Biodiversity Economics – http://www.biodiversityeconomics.org/index.html – Sponsored by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and WWF, promotes economic approaches to conservation by sharing documents, contacts and information about upcoming events. Users may join the practitioner database and submit publications.
Coral Reef Economics Community of Practice – www.communities.coastalvalues.org/coralreef – Connects experts and practitioners in coral reef valuation and conservation. Includes technical papers, published journal articles, and examples of successful data collection methods. Users can share draft workplans, surveys, and data for review and discussion.
Ecosystem Valuation – http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/ – This website describes how economists value the beneficial ways that ecosystems affect people – ecosystem valuation. It is designed for non-economists who need answers to questions about the benefits of ecosystem conservation, preservation or restoration. It provides a clear, non-technical explanation of ecosystem valuation concepts, methods and applications.
The Environmental Valuation and Cost Benefit Website – http://costbenefitanalysis.org/ – News and methods focusing on cost benefit analysis.
Environmental Economics Blog – http://www.env-econ.net/ – The Environmental Economics blog is dedicated to the dissemination of economists’ views on current environmental and natural resource issues. We hope this blog will help bring economists’ views on environmental issues further into the mainstream. The intended audience includes the general public and students. Posts are non-technical.
The Gund Institute – http://www.uvm.edu/giee/#introduction – Ongoing research is focused on several broad areas of fundamental concern. These include the application of science in economic decision-making; the intrinsic value of ecosystems and the services they provide; integrated community participation in economic design and development; and the development of accurate measurements of system health and sustainability.
Healthy Reefs for Healthy People – http://www.healthyreefs.org/ – This initiative is an international, multi-institutional effort that tracks the health of the Mesoamerican Reef, the human choices that shape it and our progress in ensuring its long-term integrity.
The Katoomba Group’s Ecosystem Marketplace – http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/ – This site seeks to become the world’s leading source of information on markets and payment schemes for ecosystem services; services such as water quality, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.
Manual to Assess the Benefits of Surface Water Quality Improvements -http://www.fwr.org/environs/frcl0005.htm – Provides water industry and regulatory agency staff with a means to evaluate the benefits arising from improvements in surface water quality, using a social cost-benefit analysis of quality improvement schemes in rivers, estuaries or coastal waters. Within this overall framework, the Manual provides guidelines for assessing the value of benefits in economic terms.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment – http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx – Initiated in 2001, the objective of the MA was to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems. Their findings provide a scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide, and the options to restore, conserve or enhance the sustainable use of ecosystems.
NOAA’s Coastal and Ocean Resource Economics (CORE) Program – http://www.marineeconomics.noaa.gov/ – This program conducts marine-related socioeconomic research for a wide variety of applications and geographic areas. CORE projects include state-of-the-art socioeconomic monitoring in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the first-ever nationwide estimate of participation rates in marine-related recreation activities, an extensive beach valuation effort in Southern California, and many other research activities.
NOAA Coastal Services Center summary on valuation – http://www.csc.noaa.gov/coastal/economics/envvaluation.htm – Includes a summary on valuation methods, social and economic impacts, risk and uncertainty, sustainability, an annotated bibliography, and other related topics.
National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) – http://noep.mbari.org/ – Established in 1999, NOEP provides a full range of the most current economic and socio-economic information available on changes and trends along the U.S. coast and in coastal waters. The program is funded by federal, state, university, and private grants and contracts.
ReefBase – http://www.reefbase.org – A project by the WorldFish Center, a global information system for coral reefs, with many publications online. Mission is to improve sharing and use of data, information, and knowledge in support of research and management of coral reef resources.
Reef Resilience – http://reefresilience.org/home.html – Information about building resilience into coral reef management strategies.
UK Environment Agency, Benefits assessment guidance for water quality and water resources schemes – http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/waterquality/289209/289256/425378/425401/425411/848038/507669/?version=1&lang=_e – A set of guidance for Agency staff and water company planners, covering both water quality improvements and water resource management issues, and providing a means of evaluating the environmental and social costs and benefits.
World Bank Environmental Economics and Indicators – http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/ENVIRONMENT/EXTEEI/0,,menuPK:408056~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:408050,00.html – The Bank’s mission includes a requirement for sustainable development, which makes the environment an integral part of the development challenge. This demands that special attention must be paid to how the environment links poverty, economics, and people. The Bank can assist countries to understand the linkages between poverty and the environment, mainstream the environment into country programs, and measure progress through environmental indicators.
World Resources Institute, Economic Valuation of Coral Reefs in the Caribbean website – http://www.wri.org/project/valuation-caribbean-reefs – WRI’s project seeks to support the sustainable management of coral reefs and mangroves by quantifying their economic value. Also includes links to WRI’s valuation methodology, WRI’s acclaimed Reefs at Risk series, and watershed-based analyses of threats to coral reefs.
