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Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot. Efforts to restore the forest must address the tradeoffs facing family farmers. In this paper, we combine literature review and empirical analysi...

Sistemas silvipastoris e o pastoreio racional voisin (PRV) podem elevar a qualidade dos atributos físicos de solos pastoris degradados, aumentando a biodiversidade e a produtividade agrícola. A partir disto, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar os efeitos da implantação do sistema silvipastoril com quatro anos com núcleos arbóreos de diversidade (SSPnúcleos) sob os atributos físicos do solo, comparando com pastagens desprovidas de sombra natural (PDS), floresta primária (F1) e floresta secundária (F2). Foram avaliados os seguintes indicadores de qualidade do solo: densidade do solo (Ds) e os índices de agregação do solo: diâmetro médio geométrico (DMG) e o índice de sensibilidade do DMG (ISDMG). Os resultados evidenciaram que os sistemas SSPnúcleos e PDS apresentaram valores superiores de Ds em relação à F1, mas estes valores são inferiores ao valor crítico para desenvolvimento de raízes. A pesquisa demonstrou o potencial dos tratamentos SSPnúcleos e PDS para a promoção da estruturação física do solo, apresentando valores de DMG e ISDMG superiores à F1, que representa a condição original do solo. Além disso, observou-se que a presença de árvores não influenciou negativamente, tão pouco positivamente nos atributos físicos do solo na região sombreada no entorno dos núcleos, onde os animais se concentram. Dessa forma, foi possível inferir que os manejos agroecológicos (PRV e o SSPnúcleos) promovem o processo de agregação do solo de forma mais eficiente em comparação às áreas de floresta, com destaque para a floresta secundária, evidenciando sua capacidade de restauração da estrutura física do solo.

Background: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes are removed and/or replaced for reasons such as tube malfunction, degradation, patient's device preference, and when stopping enteral feeding. Aims: To identify the types and rate of complications associated with traction removal of a PEG tube and if this is associated with the size of the PEG or length of time it had been in situ prior to removal. Methods: This retrospective study looked at the tube removal/replacement reports written by the Enteral Feeding Nursing Service over an 8-year period at a large teaching hospital trust in the north of England. Findings: The PEG tube removal reports of 127 patients were reviewed. Five types of complication were identified, categorised as retained bumper (5.5%); intraperitoneal placement of new device (3.17%); misplacement of replacement device into colon (a consequence of the insertion procedure not the removal of the PEG) (0.78%): gastrocutaneous fistula (0.78%); and inability to remove the tube (1.57%). The complication of retained bumpers was associated with an average length of time in situ prior to removal of the PEG tube of 29 months. In the cases of intraperitoneal placement, the PEG tube had been in situ for an average of 6 months. Nurses were unable to remove the PEG tube on two occasions; each had been in situ for approximately 4 years prior to attempted removal. Conclusion: the complication rates are low following removal of a PEG tube using a traction pull. There was no clear correlation between length of time in situ or tube size and complication rate.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of high biodiversity silvopastoral system (SPSnuclei) on microclimate and thermal comfort index thru a parallel with treeless pasture (TLP) during the four seasons of the year. Three conditions were determined for this study: shadowing area in SPSnuclei, sunny area in SPSnuclei, and sunny area in TLP. During two consecutive days in each season, the following microclimatic variables were collected: air temperature (°C), relative humidity (%), illuminance (lux), wind speed (m/s), and soil surface temperature (°C). The temperature and humidity index (THI) was calculated for each condition as indicative of thermal comfort. An influence analysis was carried out by generalized linear models to evaluate the system effects on the microclimatic variables. A confirmatory analysis was done with Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney. Systems (SPSnuclei x TLP) influenced the microclimatic variables and THI (p

As a discipline, ecological economics is at a turning point and there is a need to develop a new research agenda for ecological economics that will contribute to the creation and adoption of new economic institutions. There are still considerable environmental issues and a new generation of scholars ready to tackle them. In this paper and Special Issue, we highlight the voices of emerging scholars in ecological economics who put social justice squarely at the center of ecological economic research. The papers in this issue remain true to the central focus of economic downscaling while calling for greater emphasis on culture and society. We acknowledge that methodological and intellectual pluralism inherently entail tensions but strive to find shared normative foundations to collectively work toward socio-ecological transformations. In this editorial, we emphasize the need for further attention to social aspects of ecological economics and evolutionary approaches to further strengthen cooperation.

