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Using "accounting values" for ecosystem services to assess land use trade-offs associated with protected areas in China [article]

Haojie Chen, University, The Australian National
2022

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This thesis valued ecosystem services (ESs) to assess land use trade-offs (situations with both benefits and costs) associated with protected areas (PAs) in China to inform decision makers of land use management. Tourism may promote economic growth and interaction with nature but impact the environment negatively. Conventional environmental impact assessments (EIAs) assess direct impacts on separate environmental components, underestimating and poorly linking environmental costs with human
more » ... eing and financial costs. To overcome this shortcoming, this thesis complemented EIAs with ES valuation (using US$2010) and valued tourism impacts using basic benefit transfer that assumes a constant unit value/ha/yr of each ecosystem type. Tourism has reduced ESs' values in the Wulingyuan Scenic Area. Damage to vegetation and population decline of macaque monkeys reduced ES value by $1.2 and $728 million/yr, respectively, in the worst situations. Potential land encroachment would cost $0.5 million/yr permanently and $0.09 million/yr temporarily. Artificial reforestation and soil treatment would increase ES value by $1.8 and $0.25 million/yr, respectively, but could not offset the costs. Establishing PAs benefits people and the planet but has costs. The total value of the flows of a subset of ESs of terrestrial PAs covering 18% of China's land was estimated at $2.64 trillion/yr (US$2017). This is 15 and 14 times the basic costs for preventing current ESs and biodiversity from deteriorating and optimised costs for potentially improving ESs and biodiversity, respectively. China has committed to placing 25% of its lands within an 'eco-redline' (geographic space with strict protection), conserving ESs with a total value underestimate at $4.83 trillion/yr (US$2017). This is 20 and 18 times the basic and optimised costs, respectively. The ESs were valued using accounting measures that assume a linear relationship between ESs' biophysical supply and values. Another trade-off occurs between conservation and livelihoods. Payment fo [...]
doi:10.25911/80h9-m111 fatcat:euakokxfwbfc7mfdzutfbonjm4
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Haojie Chen, University, The Australian National. "Using "accounting values" for ecosystem services to assess land use trade-offs associated with protected areas in China." (2022)