Benefit Transfer over Time of Ecosystem Values: the Case of Forest Recreation

We conduct a functional benefit transfer over 20 years of total willingness to pay based on car-borne forest recreation in 52 forests, using a mixed specification of a random utility model and geographic information systems to allow heterogeneous preferences across the population and for heterogeneity over space. Results show that some preferences of forest attributes, such as species diversity and age, as well as transport mode have changed significantly over the period. Updating the transfer model with present demand for recreation improves the error margins by an average of 182%. However, average errors of the best transfer model remain 145%.random utility model, value transfer over time, recreation, GIS

A bio-economic analysis of a sustainable agricultural transition using green biorefinery

Traditional pig production often relies on cereal-based feed, which has adverse environmental effects, e.g. nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Alternative production systems are therefore sought to improve the sustainability of pig production. A promising alternative is to use proteinaceous feed from grass, produced in a green bio-refinery (GBR), to substitute part of the cereals in the feed. Cultivation of grass on arable land can reduce nitrogen leaching and pesticide application, and increase carbon storage. The GBR using grass as feedstock also produces valuable byproducts, e.g. fibre and biogas. In this study we combine a life-cycle analysis (LCA) and a cost-benefit analysis to compare the economic and environmental effects of producing the pig feed to produce 1 ton of pork using two feeding systems. We apply this approach to the intensive Danish pork production as a case study. The results show that compared with traditional cereal-based feeding system for producing a ton of pork, using proteinaceous concentrate from small-scale GBR will (1) decrease the average feed cost by 5.01%; (2) produce a profit of 96 € before tax in the GBR; and (3) decrease the nitrogen leaching (NO3-N) by 28.2%. However, in most of the scenarios (except for G2), the nitrogen emissions into the air (N2O-N) will also increase because of the increased N fertilizer application compared to a cereal-based system. In most of the scenarios (except for S1 and G1), the energy and land use will also be saved. However, some important factors, e.g. the soil characteristics, pressed juice fraction in fresh biomass and scale of GBR, could subvert the conclusion about energy and land use saving in the alternative feeding system

Valuing Water Service Improvements through Revealed Preference: Averting Behaviour Method

Access to quality and adequate water supply is a basic need to sustain human life. Health risk of unsafe drinking water is a serious issue in many poor and underserved communities in developing countries. Therefore, the improvements of the health status of the people are considered as one of the main justifications of promoting investment in water infrastructure. People take a number of coping strategies for water service improvement and the expenditures on such measures implicitly reflect their preferences for water service improvements. This paper leads to estimation of the benefits of water service improvements using the Averting Expenditure Method. This study examines the determinants of averting actions and the prevailing health impacts using the Probit models aiming to examine why some households practice averting measures and have experienced with health impacts while others not. Study found that the respondent’s socio-economic attributes significantly determine the choice of averting behaviours. Then this study calculates the monitory values of number of averting measures and it was found that the mean averting expenditures of the household are Rs. 577 and Rs,. 740 per month respectively the households connected to the system and un-connected to the system. piped households spending an average about Rs. 500 per month as a damage cost of water related health impacts which is unseen but part of the real cost of lack of access to good quality water supply. Study conclude that the WTP estimates are much higher than the payments for existing piped schemes hence cost of clean and consistent water supply could be finance through a user payment scheme

Species distribution models for crop pollination: a modelling framework applied to Great Britain

Insect pollination benefits over three quarters of the world's major crops. There is growing concern that observed declines in pollinators may impact on production and revenues from animal pollinated crops. Knowing the distribution of pollinators is therefore crucial for estimating their availability to pollinate crops; however, in general, we have an incomplete knowledge of where these pollinators occur. We propose a method to predict geographical patterns of pollination service to crops, novel in two elements: the use of pollinator records rather than expert knowledge to predict pollinator occurrence, and the inclusion of the managed pollinator supply. We integrated a maximum entropy species distribution model (SDM) with an existing pollination service model (PSM) to derive the availability of pollinators for crop pollination. We used nation-wide records of wild and managed pollinators (honey bees) as well as agricultural data from Great Britain. We first calibrated the SDM on a representative sample of bee and hoverfly crop pollinator species, evaluating the effects of different settings on model performance and on its capacity to identify the most important predictors. The importance of the different predictors was better resolved by SDM derived from simpler functions, with consistent results for bees and hoverflies. We then used the species distributions from the calibrated model to predict pollination service of wild and managed pollinators, using field beans as a test case. The PSM allowed us to spatially characterize the contribution of wild and managed pollinators and also identify areas potentially vulnerable to low pollination service provision, which can help direct local scale interventions. This approach can be extended to investigate geographical mismatches between crop pollination demand and the availability of pollinators, resulting from environmental change or policy scenarios

Climate-driven spatial mismatches between British orchards and their pollinators: increased risks of pollination deficits

Understanding how climate change can affect crop-pollinator systems helps predict potential geographical mismatches between a crop and its pollinators, and therefore identify areas vulnerable to loss of pollination services. We examined the distribution of orchard species (apples, pears, plums and other top fruits) and their pollinators in Great Britain, for present and future climatic conditions projected for 2050 under the SRES A1B Emissions Scenario. We used a relative index of pollinator availability as a proxy for pollination service. At present there is a large spatial overlap between orchards and their pollinators, but predictions for 2050 revealed that the most suitable areas for orchards corresponded to low pollinator availability. However, we found that pollinator availability may persist in areas currently used for fruit production, but which are predicted to provide sub-optimal environmental suitability for orchard species in the future. Our results may be used to identify mitigation options to safeguard orchard production against the risk of pollination failure in Great Britain over the next 50 years; for instance choosing fruit tree varieties that are adapted to future climatic conditions, or boosting wild pollinators through improving landscape resources. Our approach can be readily applied to other regions and crop systems, and expanded to include different climatic scenarios