Simone Martino

Research

Simone explores the role of Natural Capital approaches and valuation (in monetary and non-monetary terms) in agroecosystems and forests affected by climate change (e.g., wildfires) and soil degradation, including implications for biodiversity.  He investigates natural capital initiatives at landscape scale involving stakeholders operating in farmer clusters to address how common decisions in land use management made by farmers can benefit natural capital and biodiversity, thus providing positive return to farmers and society. Within the remit of the project JHI-D5-1: Bringing in participatory approaches to widen the scope of natural capital valuation | The James Hutton Institute he is investigating how participatory approaches may be used to elicit a plurality of values and the benefit for local decision making.

Simone is currently contributing to the development of natural capital approaches under different lenses, with the goal of exploring innovative approaches based on the integration of monetary and non-monetary methods, the analysis of perception of risk to natural capital caused by climate change and wildfires, and the implementation of natural capital in different sectoral policies at national and international scale under three projects funded by the Scottish Government RESAS Strategic Research Programme (SRP) 2022-27:

JHI-D5-1: Bringing in participatory approaches to widen the scope of natural capital valuation | The James Hutton Institute

JHI-D5-2:Climate change impacts on Natural Capital (Earth, Water and Fire)

JHI-D5-3: Galvanising Change via Natural Capital

Recent selected papers

1. Mark S. Reed, Tom Curtis, Arjan Gosal, Helen Kendall, Sarah Pyndt Andersen, Guy Ziv, Anais Attlee, Richard G. Fitton, Matthew Hay, Alicia C. Gibson, Alex C. Hume, David Hill, Jamie L. Mansfield, Simone Martino, Asger Strange Olesen, Stephen Prior, Christopher Rodgers, Hannah Rudman, Franziska Tanneberger. 2022. Integrating ecosystem markets to co-ordinate landscape-scale public benefits from nature. PLoS ONE 17(1): e0258334. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258334
2. Reed, M.; Curtis, T.; Gosal, A.; Kendall, H.; Andersen , S.; Ziv, G.; Attle , A.; Fitton, R.; Hay, M.; Gibson, A.; Hume, A.; Hill, D.; Mansfiled, J.; Martino, S.; Olesen, A.; Proir , S.; Rodger, C.; Rudman , H.; Tanneberger, F. 2022. Integrating ecosystem markets to co-ordinate landscape-scale public benefits from nature, PLoS ONE 17(1), Art. E0258334
3. Martino, S.; Kenter, J.; Albers, N.; Whittingham, M.; Young, D.; Pearce-Higgings, J.; Martin-Ortega, J.; Glenk, K.; Reed, M. 2022. Trade-offs between the natural environment and recreational infrastructure: A case study about peatlands under different management scenarios, Land Use Policy, 123, Art. 106401.
4. Azzodardi, E.; Kenter , J.; Young , J.; Leakey, C.; O’Connor, S.; Martino, S.; Flannery, W.; Sousa, L.; Mylona, D.; Frangoudes, K.; Beguier, I.; Pafi, M.; da Silva, A.; Ainscough, J.; Koutrakis, M.; Fereira da Silva, M.; Pita, C. 2022. What are heritage values? Integrating natural and cultural heritage into environmental valuation, People and Nature, 5, 1-16.
5. Martino, S.; Kenter, J. 2023. Economic valuation of wildlife conservation, European Journal of Wildlife Research, 69, Art. 32
6. Waddell, S.; Waddock, S.; Martino, S.; Norton, J. 2023. Emerging Economic Operating Infrastructure to Support Wellbeing Economies, Humanistic Management Journal, 8, 63-68.
7. Martino, S.; Azzopardi, E.; Fox, C.; Chiaroni, E.; Payne, E.; Kenter, J. 2023. The importance of local fisheries as a cultural attribute insight from a discrete choice experiment of seafood consumers, Maritime Studies, 22, Art. 22.
8. Chuvieco, E.; Yebra, M.; Martino, S.; Thonicke, K.; Gomez-Gimenez, M.; San-Miguel, J.; Oom, D.; Velea, R.; Mouillot, F.; Molina, J.R.; Miranda, A.I.; Lopes, D.; Salis, M.; Bugaric, M.; Sofiev, M.; Kadantsev, E.; Gitas, I.Z.; Stavrakoudis, D.; Eftychidis, G.; Bar-Massada, A.; Neidermeier, A.; Pampanoni, V.; Pettinari, M.L.l Arrogante-Funes, F.; Ochoa, C.; Moreira, B.; Viegas, D. (2023) Towards an Integrated Approach to Wildfire Risk Assessment: When, Where, What and How May the Landscapes Burn, Fire, 6(5), Art. 215
9. Pétillon, J., McKinley, E., Alexander, M., Adams, J.B., Angelini, C., Balke, T., Griffin, J.N., Bouma, T., Hacker, S., He, Q…, Martino, S, and Hensel, M.J., 2023. Top ten priorities for global saltmarsh restoration, conservation and ecosystem service research. Science of the Total Environment, p.165544.