The quality of a landscape’s matrix is a key condition for the conservation of biodiversity and affects the diversity and composition of bird assemblages in agricultural landscapes with forest remnants. In southern Brazil most agricultural landscapes are a mosaic of cultivated areas, treeless pastures and forest remnants. These landscapes must be planned and managed for food production while synergically enhancing ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation. In this study, we compared the diversity and composition of bird species in High Biodiversity Silvopastoral Systems (SPSnuclei), treeless pasture areas, forest edges and forest interiors. SPSnuclei is a type of silvopastoral system (SPS) whose design was inspired by applied nucleation reforestation techniques using multispecies agroforestry nuclei. In this study, we sought to understand the influence of the SPSnuclei on the diversity and composition of birds by comparing SPSnuclei to treeless pasture areas, forest edges and the forest interior. We hypothesize that multispecies agroforestry nuclei would restore some of the ecosystem biodiversity, and therefore resilience. To quantify bird diversity, sound recorders were installed simultaneously within these habitats during the spring and summer of 2016 and 2017 on three dairy farms. We identified calls from 108 bird species in 2400 min of recordings (600 min/habitat). The High Biodiversity Silvopastoral System increased the diversity of birds in the agroecosystem. Species richness was higher in the parcels with SPSnuclei compared to treeless pastures (P

A agricultura tem se mostrado um dos principais emissores dos gases de efeito estufa (GEE). Grande parte dessa emissão está relacionada ao sistema de produção e/ou manejo inadequado. Este estudo avaliou os efeitos do Sistema Silvipastoril com Núcleos (SSPnúcleos) na massa do dossel forrageiro (pasture cover), e nos estoques de carbono e nitrogênio quando implantado em pastagens sem árvores (PSA). As variáveis foram mensuradas em três situações, duas áreas dentro do SSPnúcleos - área próximo dos núcleos (APN) e área ensolarada entre os núcleos (AEN), e pastagem sem árvores (PSA). A participação proporcional das variáveis das áreas APN (30%) e AEN (60%) em cada hectare de pastagem originou as variáveis do SSPnúcleos como um todo. O SSPnúcleos não afetou a massa do dossel forrageiro e os estoques de carbono e nitrogênio (p

Ecological economists have often argued that the very nature of modern money, created by banks through interest-bearing debt, forces our socio-economic system to seek perpetual growth if we are to avoid a systemic collapse. The foundations of this so-called ‘monetary growth imperative’ suffer from theoretical weaknesses, as shown by several scholars who have used post-Keynesian theory and models to support their claims. However, this critique relies on an incomplete assessment of money, missing its institutional dimensions. The way money is created, circulated and destroyed is the result of social constructs, and historical accounts indicate that the progressive generalization of interest-bearing debt money since the thirteenth century marks a distinct development in the institutionalization of capitalism and its multiple growth imperatives. As such, “monetary contestations†aimed at diminishing the importance of interest rates remain critical to achieving a post-growth socio-economic system.

