The seagrass Posidonia oceanica: Ecosystem services identification and economic evaluation of goods and benefits
par Carole Sylvie Campagne (Andromède océanologie), Jean-Michel Salles (CNRS, UMR LAMETA à Montpellier), Pierre Boissery (Agence de l’eau RMC), Julie Deter (Andromède océanologie / Université Montpelllier UMR 5554 ISEM )
publié dans Marine Pollution Bulletin
résumé : Posidonia oceanica is a marine angiosperm endemic from the Mediterranean. Despite their protection, its
meadows are regressing. The economic valuation of ecosystem services (ES) assesses the contribution of
ecosystems to human well-being and may provide local policy makers help in territorial development. To
estimate the economic value of P. oceanica seagrass and the meadows that it forms to better account its
presence in coastal development, identification and assessment of ES provided are first performed. Then
goods and benefits (GB) and their economical values are estimated. In total, 25ES are identified and 7 GB
are economically evaluated. The economic value of GB provided by P. oceanica ranges between 25.3 million
and 45.9 million €/year which means 283–513 €/ha/year. Because of the lack of existing available
data, only 7 GB linked to 11/25ES have been estimated. Despite this overall undervaluation, this study
offers a value for coastal development policies to take into account.
