As the summer heats up and travel restrictions lift, more people are visiting the beach, going for a paddle or a coastal hike, or taking in an ocean view. There’s no question that people value those experiences, especially after a year of being stuck indoors. But can we quantify that value? How much are those experiences worth?
The ocean provides a plethora of benefits to people. It provides food for people around the world each day. It absorbs carbon dioxide helping to regulate the climate. It provides opportunities for leisure and recreation, and a sense of place, amongst other benefits. These benefits, or ecosystem goods and services as they are known by economists, are essential for the survival and well-being of humans. The total value of services provided by coastal environments has been estimated at 28,917 int$ per hectare per year while the services provided by the marine environment has been estimated at 491,000 int$ per hectare per year.
How are those kinds of values estimated? In some cases, valuation is based on the market value of a good or service. For example, fish is a commodity that is bought and sold, so the price of fish can be used to estimate the value of fish as an ecosystem good. Estimating the dollar value of ecosystem goods and services that aren’t traded at market can be trickier, but economists have developed a variety of methods to estimate their value. For example, the recreation benefits provided by a particular coastal area like a public beach might be estimated based on how much people spend to access the area, the cost of a resource that offers similar benefits (in this case maybe a public swimming pool), or by asking people how much being able to visit and enjoy the beach is worth to them.
Since many ecosystem services aren’t commodities that are bought and sold, you may be wondering why we bother estimating their worth. Valuation can be used in a number of ways including to raise awareness about the benefits we derive from the natural world and to charge for the use of ecosystem services, or pay for activities that enhance ecosystem services. For example, the Biden administration’s climate plan includes paying farmers to increase carbon storage on their farms through practices like using cover crops.
Another important use of ecosystem service valuation is to analyze the impact of policies on the benefits that people derive from the environment. In the case of aquaculture, growing seafood in the ocean provides food for people, growing shellfish can enhance nutrient cycling, and growing sea plants can enhance carbon storage, all important ecosystem services provided by the marine environment. However, aquaculture might also diminish other benefits. For example, if aquaculture sites are poorly located, they could affect access to wild fish or recreational areas. Placing a value on these services can help to assess how policies that govern aquaculture are expected to impact the different types of benefits provided by the coastal environment that people rely on.
The next time you’re at the beach, don’t get hung up on the dollars and cents of how much that experience is worth — an exact dollar amount isn’t always necessary or appropriate when it comes to making or evaluating policy decisions, but thinking about how a policy might change availability and access to ecosystem goods and services can be a useful decision-making tool.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
