Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Forests in Central America

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.

"This is the definitive volume of readings on the climate change and ecosystems services in the forests of Central America. The readings provide viable insight and analysis, and should serve as inspiration for researchers not only interested in this problem but also in conducting studies of climate change impacts on ecosystems in other critical regions of the world."–Edward B. Barbier, University of Wyoming, USA"Tropical forests are among the most valuable ecosystems on earth in terms of their biodiversity and their contribution to sustainable human well-being. This book is a timely and valuable addition to the growing literature on tropical forest ecosystem services."–Robert Costanza, The Australian National University, Australia"This is a worth reading volume for researchers and policy makers which presents one of the few ecological and economic comprehensive studies of how Climate Change is affecting ecosystem services. The methodological approach and analysis, combining spatially explicit different types of data within using various models and scenarios, should serve as a model for other critical regions."–Maria Jose Sanz Sanchez, Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Italy

• 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