We breathe air for free. If there are plenty of trees around, we breathe air that is clean.  Trees partially filter or cleanse the air that we breathe by removing the pollutant carbon dioxide. But there is no price attached to the cleansing service that we benefit from the environment.

Participants listen attentively to the lectures presented during the forum.

As such, SEARCA together with the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) and Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) organized the Executive Forum on Environmental Economics for Decision Making¹ last March 30 to April 3, 2009.

Twenty participants representing Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam completed the five-day forum.

We are in the times of increasing environmental degradation, and might come to a point where the environment could no longer offer its cleansing and purifying services.² What do environmental economists suggest?

Put a price to environmental services. At present, there are no existing markets for products derived from the environment such as clean air, good water quality, carbon sequestration, and wildlife’s aesthetic value. Thus, putting a price would be helpful to sustain the life support services of nature. And the first step is to make policymakers understand the principle of valuating environmental goods and services.

Dr. Herminia Francisco, EEPSEA director, pointed out in her lecture that there is more to environmental economics than product valuation alone. More importantly, users should know how to maximize and value the benefits derived from these products; because, says course coordinator Dr. Asa Jose Sajise, University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) professor, “The values of environmental goods are usually underestimated.”

Undervaluing environmental goods can contribute to environmental damage, one of which is pollution. Dr. Zhang Siqiu of Peking University, Beijing, stresses that the convergence of markets, government, and communities backed up by a strong environmental policy will be crucial to reduce environmental degradation, particularly, in terms of pollution management.³

Economic valuation seeks to measure in monetary terms the value people place on things. Value differs from cost, which is merely measured by price. Valuation, on a large scale, is “the economic measure of satisfaction that which a person would be willing to pay for a product or service rather than go without it.”⁴

Apart from the lectures, the forum included a study tour organized by the LLDA through Mr. Jose Cariño, head of Community Development Division. Participants visited various sites practicing clean development mechanisms (CDM) within the Laguna province. These included Sta. Cruz Environmental Complex and Slaughter House, Kalayaan Sanitary Landfill, Kalayaan Integrated Solid Waste Management Project, and Majayjay Falls Ecotourism Park.

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