This chapter describes the latest phase of a participatory action research project initiated in 1990 by the Federal University of Santa Catarina and local farmers in Santa Rosa de Lima, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The Project involved university students and professors, extension agents, agricultural cooperatives and local and state governments. The current phase, initiated in 2008, is implementing agroecological systems that synergically restore rural landscapes, strengthen food sovereignty and improve farmer livelihoods in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Ecologists estimate that there is an ecological threshold at 30% forest cover in the biome below which there will be a precipitous decline in biodiversity and an associated loss of ecological functions, including many that are essential to agriculture. Forest cover is currently below this level, but there is an extinction lag, which offers a narrow window of opportunity to reforest before the system collapses. Farmers are also required by the New Forest Code (NFC) to restore ecologically critical areas. However, mandated restoration under the NFC may be inadequate to prevent ecological collapse. Furthermore, the small family farmers have so little land that if they restore enough forest to prevent system collapse, they may cross an economic threshold below which they cannot sustain their families. Given these conditions, the project is seeking to implement silvopastoral systems on open pasture with agroforestry nuclei and multifunctional riparian forests with native trees that exceed compliance with the NFC, while generating sufficient revenue from non-timber forest products to recover restoration costs and enhance farmer livelihoods. Markets fail to reward land-owners for the numerous ecosystem services provided by ecological restoration, and if left solely to farmer initiative and resources, restoration will likely be underprovided from a social and ecological perspective. We are therefore working with the state to help farmers adopt these systems in compensation for the ecosystem services they provide. We describe both the project and its theoretical justifications.

COVID-19 has shone a bright light on a number of failings and weaknesses in how current economic models handle information and knowledge Some of these are familiar issues that have long been understood but not acted upon effectively – for example, the danger that current systems of intellectual property and patent protection are actually inimical to delivering a cost-effective vaccine available to all, whereas treating knowledge as a commons and a public good is much more likely to deliver efficient outcomes for the entire global population But COVID-19 has also demonstrated that traditional models of knowledge production and dissemination are failing us;scientific knowledge is becoming weaponized and hyper-partisan, and confidence in this knowledge is falling We believe that the challenges that COVID-19 has exposed in the information economy and ecology will be of increasing applicability across the whole spectrum of sustainability;sustainability scholars and policymakers need to understand and grasp them now if we are to avoid contagion into other sectors due to the preventable errors that have marred the global response to COVID-19 Alternate abstract:Social media summaryCOVID-19 highlights both the failures of privatized knowledge and worrying fractures in the wider information ecology

This editorial introduces a special section of the journal on ecological economics: The next 30 years consisting of 20 different articles from a broad range of contributors. It explores common themes from the articles including uncertainty, the normative goals of sustainable scale and just distribution, collective action, co-evolution, transdisciplinarity and the need for radical systemic change. Drawing on our own vision for the next 30 years of EE, we use multi-level selection theory (MLS) to help understand how these themes are connected, to offer insights into how we might promote collective action at the scale required to achieve a socially just sustainability transition, and to reassess the distinction between normative and positive science. We conclude that ecological economists are united primarily by the recognition that economics must be built from biophysical foundations and by our shared normative values that prioritize the common good over self-interested individual preferences

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have spread rapidly across the globe in the last two decades, emerging as an important alternative to halt deforestation and biodiversity loss. The motivations of farmers to take part in PES programs, however, is still largely unknown. Most of the recent studies on the theme have investigated factors influencing participation but a few of them have looked at the factors explaining the minimum financial compensation that farmers would expect to receive to join PES. Particularly scarce are the studies aiming to understand the relationships between the minimum amount of money (MAM) that farmers would demand to get involved in PES programs for forest conservation and restoration and the impacts of such programs on PES additionality. We focused our study on the early stages of the PES program of the Chapeco Ecological Corridor, an important agricultural region that provides vital ecosystem services in Southern Brazil. One hundred farmers from 21 municipalities were interviewed. Data were tested using maximum likelihood and the model selection approach. Almost all farmers interviewed (94%) manifested interested in taking part in a PES program focused on forest conservation, but only 48% would like to get involved in a forest restoration program. PES program modality (100%), farmers’ income (65%) and educational level (54%) were the most important variables influencing the minimum amount of money required by farmers to get involved. In average, the farmers would expect 35% more for forest restoration (US$ 185.56/ha) than for conservation (US$ 116.53/ha) programs. In any case, however, the net increase of forest cover resulting from the PES program would be insignificant. Nevertheless, PES could provide some additionality by halting forest degradation and by helping to curb small-scale and illegal deforestation. The low interest in restoration activities may jeopardize the PES program goals and cause negative impact on the implementation of the National Forest Act in the region. To overcome this constraint, the PES program managers should work with the farmers to raise awareness about the relevance of forest restoration in a region with seasonal water shortages, high level of erosion and of water pollution.

