Difference between revisions of "Biological Valuation"

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===Biological valuation method===
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The  current scientific approach to the value of Nature is based largely on two papers published in Nature by Costanza et al. (1997)<ref>Costanza R., D’Arge R.,de Groot R., Farber S., Grasso M., Hannon B., Limburg K., Naem S., O’Neil R.V., Paruelo J., Raskin R.G.,Sutton P., van den Belt M., 1997, The value of the world ecosystem services and natural capital, Nature, 387, 253-260</ref> and Costanza (1999)<ref>Costanza R. 1999, The ecological, economic and social importance of the oceans. Ecol. Econ., 31 (2), 287- 304</ref>. These articles set forth the foundation for assessing the value of environmental goods and services, and the number of papers and books that followed them dealt with all major ecosystems. Socioeconomic valuation and the economics of natural resources have gained acceptance within scientific circles, and methodology has been developed<ref>Beaumont  N.J., Austen M.C., Atkins J.P., & al. .2007, Identification, definition and quantification of goods and services provided by marine biodiversity. Marine Poll. Bull. 54, 253- 265</ref>.
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[[Image:val1.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Figure 1: Biological valuation of seabed communities in Polish Exclusive Economic Zone (http://www.pom-habitaty.eu/index.php  ]]
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A more recent concept is biological valuation as proposed by Derous et al. (2007)<ref>Derous S., Agardy T., Hillewaert H. & 17 other authors, 2007, A concept for Biological valuation in the marine environment. Oceanologia 49, 99-128</ref>, which considers the value of an area in terms of its resilience and stability of species and species assemblages and not from the human (goods and services) point of view.[[Image:val2.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Figure 2: Biological valuation of Belgian North sea shelf  (http://www.vliz.be/projects/bwzee/MBV.php) ]] This approach was developed for the conservation of nature, specifically for the establishment of the best criteria for delineating marine protected areas. Since any kind of valuation requires ranking selected objects as more or less valuable, it raises ethical and philosophical questions, namely, whether all species are equal or not. Some recent studies discuss this dilemma, including Linder (1988)<ref>Linder D.O. 1988 Are all species created equal.? and other questions which are shaping wildlife law. Harvard Environmental.Law Review 12, 157pp.</ref>, Singer (1989), Schmidtz (2002)<ref>Schmidtz D. 2002 Are all species equal.? Journal.Applied Philosphy 15, 57- 67
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Singer P 1989 All animals are equal. In:  Animal.rights and human obligations. Edited T. Regan & P. Singer. Englweood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall</ref>, and Jennings (2009)<ref>Jennings M 2009 The next big ideas in conservation. Are all species equal.? The Nature Conservancy; http://www.nature.org/tncscience/bigideas/people/art23931.html</ref>. While we accept the view that living beings are equal in moral terms, their contributions to ecosystem structure and function differ, and this can be assessed in scientific terms.
  
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The [[marine biological value|marine biological valuation]] methodology is able to integrate all available biological information on an area into one indicator of intrinsic value of marine biodiversity, without reference to [[anthropogenic]] use. This methodology can be used in every marine environment, independent of the amount and quality of the available biological data or the habitat type.  
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'''''Biological value''''' is not a direct measure of ecosystem health. Often, areas regarded as of high biological value are considered to be valuable providers of socioeconomic goods and services and are of high quality in terms of environmental health. The main difference is, however, that biological valuation focuses on the features of species and communities themselves, and not on the contamination or the extractable/usable part of the ecosystem.
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Biological valuation use to be prepared for the administratively defined marine areas – like Exclusive Economic Zones (see examples Figure 1 and Figure 2). That is why maps that are prepared for given area may not be combined with other, as the value assessment is valid for the specific area only. Certain species that is natural and rare in one area (and hence highly valued) may be very common or even regarded as pest or invasive in other region.  
  
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For environments for which data are available, subzones within a study area are [[Scoring system for marine evaluation|scored]] against two biological valuation criteria: [[Rarity criterion in marine biological evaluation|rarity]] and [[Aggregation and marine biological value|aggregation]] or [[Fitness consequence criterion in marine biological valuation|fitness consequences]].<ref name="ma">[http://www.marbef.org/documents/glossybook/MarBEFbooklet.pdf Heip, C., Hummel, H., van Avesaath, P., Appeltans, W., Arvanitidis, C., Aspden, R., Austen, M., Boero, F., Bouma, TJ., Boxshall, G., Buchholz, F., Crowe, T., Delaney, A., Deprez, T., Emblow, C., Feral, JP., Gasol, JM., Gooday, A., Harder, J., Ianora, A., Kraberg, A., Mackenzie, B., Ojaveer, H., Paterson, D., Rumohr, H., Schiedek, D., Sokolowski, A., Somerfield, P., Sousa Pinto, I., Vincx, M., Węsławski, JM., Nash, R. (2009). Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Printbase, Dublin, Ireland ISSN 2009-2539]</ref>
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== References ==
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<references/>
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===Biological valuation maps===
 
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Biological value is not a direct measure of ecosystem health. Often, areas regarded as of high biological value are considered to be valuable providers of socio-economic goods and services and are of high quality in terms of environmental health. The main difference is, however, that biological valuation focuses on the features of [[species]] and communities themselves, and not on the contamination or the extractable/usable part of the ecosystem.
 
