Värdering av ekosystemtjänster i det Skånska jordbrukslandskapet - Ur lantbrukatens perspektiv

Ecosystem services are becoming increasingly important in today’s society, since they provide us with vital resources such as food and fuel. Even though this importance is evident, ecosystem services are often taken for granted. Because of this it is essential to shed light on the importance of ecosystem services. One way to do this is to valuate these services in monetary terms. The purpose of this report is to investigate if the value of two ecosystem services; pollination and biological control potentially is high enough to compensate for the loss of agricultural land that is needed to provide these services. This valuation is made from a farmer’s perspective since it is agricultural land, used as buffer zones adjacent to water, which provide the ecosystem services that are valued in this report. In this case a farmer’s perspective means that the farmer’s income has been calculated for three plausible scenarios. This report consists of three major parts. In the first part a valuation method is created to calculate the income for farmers for three possible scenarios. For one possible scenario the buffer zone is intact and able to provide pollination and biological control. For two possible scenarios the buffer zone is used for cultivation, one of which the ecosystem services are not replaced and one which the ecosystem services are replaced with honeybees and pesticides. The second step is an expert evaluation of the developed valuation method and the last part is a calculation example of the probable income for the different situations. The results from the calculations show that the increased income generated from the ecosystem services cannot compensate for the additional income that cultivating the buffer zones would generate. But there are several uncertainties in the valuation method that affects the reliability of the calculations. It is also important to remember that buffer zones are useful for other purposes that have not been investigated in this report. Likewise have potential negative effects of pesticide use on ecosystem not been studied