Climate change is impacting numerous natural world heritage sites – the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) being just one. There are calls for interventions to help sustain reef values in the face of climate change and while there are numerous techniques for assessing impacts on non-market values, most struggle to generate robust estimates for large and complex systems. This complicates the assessment of potential benefits of reef interventions. Focusing on corals in the GBR, we develop and apply a systematic, evaluative framework that combines insights from a coral-reef simulation model with those from research on reef-related ecosystem services (ES). We estimate the market and non-market benefits of complete control of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) and global climate mitigation. By comparing the present value of ES with and without interventions, we can assess their potential benefits: between $5b and $28.5b depending on intervention and discount rate. Our empirical insights are specifically relevant to the GBR. Our generic approach to assessing the potential value of CoTS control at large scale and in data/knowledge-poor environments can be developed further and adapted to other interventions.
History
Publication title
Ecosystem Services
Volume
51
Article number
101352
Number
101352
Pagination
1-19
ISSN
2212-0416
Department/School
College Office - College of Business and Economics
Publisher
Elsevier Science Bv
Place of publication
Netherlands
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Ecological economics; Marine systems and management not elsewhere classified; Social impacts of climate change and variability