The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol display a broad international consensus for biodiversity conservation and equitable benefit sharing. Yet, the Aichi biodiversity targets show a lack of progress and thus indicate a need for additional action such as enhanced and better targeted financial resource mobilization. To date, no global financial burden‐sharing instrument has been proposed. Developing a global‐scale financial mechanism to support biodiversity conservation through intergovernmental transfers, we simulate three allocation designs: ecocentric, socioecological, and anthropocentric. We analyze the corresponding incentives needed to reach the Aichi target of terrestrial protected area coverage by 2020. Here we show that the socioecological design would provide the strongest median incentive for states which are farthest from achieving the target. Our proposal provides a novel concept for global biodiversity financing, which can serve as a starting point for more specific policy dialogues on intergovernmental burden and benefit‐sharing mechanisms to halt biodiversity loss.

In Santa Rosa de Lima - SC - Brazil, a small municipality in South Region mainly covered by Atlantic Rain Forest, there is an effort to promote agroecology as socio-ecological improvement for family farmers. Part of this effort was conducted with young farmers in a debate about their land-use practices and the consequences of diversifying their activities. This study describes the process of a participatory modeling approach carried out in a workshop with young farmers to co-design conceptual models for land use practices. As results, a system dynamics model was built to represent their reality. The results of the workshop were embedded in a model to simulate a typical local property and provide insights into the consequences of diversifying their agricultural production by using the agroecological practices. Finally, the work presents the designed model and the first outcomes of scenario simulation, discussing the use of system thinking approaches in participatory modeling. En Santa Rosa de Lima - SC - Brasil, un pequeño municipio de la Región Sur cubierto principalmente por la Selva Atlántica, se realiza un esfuerzo para promover la agroecología como mejora socioecológica para los agricultores familiares. Parte de este esfuerzo se llevó a cabo con los jóvenes agricultores en un debate sobre sus prácticas de uso de la tierra y las consecuencias de diversificar susactividades. Este estudio describe el proceso de un enfoque de modelado participativo llevado a cabo en un taller con jóvenes agricultores para co-diseñar modelos conceptuales para las prácticas de uso de la tierra. Como resultados, se creó un modelo de dinámica del sistema para representar su realidad. Los resultados del taller se integraron en un modelo para simular una propiedad local típica y proporcionar información sobre las consecuencias de diversificar su producción agrícola mediante el uso de las prácticas agroecológicas. Por último, el trabajo presenta el modelo diseñado y los primeros resultados de la simulación de escenarios, discutiendo el uso de enfoques de pensamiento del sistema en el modelado participativo. Em Santa Rosa de Lima - SC - Brasil, pequeno município da Região Sul coberto principalmente pela Mata Atlântica, há um esforço para promover a agroecologia como melhoria socioecológica para os agricultores familiares. Parte desse esforço foi realizado com jovens agricultores em um debate sobre suas práticas de uso da terra e as consequências da diversificação de suas atividades. Este estudo descreve o processo de uma abordagem de modelagem participativa realizada em uma oficina com jovens agricultores para o codesenvolvimento de modelos conceituais para práticas de uso da terra. Como resultados, um modelo de dinâmica de sistema foi construído para representar sua realidade. Os resultados da oficina foram incorporados em um modelo para simular uma propriedade local típica e fornecer insights sobre as consequências da diversificação de sua produção agrícola utilizando as práticas agroecológicas. Por fim, o trabalho apresenta o modelo desenvolvido e os primeiros resultados da simulação de cenários, discutindo o uso de abordagens da teoria do pensamento do sistêmico na modelagem participativa.

