Description

The measurement of ecosystem services is a topic of increasing interest for environmental-economic accounting and public policy. This document reviews and analyzes the literature and stylized facts related to the physical measurement and economic valuation of regulating and maintenance ecosystem services. We focus on three features: 1) carbon storage and sequestration services, 2) provision, regulation, and purification of water and 3) sediment retention. The work allows us to highlight five groups of evidence. First, international experiences are heterogeneous and dependant on the kind of ecosystems and quality of the information available for each country. Second, research on the estimation of regulating and maintenance services in Chile has mainly with the impacts of land use change and climate change on water ecosystem services. Third, spatial data resolution and environmental variables may have a significant impact on the estimates of regulating ecosystem services which implies some additional work improving information, assessing variables, calibrating models, and sensitivity analysis. Fourth, the spatial heterogeneity and site-specific nature of many parameters for biophysical modelling requires a methodological framework to evaluate the effects of changes in the quality of the ecosystems over ecosystem services. Finally, the valuation of regulating ecosystem services needs to consider the spatial perspective given the climatic, geographic, and socioeconomic heterogeneities of Chile´s territory.