Introduction

Ecosystem services are the benefits that ecosystems provide to society and the economy. Ecosystem services are often not fully taken into account in policy decisions because they are not fully captured in commercial markets nor adequately quantified in terms comparable with commercial services traded in markets. Ecosystem service valuation can provide policy with additional insights as it allows policy appraisals to fully consider the costs and benefits associated with changes in the natural environment and highlights the implications for human wellbeing.

This manual focuses on pragmatic methods to value ecosystem services. The guidance and tool can help everyone who wants to quantify the socio-economic importance of ecosystems (land managers, land developers, national and local authorities, non-governmental organisations and active citizens).

This guidance provides methodologies to value the ecosystem goods and services of (semi-)natural land use, including forests and agricultural land use. We discuss qualitative, quantitative and monetary valuation methods for a range of ecosystem services.

For each ecosystem service we discuss the data requirements, the assumptions made to value ecosystem services, where to find the necessary input data, and finally illustrate the methods with an example. This information is also the basics for a webtool. The tool can be consulted on the internet via https://natuurwaardeverkenner.be/. End-users are able to create and save scenarios, share scenarios with other registered users and consult public scenarios. Interactive discussions are stimulated through a discussion forum.

This guidance and tool are an update of a previous guidance document published in 2010. Compared to this previous document, the number of services is increased and some methods are improved. We also better account for uncertainty by using low and high estimates. In the next chapters of this summary we will explain which methods were applied in our study.

The manual and tool are not static. The list of ecosystem services that is valued in this manual is not complete as it was not possible to develop methodologies for all ecosystem services. The quantification and valuation functions that are presented are built on the current state of knowledge and data-availability, but can be improved in the future when new scientific insights emerge and/or better data are available. Suggestions from you as end user are always welcome.

It is important to understand that this study values a marginal change in ecosystem service provision, but does not measure the total value of certain ecosystems. The figures do inform policy makers about the impact on human welfare due to a project or policy initiative influencing existing ecosystems and the services they deliver.