Emerton, L. (Lucy)

This paper addresses the need to factor the environment into coastal development planning. It contends that the economic calculations that underpin coastal development decisions remain flawed, and fundamentally incomplete, because they omit an important set of costs and benefits – those associated with ecosystem goods and services.

Sri Lanka has one of the oldest traditions of irrigation in the world. The economy and human settlements of early Sri Lankan society were organized around the ancient water tank (water storage reservoir) irrigation systems. These traditional tank systems thus form a vital component of both the natural and manmade landscape in Sri Lanka.

The socio-economic development plan for Sekong mentions increasing forest cover as one of its major objectives. This study focuses on natural regeneration (NFR) forests and what it would cost the country if NFR schemes were not undertaken. In a country where poverty alleviation is of prime importance, estimating the contribution of NTFP harvesting for sustaining livelihoods would demonstrate the importance of NFR schemes in achieving its poverty alleviation goals.

Sri Lanka holds great potential for developing payment for environmental services (PES) and environmental service markets. However, this is a relatively new concept, and improving awareness and building institutional capacity remain a top priority and challenge. This study provides a situation analysis of previous and ongoing projects and initiatives related to PES and environmental service markets, and identifies challenges, constraints and opportunities for future PES projects in Sri Lanka.

Wetlands are vital to the livelihoods of hundred of millions of people residing in the Lower Mekong region, and particularly to the food security of many of the rural poor. This document reports on a study whose aim was to provide guidance on the use of environmental economic assessment methodologies to support wetlands management for poverty alleviation.

Value is a practical guide that explains the most important steps and techniques for the valuation of ecosystem services, and the incorporation of its results in decision making. It explains, step by step, how to generate persuasive arguments for more sustainable and equitable development decisions in water resources management.

It has become clear during recent global deliberations on biodiversity conservation that achieving Protected Area (PA) financial sustainability will require major changes in the way that PA funding is conceptualized, captured and used. With many, if not most, PAs facing funding crises, both in terms of the amount of funds available and how those are used, there is an urgent need to expand and diversify PA financial portfolios, and to ensure that funding reaches the groups and activities essential for biodiversity conservation.

Water ecosystems have long been perceived by decision makers as having little value simply because their economic value is poorly understood and rarely articulated. Calculating the economic value of an ecosystem is a means of providing information which can be used to make better and more informed choices about how resources are managed, used and allocated. This publication attempts to address the challenge of using water ecosystem valuation to strengthen river basin management, and to demonstrate its practical utility for decision making.