The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets and payment schemes

doi:10.1016/J.ECOLECON.2009.11.007

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The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets and payment schemes

Journal Article•DOI•

The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets and payment schemes

Erik Gómez-Baggethun¹, Rudolf de Groot², Pedro L. Lomas¹, Carlos Montes¹•Institutions (2)

Autonomous University of Madrid¹, Wageningen University and Research Centre²

01 Apr 2010-Ecological Economics (Elsevier)-Vol. 69, Iss: 6, pp 1209-1218

TL;DR: This paper reviewed the historic development of the conceptualization of ecosystem services and examined critical landmarks in economic theory and practice with regard to the incorporation of ecosystem service into markets and payment schemes, concluding that the trend towards monetization and commodification of ecosystems is partly the result of a slow move from the original economic conception of nature's benefits as use values in Classical economics to their conceptualization in terms of exchange values in Neoclassical economics.

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About: This article is published in Ecological Economics.The article was published on 2010-04-01. It has received 1317 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Ecosystem valuation & Ecosystem services.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Twenty years of ecosystem services: How far have we come and how far do we still need to go?

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Robert Costanza¹, Rudolph de Groot², Leon Braat, Ida Kubiszewski¹, Lorenzo Fioramonti³, Paul C. Sutton⁴, Stephen Farber⁵, Monica Grasso⁶ - Show less +4 more•Institutions (6)

Australian National University¹, Wageningen University and Research Centre², University of Pretoria³, University of Denver⁴, University of Pittsburgh⁵, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration⁶

01 Dec 2017-Ecosystem services

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the history leading up to these publications and the subsequent debates, research, institutions, policies, on-the-ground actions, and controversies they triggered.

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Abstract: It has been 20 years since two seminal publications about ecosystem services came out: an edited book by Gretchen Daily and an article in Nature by a group of ecologists and economists on the value of the world’s ecosystem services. Both of these have been very highly cited and kicked off an explosion of research, policy, and applications of the idea, including the establishment of this journal. This article traces the history leading up to these publications and the subsequent debates, research, institutions, policies, on-the-ground actions, and controversies they triggered. It also explores what we have learned during this period about the key issues: from definitions to classification to valuation, from integrated modelling to public participation and communication, and the evolution of institutions and governance innovation. Finally, it provides recommendations for the future. In particular, it points to the weakness of the mainstream economic approaches to valuation, growth, and development. It concludes that the substantial contributions of ecosystem services to the sustainable wellbeing of humans and the rest of nature should be at the core of the fundamental change needed in economic theory and practice if we are to achieve a societal transformation to a sustainable and desirable future.

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1,514 citations

Cites background from "The history of ecosystem services i..."

...…and their services, including the causal mechanisms in the service-producing ecological systems and the contributions by human action to make potential services actual and in the appropriate spatial and temporal scales (Boumans et al., 2002; Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010; Braat et al., 2014)....
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...This so-called total system approach implies estimating the value of ecosystems and their services, including the causal mechanisms in the service-producing ecological systems and the contributions by human action to make potential services actual and in the appropriate spatial and temporal scales (Boumans et al., 2002; Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010; Braat et al., 2014)....
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...Gómez-Baggethun et al. (2010) provide a more detailed history of the ecosystems services concept, focusing on its economic roots....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Classifying and valuing ecosystem services for urban planning

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Erik Gómez-Baggethun¹, Erik Gómez-Baggethun², David N. Barton•Institutions (2)

Autonomous University of Madrid¹, Autonomous University of Barcelona²

01 Feb 2013-Ecological Economics

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize knowledge and methods to classify and value ecosystem services for urban planning and identify analytical challenges for valuation to inform urban planning in the face of high heterogeneity and fragmentation characterizing urban ecosystems.

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1,264 citations

Cites background from "The history of ecosystem services i..."