10. Sam J. Buckton, Jasper O. Kenter, Sandra Waddock, Martino, S., Nibedita Mukherjee, Annela Anger-Kraavi, Adam P. Hejnowicz, Ioan Fazey, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, Jordan O. Lafayette, Kristen Locy, Chris Scarr, 2024. Reform or transform? A spectrum of stances within the new economics discourse towards the economic status quo. Global Social Challenge, Vol3(3), 382-421. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/27523349Y2024D000000025
11. Lee, X, Martino, S., Assessing the economic feasibility of voluntary carbon markets in land use management scenarios for Scottish saltmarshes. Ocean & Coastal Management, Vol 251, 107099.
12. Martino, S., Martinat, S., Joyce, K., Poskitt, S., & Nijnik, M. 2024. A Classification and Interpretation of Methodological Approaches to Pursue Natural Capital Valuation in Forest Research. Forests, 15(10), 1716.
13. Kenter, Jasper O., Azzopardi, Elaine, Barnard, Lucy, Lafayette, Jordan O., Nelson, Bryony, Isacs, Lina, Martino, Simone and O’Connor, Seb 2024. Cultural Values Related to Marine and Coastal Environments. In: Baird, Daniel and Elliott, Michael (eds.) Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science, 2 Edition, vol. 7, pp. 166–179. Oxford: Elsevier. Nd http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90798-9.00113-X.
14. Glendell, Miriam, Matt Hare, Kerry A. Waylen, Kerr Adams, Jean Léon Boucher, Zisis Gagkas, Alessandro Gimona, Simone Martino, Keith B. Matthews, and J. Gareth Polhill. “Systems thinking and modelling to support transformative change: key lessons from inter-disciplinary analysis of socio-ecological systems in applied land systems research.” Discover Sustainability 6, no. 1 (2025): 231.
15. Kenter, Jasper O., Simone Martino, Sam J. Buckton, Sandra Waddock, Bina Agarwal, Annela Anger-Kraavi, Robert Costanza et al. “Ten principles for transforming economics in a time of global crises.” Nature Sustainability (2025): 1-11.
16. Martino, S., Patil, I., Martinat, S., Ballesteros, A., & Waylen, K. A. (2026). Where is natural capital being used in policy-making? Results from an international review. Ecosystem Services, 78, 101825.

Current outputs are reported at View Simone’s Researcher Profile on Pure

Past research

Research from 2016 until 2021

Since 2016 Simone’s research has investigated the social-economic impacts of human activities on saltmarshes, in particular changes in carbon sequestration caused by different livestock grazing pressure (Muenzel and Martino, 2018), and the importance of natural peatland attributes (type of landscape, wildfowl abundance, water quality, etc.) in the valuation of recreational services provided by the AONB North Pennines peatlands under rewetting policy (paper under review in Ecosystem Services – VNP PEAT/NERC- https://www.peatlandtippingpoints.com). In addition, Simone has worked in the marine context, focussing on the link between fishing effort and impacts on wildlife and changes on recreational values (wildlife watching) under different fishing management scenarios (MERP/NERC-DEFRA- https://www.marine-ecosystems.org.uk/), and on the ecological and economic consequences of algal blooms for the Scottish mussel production (Martino et al, 2020 – Pices 2019- https://meetings.pices.int/meetings/annual/2019/pices/scope).  Simone has also tested preferences for different fire policies in the Amazon and implemented them in a stochastic version of the Kaldor-Hicks cost-benefit analysis (Morello et al., 2019), and under the remit of the H2020 Pericles project (https://www.pericles-heritage.eu/) has elicited consumers’ preferences for seafood, as a multidimensional product characterized by cultural aspects (e.g. freshness, locality of the captures, fishing-related maritime heritage aspects) to provide new insights and implications for fisheries and tourism policies (Martino et al., 2022). The broad set of values proposed in research such as MERP and VNP-PEAT)is synthetized in common view by deliberative multi-criteria analysis, as an alternative approach to cost benefit analysis to establish whether stakeholders can agree synergistic positions by overtaking the traditional view centred on trade-offs offered by mainstream economics.

