Abstract

Financing the management of pelagic sargassum inundations in the Caribbean remains problematic despite a decade of witnessing significant negative impacts to tourism, coastal ecosystems and the welfare of coastal populations. A key policy constraint to justifying management costs appears to be the dearth of information on the true economic costs of sargassum impacts, especially on ecosystem services of coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves. This study begins to address this knowledge gap, by drawing insights from a comprehensive review of literature related to (1) measuring the economic losses from sargassum events in the Caribbean, as well as other similar ‘natural hazard’ events such as harmful microalgae blooms and beach-cast macroalgae events, (2) the economic value of coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services in the region and (3) the theoretical foundations of quantifying non-market economic value. Our findings suggest that most studies focus on the value of coastal recreation and tourism whilst underestimating or omitting the value of other ecosystem services provided by coastal ecosystems. As such, potentially important revenue sources or negative economic impacts are being missed. We conclude by providing several key recommendations for future efforts to fill knowledge gaps for measuring economic losses and thus assist policy makers in formulating appropriate and efficient economic policy responses to address the continuing sargassum inundations at both the national and regional scale.

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