Accounting for India’s Forest Wealth

In this paper, we account for forest wealth in India. Changes in the timber and carbon wealth embodied in these forests are related to important green national accounting aggregates such as genuine saving and the change in wealth per capita. Important accounting issues include the timing of carbon releases, which occur when forests are disturbed, as well as the valuation of these releases. Our empirical findings suggest that while Indias forest wealth is substantial, net changes in this wealth are arguably not so large at least in relation to GNP. However, when viewed in the context of the wealth-diluting effects of population growth this implies a far larger additional savings effort is required to cover the (net) loss in forest values than otherwise appears to be the case. Finally, we examine ways in which the accounting approach that we adopt can be reconciled with approaches which stress conserving forest wealth.Forestry, India, Wealth, wealth-diluting effects

Urban Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Well-being

Ecosystem services are essential to cities. Planning for a sustainable city requires identification of the benefits that nature provides and understanding their value. This special issue delves into the role of urban biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem services and community well-being. The papers published in this issue were presented at the 3rd International Conference on Urban Biodiversity held at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in Mumbai, India in October, 2012

Fuel Demand Elasticities for Energy and Environmental Policies Indian Sample Survey Evidence

India has been running large-scale interventions in the energy sector over the last decades. Still, there is a dearth of reliable and readily available price and income elasticities of demand to base these on, especially for domestic use of traditional fuels. This study uses the linear approximate almost ideal demand system (LA-AIDS) using micro data of more than 100,000 households sampled across India. The LA-AIDS model is expanded by specifying the intercept as a linear function of household characteristics. Marshallian and Hicksian price and expenditure elasticities of demand for four main fuels are estimated for both urban and rural areas by different income groups. These can be used to evaluate recent and current energy policies. The results can also be used for energy projections and carbon dioxide simulations given different growth rates for different segments of the Indian population.LA-AIDS, fuel, India, income, price, elasticities, NSSO data

\u27Greening\u27 the Buildings - An Analysis of Barriers to Adoption in India

The building sector is one of the main contributors to climate change with its high energy footprint. However, the potential of this sector in reducing greenhouse gases at low cost to get fair returns offers a win-win scenario for planners and environmentalists. In addition, they do offer substantial advantages to customers like property appreciation, reduction in electricity and water consumption, reduction in waste generation, use of green and less energy-intensive materials in construction and preservation of greenery. Despite the environmental and economic advantages offered by the green buildings, the shift has been difficult due to multi-faceted barriers. The objective of this paper is to quantitatively identify, rank and prioritize the barriers to the adoption of green building using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The study identifies 20 specific barriers which are classified in four categories- (1) Policy and Market Barriers; (PMB) (2) Financial and Economic Barriers (FEB); (3) Information, Promotion and Education Barriers (IPE) and (4) Managerial and Organizational Barriers (MOB). Seven groups of stakeholders - builders, potential occupants, architects, engineers, project managers, contractors, and government representatives took part in the ranking and prioritization of barriers. Calculation of local and global weight reveals that IPE barriers are ranked high and PMB comes second whereas FEB and MOB lag much behind with lower global weights. Among the top seven specific barriers, lack of expertise in life-cycle cost, lack of information on benefits on green buildings, lack of labeling and lack of infrastructure and training are the barriers which belong to IPE barrier category. Weak enforcement of building codes, the absence of incentives and high capital costs also find space among top seven specific barriers with high weights

Sustainable Harvests under Different Bio-economic Scenarios of Chilika Wetland’s Fisheries

The primary goal of fisheries management is to control overfishing and unregulated fisheries to protect stocks and boost the value of fish resources. In this study, we compare harvesting and fishing efforts in the maximum economic yield (MEY), maximum sustainable yield (MSY), and open access (OA) scenarios using Gordon-Schafer’s bioeconomic model to examine the economic status of Chilika’s fisheries. This paper also measures the effectiveness of Chilika Lake’s restoration measures. An independent sample t-test with bootstrap confidence intervals indicates the results’ robustness and concludes that the fisheries’ output has increased in the post-restoration period (2003–04 to 2020–21) in a statistically significant way. The estimated measures serve as the focal points for designing sustainable and optimal fisheries management strategies. They add to the ongoing research on stock evaluation, which helps determine harvesting effectiveness and strengthens the fishing stock to avoid exhaustion. Therefore, the expectation is that the outputs in the forms of optimal extraction and an enhanced management tool will improve livelihood opportunities and enhance other socioeconomic components of the fisheries sector. As a result, the findings will aid policymakers and other interested parties in creating a suitable harvesting strategy to attain economic optimality

Five steps towards transformative valuation of nature

The Values Assessment (VA) of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services shows that while a wide range of valuation methods exist to include nature's values in diverse decision-making contexts, uptake of these methods remains limited. Building on the VA, this paper reviews five critical steps in the evaluation of project or policy proposals that can improve the inclusion of nature's values in decisions. Furthermore, improving valuation practice requires guidelines that utilise quality criteria for valuation of nature and ensure a balance between them. This paper proposes three such quality criteria: relevance, robustness and resource efficiency. The paper argues that the five steps and three Rs can generate a practical checklist to support commissioning, evaluation and performance of more plural valuations. Such guidelines can provide the next steps needed to improve uptake of nature valuation in decision-making

Diverse values of nature for sustainability

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being(1,2), addressing the global biodiversity crisis(3) still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature's diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever(4). Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature's values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)(5) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals(6), predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature(7). Arguably, a 'values crisis' underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change(8), pandemic emergence(9) and socio-environmental injustices(10). On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature's diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions(7,11). Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures

Diverse values of nature for sustainability

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature’s values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a ‘values crisis’ underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature’s diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures

The IPBES Conceptual Framework - connecting nature and people

The first public product of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is its Conceptual Framework. This conceptual and analytical tool, presented here in detail, will underpin all IPBES functions and provide structure and comparability to the syntheses that IPBES will produce at different spatial scales, on different themes, and in different regions. Salient innovative aspects of the IPBES Conceptual Framework are its transparent and participatory construction process and its explicit consideration of diverse scientific disciplines, stakeholders, and knowledge systems, including indigenous and local knowledge. Because the focus on co-construction of integrative knowledge is shared by an increasing number of initiatives worldwide, this framework should be useful beyond IPBES, for the wider research and knowledge-policy communities working on the links between nature and people, such as natural, social and engineering scientists, policy-makers at different levels, and decision-makers in different sectors of society