1. The Ecological Economics of Land Degradation
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination
of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease
passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper
care for it we can have no community, because without proper care
for it we can have no life.”
Wendell Berry
Dr. Sharolyn J. Anderson
Dr. Paul C. Sutton
ANZSEE Conference
Armidale, NSW
October 2015
Environmental and Geospatial Sciences
School of the Natural and Built Environments
University of South Australia 1

2. Land Degradation Land degradation
is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land.
How does it manifest?
Chemical deterioration
Wind erosion
Physical deterioration
Water erosion

3. 10-20% of drylands are degraded
Land degradation threatens fertile land and the benefits human society derives from it throughout the world.
10-20% of drylands are degraded
24% of agriculturally productive lands are degraded
Consequences:
Food insecurity
Poverty
Less Fresh Water
More vulnerability to climate change
~1.5 Billion people suffer from land degradation

4. What is the Economics of Land degradation?
Is this really just a story about agricultural economics?
If so, Agriculture represents only about $1.7 Trillion / year.
Global GDP (2010) is roughly $63 Trillion / year.
That means agriculture is only about 2.7% of GDP.
The maximum ‘value’ of ag land would be $1.7 Trillion / year.
We present an ‘ecological economics’ approach that suggests that the ‘value’ of land and the ‘cost’ of land degradation is about much more than the market value of agriculture.
We use the ideas of ecosystem service valuation to address some of the questions regarding the ‘economics of land degradation’.

5. Ecosystem Services are a multi-faceted Market Failure
Economic Valuation of Ecosystem
Services suggests that the
Total value of the world’s Ecosystem
Services and Natural Capital are
Signifcantly larger the the world’s
Market Economy.
Gross World Product ~ $65 Trillion
Economic Value of
World’s Eco-Services ~$125 Trillion
These findings are ridiculed,
violently opposed, and accepted as
having always been true.
Also described as
an underestimate
of infinity.
Costanza, R; d’Arge, R; de Groot, R; Farber, S; Grasso, M; Hannon, B; Naeem,
S; Limburg, K; Paruelo, J; O’Neill, R; Raskin, R; Sutton, P; van den Belt, M; (1997)
The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital Nature Vol 387 May 15 5

6. Changes in the Global Value of Ecosystem Services due to land cover change only Total Global Value for Ecosystem Services would have been: $145 Trillion / year (2010 Global GDP is ~$ 65 Trillion) Losses since 1997 $20.2 Trillion / year What about losses from degradation?
Article in Global Environmental Change:
Changes in the global value of ecosystem services
Robert Costanza, Ph.D.; Rudolph de Groot, Ph.D.; Paul C Sutton, Ph.D.; Sander van der Ploeg, Ph.D.; Sharolyn Anderson, Ph.D.; Ida Kubiszewski, Ph.D.; Stephen Farber, Ph.D.; R. Kerry Turner, Ph.D.

7. GLASOD: Global Assessment of Soil Degradation
Map of degradation based on expert opinion with categories of
light
medium
High
very high
This dataset not amenable to quantitative GIS analysis

8. Spatial Analysis Approach
1) Land degradation results in impaired ecological function
2) Impaired ecological function results in reduced ecosystem service value
3) Map of land degradation overlaid on Ecosystem service values can provide an estimate of the lost dollar value of ecosystem services

9. Data #1: Ecosystem Service Values

10. Data #2: Land Degradation HANPP

11. Data #3: Land Degradation NPP act / NPP pot

12. The Australia Story $3.3 Trillion Total Value of Terrestrial ESV
ESV Loss (HANPP assessment )
$79 Billion / year (2.4%)
ESV Loss (NPP assessment)
$224 Billion / year
(6.8%)
Watch
your billions
& trillions 

13. The Mekong Delta Story

14. The Germany Story $179 Billion Total Value of Terrestrial ESV
ESV Loss (HANPP assessment )
$114 Billion / year
(63.9%)
ESV Loss (NPP assessment)
$4.8 Billion / year
(2.7%)

15. The Bolivia Story $1.3 Trillion Total Value of Terrestrial ESV
ESV Loss (HANPP assessment )
$21 Billion / year
(1.7 %)
ESV Loss (NPP assessment)
$ 53 Billion / year
(4.2%)

16. The Global Story: Land Degradation has caused loss of $6. 3 – 10
The Global Story: Land Degradation has caused loss of $6.3 – 10.6 Trillion / year ( over 10% of GDP)
We have lost ecosystem service value as a function of reduced or impaired ecological function. This is a simplified representation of land degradation as a proxy measure of impaired or reduced ecological function to make an estimate of the reduced value of ecosystem services caused by land degradation. Our estimates based on two proxy measures of land degradation are $6.3 and $10.6 Trillion dollars per year. This suggests that the dollar value of ESV losses from land degradation is roughly 30 – 55 % of the dollar value of losses from land cover changes over the last 15 years. These measures of land degradation are mostly associated with changes to agricultural lands around the world. The lower estimate of lost ESV of $6.3 Trillion per year is more than three times larger than the entire value of agriculture in the market economy. The ecological economics of land degradation suggests that the economics of land degradation is about a lot more than agriculture.