Extensive reforestation may be required to avert dramatic loss of biodiversity, system resilience and ecosystem services from Brazil's Atlantic Forest, and is legally required by Brazil's Forest Code. Restoration on farmland however threatens agricultural output and the livelihoods of small family farmers, leading to weak enforcement of the law and a national debate over the Code which resulted in revisions in 2012 that significantly reduced legally mandated restoration. To inform the design of effective environmental policies, we interviewed 60 typical dairy family farmers utilizing pasture-based agroecological grazing practices to assess their perceptions and knowledge of the pre-2012 Forest Code, its impacts and their willingness to comply. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) identified three distinct clusters: farmers who understood the forest code and its ecological impacts and were willing to comply; farmers who understood the ecological benefits of restoration, but were unwilling to comply; and those with little knowledge of benefits or interest in compliance. We evaluate three policy options for promoting restoration, paying particular attention to their impacts on farmer livelihoods and on their intrinsic willingness to restore and preserve forest cover. We conclude that payments for ecosystem services in the form of subsidies for agroecology practices are promising.

It is challenging to reconcile large scale data with the dynamic characteristics present in land use. Such dynamism requires data with a high repetition of sampling. An alternative is the integration of data of high spatial resolution and low temporal resolution, with that of high temporal resolution and low spatial resolution. The aim addressed in this article is related to the integration of aerial photographs and temporal series for land use and land cover mapping in high detail scale. We conducted a case study in Santa Rosa de Lima-SC. The main data used was the aerial survey that overlaid the state of Santa Catarina, executed in 2010/2011. The interpretation key included typical elements of photointerpretation (color, texture, size, shape), aiming to classify the land use and land cover classes. The mapping evaluation resulted in 75.6% global accuracy, ranging from 54% (Grassland and Wetlands) to 96% (Water Bodies and Rocks). Such results are considered satisfactory. The integration of high-resolution images with high temporal resolution data has enabled the discrimination between classes that present great difficulties of separability. Such discrimination is essential in the territorial management processes of Encosta da Serra and the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima. Resumo: É um desafio compatibilizar dados em grandes escalas com as características de dinamismo presentes no uso da terra. Tal dinamismo requer dados com alta repetição de amostragem. Uma alternativa é a integração de dados de alta resolução espacial e baixa resolução temporal, com aqueles de alta resolução temporal e baixa resolução espacial. O objetivo deste artigo consiste em integrar fotografias aéreas com séries temporais de índices de vegetação para o mapeamento de cobertura e uso da terra em escala de grande detalhe. Foi conduzido um estudo de caso em Santa Rosa de Lima-SC. O principal insumo utilizado foi o aerolevantamento que recobriu o Estado de Santa Catarina, realizado em 2010/2011. A chave de interpretação levou em consideração elementos típicos de fotointerpretação (cor, textura, tamanho, forma) e interpretação das séries temporais dos índices de vegetação, visando classificar os tipos de cobertura e uso da terra. A avaliação do mapeamento resultou em 75,6% de exatidão global, variando de 54% (Pastagens e Áreas Úmidas) a 96% (Corpos d`água e Afloramento Rochoso). Tais resultados são considerados satisfatórios. A integração de imagens de alta resolução espacial com dados de alta resolução temporal possibilitou a discriminação entre classes que apresentam grandes dificuldades de separabilidade. Tais discriminações são essenciais nos processos de gestão territorial da Encosta da Serra e do município de Santa Rosa de Lima.