...In the view of the authors this response to the problem is in most cases misleading (see e.g. Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010b; Gómez-Baggethun and Ruiz-Pérez, 2011)....
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...In some cases academics have developed methods to quantify some cultural values such as sense of place (Williams andRoggenbuck, 1989; Shamai, 1991) and traditional ecological knowledge (Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010a) making use of scores and constructed scales....
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Journal Article•

The History of Economic Analysis

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Aleksei Savatyugin

01 Jan 2002-Economic Sociology

1,080 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Reconciling theory and practice: An alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services☆

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Roldan Muradian¹, Esteve Corbera², Unai Pascual³, Nicolas Kosoy⁴, Peter H. May⁵ - Show less +1 more•Institutions (5)

Radboud University Nijmegen¹, University of East Anglia², University of Cambridge³, United Nations Environment Programme⁴, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro⁵

01 Apr 2010-Ecological Economics

TL;DR: In this paper, an alternative and novel theoretical approach to the conceptualization and analysis of payments for environmental services (PES) is presented, taking into account complexities related to uncertainty, distributional issues, social embeddedness, and power relations.

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987 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The ecosystem services agenda:bridging the worlds of natural science and economics, conservation and development, and public and private policy

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Leon Braat¹, Rudolf de Groot¹•Institutions (1)

Wageningen University and Research Centre¹

01 Jul 2012-Ecosystem services

TL;DR: The Ecosystem Services Journal as mentioned in this paper is aimed at scientists and policy analysts who consider contributing to better knowledge and better use of that knowledge about ecosystem services, including knowledge of the ecological systems that provide the services, the economic systems that benefit from them, and the institutions that need to develop effective codes for a sustainable use.

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Abstract: The Ecosystem Services Journal starts in 2012 with a formidable basis in the reports and books from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and TEEB projects. Following a half-century history of growing awareness and associated scientific based policy development a bridging concept with natural and social science notions was developed and coined “ecosystem services”. The agenda for the journal Ecosystem Services, presented in this introductory paper to the Journal Ecosystem Services is aimed at scientists and policy analysts who consider contributing to better knowledge and better use of that knowledge about ecosystem services. This should include knowledge of the ecological systems that provide the services, the economic systems that benefit from them, and the institutions that need to develop effective codes for a sustainable use. The agenda is derived from the experience of the authors in science and policy analysis and extended with some of the recommendations from the TEEB book for national and international policy making emphasising the science—policy—practice linkage, which is the philosophy of the Journal.

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843 citations

Cites background from "The history of ecosystem services i..."

...The origins of the modern history of ecosystem services are to be found in the late 1970s (see for an extensive historical analysis: Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010)....
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...Gómez-Baggethun et al. (2010) trace the treatment of nature’s benefits throughout economic history from the classical economics period to the consolidation of neoclassical economics and economic sub-disciplines specialized in environmental issues....
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References

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Open Access

More filters

Journal Article•DOI•

The Tragedy of the Commons

[...]

Garrett Hardin¹•Institutions (1)

University of California, Santa Barbara¹

13 Dec 1968-Science

TL;DR: The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.

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Abstract: The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.

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22,421 citations

"The history of ecosystem services i..." refers background in this paper

...In his Tragedy of the commons, Hardin (1968) warned that resource regimes lacking welldefined property rights were vulnerable to overexploitation....
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...…2000s Appropriation Ecosystem services as appropriable Clear definition of ecosystem property rights (e.g. land titling) Exchange value Coase, 1960 Hardin, 1968 Exchange Ecosystem services as exchangeable Institutional structures created for sale/exchange (PES and MES) Exchange value Wunder,…...
[...]

Journal Article•DOI•

A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth

[...]

Robert M. Solow¹•Institutions (1)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology¹

01 Feb 1956-Quarterly Journal of Economics

TL;DR: In this paper, a model of long run growth is proposed and examples of possible growth patterns are given. But the model does not consider the long run of the economy and does not take into account the characteristics of interest and wage rates.

