This report is the first step of Plan bleu’s project launched in 2013 – in partnership with Tour du Valat – on the economic valuation of ecological services provided by wetlands in conjunction with climate change in the Mediterranean Basin. The overall goal of this project – through the valorization of services provided by wetlands – is to facilitate taking into consideration these ecosystems in national climate change adaptation policies or strategies. Wetlands, as a matter of fact, can be a least-cost strategy for climate change adaptation and mitigation, whilst providing co-benefits such as poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation.
This report is divided in four parts, namely :
- Identification and description of the services provided by wetlands specifically related to climate change adaptation and mitigation;
- Theoretical review of the economic valuation of the ecological services and of the different valuation methods;
- Several economic valuation case studies, on a global scale, for each wetlands service previously identified as a party to the mitigation and the adaptation;
- Focus on the Mediterranean Basin in order to best fit Plan Bleu’s project.
The project next phases (2014-2015) consist in the realization of 4 case studies in the Mediterranean region, whose objective is economically assessing each of the four regulation services provided by wetlands and identified as capable of forming part of climate change adaption strategies: climate regulating service through carbon storage, extreme weather events service protection, flood control service and low flow replenishment service.
The project is part of the strategic axis 3 of Plan Bleu’s “Water” programming for the period 2013-2015 entitled “Contribute to the definition and implementation of climate change adaptation strategies”.
For more information, please contact Dr. Céline Dubreuil-Imbert,