The Atlantic Forest is a global hotspot of biodiversity that may be on the verge of ecological collapse. Current changes in forest legislation have increased the debate concerning policy impacts on land-use and the consequences for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. This paper evaluates the impact of three environmental policy options (National Forest Act from 1965-NFA65, Business as Usual-BAU, National Forest Act from 2012-NFA12) on land-use patterns and ecosystem services in the southern Atlantic Forest. InVEST (the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs tool) was used to model ecosystem services. Synergies and tradeoffs between commodities, erosion regulation, carbon storage and habitat for biodiversity were assessed with the Spearman Correlation Test. The NFA65 produced the largest gains for forest ecosystem services, while BAU favored commodities expansion. The NFA12 approaches the baseline, contributing less to the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation.

Both economists and conservationists are calling for expanded use of market-based instruments (MBIs) to address worsening environmental problems, but the lack of MBIs at the scale required to solve major global problems makes it difficult to empirically evaluate their effectiveness. This article indirectly evaluates MBIs for essential ecosystem services by examining market allocation of another essential resource that is allocated by markets and which has experienced dramatic price increases: food. In an unequal world, markets respond to price increases by reducing food allocations to the destitute and malnourished, but not for the affluent. MBIs would increase the prices of ecosystem services and the commodities whose production degrades them, forcing the impoverished to reduce consumption by more than the wealthy. Furthermore, most MBIs would be prone to speculation and price instability, be incompatible with the satisfaction of individual preferences, or would not maximize economic surplus. Most environmental problems can be characterized as prisoner's dilemmas, which are best solved through cooperation, not competition. Society must create economic institutions that promote cooperation and ensure that the burdens of reducing throughput are not borne disproportionately by the poor.

Palm heart from jucara palm (Euterpe edulis) has been one of the most important non-timber forest products (NTFPs) from the Brazilian Atlantic forest since 1960s, but overharvesting, among other factors, drove the species near to extinction. However, the recent conversion from extraction of hearts of palm to berries harvesting for pulp production, a nondestructive use, had a remarkable effect on species conservation and its potential for cash provision and forest landscape restoration. Pulp production from E. edulis in the Atlantic Forest is strongly benefiting from the traditional and expanding market of acai pulp produced from Euterpe oleraceae in the Amazon Basin. In this article, we assess the current status of this new NTFP from E. edulis in the State of Santa Catarina, tracing a parallel with the acai production chain in the Amazon. In addition to a literature review, we surveyed the production chain and interviewed key stakeholders. Production of jucara pulp soared from 5 tons in 2010 to 97.76 tons...

Both private and public sectors have failed to adequately provide critical ecosystem goods and services or an equitable distribution of wealth and income. To address this problem, the Vermont legislature is considering the creation of a Vermont Common Assets Trust (VCAT) that would make the state's atmosphere, aquifers and other resources created by nature or by society as a whole the common property of all Vermonters, present and future. Under the Trust, a board of trustees would have the legal obligation to manage these assets for the benefit of all Vermonters, including future generations. This paper first explains why certain resources are likely to be managed more sustainably, fairly and efficiently as common property than as private property. It then discusses mechanisms for integrating assets into the trust. Estimates of potential revenue from a VCAT suggest that it could eliminate the state budget deficit, contribute to a better distribution of wealth and resources, and help address critical ecological problems. Survey results suggest that a VCAT is politically feasible. The VCAT promises to be an important pilot project that could later be scaled up to a national or global level.

ECONOMIC GROWTH IS A RECENT PHENOMENON in human history, becoming noticeable within a single lifetime only since the eighteenth century (i.e., since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the development of the modern market economy, and the transition to fossil fuels). Just prior to the Industrial Revolution, it took the English economy more than 400 years to double in size. Growth rates steadily increased thereafter, with a great acceleration in economic growth, resource depletion, waste emissions, and ecological degradation beginning around 1950. The global economy grew ninefold in the twentieth century even as population quadrupled. According to World Bank data, the global economy’s most recent doubling in size (as measured by gross domestic product) took just more than a decade, from 2003 to 2014.

