Economic valuation provides an argument and a tool for promoting wise use approaches. Evidence has been accumulating that in many cases natural peatland habitats generate marketed economic benefits that exceed those obtained from habitat conversion. Also, non-marketed ecosystem services do have economic value, but these often only become obvious when they are missed.

Mechanisms for monetarising ecosystem functions such as flood prevention, biodiversity conservation and carbon storage are generally underdeveloped. While some ecosystem functions are difficult to value as their precise contribution becomes known only when they cease to function, other functions are difficult to price as there are no equivalents to be put in their place. Consequently, weighting can only be partial and many values, benefits or disadvantages may escape monetary evaluation.

Valuation studies of industrialized countries focus on recreational and existence values held by urban consumers (travel cost models, contingent valuation). In developing countries, ecosystem values related to production and subsistence are more important, although this is changing in regions characterised by rapid urbanisation and income growth.

A new but key issue for peatland valuation is climate change and the related emerging official (CDM) and voluntary carbon markets. With degraded peatlands now emitting more CO₂ than global deforestation (IPCC 2007 (Working Group 3 report)), avoiding emissions from peat swamp forests and peatlands in general is rapidly turning from a hypothetical value into a real commodity. The average annual emissions of 2000 million tonnes of CO₂ from Indonesian and Malaysian degraded peatlands represent a value of 10 to 40 billion Euros if compared to investments made elsewhere in innovative climate change mitigation solutions (such as the capturing of carbon from power stations and/or storage of carbon in old oil or gas fields as being experimented with in the Netherlands and Norway). The potential and relatively low costs of avoidance of these huge emissions from degraded peatlands also compares favourably with many conventional methods for decreasing emissions in transport and energy sectors. The additional spin-offs of combining peatland restoration (combating land degradation) with sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction creates a win-win option, and win for all three Rio conventions, as well as other international agreements.