Projects managed and funds granted

• Life Natura 2002

Aim:Ecological rehabilitation of a dismissed salt work along the Central Tyrrhenian coast of Italy (2003-2006). Budget: Euro 1,056,549. Duties: Preparation of the technical and financial proposal; project management, technical report, budget control and financial report; in charge of delivering the Management Plan of the “Salina di Tarquinia”,  brochures and website http://www.unitus.it/life/

• Life+Natura 2008

Aim:Defending the sea grass marine habitat Posidonia oceanica in the central Tyrrhenian by proposing passive and active measures against trawling and illegal diving activities http://www.lifeposeidone.eu/index.php. (2009-2013). Budget: Euro 1,400,000 Duties: Preparation of the proposal and financial plan. Project manager during the first year.

• ICZM MED Interreg III C SUD Beachmed-e EU project

Aim:Assessing the economic impact of beach nourishment (2006-2008). Pilot site: Tarquinia beach Lazio Region, Italy. Budget: Euro 25,000; Duties: project proposal formulation; project management and financial form preparation; valuation of direct economic benefits; recreational value for beach users of the re-nourished beach; cost-benefit analysis; proposal of a local fee to beach users according to the benefits they receive (Pigouvian tax paid according to the value of the externalities).

•  Valuing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services pilot projects ( 2013-2015)

Aim:valuing ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes in low-income countries. Budget: £600,000. Duties: project manager, regional teams’ coordination; research on valuation of forestry ecosystem services; reporting and budgeting

Contribution as researcher CoI to EU and UK grants (2016-2021)

• H2020 PERICLES– ref 770504 – 2018-2021 – PI: Alyne Delaney (Aalborg University, DK) “Preserving and Sustainably Governing Cultural Heritage and Landscapes in European Coastal and Maritime Regions”.  Role: 1) assessing integration and coordination of CH policies within ICZM; 2) valuing the monetary value (premium) for wild captures produced by a local artisanal fishery.
• NERC VNPPEAT – NE/P00783X/1 – 2016-2019 Valuing Nature Programme – Peatland Tipping Points Budget £470k– PI Prof. Mark Reed Newcastle University (UK). Aim: understanding how climate change and changes in land use management are likely to trigger tipping points in the provision of ecosystem services. Role: valuation of ecosystem services (carbon sequestration, livestock grazing, grouse shooting, and recreation) at ecological tipping points.
• NERC/DEFRA MERP – NE/L003058/1 – 2016-2018 Marine Ecosystems Research Programme Work Package 3 £1.2m – PI Prof. Mike Heath Strathclyde University (UK). Role: addressing key knowledge gaps in marine ecosystem research. Duties: Valuation of ES (fisheries, aquaculture, seaweeds, wildlife watching) under different fishing management scenarios.

Relevant publications produced until 2021

Selected Papers

Koutrakis, E. T., Sapounidis A., Marzetti S., Giuliani V., Martino S., Fabiano M., Marin V., Paoli C., Roccatagliata E., Salmona P., Rey-Valette H., Roussel S., Povh D. and Malvárez C. G., 2010, Public Stakeholders’ Perception of ICZM and Coastal Erosion in the Mediterranean, Coastal Management, 38(4), 354–377.

Koutrakis, E. T., Sapounidis A., Marzetti S., Giuliani V., Martino S., Fabiano M., Marin V., Paoli C., Roccatagliata E., Salmona P., Rey-Valette H., Roussel S., Povh D., Malvárez C. G., 2011, ICZM and coastal defence perception by beach users: Lessons from the Mediterranean coastal area, Ocean and Coastal Management, 54 821-830.

