生态系统服务功能非货币量核算研究

区别于价值量核算方法,基于生态热力学的环境核算方法从物质计量角度开展环境核算,以期打破大多数以人类为中心框架下的经济学方法,而新的方法框架进一步关注对人类及生态有益的生态服务的价值,即不忽视自然界提供的无关人类的相关服务功能。综述了基于生态热力学的环境核算理论基础,从禀赋价值视角重新解读了社会经济系统,从更深层次明确了"当前的"自然资产和生态服务实际是生态系统对资源使用的一种努力和结果,其"过去的"生态过程经历了长时间"试错和优化"。以美国森林生态服务功能案例研究展现了基于生态热力学的生态服务功能核算方法与基于支付意愿的市场价值核算方法与异同,并提出了使用能值方法进行生态系统服务功能核算的六大步骤。最后,针对近期能值方法的改进,给出四点发展展望:1)能值基准的不断更新夯实了生态系统服务功能非价值量核算的基础;2)已有大量能值分析在生态资产和生态服务功能应用案例可为今后的研究提供方法参照和比较的可能;3)生态服务功能价值量和非价值量的差异的根源在于从人类中心论到生态中心论的环境伦理观的转移;4)从生态热力学的视角研究生态服务功能为从能量的角度提出环境税确立了可能性。本研究建议采用双重核算方法,即类似于金融会计中使用的方法一样,用能量来记录环境负债,并建立一个货币化的资产负债表说明经济情况及环境对经济生产的贡献。

A review of a non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services

Governments use the money-based accounting systems of their national economies to calculate macroeconomic indicators, such as Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Product, and Per Capita Income. Over the last few years, in response to the perceived lack of comprehensiveness for such accounting systems, more attention has been placed on the economic use and evaluation of ecosystems. Methods for calculating the value of ecological services are attracting interest as an instrument to convert the non-monetary values of the environment into real monetary thinking. The scientific discussion on methods to estimate these values is still embryonic. In several cases, the values of environmental services seem to be used arbitrarily for economic-based instruments, such as charging entrance payments to visitors, and establishing a value for ecosystem services and natural capital. This study summarizes the theoretical basis of environmental accounting based on ecological thermodynamics and reinterprets socio-economic systems from the perspective of donors. Emergy, the total amount of solar equivalent energy that is invested by the environment in support of a given process, is suggested as a scientific measure of the direct and indirect work performed by the biosphere. Within such a "donor-side" perspective, the value of a resource relies on the effort that is needed for its production and delivery over a "trial and error" process that ensures optimization of resource use. Finally, based on the improvements in the recent emergy methods, four development perspectives are given:1) the continuous updating of the emergy benchmarks reinforces the foundation of the non-value accounting of ecosystem service functions; 2) there have been large numbers of emergy analyses of ecological assets and ecology; 3) the difference between the monetary and non-monetary values of ecological service functions lies in the transfer of environmental ethics from anthropocentric to ecocentric perspectives; and 4) the ecological perspective suggests that it is necessary to study the relationship between eco-service function and ecological value. From the thermodynamic perspective, the study of ecological service functions establishes the possibility of proposing environmental taxes. This study suggests both monetary and non-monetary accounting approaches could be used to quantitatively account for natural capital without relying solely on financial tools based on human preferences and fluctuating market dynamics.