Challenges in using valuation in ecosystem-based management in a marine context: the case of UK Marine Protected Area designation - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 237

( 2010 ) and discussed further here is relevant, not just to the UK MCZ case study, but more
widely.
Estimates for provisioning services have the highest degree of certainty in the MCZ
case study and this is likely to apply in most ecosystem services valuations. The food pro-
visioning estimate used UK data (Beaumont et al ., 2006 ) for ex-vessel total fish landed by
UK fishing fleets, with a value-added factor of 0.45 following Pugh and Skinner ( 2002 ) for
supply chain effects. The raw material estimate used market data on fish meal and seaweed
following Beaumont et al ., ( 2006 ) . Of the two supporting services, a value was only avail-
able for 'nutrient cycling,' and even this itself draws upon Costanza et al . ( 1997 ); a study
that is both methodologically controversial and dated.
The regulating services for which estimates were possible were 'gas and climate reg-
ulation' and 'disturbance prevention and alleviation.' For the former, the estimate used
in Hussain et al . ( 2010 ) again follows Beaumont et al . ( 2006 ) and uses a photosynthesis
model (Smyth et al ., 2005 ) to estimate the average annual primary production (carbon se-
questeredbyphytoplankton)intheUKtobeapproximately0.07+/−0.004gigatoncarbon/
year. This estimate of carbon sequestered was multiplied by the average value for the shad-
ow price of carbon over the 20-year study period used by the UK government, i.e. £117.7/t
C in 2007. As Beaumont et al . ( 2006 ) note, this is an underestimate of service provisioning
as it only considers phytoplankton. For this service, the economic analysis is fairly trivial,
i.e. multiplying the outputs of biophysical modelling by a value/t C. It is the biophysical
modelling that is the most onerous task.
The estimate for 'disturbance prevention and alleviation' is again based on a single
studythat issomewhat dated (KingandLester, 1995 ),whichestimates thevalue ofthisser-
vice just for saltmarshes. Other habitats that provide this service include littoral rock, littor-
al sediment, and seagrass. The approach used for this service is the 'averted cost' method.
This service is concerned with reducing the intensity of disturbances such as storms, the
service being provided as ecological structures and processes dissipate energy. This form
of economic valuation applies the following logic: were the ecological structures and pro-
cesses not to be present, what would be the value of the expected extra damage caused by