D1: True-cost accounting

The true cost accounting (TCA) approach for the monetary valuation of the ecosystem services of agricultural production systems aims to include ecological and social impacts and consequential costs in addition to production costs in holistic decision-making processes (TEEB 2010). Studies on TCA generally highlight the often underestimated value of ecosystem services that are not assessed or priced and marketed. They also show that the approach can be used not only to compare different farming systems on the basis oftrue or, in other words,fullcosts, but also to support sustainable management measures and decision-making processes. However, there is a lack of TCA studies that assess the multiple benefits of agroecosystems and their development over time - this is exactly what TRIO is investigating. Furthermore, regional shifts and climatic patterns are integrated into the TCA in D1 to predict the future value of ecosystem services. By scaling up to the whole of Hesse, TRIO can extend the ecosystem assessment, which is otherwise often focused on the local level, to the regional level, and the TRIO management measures and ecosystem services are mapped in monetary terms across the entire area.

WP 1: Definition of the method and analysis of existing data

• Prof. Dr. Christian Herzig

WP 2: Economic evaluation of mixed cropping and cultivation systems

• Prof. Dr. Christian Herzig

WP 3: Scaling up to the whole of Hesse

• Prof. Dr. Christian Herzig
• Prof. Dr. Christoph Gornott