Naturalness as a Paradigm for Environmental Services Assessment

Abstract

The municipality of Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico, has been the first in Mexico to set up a purse and a payment scheme to pay for environmental services. The scheme at Coatepec focuses on water resources, though many other similar programs exist throughout the world. Here a theoretical analysis permits to study and understand the dominant effect that position and arrangement play in the relevance of specific forms of land cover and stand structure in regard to a differential importance to overall level of environmental quality that society enjoys. The driving force that makes a difference in the importance of a specific stand is the degree of resemblance to pristine conditions in its structure and functions, modified by the strategic position on the ground respect resource position and users location in the watershed. Attributes of natural conditions were inferred from landscape ecology theory, and from historic records from the region. These attributes are then converted to importance values for a catalog of current conditions present in the region, and applied over a land classification map. Value estimates are drawn from an arbitrary scale that can be translated into a certain payment for environmental services rendered. These latter translation requires a definition of a specific purse of public money, or else, a theoretical estimate of service demands from stakeholders and affected regional population. The estimate of environmental services value is presented in a map and a payment scale in tabular form, for conditions in the Coatepec municipality in 2002.

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere

Citation

Mendoza, Martín Alfonso B.; del Angel, Ana Lid P.; Díaz, Gabriel. 2006. Naturalness as a Paradigm for Environmental Services Assessment. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 825-828