Economic Governance to Expand Commercial Wetlands: Within- and Cross-Scale Challenges

Arianne T. de Blaeij, LEI Wageningen UR
Nico Polman, LEI Wageningen UR
Stijn Reinhard, LEI Wageningen UR

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-03933-160133

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Abstract

Commercial wetlands are defined as wetlands directed by an entrepreneur with the intention of making a profit. The combination of ecosystem services that commercial wetlands can provide seems to be an attractive societal perspective. Nevertheless, these wetlands are not developed on a large scale in the Netherlands. This paper discusses different types of economic governance that could facilitate the development of new commercial wetlands and addresses challenges that have to be overcome. We conclude that developing governance solutions that address ecosystem services with different scales is crucial for the introduction of commercial wetlands. Also, distinct and autonomous property rights of entrepreneurs need to be addressed.

Key words

commercial ecosystem; economic governance; economic value; ecosystem management; ecosystem services; multifunctional land use; PES systems; scaling; social-ecological systems

Copyright © 2011 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance. This article is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt the work for noncommercial purposes provided the original author and source are credited, you indicate whether any changes were made, and you include a link to the license.