scholarly journals Uncovering the Hidden Numbers of Nature in the Standard Accounts of Society: Application to a Case Study of Oak Woodland dehesa and Conifer Forest Farms in Andalusia-Spain

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 638
Author(s):  
Pablo Campos ◽  
Bruno Mesa ◽  
Alejandro Álvarez

The standard System of National Accounts (SNA) does not estimate the margins of the products without market prices consumed because it assumes that the cost prices of the final products consumed correspond to the consumer marginal willingness to pay (MWTP). Valuations of products consumed without market prices at their cost prices may not coincide with their simulated exchange values (SEV) that would be paid by consumers. This inconsistent SNA valuation can be avoided by simulating stated or revealed market prices based on consumers’ demands. Our Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS) methodology estimates the margins of the individual products without market prices based on the consumer MWTP. The SEV of private owners and public consumers MWTP for these non-market products are estimated in this study by applying stated and revealed preference valuation methods. The objectives of this study are to compare the environmental incomes, ecosystem services and profitability rates obtained by applying the AAS and the refined SNA (rSNA) methodologies to the case-study oak woodland dehesa and conifer forest farms in Andalusia, Spain. The 41 farms comprise 26 large oak woodland dehesa farms in which trees of the Quercus genus predominate, and 15 conifer forest farms where Pinus species predominate. In the studied farms, 20 individual activities have been identified which 19 are common to both the AAS and rSNA approaches, along with the additional activity of carbon which is registered in the AAS. Ownership rights of 13 private activities correspond to the farmer and 7 public activities to the government. In 2010, the case-study results show that livestock and game species consume grazed fodder which represents 50% and 95%, respectively, of their total forage units consumed in the period 2010. Livestock farming accounts for 31% of the labour compensation in the private oak woodland dehesa farms and 1% in the public conifer forest farms for the farm activities as a whole. The ecosystem services measured by the AAS in the privately-owned oak woodland dehesa and publicly-owned conifer forest farms are 2.7 and 4.6 times greater, respectively, than those estimated by the rSNA. The environmental incomes measured by the AAS for the privately-owned oak woodland dehesa and publicly-owned conifer forest farms account for 61% and 53%, respectively, of their total incomes.

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Pablo Campos ◽  
Alejandro Álvarez ◽  
José L. Oviedo ◽  
Paola Ovando ◽  
Bruno Mesa ◽  
...  

The scientific debate over how to make visible the connections between the standard System of National Accounts (SNA) and its ongoing satellite Environmental Economic Ecosystem Accounting–Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA–EEA) is a challenge that is still pending. The literature on environmental accounting of agroforestry and silvopastoral landscapes rarely values the multiple ecosystem services of an area, an economic unit (e.g., farm), or a vegetation type (e.g., holm oak—Quercus ilex L.—open woodland). Generally, the literature presents the market value of the products consumed directly or a correction of the latter that reduces their exchange values in order to approximate them to their resource rents. In our previous publications, we have applied and compared our Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS) with the System of National Accounts (SNA), and we refined the latter to avoid the lag between income generation and its accounting in the period in which the product is extracted. These previous publications did not develop experimental applications of the SEEA–EEA with comparisons to the SNA and it being integrated into the AAS. The main novelty of this article is that, for the first time, we present detailed applications and comparisons of our developments of the refined SEEA–EEA and refined SNA with a simplified version of the AAS. The accounting frameworks applied take the production and capital accounts in the process of being updated by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) at the scale of the holm oak open woodlands of Andalusia into account. In this study, we compare three environmental accounting approaches for ecosystem services and environmental income measurements at basic and social prices: our slightly refined standard System of National Accounts (rSNA); our refined, updated and ongoing satellite System of Environmental Economic Accounting–Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (rSEEA–EEA); and our simplified Agroforestry Accounting System (sAAS). We tested them for 15 economic activities in 1408 thousand hectares of the predominantly mixed holm oak open woodland (HOW) land use tiles in the region of Andalusia, Spain. We considered the government institutional sector to be the collective owner of public economic activities, which we incorporated in the rSNA and the sAAS approaches. We discuss consistencies in environmental incomes identified from the results of the three ecosystem accounting frameworks applied to the HOW. The discrepancies in the measurement of ecosystem services of the government institutional sector between the rSEEA–EEA and the sAAS were due to the omission in the former of the government manufactured costs incurred in the supply of freely consumed public final products. The most notable finding of our comparison is that the ecosystem services and the environmental income results for individual market products offered the same values, whichever the ecosystem accounting framework applied. This was not the case with the ecosystem services of public products without market prices, due to the fact that the rSNA estimates these products at production cost and the rSEEA–EEA did not consider the government manufactured production costs and ordinary manufactured net operating margin of government final public product consumption. We also found that, according to modeling of the scheduled management of future biological resources of the HOW, the environmental income shows biological sustainability of the individual nature-based total product consumption.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Campos ◽  
Álvarez ◽  
Oviedo ◽  
Ovando ◽  
Mesa ◽  
...  

