Glenk, K and Martin-Ortega, J orcid.org/0000-0003-0002-6772 (2018) The economics of peatland restoration. Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, 7 (4). pp. 345-362. ISSN 2160-6544
Abstract
Restoration offers opportunities for securing and enhancing critical ecosystem services provided by peatlands, such as carbon storage, water retention and water quality, and support for biodiversity and wildlife. A comprehensive valuation encompassing the relevant public benefits of restoration and how these compare with it is lacking to date, leaving policy makers with little guidance with respect to the economic efficiency of restoring this climate-critical ecosystem. Using Scotland as a case study, this paper quantifies the non-market benefits of changes in peatland ecological condition associated with changes in ecosystem service provision and depending on the location of restoration efforts. Benefits on a per hectare basis are compared to varying capital and recurrent cost in a net present value space, providing a benchmark to be used in decision making on investments into peatland restoration. The findings suggest that peatland restoration is likely to be welfare enhancing. Benefits also exceed cost in appraisals of previous and future public investments into peatland restoration. The results thus strengthen the economic rationale for climate change mitigation through improved peatland management.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Climate change mitigation; ecosystem restoration; peatlands; choice experiment; benefit-cost assessment; net present value |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC NE/P00783X/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 Jan 2018 16:01 |
Last Modified: | 19 Feb 2019 01:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/21606544.2018.1434562 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:126510 |