Analyzing the Economic Costs of Land Degradation and the Benefits of Sustainable Land Management

provides guidance on the application of environmental economics, and specifically the analysis and valuation of ecosystem services, to analyze the costs of land degradation and the benefits of sustainable land management. The Toolkit is intended to assist technicians and decision makers in their analysis of land degradation and land management policy options. The Toolkit has been prepared in particular for application in LDC and SIDS countries. As much as possible, methods have been selected that have minimum data requirements, and the case studies that illustrate the methodologies reflect issues of potential relevance in LDC and SIDS countries, including coastal zone management issues. The Toolkit contains five Tools that together present a detailed description of the various relevant ecological and economic assessment methodologies. A number of case studies illustrate the application of these methodologies. For policy makers, an executive summary is provided that describes the basic approach and its potential to support policy making in the field of land and ecosystem management. The Toolkit is based on an in-depth literature review of (i) the theories and applications of environmental-economic valuation techniques; and (ii) the existing experiences with ecosystem services assessment in the context of sustainable land management. Furthermore, the Toolkit has benefited from comments of stakeholders involved in SLM including the Technical Advisors of the LDC and SIDS Targeted Portfolio Project. This Toolkit has been prepared to support the design and implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) programs. The specific purpose of the Toolkit is: to inform the user of the approaches that can be followed to analyze and value the economic costs of land degradation and the benefits of sustainable land management. 'Land' is interpreted broadly in the Toolkit, also including wetlands and coastal zones. this means that the Toolkit considers the broad range of benefits provided by agricultural and natural ecosystems, including provisioning, regulation and cultural services. The various benefits provided by land are referred to as 'ecosystem services' and they may include for example the production of food crops, the regulation of water flows, and the provision of opportunities for recreation and nature conservation. The Toolkit also specifically addresses the different scales (local, national, regional, global) at which benefits and potential costs of SLM are provided or incurred. Ecosystem services are a central concept in this Toolkit. Economic valuation of ecosystem services can support land use policy making and implementation in various ways. First, it can reveal the …