CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- 1. INTRODUCTION -- 2. ECOSYSTEMS AND THE SERVICES THEY PROVIDE -- Ecosystem services -- Approaches to conservation -- 3. VALUING ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES -- Total economic value -- Valuation techniques -- 4. APPROACHES TO VALUATION -- Valuing the flow of current benefits -- Valuing the benefits and costs interventions that alter ecosystems -- Determining winners and losers -- Paying for conservation -- Summary -- 5. CONCLUSION -- 6. FURTHER READING -- The importance of ecosystems -- Valuation techniques: Theory -- Valuation techniques: Applications -- Sources for specific examples used in this paper -- BOXES -- Box 1: Making apples and oranges comparable -- Box 2. Of diamonds and water -- Box 3: "A serious underestimate of infinity" -- Box 4: How much are pine kernels worth? -- Box 5: Can benefits be transferred? -- Box 6: Paying for watershed protection -- FIGURES -- Figure 1: Total Economic Value (TEV) -- Figure 2: Flow of benefits from an ecosystem -- Figure 3: Flow of benefits from forests in Mediterranean countries -- Figure 4: Change in ecosystem benefits resulting from a conservation project -- Figure 5: Cost-benefit analysis of a conservation project -- Figure 6: Cost-benefit analysis of reforestation in coastal Croatia -- Figure 7: Distribution of ecosystem benefits -- Figure 8: Distribution of the costs and benefits of Madagascar's protected areas -- Figure 9: Financing ecosystem conservation -- TABLES -- Table 1: Main ecosystem types and their services -- Table 2: Main economic valuation techniques -- Table 3: Approaches to valuation.