What is the EcoValuation Group?

The EcoValuation Group specializes in ecosystem valuation, helping clients identify the economic value of ecosystems and the environmental trade-offs (positive and negative) associated with changing landscapes. Ecosystems provide services such as timber or agricultural production that have been traditionally accounted for, as well as services that society has not historically valued in an economic sense, such as habitat provision, oxygen production, carbon sequestration, and water purification and storage.  By accounting for previously underappreciated ecosystem services, ecosystem valuation provides a more comprehensive assessment of the potential assets provided by an ecosystem.

At the heart of our ecosystem valuation approach is SIG’s NaturalAssets Information System™, which  provides clients with the ability to account for and track ecosystem assets in a fully customized, spatially explicit format. Combining GIS with our extensive database of environmental valuation studies, NaturalAssets Information System™ provides the EcoValuation Group with the ability to generate interactive maps, graphs, and economic statistics at a variety of geographic scales and to query, assess, and report the economic value of ecosystem goods and services in specific geographic contexts.

Combining the NaturalAssets Information System™ with the technical expertise of Herrera’s mutli-disciplined environmental scientists as well as NEI’s knowledge of benefit-cost analysis and market development provides greater accuracy than traditional analyses of total benefits and costs associated with land management decisions.

What makes us different?

Our multidisciplinary approach and our collaborative partnership sets us apart from other firms offering environmental and economic assessments.

The NaturalAssets Information System™ approach involves the adaptation of existing economic information or data to new policy contexts that themselves have little or no primary data. Value transfer has become an increasingly practical way to inform decisions when primary data collection is not feasible due to budget or time constraints, or when expected payoffs are small. Using the NaturalAssets Information System™, EcoValuation Group consultants work with clients to estimate a reliable range of economic values associated with specific land parcels, for considerably less time and expense than conducting a new site-specific economic study .

NEI’s skills in empirical and experimental economic evaluation and market development methods allows them to test theoretical models, demonstrate ranges of possible outcomes, and compare institutions for particular applications. For example, the rules under which the Environmental Protection Agency sells pollution permits for sulfur dioxide under the Clean Air Act were examined using experimental economics. In that case, experiments demonstrated a perverse incentive that was leading to inefficiencies, and the rules were changed as a result of the experimental results. Investing in laboratory research to fully understand the incentives of potential participants can be a cost effective way to improve policy outcomes.

To more accurately characterize on-the-ground ecosystem functions and conditions, as well as environmental constraints,  Herrera’s technical expertise augments the benefit-cost and ecosystem valuation analyses with specific data and information needed for meaningful results. Herrera’s technical staff provides the scientific and engineering expertise to complete complex project analyses.

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