There is growing consensus regarding the implementation of a new statistical framework for environmental-economic accounting to improve ecosystem related policies. As the standard System of National Accounts (SNA) fails to measure the economic contribution of ecosystems to the total income of individuals, governments recognize the need to expand the standard SNA through the ongoing System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA). Based on the authors’ own data, this study focuses on linking 15 economic activities and 12 ecosystem services for a holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) open woodlands (HOW) ecosystem type in Andalusia, Spain. We emphasize that overcoming the challenges of multiple use is preferable to measuring single ecosystem products for improving habitat conservation policies. The objectives of this paper are to measure and compare the environmental assets, ecosystem services, and incomes at basic and social prices by applying a refined version of the standard System of National Accounts (rSNA) and the authors’ Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS), respectively, to HOW. Considering intermediate products and consumptions of HOW farmer and government activities, we find that the rSNA ecosystem services and environmental incomes at basic prices are 123.3 €/ha and −28.0 €/ha, respectively, while those of the AAS at social prices are 442.2 €/ha and 250.8 €/ha. Given advances in non-market valuation techniques, we show that an expanded definition of economic activities can be applied to measure the contribution to total income of managed natural areas taking into account the multiple uses of the ecosystem type. However, HOW sustainability continues to be a challenging issue that requires ecological threshold indicators to be identified, not only because of the economic implications but also because they provide vital information on which to base policy implementation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson Castellón Rodríguez ◽  
Maria Isabel Vitorino ◽  
José Francisco Berrêdo ◽  
Mário Augusto Gonçalves Jardim ◽  
Adriano Marlison Leão de Sousa ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT This research aimed to estimate the seasonal economic value of ecosystem goods and services from research on the use of mangroves in the Cuiarana community in the Eastern Amazon. The methodology of Total Economic Value was used, through interviews with 15 residents who extract products from the mangrove. For the ecosystem services, atmospheric carbon (measured by a micrometeorological tower), and organic carbon (monitored by soil sampling during 2017) were used. In determining product values, the quantities extracted at market prices and the value of services were estimated using carbon credits. The results indicate that the ecosystem produces 9 community assets, that generate R$ 75,033.50 (US$ 23,622.93 ha/year) and R$ 17,627.15 (US$ 5,549.58 ha/year) for capture and storage respectively. The VET value corresponded to R$ 986,132.50 (US$ 310,465.79). Ecosystem services and the economic values of atmospheric (p = 0.0278) and soil carbon credit (p = 0.0354) indicated higher importance in the rainy season due to the precipitation that favored an increase in the amount of carbon. This behavior was verified by the Principal Components Analysis (50.1%), which showed that in the less rainy season goods are more important when compared to the ecosystem services.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-253
Author(s):  
BEATA SADOWSKA

Purpose: The article aims to: (1) revise the costs and cost accounting model in State Forests National Forest Holding (PGL LP), (2) investigate the possibility of applying resource-process consumption accounting in the activities of the State Forests. Methodology/research approach: A critical analysis of the literature, desk research, analysis of phenomena, synthesis of results, and a case study. Results: A systematic, traditional cost accounting model is used at State Forests, which is mainly used for reporting purposes. It is possible to use the resource-process model of cost accounting from the perspective of its usefulness in disclosing information about the im-plementation of social and environmental goals in the activities of State Forests. Research limitations/implications: The proposed cost accounting model was constructed with State Forests in mind as a specific unit operating in the field of social responsibility. Originality/value: The article proposes solutions for modeling an accounting system, including resource-process cost accounting.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Lautenbach ◽  
Anne-Christine Mupepele ◽  
Carsten F Dormann ◽  
Heera Lee ◽  
Stefan Schmidt ◽  
...  

Ecosystem service research has gained attraction, and the topic is also high on the policy agenda. Projects such as TEEB have generalized results of individual case studies to provide guidelines for policy makers and stakeholders. Seppelt et al. (2011) raised critical questions about four facets that characterize the holistic ideal of ecosystem services research: (i) biophysical realism of ecosystem data and models; (ii) consideration of trade-offs between ecosystem services; (iii) recognition of off-site effects; and (iv) comprehensive but shrewd involvement of stakeholders within assessment studies. An extended and updated analysis of ecosystem service case studies showed that the majority of these facets were still not addressed by the majority of case studies. Whilst most indicators did not improve within the span analyzed (1996-2013), we found a tendency for an increasing geographical spread of the case studies. Moreover, we incorporated an additional facet, namely the relevance and usability of case study results for the operationalization of the ecosystem service concept. Only a minority of studies addressed this facet sufficiently with no significant trend for improvement over time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Christopher Strunk ◽  
Ursula Lang

For the most part, research and policymaking on urban gardening have focused on community gardens, whether in parks, vacant lots, or other public land. This emphasis, while important for many Midwestern cities, can obscure the significance of privately owned land such as front yard and back yard and their crucial connections with gardening on public land. In this case study, we examine how policies and practices related to gardening and the management of green space in two Midwestern cities exceed narrow visions of urban agriculture. The article explores the cultivation of vacant lot gardens and private yards as two modes of property in similar Midwestern contexts and argues that the management of green space is about more than urban agriculture. Instead, we show how urban gardening occurs across public/private property distinctions and involves a broader set of actors than those typically included in sustainability policies. Gardening also provides a key set of connections through which neighbors understand and practice sustainability in Midwestern cities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-156
Author(s):  
Sung-Man Yoon ◽  
Mi-Ok Kim ◽  
Yi-bae Kim ◽  
Hyung-Rok Jung

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourenildo W.B. Leite ◽  
J. Mann ◽  
Wildney W.S. Vieira

ABSTRACT. The present case study results from a consistent processing and imaging of marine seismic data from a set collected over sedimentary basins of the East Brazilian Atlantic. Our general aim is... RESUMO. O presente artigo resulta de um processamento e imageamento consistentes de dados sísmicos marinhos de levantamento realizado em bacias sedimentares do Atlântico do Nordeste...


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