Economic valuation of ecosystem services is the process of measuring the monetary value of the benefits that ecosystems provide to people. These benefits include tangible goods such as food, water purification, and flood protection (provisioning and regulating services), as well as less tangible outcomes like recreational enjoyment, aesthetic appreciation, and cultural or spiritual significance (cultural and supporting services). The goal is to capture not only direct financial gains but also indirect and non-market values, such as biodiversity, resilience to climate change, and cultural heritage.
We further explored this topic in the #4 webinar, organised on the Soil Community Platform, and here are the insights and key takeaways.
The SoilCommunity platform is an online collaborative space, funded by the European Commission, under the InBestSoil & BIOservicES projects. In this session, we focused on assessing the economic and societal value of soil health and ecosystem services, based on methodological approaches and policy insights from both BIOservicES and SoilValues projects.
Webinar Highlights
1) Samuel Lara Arciniegas, Sustainable Innovation Analyst at LGI, introduced the collaborative #SoilCommunityPlatform and its advantages:
- Connect partners, organizations, stakeholders, and practitioners across projects and initiatives;
- Share knowledge, tools, resources, and results to a broader audience and improve impact;
- Work and collaborate in dedicated working groups on specific topics;
- Join cross-project events and learn more about other soil health projects and initiatives.
- Following the Knowledge Repository and Connector module, SoilCommunity has a new feature: the Expert Module.
2) Klaus Glenk, Professor of Rural Economy, Environment and Society, and ‘Sustainable Ecosystems’ team leader at SRUC
What do we want from soil?
- End-products that society values and how soil helps deliver them;
- Measurement, quantification, and use of this information for sustainable soil management;
- Decision-making support to guide land use and soil management policies.
Ecosystem concepts and valuation framework
- Ecosystem processes, structures, and functions are the basis for soil services;
- Soil ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, and cultural benefits;
- Values: economic use and non-use, quality of life, and intrinsic importance, building an evidence base to link measurements to values.
Why value soil and what it enables?
- Policy and awareness: demonstrate soil’s importance for land-use targets and agroecosystems; embed soil values in natural capital approaches;
- Economic case for management: quantify costs and benefits to justify government intervention and resource allocation;
- Beyond instrumental values: understand plural values and intrinsic motivations to protect soils, moving beyond purely anthropocentric views.
3) BIOservicES by Alistair McVittie, Reader in Environmental Economics, Scotland’s Rural College
- Key actions include identifying market-based ES values, identifying non-market ES values, and building an integrated valuation tool to apply across sites and land uses;
- The goal is to enable consistent valuation across 5 regions, 25 experimental sites, 3 intensities, and 8 land uses.
Why a common valuation framework?
- To compare ES values across diverse sites and socio-economic contexts, identify commonalities/differences, and optimize resource allocation for valuation studies.
- Outcomes include a value transfer tool to apply ES values across similar land uses, as well as an understanding of why market and non-market values differ between locations.
- The framework encompasses both market and non-market values, enabling standardized comparison and transferability for informed decision-making.
Where are we in the project?
- Data collection across year #2 onward includes profiling regions, socio-economic and environmental data, catchment profiles, and information on outputs, prices, and management costs to support margin and productivity analyses.
Valuing the ecosystem service benefits of soil natural capital. Alistair McVittie & Klaus Glenk
- Key idea: Agricultural soils underpin natural capital for food and support multiple ecosystem services beyond production;
- Main takeaway: ES provision depends on both inherent soil properties and how land is managed;
- Policy relevance: Valuation helps identify where incentives could shift management to boost ES benefits;
- Sample and attitudes: 1,005 respondents; most show preference for improving multiple services, with non-status-quo choices revealing attitudes;
- What people value (overall message): healthy soils deliver multiple co-benefits across environmental services;
- Results indicate: ES depend on natural capital and on soil management; policy incentives should focus where benefits are most substantial;
- Practical implications: Best soils may yield high ES but cover a small area; carbon benefits are most substantial on less versatile soils. Additionally, positive management changes require farmer support and may involve higher taxes for residents; the benefits are relative to the baseline.
4) SoilValues by Kato Van Ruymbeke, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Bio-economics (KU Leuven)
- Soil health as a holistic perspective underpins economy, resilience, climate goals, human health, and culture;
- Current challenge: no shared holistic definition leads to fragmented interventions;
- Policy momentum is growing (e.g., EU Mission A Soil Deal for Europe) to incentivize sustainable soil management;
- Extending the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework, SoilValues identified six perspectives on soil health under a holistic framework:
- Productivist: soil as capital; returns from higher yields and lower inputs;
- Ecosystem services: soil supports ecological functions that can be monetized;
- Resilience: soil as insurance against adverse outcomes;
- Non-use: temporal value for future generations; recognition of unseen benefits;
- Intrinsic: soil as a living entity; limited direct economic capture, supported by law, culture, and education;
- Social: governance, fair access, empowerment; risks of tokenism; requires inclusive institutions.
We hope this webinar helped you understand how the economic valuation of soils and ecosystem services can inform better policy, land management, and sustainable practices. Stay tuned for more updates, events, and opportunities on the Soil Community Platform to engage in vital discussions on soil health! We are all responsible for ensuring future generations have access to healthy soil.