capital was about 331.7 billion Yuan RMB in 1990 and dropped to 155.6 billion Yuan RMB in 2010. According to the simulation model, the natural capital components such as biomass and soil stocks, the ecosystem services and the replacement value declined due to intensive herding and disturbance from human activities. Such trend is not sustainable because it exceeds the renewable carrying capacity of the area, but it is likely to continue until fundamental changes in human behavior and management of the grassland and animal husbandry occur or until the whole area is fully degraded. Social reasons prevent from simply decreasing the intensity of the livestock activities that provide living means to a large number of local farmers. As a consequence, the traditional low-productivity and environmental unfriendly grazing farming system should gradually be converted into a human-managed pasture based on farming higher productivity pasture crops in a small part of the local land, in order to decrease the grazing pressure on natural grassland of North Xinjiang.

Valuing New Jersey’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital: A Spatially Explicit Benefit Transfer Approach

We intend to estimate the value of ecosystem services in the U.S. State of New Jersey using spatially explicit benefit transfer. The aggregated net rent, a conservative underestimate for the total economic value of the state's natural environment, ranged from $11.6 to $19.6 billion/year, conditional on how inclusive we were in selecting the primary studies used to calculate the central tendency values to transfer. In addition to calculating the range, mean, and standard deviation for each of 12 ecosystem services for 11 Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) types, we also conduct a gap analysis of how well ecosystem service values are represented in the literature. We then map these values by assuming a mean value for each LULC and apply this to spatial data. As to sensitivity analysis, we calculate the net present value of New Jersey's natural environment utilizing three different methods of discounting. These research results provide a useful, albeit imperfect, basis for assessing the value of ecosystem services and natural capital, and their comparison with the value of conventional human and built capitals.