Dr. Luke Brander

Luke recently completed a study on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for the forestry sector of Adjara Autonomous Republic, Georgia. The study was commissioned by the WWF-Caucasus Programme Office. It assesses the economic value of forest ecosystem services under alternative scenarios for future forest management, focusing on ecosystem services that are of high importance and potentially threatened, and prepares relevant policy recommendations. Adjara is located in southwestern Georgia on the coast of the Black Sea. It is predominantly mountainous and has the highest density of forest cover of any region in Georgia, covering 66 percent of the territory. Adjaran forests provide a range of ecosystem services including timber, fuel wood, non-timber forest products (NTFPs), tourism and recreation, hunting and fishing, regulation of natural hazards such as flooding and landslides, and global climate regulation through storage of carbon. Following stakeholder discussions, the study focused on the valuation of fuel wood, NTFPs, carbon storage and landslide regulation.

The final report can be accessed here:http://img.teebweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TEEB-Adjara-Final-Report.pdf

Luke co-authored a paper published in Nature Climate Change on the vulnerability of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification. The paper assesses multiple economic and social risk factors associated with ocean acidification, focusing on the reliance of US coastal regions on shelled mollusc harvests and the capacity of these communities to adapt to reductions in harvests. The results show that 16 out of 23 regions in the US are exposed to rapid acidification, with marine ecosystems around the Pacific Northwest and Southern Alaska expected to be affected soonest. Adaptive capacity (indicated by status of government policies on OA, employment alternatives and availability of science, for example) is combined with economic dependency on shelled molluscs, to identify the most vulnerable communities, which are found to be located along the East Coast of the US and Gulf of Mexico. This analysis demonstrates varied causes of vulnerability along the US coastline, as well as highlighting important gaps in knowledge and information that should be addressed to facilitate adaptation.

The article can be accessed here: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2508.html

Luke authored a “Perspective Paper” for the Copenhagen Consensus Center on the benefits and costs of the biodiversity targets for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The “Assessment” and “Perspective” papers on this issue by Anil Markandya, Alistair McVittie and Luke Brander can be found here: http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/biodiversity.

Luke is a co-author of the Convention on Biological Diversity report “An updated synthesis of the impacts of ocean acidification”. The report provides a summary of likely impacts of ocean acidification and concludes that it is now near-inevitable that it will worsen, causing widespread impacts, mostly deleterious, on marine organisms and ecosystems, and on the goods and services they provide. The report is available here: http://www.cbd.int/ts.

Luke is a co-author of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) new guidebook, Coastal Capital: Ecosystem Valuation for Decision Making in the Caribbean. The guidebook details the steps in conducting a coastal ecosystem valuation to inform decision making in the Caribbean. It guides valuation practitioners — both economists and non-economists — through the three phases of a valuation effort (scoping, analysis, and outreach), with an emphasis on stakeholder engagement in all phases.

WRI 2014 Coastal Capital Ecosystem Valuation Caribbean Guidebook

Luke authored a guidance manual on value transfer methods for ecosystem services for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The manual was launched on 3 December 2013 by Sir Partha Dasgupta at the Valuation and Accounting of Natural Capital for Green Economy (VANTAGE) conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The purpose of this guidance manual is to show how the value of ecosystem services can be estimated and incorporated into decision making. It is designed to help a broad audience of conservation managers, government officials, private sector managers, NGOs and statisticians to understand the available information on the value of ecosystem services and how this information can be transferred to inform the decisions that they make. The pdf of the manual is available for download below.

UNEP (2013) Guidance manual on value transfer methods for ecosystem services

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Southeast Asia (ASEAN TEEB) scoping study, coordinated by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the German Development Assistance Agency (GIZ), was completed in November 2012. The overall objective of the ASEAN TEEB scoping study was to pursue the mainstreaming process of the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity through the assessment and valuation of key ecosystems and services in Southeast Asia and assist ASEAN member states to develop green growth economies. One of the specific aims of the scoping study was to gather and review the existing evidence on the value of ecosystem services in Southeast Asia. To this end 182 studies that address the valuation of ecosystem services in Southeast Asia have been collected and organised in a database containing 788 separate value estimates of ecosystem service values.

This resource is available here: Database of valuation studies SE Asia

ASEAN TEEB Scoping Study Flyer

Luke is participating in the Socio-Environmental Synthesis Centre (SESYNC) funded initiative on Using Spatial Data and Analysis to Understand Human Vulnerability to Ocean Acidification. This initiative uses ocean bio-geochemistry data, taxon distribution data, community and economic data, and existing marine management frameworks to identify hot spots where ocean acidification impacts will be most acute.

Luke has authored a chapter on the economic impacts of ocean acidification in the publication Nunes, P., Kumar, P. and Dedeurwaerdere, T (eds.). Handbook on the Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. A draft of this chapter is available for download below.

Brander et al The economic impacts of OA Draft 041212

The book information page is: here

The official online ebook version is: here