Valuation of Ecosystem Services for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Being important to the well-being of humans and environmental sustainability, ecosystem services play an important role in the provisioning of ecosystems, regulating of ecosystems, supporting services, and cultural services. These services, though vital, are not taken seriously in the process of making economic and policy decisions which results in unsustainable usage of natural resources. The valuation of ecosystem services gives a guide on how to quantify their ecological, social, and economic values and uses it to make wise decisions by policymakers, planners, and communities. This paper will discuss the ecosystem service valuation methods such as market based method, contingent valuation and benefit transfer method, and evaluate its applicability in the sustainable development plan. The review presents the importance of ecosystem service valuation in conservation, resource management, and property policy, which the combination of ecological and economic points of view can facilitate sustainability. The results also show that appropriate valuation can help to improve environmental governance, foster the efficient distribution of resources, and facilitate the sustainable development objectives, whereas the lack of valuation may result in the ecological decline and losses in social-economic life. Generally, this research paper highlights the importance of identifying, quantifying, and integrating ecosystem services in developmental planning in order to make the human and ecological systems resilient in the long-term.