Introduction:

Climate variability has important effects on the different economic activities that take place in marine areas. Currently, there are no comprehensive methodologies to carry out an assessment process that consider all the variables and interactions between them.

Objective:

To propose a methodological approach that comprehensively includes the different stages in the process of economic valuation of ecosystem services in coastal areas, in the face of climate variability.

Methods:

A bibliographic review, expert consultations and an application of a methodological example using the impact over shark diving activities at Isla del Coco were conducted.

Results:

The proposed methodological approach begins with the socio-economic and environmental characterization of the activity that uses a natural resource as input, followed by the identification and characterization of the environmental variables that affect the natural resource and of the effects that the variation of this resource has on the economic activity.

Conclusions:

The variables that make up the climate system, which relate to natural resources and economic activities, being influenced by external phenomena, produce effects that must be analyzed by comprehensive methodological approximations, within which one of the steps is the valuation methodology, that will allow generating policy recommendations that help to minimize these effects.