Putting a price on seagrass
08th June 2011
As part of Wales Biodiversity Week (4 - 12 June) and World Oceans Day (8
June), Cardiff University Sustainable Places Research Institute is asking
what people value most about the natural world around them.
One of the Institute’s Research Fellows, Leanne Cullen-Unsworth, has posed
that very question in her research on sea grass. Seagrass meadows are
found across the globe and are key components of coastal and marine
environments. Important fisheries in their own right, they also play a
significant role in the productivity of coral reefs and other fisheries.
Seagrass meadows additionally support numerous charismatic faunal species,
including turtle, dugong and seahorse, and provide other essential
services such as coastal protection, water filtration, and carbon
sequestration. They are currently being lost at a rate of up to two
football fields per hour; this loss is roughly equal to the current rates
of loss of coral reefs or tropical rainforests. Degradation of seagrass
meadows has been commonly associated with increased nutrient run-off,
sedimentation, damage from boats, and pesticide leaching. However, in many
areas of the world seagrass meadows are increasingly threatened by
over-exploitation of their productive fish and invertebrate assemblages.
Commenting on her research, Leanne said: “Placing a direct economic value
upon nature will always be controversial, as people often regard nature as
‘priceless’, but nature provides goods and services just like a limited
company does.” Leanne’s research has looked at some of the issues around
putting a price on seagrass, including that by not valuing natural
resources, when economic and resource management decisions are made, the
value may be assumed to be zero. An additional and underappreciated role
of seagrass is their current and potential future value in global food
security.
To engage with this debate and record your own comments you can visit the
Uvoice website http://places.uvoicenow.com/
or download the free Places Uvoice app to your iphone
http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/sustainable-places-research/id436421935?mt=8