Unit:	EFIM30004 Environmental Economics
Assessment’s contribution to unit:	100%
Release Date:	30/01/2026
Submission Date:	20/04/2026 at 11:00 am
Feedback Released:	12/05/2026 at 11.00 am

Students are strongly advised to submit their work ahead of the deadline. Should you have a problem with submission to Blackboard you should email [email protected] for guidance immediately.

· Your answer should not exceed 2500 words in total. Exceeding this word-limit will incur a penalty.  You should include an accurate word count on the front cover of the assignment.  Details relating to penalties are at the end of this document.

· Assignments handed in after the deadline, without a pre-arranged extension, will be subject to late penalties.  Details relating to penalties are at the end of this document.

· A reference list/bibliography is recommended. This list does not contribute to the word count. Information on referencing can be found via our library.

· Please use Arial or Calibri font at 12-point.

· Your assignment should be combined into a single document and submitted in pdf format with a document name containing your student number.

· You may include photographs or scans of your own hand-drawn, labelled diagrams or calculations. We would advise you to generate your own diagrams but if you include diagrams or pictures that you have not produced yourself, or are modified versions of existing images, you should ensure you reference them appropriately.  Figures and tables should normally be included inline in the text.

· Your answer will be assessed using the University Marking Criteria.

This is a piece of COURSEWORK that contributes to your Unit mark and you can:

· Use resources to support you in completing your answer.

· Draw upon a range of accepted resources including, your own notes, lecture slides/recordings, course material, textbooks, journal articles, online resources. ALL work should be written in your own words.

· Ask for help from your personal tutors or academic lecturers if you do not understand an aspect of the coursework.

· Broad discussion with your tutors, fellow students, friends and family on the assessment topic and your ideas/approach may help you to further your knowledge and understanding.

· Use your network of family and friends to gain support and encouragement during the assessment period.

 

Please remember this is a formal assessment and you should behave in a manner consistent with our values. This means you cannot:

· Allow others to directly contribute to your written answer by revising or adding to the academic content. This is collusion and is against University Regulations.

· Share your assessment with others or ask others to share their work with you.

· Copy and paste any material (text, images, coding, calculations) from other sources, including teaching material and shared revision notes directly into your answer without appropriate acknowledgement. This is plagiarism and is against University Regulations.

· Pay another person or company to complete the assessment for you. This is contract cheating and is against University Regulations.

EFIM30004 Environmental Economics - 2025/6

Summative Project  - 2500 words

Introduction

Biodiversity loss is increasingly recognised as a central economic issue, interacting with climate change, ecosystem services, and long-run sustainability. Policymakers must understand not only what biodiversity is being lost, but why it matters economically, how climate change may amplify losses, whether current development paths are sustainable, and what policies are appropriate to mitigate losses. Your task is to write a structured 2500 word project which can practically illustrate, through a specific region, the key insights that economics can offer in helping policy makers understand these issues.

In this project, you will apply the tools of environmental economics to one specific region of the world, analysing biodiversity loss, climate impacts, sustainability, and policy responses. The project combines descriptive analysis, data work, economic reasoning, and valuation, and, other than part B, is written for a policy-oriented audience.

Details

There are three parts to this project. The first part (A) should be no more than 600 words. The remaining parts (B and C) should be no more than 950 words. You can think of these as three short essays that are linked and can cross-reference each other. Tables and figures, which will be particularly useful in part A, do not count as part of the word count.

You should include references and sources in a list at the end of each section. These do not count towards the word count.

In addition, you should provide a reflective account of how you used AI in this project (up to 200 words) with your project. These 200 words are not part of the word count for the project.

Here is a checklist of expected items required for submission:

Item	Word Limit	Note
1. Project Section A: Region and Context	600
2. Project Section B: Economic Analysis	950
3. Project Section C: Measurement/Policy	950
4. Reference List for each section	unlimited	Not formally assessed but required to be formatted clearly
5. Statement on AI	200	Not formally assessed but is required

Use of generative AI

This is a research project. You are permitted to use AI to help you with research though your final work must be your own and show your own understanding, explanation and writing. You should be in position to discuss any part of your project if necessary.

As you will be aware, AI can be useful for research but it can often provide information that is misleading or wrong. It can also make up information. Make sure you always ask AI to provide its sources and then check these sources yourself, not just to check they exist, but also to check that AI has interpreted them correctly and that they are reliable sources. 

In part A, you can use AI as part of brainstorming ideas for regions, examining their biodiversity and exploring the data available. Remember to download all sources and check them for accuracy, assess their usefulness for your project and ensure that AI has interpreted them correctly.

