Abstract:
There is a need to prove the relevance of ecosystem services in economic terms in order to make a comprehensive and compelling case for conservation of biodiversity. Many different approaches and frameworks used so far have proven that there is no economic or monetary estimate of ecosystems or ecosystem services with absolute validity: any valuation exercise is always context related. This report presents a framework for valuing ecosystem services when the specific purpose of valuation is to support conservation policies at regional scale. After a brief review of the foundation of environmental and ecological economics and after showing the difference between economic models and valuation models, the framework for the valuation of ecosystem services related to conservation policies is presented both theoretically and practically through a case study. Theoretically it is shown how the role of economics (i.e. the application of monetary valuation techniques) is instrumental to natural sciences (i.e. the outcomes of models). The case study refers to the valuation of water purification in the Northern Mediterranean region. Throughout the paper, it is strongly outlined the crucial role of working within an interdisciplinary team
