Corporate guidelines for the economic valuation of ecosystem services - Version 3.0
This is the third version of the Corporate Guidelines for the Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services (Devese 3.0), as a result of the work developed in Trends in Ecosystem Services (TeSE) business initiative. TeSE’s mission is to engage the business sector in order to build strategies and tools that contribute to an increasingly more sustainable management of their dependencies, impacts, externalities, risks and opportunities related to natural capital and, particularly, to ecosystem services.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THESE GUIDELINES?
These Guidelines were created with the purpose of guiding the elaboration of simplified analyses of economic valuation of ecosystem services that are able to support strategic and tactical business decisions. Easy-to-apply, quick, and low-cost methods were privileged, in such a way to, if not completely, at least partially eliminate the need for support from third-party consulting firms specialized in the topic.
Ultimately, the purpose of these Guidelines is to directly involve users in the economic valuation process, which facilitates understanding the economic dimension of the ecosystem service that is being studied, and uncertainties associated with the resulting economic value estimates.
