Framework for integrated Ecosystem Services assessment of the costs and benefits of large scale landscape restoration illustrated with a case study in Mediterranean Spain
de Groot, Rudolf; Moolenaar, Simon; de Vente, Joris; De Leijster, Vincent; Ramos, María Eugenia; Robles, Ana Belen; Schoonhoven, Yanniek; Verweij, Pita
(2022) Ecosystem Services, volume 53, pp. 1 - 12
(Article)
Abstract
To prevent landscape degradation and the continuing loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, decisions regarding landscape restoration should be based on their ‘true’ costs and benefits (i.e. broader welfare effects), including all externalities (positive and negative). In this paper, we present a framework consisting of nine steps to analyze, quantify
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and, where possible, monetize and capture the effects of changes in land use and management on the true costs and benefits. To illustrate this framework we applied it to large scale landscape restoration in a dryland region in SE Spain that is facing serious land degradation. Based on fieldwork involving several farms and expert interviews between 2017 and 2019, and additional literature review, we compared the costs and benefits, using the so-called Social- or Integrated Cost-Benefit Analyses (i-CBA) approach, of three land use systems: a multi-functional sustainable land use system (MFU) with those of almond monoculture under conventional management (CM) and under sustainable land management (SLM). Our study demonstrates that conventional financial CBA favors short-term, usually non-sustainable, land use. Using i-CBA gives a more realistic insight in the true welfare effects of landscape restoration. Our analysis also shows that a transition from conventional monoculture to multi-functional sustainable land use at the farm-level is only financially feasible when all externalities are accounted for and compensated. Our integrated approach enables the identification of opportunities and mechanisms to optimize multifunctional land use and capture the ‘full value’ of landscape restoration through so-called blended financing mechanisms. Eventually, sustainable land management can then become the norm rather than the exception because it is both financially more profitable for the private land owner and economically, environmentally and socially more beneficial to the community and society as a whole.
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Keywords: Cost benefit analysis, Drylands, Ecosystem services, Externalities, Impact assessment, Land degradation, Land use change, Landscape restoration, Monetary values, Global and Planetary Change, Geography, Planning and Development, Ecology, Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous), Nature and Landscape Conservation, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
ISSN: 2212-0416
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Note: Funding Information: We thank José Manuel Romero Carayol (Diputación de Granada) manager at the experimental finca Los Morales and several farmers for their generous cooperation in providing their time and information during the fieldwork and data collection: Alfonso Chico de Guzmán, Antonio and Pepe Escámez, Manuel Martínez Egea, Fran and Alvaro Martínez- Raya, Family Gómez Tenorio, and Santiaga Sánchez. We also thank Dietmar Roth, Miguel Ángel Gómez, Cati Casanova, Elvira Marin and Fernando Bautista Exposito from AlVelAl association and Frank Ohlenschläger from La Almendrehesa Ltd, for their support, information and their comments on the final draft of this article. Many students from Wageningen University contributed with their thesis research including Davide Angelucci, David Assante, Valentina Bedoya, Nicola Bozzolan, Felipe Castano, Paula Duske, Francois Laurent, Sarah Mourad, Aimilia Paraschou, Catalina Rodriguez, Luigi Scoppola, Enya Ramirez and Yue Huang (see Appendix A for an overview of their work). We warmly thank Carolina Boix-Fayos, Maria Martínez-Mena, Joris Eekhout, Maria Almagro, Raquel Luján-Soto and Javier Martínez-López from CEBAS-CSIC, and Jasper Bertels and Erica ten Broeke from Commonland for the discussions, support and various inputs, and Piet Croockewit for help with the final editing during the review process. This work was supported by the Commonland Foundation and the Foundation for Sustainable Development. The Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) supported one of the PhD students through the graduate programme Nature Conservation, Management and Restoration. “We dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague and friend Dietmar Roth who died unexpectedly during the writing of this article. Besides an eloquent and endearing person, Dietmar was one of the initiators, visionaries and driving forces behind the Alvelal association with a special interest in research, cultural heritage and the return of inspiration as a starting point for the restoration of nature and improvement of peoplés lives in the territory. His passing is a great loss both on a professional and personal level; we miss him greatly.” Funding Information: We thank José Manuel Romero Carayol (Diputación de Granada) manager at the experimental finca Los Morales and several farmers for their generous cooperation in providing their time and information during the fieldwork and data collection: Alfonso Chico de Guzmán, Antonio and Pepe Escámez, Manuel Martínez Egea, Fran and Alvaro Martínez- Raya, Family Gómez Tenorio, and Santiaga Sánchez. We also thank Dietmar Roth, Miguel Ángel Gómez, Cati Casanova, Elvira Marin and Fernando Bautista Exposito from AlVelAl association and Frank Ohlenschläger from La Almendrehesa Ltd, for their support, information and their comments on the final draft of this article. Many students from Wageningen University contributed with their thesis research including Davide Angelucci, David Assante, Valentina Bedoya, Nicola Bozzolan, Felipe Castano, Paula Duske, Francois Laurent, Sarah Mourad, Aimilia Paraschou, Catalina Rodriguez, Luigi Scoppola, Enya Ramirez and Yue Huang (see Appendix A for an overview of their work). We warmly thank Carolina Boix-Fayos, Maria Martínez-Mena, Joris Eekhout, Maria Almagro, Raquel Luján-Soto and Javier Martínez-López from CEBAS-CSIC, and Jasper Bertels and Erica ten Broeke from Commonland for the discussions, support and various inputs, and Piet Croockewit for help with the final editing during the review process. This work was supported by the Commonland Foundation and the Foundation for Sustainable Development. The Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) supported one of the PhD students through the graduate programme Nature Conservation, Management and Restoration. "We dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague and friend Dietmar Roth who died unexpectedly during the writing of this article. Besides an eloquent and endearing person, Dietmar was one of the initiators, visionaries and driving forces behind the Alvelal association with a special interest in research, cultural heritage and the return of inspiration as a starting point for the restoration of nature and improvement of peoplés lives in the territory. His passing is a great loss both on a professional and personal level; we miss him greatly." Publisher Copyright: © 2021
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