The economic values of global forest ecosystem services: A meta-analysis

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Author(s)
Taye, FA
Folkersen, MV
Fleming, CM
Buckwell, A
Mackey, B
Diwakar, KC
Le, D
Hasan, S
Ange, CS
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2021-11
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This study presents a meta-analysis of the economic values of global forest ecosystem services. The meta-analysis is conducted based on data from primary studies published between 1990 and 2018. The value-estimates from those studies are standardized into international currency units i.e. US dollar/ha/year using the purchasing power parity of countries at 2017 price levels. This standardization results in a database of 261 eligible primary studies and 758 value-estimates or observations. The study reveals large variations in the reported economic values of forests and the ecosystem services that they provide. Results from ...
View more >This study presents a meta-analysis of the economic values of global forest ecosystem services. The meta-analysis is conducted based on data from primary studies published between 1990 and 2018. The value-estimates from those studies are standardized into international currency units i.e. US dollar/ha/year using the purchasing power parity of countries at 2017 price levels. This standardization results in a database of 261 eligible primary studies and 758 value-estimates or observations. The study reveals large variations in the reported economic values of forests and the ecosystem services that they provide. Results from the meta-regression indicate a range of drivers that influence these economic values, including GDP per-capita, proportion of forest cover, continental location, type of forest, ecological zone, forest area, ecosystem services being valued and the valuation method employed. The meta-regression results also indicate the importance of valuing multiple ecosystem services together, rather than valuing specific services separately. The danger with the latter approach is that valuation studies can inadvertently suggest industrial plantation forests, with harvesting for timber or bio-mass energy, have the greatest economic value. However, such studies do not properly consider trade-offs inherent in the management of these types of forests; namely the loss of multiple ecosystem services that are provided by more natural forests. These findings contribute to the literature evaluating the economic values of global forest ecosystem services by conveying relevant information regarding the divergence of the economic values associated with different forest features, thus helping to inform forest management.
View less >
View more >This study presents a meta-analysis of the economic values of global forest ecosystem services. The meta-analysis is conducted based on data from primary studies published between 1990 and 2018. The value-estimates from those studies are standardized into international currency units i.e. US dollar/ha/year using the purchasing power parity of countries at 2017 price levels. This standardization results in a database of 261 eligible primary studies and 758 value-estimates or observations. The study reveals large variations in the reported economic values of forests and the ecosystem services that they provide. Results from the meta-regression indicate a range of drivers that influence these economic values, including GDP per-capita, proportion of forest cover, continental location, type of forest, ecological zone, forest area, ecosystem services being valued and the valuation method employed. The meta-regression results also indicate the importance of valuing multiple ecosystem services together, rather than valuing specific services separately. The danger with the latter approach is that valuation studies can inadvertently suggest industrial plantation forests, with harvesting for timber or bio-mass energy, have the greatest economic value. However, such studies do not properly consider trade-offs inherent in the management of these types of forests; namely the loss of multiple ecosystem services that are provided by more natural forests. These findings contribute to the literature evaluating the economic values of global forest ecosystem services by conveying relevant information regarding the divergence of the economic values associated with different forest features, thus helping to inform forest management.
View less >
Journal Title
Ecological Economics
Volume
189
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Note
This publication has been entered into Griffith Research Online as an Advanced Online Version.
Subject
Climate change science
Ecological applications
Environmental management
Pollution and contamination
Applied economics
Other economics
Ecology
Ecosystem services
Economic values
Forests Meta-analysis
Value standardization
Systematic literature review