Ecosystem Services and Economic Valuation

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) provide many ecosystem services as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.” These include important recreational and tourism opportunities, key fishery habitat, water quality improvements, and flood and erosion mitigation. These are co-benefits of BCEs in addition to carbon sequestration. The monetary value of these services are best known for coastal protection and carbon sequestration, with monetary value of coastal protection services estimated at \23 billion year− 1 between 1980 and 2008.