Title: Development of tool for gauging positive activities for and economic valuation ofbiodiversity/ecosystem servicesi
Implementing Partners:
 Conservation International
 Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
 CEPA Japan
Relevant Cluster:
Cluster 3: Indicators Research
Background
Biodiversity is largely economic externalities, and development activities consider it
only tangentially. However, biodiversity, renewable natural capital, forms the basis of social
development. The idea that environmental concerns can be subordinated to economic growth
disregards this fact. To realize sustainable development that harmonize development andenvironment, a tool is necessary to visualize the importance, value and state of biodiversity
and indicates positive actions for conservation so that every member of society canunderstand the change in the state of biodiversity and what needs to be done.
The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (TEEB; www.teebweb.org) is one ofsuch efforts that puts biodiversity and ecosystem services on the same table as othereconomic activities. Ocean Health Index (OHI; Halpern et al., 2012) is another that gauges
the current state against sustainability reference points in multiple public interests andinduces positive actions towards sustainability.
Objectives
The objective of this study is to contribute to mainstreaming natural capital into the societyby:
1. Developing a quantitative index that gauges the level of actions for conservation of
biodiversity and ecosystem services from the perspective of sustainable use (LHI: Land
Health Index); and2. Conducting economic valuation of ecosystem services (EV).
These will be performed on priority sites for conservation, or KBAs, to demonstrate to thepublic their hidden value and to induce further conservation actions.
Activities
This interdisciplinary study aims to develop a tool that can be used to gauge theactions toward the conservation and sustainable use of natural capital and the economic

values of ecosystem services. For both objectives, KBAs, the biodiversity priority areas, will
be used for the unit of analysis. Ultimately, this study aims to contribute to wider
awareness-raising for natural capital.
For LHI, we adopt the approach of Ocean Health Index and modify to fit toterrestrial environment and the scale appropriate for within-country evaluation. The index
will be improved iteratively by testing in pilot areas for feasibility of computation andresponsiveness to change in key parameters. For EV, we will use the TEEB approach foreconomic valuation of the same pilot sites. The pilot sites will be selected from the list ofKBAs for their strong natural and cultural characteristics to calibrate the evaluation modeland to understand the behavior of the model with different levels of data quality.
In the second year, the computation of the LHI and EV will be expanded to larger setof KBAs for general application. We will use the meetings of International Partnership for theSatoyama Initiative to present and discuss the project as well as to seek feedbacks andcollaborators.
Schedule (provisional)
April – June, 2013 Initial exploration of evaluation model; production of zero-th version.
July – December,
2013

Try-out of the zero-th version of evaluation model in pilot study sites
Present and receive feedback at IPSI-4
Receive review by experts
January - March, Release of the beta-version of LHI and EV
2014
Publication of interim results in a journal and web site
April –September, 2014

October, 2014–March, 2015

Preparation of data for the implementation of LHI and EV for larger set of KBAs
Evaluation using the beta-version
Receive expert reviews
Finalize the LHI and EV evaluation model
Report back at IPSI-5; call for participation for assessment in other countries
Publication of results in journals, website, and other appropriate venues.

Contact Information:
 Conservation International Japan
Yoji Natori (Email: ynatori@conservation.org)
 CEPA Japan
Tetsu Hattori (Email: hattori@happy.biglobe.ne.jp )iInstitute for Global Environmental Strategies
Kei Kabaya (Email: kabaya@iges.or.jp) and Sana Okayasu (Email: okayasu@iges.or.jp)

This project is supported by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Environment Fund.