The Replacement Value of Wetlands in Sweden

Wetlands, in Sweden and elsewhere, have been suggestedas effective and low-cost sinks for agriculturalpollution. This paper estimates the value of usingwetlands for abatement of agricultural nitrogen loadon the Baltic Sea. A replacement value of wetlands isestimated for Sweden. The replacement value is definedand estimated as the difference between twocost-effective reductions of agricultural nitrogenpollution: one that uses wetlands for nitrogenabatement, and one that does not. It is shown that theuse of wetlands as nitrogen sinks can reduce the totalabatement costs of nitrogen emissions by 30% forSwedish agricultural sources of nitrogen pollution.