A Valuation-Based Approach for Irrigated Agroecosystem Services
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A Valuation-Based Approach for Irrigated Agroecosystem Services J.A. Zabala1, C. Marín-Miñano1, J. A. Albaladejo-García2, E. I. López- Becerra1, M. D. de Miguel1, J. M. Martínez-Paz2, F. Alcon1 1 Departamento de Economía de la Empresa, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, España ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) 2 Departamento de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Murcia, España ([email protected], [email protected]) Paper prepared for presentation at the 172nd EAAE Seminar ‘Agricultural policy for the environment or environmental policy for agriculture?‘ May 28-29, 2019. Brussels. Copyright 2019 by [J.A. Zabala, C. Marín-Miñano, J. A. Albaladejo-García, E. I. López-Becerra, M. D. de Miguel, J. M. Martínez-Paz, F. Alcon]. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. A Valuation-Based Approach for Irrigated Agroecosystem Services ABSTRACT Agroecosystems main function is food, fiber and fodder provision. However, other ecosystem services (ES) are provided by these systems, such as the reduction of soil loss or the enjoyment of the landscape. Many of these ES do not take part in the market, but their valuation is important to develop a sustainable management of the system. Valuing ES requires a clear classification of ES and some efforts on the study and clarification of the ES classification has been carried out. Nevertheless, the assessment of non-market benefits requires defining and classifying ES according to the type of ecosystem studied and prioritizing the ES impact on social well-being. Thus, this work aims to develop an adaptation of the existing ES classification for irrigated agroecosystem ES valuation, and verify it through an agricultural stakeholders’ consultation. Their contribution could permit to advance towards agricultural ES valuation. It would allow the implementation of management and policy actions which take into account the importance of agroecosystem ES provision and their impact on human well-being. Key words: Agriculture, Choice experiment, Non-market valuation, Stakeholders, Sustainability. 1. INTRODUCTION Agriculture produces more than food, fiber and fodder. Agricultural multifunctioality conceives agriculture also contributes to climate regulation and erosion control, provides biodiversity, and even generates an enjoyable landscape for leisure, recreation and environmental education (Huang et al., 2015). However, not all agricultural contributions to society are positive: groundwater pollution, rivalry for water resources or loss of wildlife habitat, are good examples of negative agricultural impacts (Zhang et al., 2007; Power, 2010). Therefore, agriculture is a multifunctional activity integrated within a socio-ecological system, specifically called agroecosystem. ES, defined as the contributions of an ecosystem to human well-being (TEEB, 2010), provide then a framework to identify and analyze all the agricultural outputs. Thus, ES approach translates all agricultural contributions into well-being, reflecting that agriculture may impact on society beyond food supply. Most international accepted ES classifications (MEA, 2005; TEEB, 2010; Haines-Young and Potschin (CICES), 2012) agree on categorizing them according three main groups: provisioning, regulating and cultural services. The first one comprises all material agricultural contributions to social well-being obtained directly from agroecosystems, which mainly encompass food, fiber and fodder production as positive contribution, and rivalry for water resources in the case of negative contribution. Regulating services are those obtained from geo-chemical processes within the agroecosystem, contributing from temperature regulation to erosion control. Finally, cultural services comprise non-material benefits obtained from agroecosystems, such as aesthetic appreciation of agricultural landscape, or opportunities for recreation and tourism. Despite its apparently simplicity, ES approach is complex to apply when it refers to agroecosystems (Jourdain and Vivithkeyoonvong, 2017). Agroecosystems produce a blend of positive and negative services, namely, agroecosystem services (AES) 1 and agroecosystem dis-services (AEDS), respectively, which not necessarily move in the same direction, generating trade-offs in their provision (Zhang et al., 2007; Power, 2010). For instance, increasing food provision, which frequently requires more intensive agricultural practices, may be related to groundwater pollution or soil degradation (Zhang et al., 2007). The management of agriculture has been traditionally based on economic decisions taken under the valuation of just a part of them: provisioning services, mainly due to their commodity characteristics. However, these services are only a part of the overall contribution of agriculture to society. Thus, the challenge here is to combine market and non-market valuation under a common framework which allows to translate the overall social contribution of agroecosystems into terms of social well- being. Effective and efficient management of agriculture requires merging both kind of valuation of AES and AEDS. Since Costanza et al. (1997) made a first attempt to value ES provided by ecosystems worldwide, there is an increasing interest in improving the ES knowledge and valuation. MEA (2005), TEEB (2010) and CICES (2012) focused their research in classified ES in a general way, available for all kind of ecosystems. However, more efforts are needed in the case of agroecosystems, especially when the purpose is to value their AES and AEDS provision. In this context, this work aims to propose a classification for AES and AEDS provided by irrigated agroecosystems and select the most relevant AES and AEDS for economic valuation through a stakeholder assessment. To reach this purpose, a literature review is firstly developed to know the state of the art of ES classification. Secondly, an ES and EDS classification focused on agroecosystem is proposed. And, finally, it is verified by means of an agricultural stakeholders’ consultation in order to find relevant ES and EDS for agroecosystem valuation. 2. STATE OF THE ART Costanza et al. (1997) represented the first attempt to measure the value of ES worldwide. Since then, big efforts have been made with the purpose of broadening the knowledge about ES concept, methods of quantifying and also valuating. Thus, a great diversity of ES approaches and classifications has been developed. MEA (2005), TEEB (2010) and CICES (2012) are the most internationally accepted classifications currently, showing more similarities than differences among them. MEA (2005) defined ES as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems and established four main categories: provisioning services, which comprise the products obtained from ecosystems; regulating services, defined as benefits obtained from the regulation of internal processes within the ecosystems; cultural services, as non-material benefits obtained from ecosystems; and, finally, supporting services, which are the base for the production of the rest of ES. MEA (2005) was set up with the purpose of raising awareness with the contribution of ecosystems to society, and thus, advising decision makers the importance of ecosystems conservation and avoiding their deterioration. Following Costanza et al. (1997) and MEA’s (2005) recommendations, TEEB (2010) developed its own classification, understanding ES as direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. It also established four main categories of ES: provisioning, regulating, cultural and habitat services. TEEB’s ES classification differentiates MEA’s (2005) removing supporting services while including habitat services. The latter covers ecosystem’s importance to provide habitat for migratory and stationary species, and thus, it is necessary linked to biodiversity. At this point, TEEB (2010) considered MEA’s supporting services as 2 included within regulating ES. Moreover, TEEB (2010) focuses its approach on economic valuation, taking the welfare economics viewpoint. CICES (2012) defined ES similarly to TEEB (2010): contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being. At this sense, CICES (2012) classified ES within three sections: provisioning, regulating and maintenance, and cultural services. As we could notice, nor supporting neither habitat services are included within this classification, revealing that CICES’s (2012) classification only considers final services. However, their approach differs from TEEB’s (2010) in the sense that it is focused on ecosystem’s national accounting. Regarding the aim of proposing a valuation-based approach, TEEB (2010) represents the most adapted classification. Besides, TEEB (2010) is based on final services, avoiding double accounting bias (Fisher et al., 2009), which also enforces its selection as a proper classification for economic valuation. Table 1 summarizes the ES classification made by TEEB (2010), including main ES within each category and its associated economic value. Table 1. TEEB’s (2010) ES classification Economic ES definition ES category ES value Direct and Provisioning - Food Direct use and indirect - Water supply option value contributions - Raw materials of ecosystems - Genetic resources to human - Medicinal resources well-being - Ornamental resources Regulating - Air quality regulation Indirect use