Summary1. In the UK, drainage for agricultural reclamation during the 19th and 20th centuries is responsible for an alteration of the ecological and hydrological functioning of peatlands, in turn, affecting a whole suite of ecosystem services. Today, initiatives are in place throughout the UK to reinstate this eco-hydrological functioning by blocking drainage ditches. Effects on ecosystem services remain unclear, as does the overlapping impact of climate change on peatland recovery. 2. This article uses a conceptual model to present the effects of restoration on ecosystem services, that is, water provision and quality, carbon storage, biodiversity, food and fibre provision and cultural services, both immediately after ditch blocking and in the few years postrestoration. The model is then applied in the context of Exmoor National Park, in South West England and used to perform a cost-benefit analysis of the restoration and monitoring programme, as these shallow peatlands are located in geographically marginal areas, and therefore more sensitive to climate change. 3. Past research indicates that some processes tend to return progressively to their predisturbance state, but whether the complete recovery of peatlands to functioning mires occurs after restoration remains unclear, partly due to the difference between the temporal and spatial scale at which processes occur (i.e. up to decadal) and are monitored (typically a few years). 4. Overall, on Exmoor, the long-term benefit of peatland restoration to some ecosystem services, such as a reduction in carbon losses and improvement of water storage and quality, has the potential to balance high financial investment. 5. Synthesis and applications. Gaining a better understanding of the effects of peatland restoration on ecosystem services provided is essential to assess the potential value of restoration projects. Using the case of the shallow peatlands of Exmoor National Park, located in geographically marginal areas in the UK and therefore more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, we find that there is potential for both the value of carbon storage and water provision to offset the costs of restoration in the long-term. Our results from Exmoor can provide ecological analogues of impending change further north.

This paper introduces, explains, and describes methods for addressing the issues of permanence, leakage, and additionality (PLA) of agricultural soil carbon sequestration (ASCS) activities at the project level. It is important to cast these as project-level issues, because they relate to the integrity and consistency of using location-specific ASCS projects as an offset against GHG emissions generated in other sectors (e.g., energy). The underlying objective is to understand and quantify what the net carbon benefits of an ASCS project are once we account for the fact that (1) the sequestered carbon may be stored impermanently, (2) the project may displace emissions outside the project boundaries (leakage), and (3) the project's carbon sequestration may not be entirely additional to what would have occurred anyway under business-as-usual (no project) conditions. This article evaluates methods for identifying and estimating PLA and gauges the potential magnitude of these effects on the economic returns to a project.

We use an econometrically estimated multi-region, multi-sector general equilibrium model of the world economy to examine the effects of the tradable emissions permit system proposed in the 1997 Kyoto protocol, under various assumptions about that extent of international permit trading. We focus, in particular, on the effects of the system on international trade and capital flows. Our results suggest that consideration of these flows significantly affects estimates of the domestic effects of the emissions mitigation policy, compared with analyses that ignore international capital flows.

Ecosystem services are public goods that frequently constitute the only source of capital for the poor, who lack political voice. As a result, provision of ecosystem services is sub-optimal and estimation of their values is complicated. We examine how econometric estimation can feed computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling to estimate health-related ecosystem values. Against a back drop of climate change, we analyze the Brazilian policy to expand National Forests (FLONAS) by 50 million hectares. Because these major environmental changes can generate spillovers in other sectors, we develop and use a CGE model that focuses on land and labor markets. Compared to climate change and deforestation in the baseline, the FLONAS scenario suggests relatively small declines in GDP, output (including agriculture) and other macro indicators. Urban households will experience declines in their welfare because they own most of the capital and land, which allows them to capture most of the deforestation benefits. In contrast, even though rural households have fewer opportunities for subsistence agriculture and face additional competition with other rural agricultural workers for more limited employment, their welfare improves due to health benefits from conservation of nearby forests. The efficiency vs. equity tradeoffs implied by the FLONAS scenario suggests that health-related ecosystem services will be underprovided if the rural poor are politically weaker than the urban rich. In conclusion, we briefly discuss the pros and cons of the CGE strategy for valuing ecosystem-mediated health benefits and evaluating contemporary policies on climate change mitigation.

There are high aspirations for environmental water quality targets in the UK, but requirements for significant growth in agricultural production to meet both food security objectives and provide viable livelihoods for farmers make these hard to achieve. Significant water quality challenges are related to nutrients, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, pathogens, sediments and habitat alteration. To facilitate the challenges posed, there is a need for predictive, spatially distributed models to be developed that encompass the key aspects of agriculture and water management in order to inform future policy and organizations with an interest in land management. Additionally, there needs to be recognition from policy makers that different solutions are needed in different agri‐water systems and that it often takes many years or decades for policies to have a sustained water quality impact. Long‐term support for research infrastructure and the scientific skills base is required to enable measurement and data analysis necessary to inform decision making. Farmers need clearly articulated information on the issues and potential solutions on which to make informed management decisions regarding water. There are existing solutions to some problems and this knowledge needs to be effectively disseminated with appropriate incentives for implementation to have maximum impact. Greater collaboration between researchers, industry, and policy makers, with the necessary framework to deliver effective joint working, is urgently needed. There is also a need for a wider societal understanding of the land–water system and the various ways in which society pays (and might pay in the future) for the real value of water. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1201. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1201 This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Stresses and Pressures on Ecosystems Science of Water > Water Quality