ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF SALT MARSHES
Salt marshes are intertidal grasslands that form along continental margins, bays, and estuaries. They work as shoreline protection by absorbing wave energy and accreting sediments, serve as nursery habitats for many marine species, provide feeding grounds for many bird species, and help to improve water quality by trapping sediments and filtering excess nutrients. An important quality of salt marshes is their ability to sequester carbon from the atmosphere into their biomass and sediments.
Almost half of the salt marshes worldwide had been lost or degraded in recent decades. The heaviest impacts come from marsh reclamation, vegetation disturbance, climate change, sea level rise, pollution, biological invasion and altered hydrological regimes.
HOW ARE COASTAL ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF BLUE FORESTS VALUED?
Efforts to understand the socio-economic value of coastal blue carbon ecosystem services as a means to advocate for their conservation are still relatively new.
As part of the GEF Blue Forests project, economists and social scientists at the European Institute of Marine Studies and the University of West Brittany have embarked on a research project to understand how values have historically been calculated for ecosystem services associated with mangrove forests, salt marshes and seagrass beds.
The goal of the study is to provide a critical review of previously conducted valuation studies in order to help improve such valuations in the future, specifically in developing world case studies. The project focuses on summarizing the valuation methods commonly used for these habitats, the ecosystem services valued and the calculated values. The study will also provide a critique of the inconsistencies found between uses of various valuation methods and gaps in ecosystem service valuation studies for these habitats. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a set of lessons learned that can be applied to future ecosystem service valuation studies focused on these habitats.