Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Valuation

Updated 2026-11-02 · 2 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

Biodiversity and ecosystem service valuation in Indonesia: field surveys, land-use comparisons and valuation for TNFD, credits and project design.

Biodiversity and ecosystem service valuation measures what a landscape holds and what it provides, then expresses that in terms decision-makers can use, including money where it is meaningful. We run field surveys and participatory assessments in Indonesian landscapes and turn them into evidence for project design, nature reporting and credit co-benefits.

Who it is for

• Companies with land or sourcing in Indonesia preparing TNFD or similar nature disclosures.
• Carbon project developers who want to document co-benefits or prepare for CCB or biodiversity credit standards.
• NGOs, donors and local governments comparing land-use options, such as agroforestry versus monoculture.

The problem it solves

Nature value is often asserted rather than measured. Project documents claim biodiversity co-benefits without baselines, and companies report nature dependencies from global datasets that miss local reality. In smallholder landscapes, traditional systems such as rubber agroforests and fruit gardens can hold significant biodiversity and income value that disappears from land-use decisions because nobody measured it.

What we deliver

• Study design tied to the decision: which services, which taxa, which land uses to compare.
• Field biodiversity surveys: vegetation plots, fauna surveys and, where useful, acoustic or eDNA monitoring.
• Ecosystem service assessment: provisioning (timber, fruit, latex), regulating (carbon, water, erosion control) and cultural services.
• Valuation: market prices, avoided costs or benefit transfer, chosen per service and stated with limits. See ecosystem service valuation.
• Participatory sessions with farmers and communities, with local training where agreed.
• High conservation value screening where relevant.
• Bilingual report (English and Bahasa Indonesia on request) with maps and data tables.

How it works

1. Framing. Agree the decision, audience and land uses to compare.
2. Design. Sampling plan, methods and community engagement plan.
3. Fieldwork. Surveys, household interviews and participatory mapping.
4. Analysis. Biodiversity indices, service quantities and valuation.
5. Reporting and workshop. Findings presented to your team and, where agreed, to communities.

What you provide

• Study area, land uses of interest and the intended use of results.
• Introductions to villages and land users, and support for consent processes.
• Any existing ecological or socio-economic data.

Typical timeline

A focused study of a few villages or land-use types typically takes two to four months including fieldwork and reporting.

Tools we use

AKAR Mapper for land-use mapping, AKAR dMRV for survey data capture and AKAR Eligibility for land-cover history.

How results are used

Results feed different decisions. Developers use them to set a biodiversity baseline and monitoring indicators in a PDD. Companies use them to describe nature dependencies and impacts for specific sites in a disclosure. Local governments and NGOs use land-use comparisons to argue for keeping agroforestry or restoring degraded land. We state the limits of each valuation method clearly, because a single headline number without context can mislead more than it informs.

Next step

Read the biodiversity hub and our guide to biodiversity credit methods. Field survey logistics can be combined with a field data campaign. Message us with the landscape, the question and who will use the results.