Nature Value Explorer

By project GIFT

Published on 04 February 2025

Belgium

About this good practice

Ecosystem services are often not entirely appreciated in policy decisions. Ignoring the value of these ecosystem services may lead to overexploitation of ecosystems or unbalanced policy and investment decisions. Because of the importance of these ecosystem services (ESS), the Flemish government commissioned a tool to demonstrate the value of ESS in Belgium.
The manual and tool focus on pragmatic methods to value ecosystem services. They help everyone (land managers, planners, authorities, ngo's and active citizens) who wants to map the socio-economic importance of ecosystems.
It is important to understand that this study values a marginal change in ecosystem service provision, but does not measure the total value of certain ecosystems. The figures do inform policy makers about welfare gains or losses generated by the impact of a project or policy on the delivery of ecosystem services.
The list of indicator numbers and valuation functions was created based on literature review and empirical research. The list of ecosystem services valued in this tool is not complete, as it was not possible to derive quantification functions and a monetary value for all ecosystem services. If a specific ecosystem service proves to be very important or evokes discussions amongst stakeholders, it is advised to use more detailed ecological modelling or to use an economic valuation study specifically developed for the project.

Expert opinion

Ecosystem services are defined as direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human wellbeing and have an impact on our survival and quality of life. There are four types of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting. Evaluating ecosystem services is essential for recognizing the true value of nature in supporting human well-being, economic stability, and climate resilience. By identifying and quantifying the benefits ecosystems provide—such as clean water, air, food, flood protection, and recreation—decision-makers can make more informed choices about land use, conservation, and development. This evaluation helps integrate environmental considerations into policy and planning, ensuring that nature’s contributions are preserved and sustained for future generations. Evaluating ecosystem services presents several challenges. These include difficulties in assigning monetary value to complex and often intangible benefits like cultural or spiritual services, and the risk of oversimplifying nature's role by focusing only on what can be measured economically. Neverthless, valuing ecosystem services is greatly important in decision making and other regions would highly benefit from adopting this good practice.

Magda Michaliková

Works at Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

Resources needed

The initial study costed € 130.000 in 2010. For developing the tool, creating extra modules (city version, extra ecosystem services), updating, helpdesk etc. the Flemish government spent approx. 80.000€/y from 2013.The Walloon government spent approx.€ 300.000 for getting their data in the tool.

Evidence of success

The tool has now 1300 users. Since 2018 almost 3000 scenarios have been assessed in Belgium and neighboring countries. Cases range from nature areas to green infrastructure and from a river valley to a local airstrip. The Nature value explorer informed decision makers and stakeholders on the impact of choices in land use and restoration measures or on the different benefits of green and blue measures in the city. It helped discussions between stakeholders on trade-offs and synergies.

Potential for learning or transfer

Valuing ecosystem services and visualising the impact of certain decisions on land use and trade-offs between different ecosystem services/functions and biodiversity can help understanding between different stakeholders and lead to consensus in land restoration and development. It helps planners and cities to value development plans taking into account the different benefits of green-blue measures and to design more nature inclusive.
The framework of the tool and the way it works van easily be translated to other countries. The calculation rules behind the tool are for some ecoregions different than the once usable in Belgium e.g. infiltration so they need to be adapted to the country.
The methods of the tool is translated to the Netherlands for their ‘Atlas Natuurlijk Kapitaal”, organisation RIVM. They further worked on that and also created a tool.