Global valuation of ecosystem services: application to the Pantanal da Nhecolandia, Brazil

In Costanza et al.'s famous Nature paper [Costanza, R., d'Arge, R, de Groot , R, Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., et al. The value of the world's ec osystem services and natural capital. Nature 15 (387), 253-260.] a value fo r the world's ecosystem services is posited as a point of departure for fur ther discussion. These calculations were re-estimated and qualitatively ass essed in application to the Pantanal sub-region Nhecolandia. The original s tudy was re-estimated to evaluate the sensitivity of the original study to more detailed and accurate data and to better understand the potential for the people of the Pantanal to benefit from environmental stewardship. Refoc using the analysis to the regional watershed level using locally derived da ta provided an opportunity to explore appropriate local policy alternatives and recognize regional biophysical heterogeneity which is largely impracti cal at the global, hemispheric or, perhaps, national scale. A value of more than US$15.5 billion, or US$5 million per resident was derived; an annual per hectare value of approximately 1/2 of Costanza et al.'s calculations. M ore biophysically diverse, but largely drier, regional conditions indicated by our data explain this discrepancy. Water supply and disturbance regulat ion contribute close to 2/3 of the total calculated value. Waste treatment, cultural value, and water regulation each contribute substantially (6-9%) to the total. Nutrient cycling, recreation, and habitat values play more mi nor roles (1.5-3%) in the total valuation. The concepts of imperfect substi tutes and comparative advantage are applied within the broad category of na tural capital in order to evaluate the potential of alternative economic de velopment strategies for the region. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.