In 2014, the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics, consisting of more than sixty-five associations of economics students from over thirty different countries, issued an open letter, with these opening lines: “It is not only the world economy that is in crisis. The teaching of economics is in crisis too, and this crisis has consequences far beyond the university walls. What is taught shapes the minds of the next generation of policymakers, and therefore shapes the societies we live in.… [I]t is time to reconsider the way economics is taught. We are dissatisfied with the dramatic narrowing of the curriculum that has taken place over the last couple of decades.”

The production of ecosystem goods and services has increased significantly in the last 100 years, while the capacity of ecosystems to generate supporting and regulating services has decreased. In this context, agriculture and livestock production have become major concerns. At the same time, livestock, particularly dairy cows, play a key role and can serve to improve ecosystems, production, and rural livelihoods. We randomly selected and conducted semistructural interviews with 61 dairy family farmers from four cooperatives in the Encosta da Serra Geral Region of the Atlantic rainforest in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The goal was to analyze their production and viewpoints about environmental variables after adopting management-intensive grazing (MIG). The overall results showed that when farmers changed from semi-confinement and continuous grazing to MIG they perceived improvements in production, livelihoods, and ecosystem services. Moreover, according to farmers’ insights, MIG could be a tool to increase wat...

Measures aimed at conservation or restoration of ecosystems are often seen as net-cost projects by governments and businesses because they are based on incomplete and often faulty cost-benefit analyses. After screening over 200 studies, we examined the costs (94 studies) and benefits (225 studies) of ecosystem restoration projects that had sufficient reliable data in 9 different biomes ranging from coral reefs to tropical forests. Costs included capital investment and maintenance of the restoration project, and benefits were based on the monetary value of the total bundle of ecosystem services provided by the restored ecosystem. Assuming restoration is always imperfect and benefits attain only 75% of the maximum value of the reference systems over 20 years, we calculated the net present value at the social discount rates of 2% and 8%. We also conducted 2 threshold cum sensitivity analyses. Benefit-cost ratios ranged from about 0.05:1 (coral reefs and coastal systems, worst-case scenario) to as much as 35:1 (grasslands, best-case scenario). Our results provide only partial estimates of benefits at one point in time and reflect the lower limit of the welfare benefits of ecosystem restoration because both scarcity of and demand for ecosystem services is increasing and new benefits of natural ecosystems and biological diversity are being discovered. Nonetheless, when accounting for even the incomplete range of known benefits through the use of static estimates that fail to capture rising values, the majority of the restoration projects we analyzed provided net benefits and should be considered not only as profitable but also as high-yielding investments.

Current macroeconomic policy promotes continuous economic growth. Unemployment, poverty and debt are associated with insufficient growth. Economic activity depends upon the transformation of natural materials, ultimately returning to the environment as waste. Current levels of economic throughput exceed the planet’s carrying capacity. As a result of poorly constructed economic institutions, society faces the unacceptable choice between ecological catastrophe and human misery. A transition to a steady-state economy is required, characterized by a rate of throughput compatible with planetary boundaries. This paper contributes to the development of a steady-state economy by addressing US monetary and fiscal policies. A steady-state monetary policy would support counter-cyclical, debt-free vertical money creation through the public sector, in ways that contribute to sustainable well-being. The implication for a steady-state fiscal policy is that any lending or spending requires a careful balance of recovery of money, not as a means of revenue, but as an economic imperative to meet monetary policy goals. A steady-state fiscal policy would prioritize targeted public goods investments, taxation of ecological “bads” and economic rent and implementation of progressive tax structures. Institutional innovations are considered, including common asset trusts, to regulate throughput, and a public monetary trust, to strictly regulate money supply.

