c。Benefits to community Positive

5。Rest of society

a。Tax payments Positive

b。VAT and other  taxes Positive

c。Import tariffs Positive

d。Subsidies Negative

Interior [29] and was strengthened, in 1989, by the U。S。 Court of Appeals [30], which concluded that in perform- ing detailed (‘‘Type B’’) assessments, the trustee is allowed to measure  environmental  damages according to ‘‘use values’’ rather than clean-up costs, in cases where the costs to restore the area is ‘‘grossly disproportionate’’ to its ‘‘use value’’。 It is noted that the damages under NRDA regulation often exceed even the high remedia- tion costs that have become commonplace under CERCLA e i。e。 NRDAs can range from US$1  million to US$1 billion, while the average cost of a Superfund clean-up is about US$8e10 million  [28]。

In 2000, the European Commission adopted a White Paper on Environmental Liability [31]。 Its objective was to explore how the polluter pays principle could best be applied to serve the aims of Community environmental policy。 The Commission also concluded that the most appropriate option was a Community framework di- rective on environmental liability。 In January 2002, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on environ- mental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage [32]。 The Directive goes beyond Superfund in that it covers the clean-up of contamination caused by permitted releases of hazard- ous substances。 Remedying environmental damage in terms of biopersity damage and water pollution is achieved through the restoration of  the  environment as a whole to its baseline condition。 Nevertheless, the proposed valuation approach in the Directive to bio- persity relies basically on the restoration costs, which are easier and cheaper to estimate than monetary estimates of the value of natural resources [32]。 In Annex II, Sec。 3。1。8, however, it is referred   that:

‘‘If, in the judgment of the competent authority, valuation of the lost resources and/or services is practicable, but valuation of the replacement natural resources and/or services cannot be performed within a reasonable time-frame or at a reasonable cost, the competent authority may estimate the monetary value of the lost resources and/or services and select the scale of the restoration action that has a cost equivalent to the lost value。’’。

The final text of the Directive after the whole decision-making process was approved by the Council and the European Parliament on 30 March and  31 March 2004, respectively, and it will soon enter into force。

3。Environmental  valuation

The following sections provide a brief introduction to the essentials of environmental valuation and a reason- ably comprehensive description of the most widely used

techniques。 The main purpose is to provide an idea  of the most important theoretical and practical issues for the application of the methods in mining   topics。

3。1。Basic concepts and  definitions

A given environmental resource provides a variety of services and for this reason it is valuable to society。 The purpose of environmental valuation is to reveal this value and to estimate any costs derived from using or damaging environmental resources。 As Freeman [33] explains, the term ‘‘value’’, however, can have several different  meanings  (e。g。  ecologists  and  economists use the term in two different ways, with respect to environmental services and ecosystems)。 From an economist’s point of view, the  monetary  measure  of the change in society’s well-being resulting from a change in the quality or the availability of an environmental asset is based on its Total Economic Value (TEV), which can be disaggregated into use value and non-use (or passive use) value。