In part B, you could use AI to help as a virtual tutor if you find any of the models difficult to grasp. It can often provide some examples or intuitive explanation that may help you. It can also write simulation scripts but we have found that these often misrepresent models or do not work as expected. If you use AI for simulations, you are responsible for checking the program and making sure that you know what it is doing in every step. A useful check is to make some changes to parameters and make sure you get the results you’d expect from the model.

In part C, you could explore if there are studies written about your region that you could refer to and you can use AI to find information about the region that could be useful in designing a valuation. As always, make sure you ask AI to provide sources for its information and then double check any information you receive against these sources.

AI should be used to complement and enhance your own research and not to substitute for it.

You should provide a reflective account of how you used AI in this project (up to 200 words) with your project. These 200 words are not part of the word count for the project. They are required but are not given a mark.

PART A: The features of your region

You must select one clearly defined region, which has identifiable biodiversity assets which are facing pressure from climate change. This could be:

· A country or sub-national region

· A major ecosystem (e.g. Amazon basin, coral reef system, river delta)

Students are encouraged to select regions with strong data availability. Examples include the Amazon Basin, Great Barrier Reef, East African Savannas, North Sea, and Indonesian Mangroves. These examples are permissible if you are finding it difficult to identify a suitable region.

Important: We will be using the Mekong Delta as an extensive example during the unit so students are not permitted to use this region.

This section should:

· Describe the geographic, economic, and ecological characteristics of the region including key biodiversity assets (species, habitats, ecosystems)

· Explain which ecosystem services these assets provide (e.g. provisioning, regulating, cultural)

· Identify and present at least one dataset or indicator related to biodiversity or ecosystem services in the region. Your data should be as recent as possible, preferably within the past 7-8 years, though you may use historical data for comparison if you wish.

· Present the data visually (table or figure). This should be your own table or figure not one that you have found in another publication.

· Describe observed trends and key features (e.g. species decline, habitat loss)

Tips for this section

Avoid purely descriptive ecology; focus on economic relevance.

Possible data sources include (see appendix below for possible sources):

· Biodiversity indicators (species richness, protected area coverage)

· Land-use or land-cover data

· Fisheries, forestry, or ecosystem service proxies

PART B:  What Economic Analysis Can Add to our Understanding

This section should:

· Explain how economists understand sustainability concerning biodiversity using concepts we have discussed in the unit.

· Give an example of how economists analyse the kinds of biodiversity in your region by selecting and explaining one model or analytical framework from the unit. Give a brief explanation about how your model could be used or adapted to think about the effect of climate change on biodiversity in your region (e.g. through temperature changes, precipitation changes, extreme events)?  If appropriate, you may use simulations to show the insights of the model.

Tips for this section

· This is a technical section. You should use theoretical analysis to structure your analysis for this section. Your aim is to show how economic analysis helps in understanding sustainability and the relationship between climate change and biodiversity loss.

· You are encouraged to consider using simulations, which can show the workings of complex models without overuse of technicality.

· As much as possible, continually link your discussion to the region you have chosen.

· Distinguish between:

o Different approaches to sustainability

o Produced, human, and natural capital

· Think about the various models we have used throughout the unit and the parameters through which climate change effects could be introduced

· This section can use technical terms and notation though you should avoid full textbook-like derivations of models.

· Think about how uncertainty and non-linear risks might affect your analysis.

PART C: Measurement and policy

This section should:

· Explain how non-market valuation methods could be used to value biodiversity changes in your region and help to establish whether the region is on a sustainable path. Focus on contingent valuation and/or choice experiments.

· Identify at least one policy intervention, consistent with your valuation and sustainability analysis, to improve biodiversity outcomes. Explain the economic rationale for your policy intervention.

· Discuss potential trade-offs and implementation challenges.

Tips for this section 

High-quality answers will use valuation methods to address a concrete sustainability question, rather than describing valuation techniques in isolation.

If there is an existing valuation paper of the area you can reference it, but you should go beyond it in some way, either by proposing a different study, an extension study or critically evaluating the paper. You may make use of valuation studies from different regions as long as they are relevant to your area (e.g. similar species). In this case you should explain why it is relevant and if there are any limitations to applying its insights out of context.

You are not required to conduct a valuation survey, but you must:

· Describe how a valuation study would be designed specifically in your region, any limitations of the study and why it is suitable for your region

· Identify welfare-relevant attributes (e.g. ecosystem services)

· Explain how willingness to pay would be estimated

You should explain:

· How valuation results could inform a sustainability assessment

· Strengths and limitations of valuation-based approaches

Marking Criteria

We will use the University’s general marking criteria as given below to grade your portfolio (see appendix 4). The following areas are important from those:

Content knowledge   

Critical Approach   

Use of Evidence and Sources   

Explanation/Interpretation  

Problem Solving   

Specialist Skills and Techniques  

Research  

Academic Skills  

Communication  

Your ability to complete the assessment well will also draw on the following criteria:

Insight

Self-management