Martino S., Parson M.L., 2012. A comparison between manganese nodules and cobalt crusts economics in a scenario of mutual exclusivity, Mar. Policy 36, 790-800.

Martino S., Parson M.L, 2013. Spillovers between cobalt, copper and nickel: implications for deep seabed mining, in press on Mineral Economics; Volume 25, Issue 2-3, pp 107-127; DOI 10.1007/s13563-012-0027-8

Amos, CL, Sutherland, TF, Martino S, AL Rashidi T., Sea surface temperature trends in the coastal zone of British Columbia, Canada. JCR_January 2014, http://www.jcronline.org/doi/pdf/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-14-00114.1

Martino S.,Amos C.L., 2015. Valuation of the ecosystem services of beach nourishment in decision-making: The case study of Tarquinia Lido, Italy. Ocean & Coastal Management 111, 82-91.

Marzetti S., Disegna M., Koutrakis E., Sapounidis A., Marin V., Martino S., Roussel S., Rey-Valette H. and Paoli C. 2016. Beach Visitors’ Awareness of ICZM and WTP in European Mediterranean Regions: a Case-Study. Marine Policy 63, 100-108.

Martino S., 2016. An attempt to assess horizontal and vertical integration of the Italian coastal governance at national and regional scales Revista de Gestão Costeira Integrada / Journal of Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Evangelia G. Drakou, Charlène Kermagoret, Camino Liquete, Ana Ruiz-Frau, Kremena Burkhard, Ana I. Lillebø, Alexander P. E. van Oudenhoven, Johanna Ballé-Béganton, João Garcia Rodrigues, Emmi Nieminen, Soile Oinonen, Alex Ziemba, Elena Gissi, Daniel Depellegrin, Kristina Veidemane, Anda Ruskule, Justine Delangue, Anne Böhnke-Henrichs, Arjen Boon, Richard Wenning, Simone Martino, Berit Hasler, Mette Termansen, Mark Rockel, Herman Hummel, Ghada el Serafy, Plamen Peev. 2017. Marine and coastal ecosystem services on the science-policy-practice nexus: challenges and opportunities from 11 European case studies. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 13(3): 51-67.

Martino, S, Dominic Muenzel 2018. The importance of the Common Agricultural Policy in sustaining wellbeing in high nature value farmland: the case study of the Natura 2000 Zarandul de Est (Romania). 2018. Journal of Rural Studies 60, 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.04.002.

Dominic Muenzel, Martino, S, 2018. Assessing the feasibility of carbon payments and Payments for Ecosystem Services to reduce livestock grazing pressure on saltmarshes, Journal of Environmental Management 225, 46-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.07.060

Martino, S., Paul Tett, Jasper Kenter, 2019. The interplay between economics, legislative power and social influence examined through a social-ecological framework for marine ecosystems services. Stoten (2018), doi:10.1016/ j.scitotenv.2018.09.181

Thiago FM, Martino, S., Duarte A.F., Andrson, L., Davis, K.J., Silva, S., Bateman, IJ., 2019. Fire, tractors and health in the Amazon: a cost benefit analysis of fire policy. Land Economics, August 2019, Volume 95, Issue 3

McKinley, E., Pagès, J.F., Alexander, M., Burdon, D., Martino, S., 2020. Uses and management of saltmarshes: A global survey, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106840.

Martino, S., Gianella, F., Davidson, K. 2020. An Approach for Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms: the Effects of Blooms of Toxic Dinophysis spp. on the Productivity of Scottish Shellfish Farms. Harmful Algae 99 (2020) 101912.

Martino, S., Gianella, F., Davidson, K. 2020.The impact of toxic Dinophysis spp. on the productivity of Scottish shellfish farms. HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 66 / 2020

 

Selected reports

Emmanuil Koutrakis, Argiris Sapounidis, Valentino Giuliani, Fulvio Cerfolli, Giuseppe Nascetti, Martino, S., Mauro Fabiano, Emanuele Roccatagliata, Marzetti Silva, Hélène Rey-Valette, Sébastien Roussel, Franck Bellet, 2008, Concerted actions, tools and criteria for the implementation of the Integrated Coastal Zones Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean, Phase A,B, C Technical Report Project Beachmed-e, INTERREG IIIC SUD. Available in English and French at the web site www.beachmed.it.

