Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Forests in Central America An ecosystem service perspective The Earthscan Forest Library Series

The loss of biodiversity is a major environmental problem in nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. This loss is accelerating driven by climate change, as well as by other causes including agricultural exploitation, fragmentation and degradation triggered by land use changes. The crucial issue under debate is the impact on the welfare of current and future population, and the role of humans in the exploitation of natural resources. This is of particular importance in Central America, which it is amongst the richest and most threatened biodiversity regions on the Earth, and where the loss of ecosystems strongly affects its socio-economic vulnerability.

This book addresses the impacts of climate and land-use change on tropical forest ecosystems in this important region, and assesses the expected economic costs if no policy action is taken, under different future scenarios and for different geographical scales.

This innovative collection utilises both theoretical approaches and empirical results to provide a conceptual framework for an integrated analysis of climate and land-use change impacts on forest ecosystems and related economic effects, offering insight into the complex relationship between ecosystems and benefits to humans. This important contribution to forest ecosystems and climate change provides invaluable reading for students and scholars in the fields of environmental and ecological economics, environmental science and forestry, natural resource management, agriculture and climate change.

Introduction Part 1: Central American Tropical Forests, Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing 1. An overview of forest biomes and ecoregions of Central America 2. Ecosystem services in tropical forests: Contribution to human well-being and implications for economic valuation Part 2: Climate, Water and Land-Use Changes in Central American Tropical Forests 3. Impacts of climate change on ecosystem hydrological services of Central America: Water availability 4. Climate change impacts on the water services in Costa Rica: A production function for the hydro-energy sector 5. Climate change economic impacts on water and recreation services in Central American forests 6. Cost-benefit analysis of alternative land-use scenarios: A sustainability study for the volcanic central Talamanca biological corridor Part 3: Economic Assessment, Adaptation, Options and Policy Implications 7. The role of economic valuation of ecosystem services in an interdisciplinary context 8. Ecosystem-based adaptation: Natural responses to climate change impacts

Aline Chiabai is a senior researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), where she coordinates the research area on health and climate change.