As noted above, defining and valuing “environmental damage” includes many legal, cultural, technical, and capacity considerations. The development of environmental valuation is relatively recent, and many developing countries have only started to develop and apply methodologies for assessing damage-based penalties for environmental valuations.
An important resource in this field is Environmental Damage in International and Comparative Law: Problems of Definition and Valuation, edited by Michael Bowman and Alan Boyle (Oxford University Press 2002). This volume examines how various countries and international legal regimes define and value environmental damage. It considers civil law, common law, and mixed legal systems in developing and developed states around the world, including: Brazil, Caribbean countries, Germany, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nordic countries, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, and Turkey. The volume also provides experiences in defining and valuing environmental harm in common law systems, international liability regimes, the UN Compensation Commission, and the European Community EC White Paper on Environment Liability and the Recovery of Damages for Injury to Public Natural Resources. It also considers special cases, such as assessing the “intrinsic value” of biological diversity, impacts from living modified organisms, and valuation of indigenous peoples’ lifestyle.
Other Resources
There are many other resources examining approaches for defining and valuing environmental damages in countries around the world, as well as under international law. These references provide more details, and they can be obtained from the publishers, commercial booksellers, and on-line (for example, through Amazon.com). Some of these additional resources include:
Ian J. Bateman et al. (eds.), Valuing Environmental Preferences: Theory and Practice of the Contingent Valuation Method in the US, EU, and Developing Countries (Oxford University Press 2002) (focusing on contingent valuation, which attributes monetary value based on questionnaires asking people what they would be willing to pay for (or accept for the loss of) a particular environmental good, service, or attribute).
Jennifer Reitbergen-McCracken & Hussein Abaza (eds.), Environmental Valuation: A Worldwide Compendium of Case Studies (Earthscan 2000).
OECD Task Force for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Programmes for Central and Eastern Europe (EAP), Background Paper on Valuing Environmental Benefits and Damages in the NIS: Opportunities to Integrate Environmental Concerns into Policy and Investment Decisions, OECD Doc. CCNM/ENV/EAP/MIN(2000)3 (2000), available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/48/2382184.pdf (providing an overview of different valuation methods, as well as suggested applications of environmental valuation at the national, regional, and municipal levels and experiences in environmental valuation from NIS countries).
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Natural Capital: The Role and Valuation of Natural Assets in Central and Eastern Europe (REC 1994).
UNEP, Application and Use of Economic Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resources Management: Training Resource Manual (2004).
UNEP, Environmental Liability & Compensation Regimes: A Review (UNEP 2003) (including a survey of national, regional, and global regimes).
See also the “Checklist on Environmental Valuation Studies” following Guideline 40
and discussion of economic instruments following Guideline 41(g).