@misc{38378,
title = {Mainstreaming Natural Capital Assessment for Wetland Conservation in Uruguay. Final Project Report},
author = {Sena, Guillermo and Dimitriadis, Caterina and Ortiz, Esteban and Camacho, Soledad and Ramsay, Tom and Silver, Jessica and Angarita, Héctor and Wolny, Stacie and Olivera, María Luisa and Llaguno, Duval and Callau, Vanessa},
editor = {Mello, Ana Laura and Polcaro Infanzon, Maria Sofia and Kimbrell, Elana},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.18235/0014509},
abstract = {This pilot project in Uruguay focused on producing a natural capital assessment of the country's wetlands to support the implementation and financing of the recently passed wetland conservation policy, the Decree on the Declaration of Wetlands of Environmental Importance (Decree No. 228/025). A technical team comprised of key ministerial staff and consultants, in close collaboration with high-level decision-makers and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), worked closely over the course of one year with staff at Stanford University's Natural Capital Alliance (NatCap) to design and implement an assessment and valuation of four key ecosystem services provided by wetlands to people in Uruguay.

The key findings were:
(i) Uruguay's inland wetlands generate significant economic benefits through the three ecosystem services assessed carbon storage, flood mitigation, and water provision with an estimated annual value of approximately USD 223 million, driven primarily by carbon storage and flood mitigation. This is equivalent to a national average of USD 401/ha of wetland/year, around 3.1 times the market rental value of agricultural land in 2025.
(ii) Flood mitigation emerged as the most spatially heterogeneous ecosystem service, with high-value wetlands unevenly distributed across basins. On a per-area basis, wetlands in Río Uruguay provided the greatest flood mitigation services, followed by wetlands in Río Negro.
(iii) Across the analyzed basins, current wetland protection instruments, Decree No. 228/025 and the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP) cover approximately 66% of total inland wetland area but only 49% of the estimated flood mitigation economic value, indicating that while protection is extensive in spatial terms, important high-value wetlands for flood risk reduction remain outside the current protection network. This relationship varies across basins: in the Río Santa Lucía basin, for example, 95% of the wetland area and 96% of the flood mitigation service value falls within the protected network. In contrast, in Laguna Merín, 50% of the wetland area falls within protected areas, but these wetlands account for only 14% of the total estimated flood mitigation value.
(iv) Coastal wetlands currently provide significant coastal protection for almost 23% of Uruguay's coastline (158km), including nearly 25,000 people, and infrastructure valued at over USD 6.1 billion. Their protective role becomes even more significant under future sea level rise scenarios, safeguarding more than 57,000 people and infrastructure valued at USD 6.3 billion.

This report presents key results produced by the analysis, as well as a discussion on the application of these results to support implementation and financing of Decree No. 228/025.},
url = {https://doi.org/10.18235/0014509}
}