EVALUATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC MANGROVE SYSTEMS

Abstract

Although their total area constitutes only a small percentage of global tropical forests, mangroves supply a wide range of goods and services that benefit people, flora and fauna. They protect coastlines from the impact of storms, provide habitat for numerous fish species, improve water quality and even store carbon, thereby alleviating the effects of global climate change. And yet, despite offering all of these benefits, mangrove systems are rapidly shrinking worldwide. To reverse this trend, many studies have attempted to place economic values on the ecosystem services that mangroves provide. In this report, we focus on the mangrove forests of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (ETPS), which includes the countries of Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia. Through a meta-regression of mangrove ecosystem service valuation studies and by utilizing the MangroveCarbon toolbox, we aim to determine the monetary values of the mangrove ecosystem services in this region, and to investigate the factors that most influence those values. The hope is that our analyses will better inform future conservation efforts in the ETPS.