Economic Value of Ecosystem Services from the Deep Seas and the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
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FIAF/C1210 (En) FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular ISSN 2070-6065 ECONOMIC VALUE OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FROM THE DEEP SEAS AND THE AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. 1210 FIAF/C1210 (En) ECONOMIC VALUE OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FROM THE DEEP SEAS AND THE AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION by Daniela Ottaviani Consultant Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, Italy FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2020 Ottaviani, D. 2020. Economic value of ecosystem services from the deep seas and the areas beyond national jurisdiction. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular 12 . Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8340en No. 10 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISSN 2070-6065 ISBN 978-92-5-132325-0 © FAO, 2020 Some rights reserved. 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FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [email protected]. iii PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT This circular stems from a study carried out for FAO projects “Sustainable Fisheries Management and Biodiversity Conservation of Deep-Sea Living Marine Resources and Ecosystems in the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction” (GCP/GLO/366/GFF) and “Deep-Sea Sponge Grounds Ecosystems of the North Atlantic: An Integrated Approach Towards their Preservation and Sustainable Exploitation” (GCP/GLO/679/EC). These projects included outputs related to the economic valuation of goods and services provided by the deep seas in areas beyond national jurisdiction. iv ABSTRACT The deep seas include marine waters below 200 m, where sunlight does not penetrate or is so dim that the environment does not allow photosynthesis. These dark, deep waters cover most of the Earth’s surface and represent a great part of the oceans’ volume. They include underwater seascape include seamounts, cold-water corals, deep-water sponges, cold seeps, hydrothermal vents, submarine canyons, open slopes and basins. The deep-sea ecosystem provides a multitude of benefits to human well-being (i.e. ecosystem services). The deep seas provide many resources, including commercial fish stocks targeted by deep-sea fisheries, precious corals for the jewellery industry, substances used as pharmaceuticals, as well as oil, gas and minerals that can be extracted from the seabed. The deep seas play a key role in many processes, including climate regulation and carbon dioxide transport and storage, water temperature regulation, and regeneration and circulation of nutrients in the water column. The deep seas constitute a remote, highly pristine environment, that is still largely unknown, where exploration and research are ongoing for both scientific and commercial purposes. This study compiled an estimate of the total economic value (TEV) of the deep seas, which considered the provision of deep-water fish, the harvest of precious corals, the use of substances of marine origin as pharmaceuticals, the extraction of deep and ultra-deep oil and the potential mining of mineral resources from the seafloor, carbon sequestration carried out by the deep seas, the importance of scientific research in the deep seas, and touristic activities with submersibles to visit sites such as the Titanic shipwreck. A big data-mining effort was carried out to value deep-sea ecosystem services on a global scale. One first achievement of this study was to pull together a diversified large amount of information related to the deep seas within a single document. Comprehensively, the TEV assessed for the deep-sea ecosystem as a whole is estimated at USD 267 billion per year. Ninety two percent of the economic value originates from abiotic resources (oil and minerals), 5 percent from biotic resources (fish, corals and pharmaceuticals of marine origin), 2 percent from cultural services (scientific research and tourism/recreation), and 1 percent from carbon sequestration. However, if carbon sequestration is valued with a higher unit price, reflecting both market prices in the carbon market and incurred social costs from increased carbon emissions, the TEV associated with the deep-sea ecosystem increases to USD 423 billion per year. The relative contribution of carbon sequestration (38 percent) to the TEV becomes comparable to the value of the extraction of abiotic resources (58 percent). This illustrates how taking full account of regulating and supporting services is likely to increase the estimated TEV. The economic importance associated with the exploitation of deep-sea resources (fish, corals, oil, gas, minerals, pharmaceuticals) is likely to further decrease relative to the economic value large-scale services, once they are fully accounted for. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN THE DEEP SEAS AND IN THE AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION (ABNJ) ..............................................................1 1.1. The ecosystem service framework ................................................................................. 1 1.2. Definition of the deep seas and the ABNJ ....................................................................... 2 1.3. Overview of ecosystem services in the deep seas ........................................................... 4 1.3.1. Provisioning services ...................................................................................................................... 6 1.3.2. Regulating services ........................................................................................................................ 7 1.3.3. Supporting services ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.3.4. Cultural services ...........................................................................................................................10 1.4. Sectorial economic activities in the deep seas and in the deep seas of the ABNJ ........... 10 1.4.1. Deep-sea fisheries........................................................................................................................12 1.4.2. Pharmaceutical industries ...........................................................................................................12 1.4.3. Oil and gas industries ...................................................................................................................12 1.4.4. Mining industries .........................................................................................................................13 1.4.5. Telecommunications....................................................................................................................13 2. VALUATION METHODOLOGIES ................................................................................