Forest landscapes provide benefits from a wide range of goods, function and intangible values. But what are different forest owner categories’ profiles of economic use and non-use values? This study focuses on the complex forest ownership pattern of the River Helge å catchment including the Kristianstad Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve in southern Sweden. We made 89 telephone interviews with informants representing the four main forest owner categories. Our mapping included consumptive and non-consumptive direct use values, indirect use values, and non-use values such as natural and cultural heritage. While the value profiles of non-industrial forest land owners and municipalities included all value categories, the forest companies focused on wood production, and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency on nature protection. We discuss the challenges of communicating different forest owners’ economic value profiles among stakeholders, the need for a broader suite of forest management systems, and fora for collaborative planning. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-012-0374-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over-reliance on payments as win-win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly among policy makers and practitioners, about the limitations of such instruments and to encourage a dialogue about the policy contexts in which they might be appropriate.

Ultrasociality, as expressed in agricultural, monetary, and fossil fuel economies, has spurred exponential growth in population and in resource use that now threaten civilization. These threats take the form of prisoner's dilemmas. Avoiding collapse requires more cooperative economic organization that must be informed by knowledge of human behavior and cultural evolution. The evolution of a cooperative information economy is one possibility.

article i nfo There are several policy tools available for the provision of ecosystem services. The economic characteristics of the ecosystem service being provided, such as rivalry and excludability, along with the spatial scale at which benefits accrue can help determine the appropriate policy approach. In this paper we provide a brief introduction to ecosystem services and discuss the policy tools available for providing them along with the dimensions, political feasibility and appropriateness of each tool. Throughout the paper we focus primarily on payments as a mechanism for ecosystem service provision. We present a framework for determining the characteristics of an ecosystem service and when payments are a viable policy tool option based on the characteristics. Additionally, we provide examples of when payments do not provide a socially desirable level of ecosystem benefits. We conclude with a summary of policy recommendations, specifically desirable property rights and payment types based on the particular classification of an ecosystem service. We also discuss the advantages of creating monopsony power to reduce transaction costs, delineating and bundling ecosystem services and utilizing existing intermediaries.

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is becoming increasingly popular as a way to manage ecosystems using economic incentives. The environmental economics approach to PES tries to force ecosystem services into the market model, with an emphasis on efficiency. The ecological economics approach, in contrast, seeks to adapt economic institutions to the physical characteristics of ecosystem services prioritizing ecological sustainability and just distribution and requiring a transdisciplinary approach. This paper summarizes the results of a participatory “atelier” workshop held in Costa Rica. We developed a set of principles (the Heredia Declaration) for PES systems and report on evolving initiatives in several countries. We discuss how the distinction between ecosystem goods (which are stock-flow resources) and ecosystem services (which are fund-service resources) and the physical characteristics of the fund-services affect the appropriate institutional form for PES. We conclude that PES systems represent an important way to effectively manage fund-service resources as public goods, and that this represents a significant departure from conventional market institutions.

Information has some unique characteristics. Unlike most other goods and services, it is neither rival (use by one prevents use by others) nor non-rival (use by one does not affect use by others), but is enhanced with increased use, or ‘additive’. Therefore a unique allocation system for both the production and consumption of information is needed. Under the current market-based allocation system, production of information is often limited through the exclusive rights produced by patents and copyrights. This limits scientists' ability to share and build on each other's knowledge. We break the problem down into three separate questions: (1) do markets generate the type of information most important for modern society? (2) are markets the most appropriate institution for producing that information? and (3) once information is produced, are markets the most effective way of maximizing the social value of that information? We conclude that systematic market failures make it unlikely that markets will generate the most important types of information, while the unique characteristics of information reduce the cost-effectiveness of markets in generating information and in maximizing its social value. We then discuss alternative methods that do not have these shortcomings, and that would lead to greater overall economic efficiency, social justice and ecological sustainability. These methods include monetary prizes, publicly funded research from which the produced information is released into the public domain, and status driven incentive structures like those in academia and the “open-source” community.