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Abstract: I. Introduction, 65. — II. A model of long-run growth, 66. — III. Possible growth patterns, 68. — IV. Examples, 73. — V. Behavior of interest and wage rates, 78. — VI. Extensions, 85. — VII. Qualifications, 91.

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20,482 citations

"The history of ecosystem services i..." refers background in this paper

...In Solow's contribution to the theory of economic growth (Solow, 1956), land had been removed from the production function under the implicit assumption that nature's input could be substituted by manufactured capital....
[...]

Journal Article•DOI•

The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

[...]

Robert Costanza¹, Rudolf de Groot, Stephen Farberk, Monica Grasso¹, Bruce Hannon², Karin E. Limburg³, Shahid Naeem⁴, José M. Paruelo⁵, Robert Raskin⁶, Paul Suttonkk⁵, Marjan van den Belt - Show less +7 more•Institutions (6)

University of Maryland, College Park¹, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign², Stockholm University³, University of Minnesota⁴, University of Buenos Aires⁵, Jet Propulsion Laboratory⁶

15 May 1997-Nature

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations, for the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion (10^(12)) per year, with an average of US $33 trillion per year.

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Abstract: The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth's life-support system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the planet. We have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations. For the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion (10^(12)) per year, with an average of US$33 trillion per year. Because of the nature of the uncertainties, this must be considered a minimum estimate. Global gross national product total is around US$18 trillion per year.

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18,139 citations

"The history of ecosystem services i..." refers background or methods in this paper

..., 1992; Daily, 1997), and with increased interest on methods to estimate their economic value (Costanza et al., 1997)....
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...It then continues in the 1990s with the mainstreaming of ecosystem services in the literature (Costanza and Daly, 1992; Perrings et al., 1992; Daily, 1997), and with increased interest on methods to estimate their economic value (Costanza et al., 1997)....
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...…the 1990s Monetization Ecosystem services as valuable/ monetizable Refinement of methods to value ecosystem services in monetary terms Exchange value Costanza et al., 1997 Stern, 2006 EC, 2007 Starting in 1970s, boosts in the 2000s Appropriation Ecosystem services as appropriable Clear definition…...
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...Hence, the systematic undervaluation of the ecological dimension in decisionmakingwould be partly explainedby the fact that the services provided by natural capital are not adequately quantified in terms comparable with economic services and manufactured capital (Costanza et al., 1997)....
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...The paper by Costanza et al. (1997) on the value of the 6 Isolated contributions had noticed the many ways nature's functions benefit humans several decades earlier....
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Book Chapter•DOI•

Our common future

[...]

Gro Harlem Brundtland, Mansour Khalid

01 Jan 1987

13,141 citations

Book•

The Problem of Social Cost

[...]

Ronald H. Coase

10 Oct 2016

TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the suggested courses of action are inappropriate, in that they lead to results which are not necessarily, or even usually, desirable, and therefore, it is recommended to exclude the factory from residential districts (and presumably from other areas in which the emission of smoke would have harmful effects on others).

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Abstract: This paper is concerned with those actions of business firms which have harmful effects on others. The standard example is that of a factory the smoke from which has harmful effects on those occupying neighbouring properties. The economic analysis of such a situation has usually proceeded in terms of a divergence between the private and social product of the factory, in which economists have largely followed the treatment of Pigou in The Economics of Welfare. The conclusions to which this kind of analysis seems to have led most economists is that it would be desirable to make the owner of the factory liable for the damage caused to those injured by the smoke, or alternatively, to place a tax on the factory owner varying with the amount of smoke produced and equivalent in money terms to the damage it would cause, or finally, to exclude the factory from residential districts (and presumably from other areas in which the emission of smoke would have harmful effects on others). It is my contention that the suggested courses of action are inappropriate, in that they lead to results which are not necessarily, or even usually, desirable.

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11,448 citations