Valuing ecosystem services in agricultural production in southwest Spain
Esteban Otto Thomasz, Andrés Kasanzew, Juan Miguel Massot, Agustín García-García
Abstract
The agricultural strategy developed in Extremadura, southwest Spain, has successfully improved the region's socioeconomic conditions over the last 50 years. However, it has led to an increased dependence on natural ecosystem services, which are now more vulnerable due to biodiversity degradation and the impacts of climate change. Despite this, in the region, there is no comprehensive economic impact assessment of the provisioning of ecosystem services to the agricultural sector that could improve decision-making processes in these areas. In this context, the aim of this paper is to provide an economic estimate of three ecosystem services (water used for irrigation, pollination and natural pest control using birds and bats) under different adaptation scenarios for the agricultural production in Extremadura. The preliminary results show that this region has intensive ecosystem services in the agricultural production. Irrigation was found to be the most important service, contributing 49 % of agricultural gross production value, followed by pollinators (10 %) and natural pest control by birds and bats (4 %). A scenario analysis showed that the expansion of irrigation has led to greater dependence on other ecosystem services, such as pollination, increasing agricultural production vulnerability. This paper proposes a line of research to achieve methodological progress in policymaking for regional development. Analysis of the interrelationship between ecosystem services and environmental cost–benefit analysis should become a standard practice when expanding irrigation.