Mark Brady
Utredare
Roadmap for valuing soil ecosystem services to inform multi-level decision-making in agriculture
Författare
Summary, in English
Agricultural soils contribute to human welfare through their generation of manifold ecosystem services such as food security, water quality and climate regulation, but these are degraded by common farming practices. We have developed a roadmap for evaluating the contribution of both private- and public-good ecosystem services generated by agricultural soils to societal welfare. The approach considers the needs of decision-makers at different levels, from farmers to policy-makers. This we achieve through combining production functions-to quantify the impacts of alternative management practices on agricultural productivity and soil ecosystem services-with non-market valuation of changes in public-good ecosystem services and benefit-cost analysis. The results show that the net present value to society of implementing soil-friendly measures are substantial, but negative for farmers in our study region. Although we apply our roadmap to an intensive farming region in Sweden, we believe our results have broad applicability, because farmers do not usually account for the value of public-good ecosystem services. We therefore conclude that market outcomes are not likely to be generating optimal levels of soil ecosystem services from society's perspective. Innovative governance institutions are needed to resolve this market failure to safeguard the welfare of future generations.
Avdelning/ar
- Centrum för miljö- och klimatvetenskap (CEC)
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- AgriFood Economics Centre, SLU
- Markgruppen
- Biodiversitet
Publiceringsår
2019-10-01
Språk
Engelska
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Sustainability (Switzerland)
Volym
11
Issue
19
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
MDPI AG
Ämne
- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Nyckelord
- Benefit-cost analysis
- Climate change
- Food security
- Natural capital
- Nutrient retention
- Policy
- Soil carbon
- Valuation
Status
Published
Forskningsgrupp
- Soil Ecology
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 2071-1050