Economic Assessment of Ecosystem Services Provided by the Satoyama and Satoumi

摘要

The study applied the framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment for assessing the economic values of ecosystem services derived from the satoyama and satoumi to provide policy options for a nature-harmonious society. Using a regional CGE (computable general equilibrium) model, we quantitatively evaluated the effects on the conservation and utilization of the satoyama/satoumi of 1) a satoyama stewardship policy, 2) a trade liberalization policy and 3) a high brand-value policy for domestic agricultural products. We used a static single-country model, with 23 sectors and eight domestic regions and the Interregional Input-Output Table for Japan 2005 as the benchmark data. GDP increases when a stewardship policy is introduced, but the equivalent variation decreases unless the cost of stewardship is reduced to half of the reference case. A trade liberalization policy increases the welfare and GDP in Japan as a whole even if the effect of externalities on satoyama services is included. A high brand-value policy increases GDP and GDP per capita, particularly in Hokkaido, Tohoku and Kyushu. These findings indicate the effectiveness of this method for providing policy options for reconstruction of the satoyama and satoumi with a clear demonstration of the costs/benefits of ecosystem services.