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A notification from the Executive Directorate of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research regarding the composition of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Science and Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC) ahead of the 34th Conference of the Parties (CoP-34).

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the ecosystem services concept, detailing the various benefits nature provides to humans and the methodologies used to assign them monetary value. It explores the classification of services into supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural categories, while also introducing the concept of 'ecosystem disservices'. The document offers guidance for integrating these values into policy-making at national, local, and corporate levels to promote sustainable development and biodiversity conservation.

This research paper, written for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, examines the conceptual and methodological frameworks for full cost accounting (FCA) in agriculture. It defines FCA as the process of valuing environmental and social costs and benefits external to the market, aiming to provide policy makers and farmers with better information for decision-making. The document details various valuation methods—including market-based, circumstantial, and survey-based approaches—and discusses ecosystem frameworks like those from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. It applies these theories to case studies in the UK, Japan, and other regions to illustrate how agricultural externalities, such as water pollution and biodiversity loss, can be quantified.