The global decline in estuarine and coastal ecosystems (ECEs) is affecting a number of critical benefits, or ecosystem services. We review the main ecological services across a variety of ECEs, including marshes, mangroves, nearshore coral reefs, seagrass beds, and sand beaches and dunes. Where possible, we indicate estimates of the key economic values arising from these services, and discuss how the natural variability of ECEs impacts their benefits, the synergistic relationships of ECEs across seascapes, and management implications. Although reliable valuation estimates are beginning to emerge for the key services of some ECEs, such as coral reefs, salt marshes, and mangroves, many of the important benefits of seagrass beds and sand dunes and beaches have not been assessed properly. Even for coral reefs, marshes, and mangroves, important ecological services have yet to be valued reliably, such as cross-ecosystem nutrient transfer (coral reefs), erosion control (marshes), and pollution control (mangroves). An important issue for valuing certain ECE services, such as coastal protection and habitat-fishery linkages, is that the ecological functions underlying these services vary spatially and temporally. Allowing for the connectivity between ECE habitats also may have important implications for assessing the ecological functions underlying key ecosystems services, such coastal protection, control of erosion, and habitat-fishery linkages. Finally, we conclude by suggesting an action plan for protecting and/or enhancing the immediate and longer-term values of ECE services. Because the connectivity of ECEs across land-sea gradients also influences the provision of certain ecosystem services, management of the entire seascape will be necessary to preserve such synergistic effects. Other key elements of an action plan include further ecological and economic collaborative research on valuing ECE services, improving institutional and legal frameworks for management, controlling and regulating destructive economic activities, and developing ecological restoration options.

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1890/10-1510.1

The value of estuarine and coastal ecosystem services

The Political Consciousness of Post-Industrialism@@@The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics.

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Economics of natural resources and the environment

Contingent valuation (CV) has become one of the most widely used non-market valuation techniques. CV's prominence is due to its flexibility and ability to estimate total value, including passive use value. Its use and the inclusion of passive use value in benefit-cost analyses and environ- mental litigation are the subject of a contentious debate. This paper discusses key areas of the debate over CV and the validity of passive use value. We conclude that many of the alleged problems with CV can be resolved by careful study design and implementation. We further conclude that claims that empirical CV findings are theoretically inconsistent are not generally supported by the literature. The debate over CV, however, has clarified several key issues related to nonmarket valuation and can provide useful guidance both to CV practitioners and the users of CV results.

/pdf/contingent-valuation-controversies-and-evidence-45kdprg1cy.pdf

Contingent Valuation: Controversies and Evidence

This article proposes contemporary best-practice recommendations for stated preference (SP) studies used to inform decision making, grounded in the accumulated body of peer-reviewed literature. These recommendations consider the use of SP methods to estimate both use and non-use (passive-use) values, and cover the broad SP domain, including contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments. We focus on applications to public goods in the context of the environment and human health but also consider ways in which the proposed recommendations might apply to other common areas of application. The recommendations recognize that SP results may be used and reused (benefit transfers) by governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and that all such applications must be considered. The intended result is a set of guidelines for SP studies that is more comprehensive than that of the original National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Blue Ribbon Panel on contingent valuation, is more germane to contemporary applications, and reflects the two decades of research since that time. We also distinguish between practices for which accumulated research is sufficient to support recommendations and those for which greater uncertainty remains. The goal of this article is to raise the quality of SP studies used to support decision making and promote research that will further enhance the practice of these studies worldwide.

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Contemporary Guidance for Stated Preference Studies

Introduction, Jeff Bennett and Russell Blamey. Part 1 The technique: choice experiments - an overview of concepts and issues, Jordan J. Louviere some fundamentals of environmental choice modelling, Jeff Bennett and Vic Adamowicz. Part 2 Case studies: assessing the options for the Canberra water supply - an application of choice modelling, Jenny Gordon et al remnant vegetation and wetlands protection - non-market valuation, Jeff Bennett et al green product choice, Russell Blamey et al. Part 3 Exploring some methodological issues: choice set design, Russell Blamey et al opt-out alternatives and anglers' stated preferences, Mellisa Ruby Banzhaf et al yea-saying and validation of a choice model of green product choice, Russell Blamey and Jeff Bennett framing effects, John Rolfe and Jeff Bennett the strengths and weaknesses of environmental choice modelling, Jeff Bennett and Russell Blamey.

The choice modelling approach to environmental valuation

Principles of ecotourism.

A number of recent papers have provided estimates of willingness to pay derived in contingent valuation surveys exceeding those revealed in experimental or real-life markets One possible explanation for the overestimation of values is the presence of yea-saying With the objective of reducing the occurrence of yea-saying, a new elicitation format, referred to as the dissonance-minimizing (D M) format, is proposed An empirical comparison of the DM format with the conventional dichotomous-choice (DC) format and the ambivalence-reducing polychotomous choice (PC) format suggested by Ready, Whitehead, and Blomquist (1995) is made Results are encouraging for the DM

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3146997

Yea-Saying in Contingent Valuation Surveys

Choice modelling (CM) is a stated preference technique that is increasingly being used to generate estimates of non-market values. In CM applications, respondents to a survey are presented with several sets of options, which contain common attributes but at varying levels, and are asked to select their preferred alternative from each set. The information provided by respondents' choices is used to estimate marginal rates of substitution and, hence, estimates of value. In this paper the results from three separate CM applications are presented. Estimates are made of the value of improving the quality of wetlands. The first two applications focused on the Gwydir Wetlands in New South Wales, Australia. One survey was conducted in Sydney, a major urban centre, and the second was conducted in Moree, a rural centre close to the Gwydir Wetlands. The third survey, which was also conducted in Sydney, focused on the Macquarie Marshes, another wetland in New South Wales. An objective of the study was to test the suitability of using CM derived estimates for benefit transfer, both across different populations and across different wetlands. CM is potentially suited to benefit transfer because it is possible to allow for differences in environmental improvements between sites as well as differences in socio-economic characteristics between respondent populations. Several tests aimed at determining the validity of transfers using CM across sites and populations are presented. These include tests of the equality of models, implicit prices and estimates of compensating surplus.

/pdf/choice-modeling-and-tests-of-benefit-transfer-5d52ffkaii.pdf

Choice Modeling and Tests of Benefit Transfer

Although questions of how ecotourism as a concept is to be defined have begun to subside, the question of how a given definition might be operationalised for marketing and research purposes remains. The paper discusses this question, arguing that a distinction between intentions and outcomes is required, as is a distinction between normative and descriptive perspectives. A consideration of the pros and cons of the alternative ways of identifying ecotourism experiences in market research studies suggests that different applications may require different approaches, and that any one application may require a combination of different measurement approaches. When comparability among the results of different market research studies is desired, a minimalist definition involving references to a mixture of intentions and outcomes may be required.

Russell K. Blamey

Papers

The choice modelling approach to environmental valuation

Principles of ecotourism.

Yea-Saying in Contingent Valuation Surveys

Choice Modeling and Tests of Benefit Transfer

Ecotourism: The Search for an Operational Definition