AUTHORS: Patrick ten Brink – Marianne Kettunen – Leonardo Mazza – Heidi Wittmer – Hugo van Zyl – Claire Brown – Julian Rode – Ece Ozdemiroglu – Nick Bertrand – Andrew Seidl – Florian Manns – Jasmin Hundorf – Isabel Renner – Strahil Christov – Pavan Sukhdev

Since the release of TEEB’s suite of final reports at the UN-CBD meeting at Nagoya, Japan, October 2010, over twenty-five countries have expressed interest in conducting national ‘TEEB’ studies, and several have already begun. These country-level studies will focus on evaluating national policy priorities in terms of their ecosystem service dependencies and impacts, identify and value important ecosystem services and natural areas that deliver them, and propose changes in policies and mechanisms that address national priorities and ecosystem service losses.

There is considerable need for guidance for all these studies – in terms of process, organization, scope, policy contexts, valuation frameworks, methodologies, and typical solutions – the Guidance Manual for TEEB Country Studies seeks to meet these needs. Its purpose is to provide guidance throughout the entire TCS cycle, from initiation, to the actual policy analysis and ecosystem service valuations, to communicating findings, to following up and applying results.

Ideally, this manual lies on the desk of those in charge of conducting the study and proves useful throughout the process and whenever problems arise. The discussion of each phase is supported
with examples of the experiences of countries who have already been engaged with some level of the TEEB Country study (TCS) process, and provides guidance on best practices in assessing, valuing and mainstreaming biodiversity, ecosystems and their services.

The manual is intended to be a ‘lean’ guide and accordingly, provides links and references that can be utilised by the reader where needed. The manual is not intended to be prescriptive but rather provides directions and guidelines for TEEB implementation, which must be adapted according to the specific circumstances and objectives of the country. It also outlines the quality and completeness criteria for such a study to become formally endorsed as a “TEEB Country Study” by the Advisory Board of the international TEEB initiative.