Spatially explicit valuation of the Brazilian Amazon Forest’s Ecosystem Services

The Brazilian Amazon forest is tremendously important for its ecosystem services but attribution of economically measurable values remains scarce. Mapping these values is essential for designing conservation strategies that suitably combine regional forest protection with sustainable forest use. We...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature sustainability 2018-11, Vol.1 (11), p.657-664
Main Authors: Strand, Jon, Soares-Filho, Britaldo, Costa, Marcos Heil, Oliveira, Ubirajara, Ribeiro, Sonia Carvalho, Pires, Gabrielle Ferreira, Oliveira, Aline, Rajão, Raoni, May, Peter, van der Hoff, Richard, Siikamäki, Juha, da Motta, Ronaldo Seroa, Toman, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/158/672
706/1145
706/689/159
Carbon dioxide emissions
Earth and Environmental Science
Economics
Ecosystem services
Ecosystems
Environment
Food production
Forest protection
Greenhouse gases
Hydroelectric power
Logging
Soybeans
Sustainable Development
Sustainable forestry
Sustainable use
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Brazilian Amazon forest is tremendously important for its ecosystem services but attribution of economically measurable values remains scarce. Mapping these values is essential for designing conservation strategies that suitably combine regional forest protection with sustainable forest use. We estimate spatially explicit economic values for a range of ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazon forest, including food production (Brazil nut), raw material provision (rubber and timber), greenhouse gas mitigation (CO 2 emissions) and climate regulation (rent losses to soybean, beef and hydroelectricity production due to reduced rainfall). Our work also includes the mapping of biodiversity resources and of rent losses to timber production by fire-induced degradation. Highest values range from US$56.72 ± 10 ha −1  yr −1 to US$737 ± 134 ha −1  yr −1 but are restricted to only 12% of the remaining forest. Our results, presented on a web platform, identify regions where high ecosystem services values cluster together as potential information to support decision-making. This study spatially maps the economic value of some major ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazon. It also estimates changes in these values under scenarios of degradation and low-impact logging.
ISSN:2398-9629
2398-9629
DOI:10.1038/s41893-018-0175-0