Quantifying the risks caused by habitat loss: a practical toolkit for informed decision-making

Managing losses in ecosystems: a practical toolkit

Intact ecosystems play vital roles for human well-being, not just by providing harvestable goods like timber and fish, but also by delivering a suite of less tangible services, such as stabilizing local and global climate, regulating hydrological flows and absorbing storm energy.
With looming threats of climate change and natural disasters, Dr. Peh stresses that the preservation of these ecosystem services is critical to limiting the risks faced by local communities - particularly in poor rural contexts. Indeed, one suppressed element could topple the whole equilibrium of a given ecosystem. Yet, policy and decision-makers are constantly confronted to such losses, with little to no information on preferred alternatives.
To fill this gap, Dr.Peh used a multidisciplinary approach to develop a decision support toolkit to allow individuals with limited technical training to provide rapid assessments of the net social effects of land-use change at a local level.

How should we determine the value of nature ?

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