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Therefore marine biological valuation provides a comprehensive concept for assessing the intrinsic value of the subzones within a study area. It is a tool for calling attention to subzones that have particularly high ecological or biological significance. The [[Introduction to marine biological valuation maps|biological valuation maps]] can also be used as baseline maps for future spacial planning in the marine environment. <ref name="ma">[http://www.marbef.org/documents/glossybook/MarBEFbooklet.pdf Heip, C., Hummel, H., van Avesaath, P., Appeltans, W., Arvanitidis, C., Aspden, R., Austen, M., Boero, F., Bouma, TJ., Boxshall, G., Buchholz, F., Crowe, T., Delaney, A., Deprez, T., Emblow, C., Feral, JP., Gasol, JM., Gooday, A., Harder, J., Ianora, A., Kraberg, A., Mackenzie, B., Ojaveer, H., Paterson, D., Rumohr, H., Schiedek, D., Sokolowski, A., Somerfield, P., Sousa Pinto, I., Vincx, M., Węsławski, JM., Nash, R. (2009). Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Printbase, Dublin, Ireland ISSN 2009-2539]</ref>
 
  
  
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[[Image:val1.jpg|thumb|centre|650px|Biological valuation of seabed communities in Polish Exclusive Economic Zone ]]
 
  
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== See also ==
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{{author
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|AuthorID=4225
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*[[Aggregation and marine biological value]]
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|AuthorFullName=Weslawski, Jan Marcin
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*[[Biodiversity as a marine valuation concept]]
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|AuthorName=Jan Marcin}}
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*[[Marine biological valuation - conclusions from a workshop|Conclusions from the MarBEF and Encora workshop on marine biological valuation]]
 
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*[[Marine biological valuation maps - an example from Belgium]]
 
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*[[Potential application of the concept of marine biological valuation]]
 
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*[http://www.marbef.org/documents/Theme3/GhentWS/report.pdf Rapport of the MarBEF and Encora workshop on marine biological valuation]
 
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*[[Rarity criterion in marine biological evaluation]]
 
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*[[Resilience as a criterion in marine biological evaluation]]
 
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*[[Selected marine biological valuation criteria]]
 
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*[[The importance of geographical scale in marine biological evaluation]]
 
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== References ==
 
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Revision as of 13:50, 9 September 2009

The current scientific approach to the value of Nature is based largely on two papers published in Nature by Costanza et al. (1997)[1] and Costanza (1999)[2]. These articles set forth the foundation for assessing the value of environmental goods and services, and the number of papers and books that followed them dealt with all major ecosystems. Socioeconomic valuation and the economics of natural resources have gained acceptance within scientific circles, and methodology has been developed[3].

Figure 1: Biological valuation of seabed communities in Polish Exclusive Economic Zone (http://www.pom-habitaty.eu/index.php
A more recent concept is biological valuation as proposed by Derous et al. (2007)[4], which considers the value of an area in terms of its resilience and stability of species and species assemblages and not from the human (goods and services) point of view.
Figure 2: Biological valuation of Belgian North sea shelf (http://www.vliz.be/projects/bwzee/MBV.php)
This approach was developed for the conservation of nature, specifically for the establishment of the best criteria for delineating marine protected areas. Since any kind of valuation requires ranking selected objects as more or less valuable, it raises ethical and philosophical questions, namely, whether all species are equal or not. Some recent studies discuss this dilemma, including Linder (1988)[5], Singer (1989), Schmidtz (2002)[6], and Jennings (2009)[7]. While we accept the view that living beings are equal in moral terms, their contributions to ecosystem structure and function differ, and this can be assessed in scientific terms.

Biological value is not a direct measure of ecosystem health. Often, areas regarded as of high biological value are considered to be valuable providers of socioeconomic goods and services and are of high quality in terms of environmental health. The main difference is, however, that biological valuation focuses on the features of species and communities themselves, and not on the contamination or the extractable/usable part of the ecosystem. Biological valuation use to be prepared for the administratively defined marine areas – like Exclusive Economic Zones (see examples Figure 1 and Figure 2). That is why maps that are prepared for given area may not be combined with other, as the value assessment is valid for the specific area only. Certain species that is natural and rare in one area (and hence highly valued) may be very common or even regarded as pest or invasive in other region.

References

  1. ↑ Costanza R., D’Arge R.,de Groot R., Farber S., Grasso M., Hannon B., Limburg K., Naem S., O’Neil R.V., Paruelo J., Raskin R.G.,Sutton P., van den Belt M., 1997, The value of the world ecosystem services and natural capital, Nature, 387, 253-260
  2. ↑ Costanza R. 1999, The ecological, economic and social importance of the oceans. Ecol. Econ., 31 (2), 287- 304
  3. ↑ Beaumont N.J., Austen M.C., Atkins J.P., & al. .2007, Identification, definition and quantification of goods and services provided by marine biodiversity. Marine Poll. Bull. 54, 253- 265
  4. ↑ Derous S., Agardy T., Hillewaert H. & 17 other authors, 2007, A concept for Biological valuation in the marine environment. Oceanologia 49, 99-128
  5. ↑ Linder D.O. 1988 Are all species created equal.? and other questions which are shaping wildlife law. Harvard Environmental.Law Review 12, 157pp.
  6. ↑ Schmidtz D. 2002 Are all species equal.? Journal.Applied Philosphy 15, 57- 67 Singer P 1989 All animals are equal. In: Animal.rights and human obligations. Edited T. Regan & P. Singer. Englweood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall
  7. ↑ Jennings M 2009 The next big ideas in conservation. Are all species equal.? The Nature Conservancy; http://www.nature.org/tncscience/bigideas/people/art23931.html


The main author of this article is Weslawski, Jan Marcin
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