Martino S.,Sian Morse-Jones, Helen Anthem, Helen Schneider, Sophie Benbow, Jack Rhodes, Alison Gunn, Mark Infield, Rob Small, Steven Lowe. 2015. Lessons from Valuing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Complex Agricultural Landscapes in Low Income Countries. Unpublished.

Burrows M.T., Fox, C.J., Moore, P., Smale, D., Sotheran, I., Benson, A., Greenhill, L., Martino, S., Parker, A., Thompson, E., Allen, C.J. 2018. Wild Seaweed Harvesting as a Diversification Opportunity for Fishermen. A report by SRSL for HIE, pp. 171.

Martino, S. 2020. Integration and coordination of Cultural heritage policies within ICZM and MSP. 770504 – PERICLES – 2020-SC6-CULT-COOP-2016-2017. Available at www.pericles-heritage.eu › 2020/05 › PERICLES_D5.3_v1.0.pdf.

Di Jin, Stephanie Moore, Dan Holland, Leif Anderson, Weol-Ae Lim, Do-Hoon Kim, Sunny Jardine, Simone Martino, Fatima Gianella and Keith Davidson. 2020. Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms: Issues, Methods, and Examples. Page 5-41. In Vera Trainer (eds). GlobalHAB Evaluating, Reducing and Mitigating the Cost of Harmful Algal Blooms: A Compendium of Case Studies. PICES Scientific Report No. 59 2020

Keith Davidson, Sunny L. Jardine, Martino, S.,  Geir B. Myre, Liam E. Peck, Rebecca N. Raymond and Jennifer Joy WestPage. 2020. The Economic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms on Salmon Cage Aquaculture, page 84-94. In Vera Trainer (eds). GlobalHAB Evaluating, Reducing and Mitigating the Cost of Harmful Algal Blooms: A Compendium of Case Studies. PICES Scientific Report No. 59 2020 

 

Talks at conferences and workshops

Martino, S., Paul Tett, Jasper Kenter. 2016. How does economics fit into social-ecological aspects of marine and coastal ecosystem management? MASTS 2016. 6th Annual Science Meeting- Our Marine Environment- A shared Resource. Glasgow October 2016.

Martino S. 2017 A time series simultaneous equation model for salmon demand and supply: welfare implication of expanding production. MASTS 2017. 7th Annual Science Meeting. Sea Change – Changing Seas, Changing times. Glasgow 4-6th October 2017.

Martino S. 2018. An ecological-economic modelling approach to assess changes in preferences and values of wildlife recreation.  Society and the Sea: Investinblue. The value of the Ocean and Coasts for the sustainable development. University of Greenwich. 6^th and 7^th September 2018

Martino S. 2018. Presentation at the Marine Ecosystem Research Programme workshop, held in Glasgow on 26th October 2018,  to discuss with Scottish coastal stakeholders values inspiring preferences for fishing measures under different management scenarios

Martino, S. 2019. Presentation at the final VNP Peatland workshop, held in Teesdale (UK) on 5th February 2019 to discuss with North Pennines AONB stakeholders changes in peatlands’ ecosystem services provision under different management scenarios

Martino, S. 2019. Linking monetary and non-monetary valuation to promote sustainable governance of the EU’s fisheries as cultural heritage. Invited speaker at European Parliament, Brussels, 3^rd April 2019 for the event “Valuing Marine Ecosystem Services – taking into account the value of ecosystem benefits in the Blue Economy”.

Martino, S. 2019. The approach used in the MERP project to integrated ecological economic and cultural values in the fisheries of West coast of Scotland. Invited speaker at SRUC by Corinne Baulcomb.

Martino, S. 2019. Assessing gaps on marine natural capital accounting. International marine ecosystem accounting workshop. Helsinki, 10 October 2019

Martino, S., Davidson, K. 2019. The economic impacts of harmful algal bloom on Scottish shellfish. PICES International Workshop on Economic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms. Victoria Island, Vancouver, Canada , 17-20 Oct 2019

Martino, S. 2021. Emerging Results from GANE Scope Review. 22^nd and 23^rd April 2021. At Sustex 21. Sustainable solutions in challenge time. Texas A&M.

Martino, S. et al2021. Mainstreaming a new economics: levers for change in a post-COVID economic recovery. ISEE 2021. 5^th to 8^th July 2021. Manchester University