bs_bs_banner Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 160–170 doi: 10.1002/app5.16 Original Article Ecosystem Services and Environmental Governance: Comparing China and the U.S. Robert Costanza and Shuang Liu* Abstract adjustments that are both politically feasible and likely to make a difference in these terms? The concept of ecosystem services (the benefits We conclude that while China and the United people derive from functioning ecosystems) is States represent two almost polar opposite beginning to change the way we view the rela- starting points, especially as concerns property tionship between humans and the rest of nature. rights, there is significant convergence, and the To the extent that we view humanity as embed- concept of ecosystem services can help accel- ded in and interdependent with the rest of erate this positive trend. nature, rather than viewing nature as separate Key words: ecosystem services, governance, from people or even as an adversary, our China whole approach to environmental research, governance and management changes. These ongoing changes are discussed with reference 1. Background to the evolving situations in China and the United States. The most significant effects on Ecosystem services are defined as ‘the benefits governance are the needs to shift to a more people obtain from ecosystems’ (Costanza & transparent and participatory approach and Folke 1997; Costanza et al. 1997; Millennium a broader recognition of the public goods/ Ecosystem Assessment 2005). These include common property characteristics of ecosystems provisioning services such as food, water and and their services. The main questions are: medicinal plants; regulating services such (i) to what extent do prevailing governance as air quality regulation, water purification, arrangements in China and the United States regulation of flood, drought and disease; sup- facilitate and/or hinder efforts to effectively porting services such as soil formation and manage ecosystem services?; and (ii) are there nutrient cycling; and cultural services such as recreational, scientific and spiritual benefits (Costanza & Folke 1997; Costanza et al. 1997; * Costanza: Crawford School of Public Policy, Daily 1997; de Groot et al. 2002). Australian National University, Canberra, Austra- Ecosystem services are becoming increas- lian Capital Territory 0200, Australia; Liu: Crawford ingly threatened globally (Millennium Eco- School of Public Policy, Australian National system Assessment 2005). This trend is University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory partially due to a lack of appreciation of 0200, Australia and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, their value, because resources that are not Australia. Corresponding author: Costanza, email valued are often ignored in decision-making Ͻ[email protected]Ͼ. We thank the (Costanza & Folke 1997; Costanza et al. 1997; Crawford School of Public Policy and CSIRO for Sukhdev 2008). Referring to environmental support during the preparation of this manuscript. assets as ‘priceless’ and ‘invaluable’ has © 2014 The Authors. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. Costanza and Liu: Ecosystem Services and Environmental Governance 161 proven woefully insufficient in terms of reduc- instance, are predicted to increase in China due ing or halting ecosystem degradation. The to their rapidly growing international trade challenge then is to acknowledge the multiple (Weber & Li 2008). On the other hand, China contributions of ecosystem services to human has been recognised as a potential source for well-being while managing them as public new invasive species in the United States goods (Costanza 2008; Ehrlich & Pringle (United States National Research Council 2008). 2002), and the three best-known pests of North Ecosystem services valuation (ESV) is American tree populations all originated in the process of assessing the contributions of China or somewhere nearby in East Asia (Xie ecosystem services to sustainable human well- et al. 2001). The control of invasive species is being, including sustainable scale, fair distribu- an international, sometimes global enterprise tion and efficient allocation (Costanza & Folke that always involves the collaboration of mul- 1997; Liu et al. 2010). Valuation of ecosystem tiple countries (Perrings et al. 2002). Second, services has become one of the fastest growing political and cultural differences between areas of environmental research (Turner et al. China and other countries pose new challenges 2003; Costanza & Kubiszewski 2012). More to and opportunities for ESV research. For recently, efforts such as the Millennium instance, concentration of political power Ecosystem Assessment (2003, 2005) and The enables China to secure the resources to Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity conduct some extremely ambitious projects. (Sukhdev 2008), increasingly recognise the China has or is currently carrying out the three critical role of ecosystem service valuation for largest development projects in the world: The sustainable development. Three Gorges Dam, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and the development of 2. Ecosystem Services Research in China Western China. All of these are expected to cause huge environmental problems (Liu & In China, ESV has also become one of the Diamond 2005). At the same time, China most significant and fastest growing areas of has the two largest payment for ecosystem ser- research in recent decades (Zhang et al. 2010; vices projects in the world in terms of scale, Chen et al. 2014). However, most research payment and duration (Liu et al. 2008): the results are inaccessible to the global research National Forest Conservation Program and the community because they are not reported in Grain to Green Program. These long-term and English. The limited number of works pub- large-scale projects offer ESV scholars unique lished in English (e.g. Guo et al. 2000; Xu opportunities to assess the value of ecosystem et al. 2003; Xiao et al. 2005; Jim & Chen services (e.g. Chen et al. 2009) and a height- 2006;Wang et al. 2009; Chen et al. 2014) are ened necessity to do so. valuable, but they do not tell the whole story of Zhang et al. (2010) review the history of ESV research in China. ESV research in China ESV research in China and point out the could benefit from increased collaboration. effects of ESV studies in creating public envi- Such collaboration is mutually beneficial for ronmental awareness and in providing a scien- several reasons. First, some of China’s envi- tific basis for eco-compensation mechanisms ronmental problems are of global significance (i.e. payments for ecosystem services). This and require solutions beyond the country’s brings us to one of the major differences in the borders. With the world’s fourth largest terri- governance regimes in China and the United tory, the largest population and the fastest States—property rights regimes. Most coun- growing economy, China generates significant tries are a mix of private and state ownership, global environmental impacts (MacBean but the United States and China represent the 2007). Likewise, the rest of the world affect current extremes. The United States is domi- China’s environment through trade, invest- nated by private property regimes and laws ment and resource exploitation (Liu & (even though there are significant areas of Diamond 2005). Invasive plant species, for public lands, especially in the west), while © 2014 The Authors. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University 162 Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies January 2014 Table 1 Eco-services Classified According to Rivalness and Excludability (Costanza 2008) Excludable Non-excludable Rival Market goods and services (some provisioning Common pool resources (some provisioning services) services) Non-rival Congestable services (some provisioning services) Public goods and services (most regulatory and cultural services) China is dominated by state ownership (even Private property and conventional markets thought private property is now significant). work reasonably well for the allocation of Next, we focus on the implications of this goods and services that are both rival and for ecosystem services and environmental excludable (the upper left box in Table 1). But governance. they do not work well for allocating goods and services that fall in the other three categories. 3. Property Rights, Ecosystem Services Most ecosystem services fall into these other and Environmental Governance categories and are therefore usually not privatised or marketed. One way to classify ecosystem services is In the United States, private property has according to their ‘excludability and rivalness’ been the rule, and the recent tendency has been status. Table 1 arrays these two characteristics to attempt to use market mechanisms to pay against each other in a matrix which leads to private landowners for ecosystem services pro- four categories of goods and services. Goods duction (Farley & Costanza 2010). In China, and services are ‘excludable’ to the