Payments for Ecosystem Services Flashcards
Can payments for ecosystem services solve the conservation crisis?
Ecosystem services- the benefits people obtain from nature
Supporting:
- nutrient cycling
- soil formation
- primary production
Leads to Provisioning: - Food - Freshwater - Wood and fiber - Fueb
Regulating:
- Climate regulation
- Flood regulation
- Disease regulation
- Water purification
Cultural:
- Aesthetic
- Spiritual
- Educational
- Recreational
Supporting service: Generation and Renewal of Soil Fertility
Prairie grasslands and savannas of
North America generated the fertile
soils that feed 200,000,000 people.
Regulating service: Nature-provided purification of water
The Catskill Mountains provide
New York City with a service
worth about $1 billion/yr.
One service that is essential to humans is the purification of air and water. Early European settlers in North America obtained their drinking water just as did the Native Americans – by collecting it directly from lakes, rivers and streams near their homes. As cities grew, they drew water from pristine lakes or damned pristine rivers, and built aqueducts to carry the water to the city. This is ancient technology that has worked since the time of the Roman Empire. Just such aqueducts carried clear, pure water to the fountains – the urban springs – of ancient Rome. Pure clean water was always a free product of nature – an ecosystem service obtained merely for the cost its transport.
Humans Have Benefited
From The Vast Diversity of
Potential Food Plants
Potato Varieties
And what do we grow on soils? Another service of nature – organisms that we have found in nature that we like to eat and that grow well for us. Indeed, we have mined and are still mining the biological diversity of nature. In the 10000 years since humans invented agriculture, we have discovered and used their natural genetic diversity to improve crops that how feed 6 billion people.
Other Ecosystem Services Include: Detoxification and decomposition of wastes Pollination of crops Control of many agricultural pests Moderation of climate (trees make rain) Natural production of fish, forage, biomass fuels, and industrial products Amelioration of flooding Maintenance of genetic resources Aesthetic beauty
There are many other ecosystem services of value to society. Ecosystems detoxify and decompose wastes. Even when we engineer a system to do this – such as a municipal sewage treatment plant – we actually achieve the decomposition and the detoxification using a large number of species of bacteria and fungi.
Insect pollinate crops for us – could you afford fruit or vegetables if farmers had to carry pollen from one plant to another with a paintbrush? But, poorly managed farms do not leave land nearby for the pollinators to live in – or kill pollinators inadvertently with pesticides. (~$14 billion US, ~9 billion pounds, of crops in the US depend on bee pollinators. Loss of pollinators would lead to the loss of much of those sales and the enjoyment from them and the health from them)
And how should farmers control pests? Recent work has shown that many agricultural pests are most effectively and inexpensively controlled by predators, parasites and parasitoids that can live in semi-natural buffer strips around the edges of fields. Although this requires that farmers not plow their land from fence to fence, it can actually save farmers money and can save farmers, farm workers, and their families from exposure to toxins.
There are many other ecosystems services – each of which has value to society – but few of which have ever been formally recognized by society as having economic value.
Millennium ecosystem assessment
Most services are declining, as land use change is increasing (increase food services but decreases air quality, erosion, pest, pollination, aesthetic and spiritual values etc)
Level of poverty remains high and inequities are growing
Economics and Human Development
1.1 billion people survive on 2.6 billion lack access to improved sanitation
Water scarcity affects ~1–2 billion people worldwide
The purpose of the MillenniumAssessmentEcosystems & 100’s scientific, political, and social studies?
To persuade the world (and the decision-makers within our world) to undertake policy reforms that will restore and protect nature, for the ecosystem services that we get from them.
The fact that Ecosystem Services are more heavily relied on by the poor makes this objective more difficult to achieve. Do you see why?
Economic valuation of services
Ecosystem services can be valued in monetary terms (Costanza et al. 1997 Nature)
US$16-54 trillion yr-1
Balmford et al., 2002 Science, 297, 950-953.
In 2002, they found 5 studies showing that the total economic value of the ecosystem services from intact natural habitats were greater than the private values of converting those habitats
Economic reasons for conserving wild nature
Mangroves in Thailand
timber, charcoal, NTFPs (non-timber forest products), offshore fisheries, and storm protection worth 60,000
shrimp is worth 20,000
This is a monetised value that goes to more politically powerful actors
Can PES protect the tropics?
Ecotourism
REDD+
Global ecotourism is a BIG business
~USD $29 billion yr-1 spent on ecotourism in non-OECD countries (World Travel & Tourism Council 2007)
~USD $162-415 million yr-1 in official conservation aid & UN GEF to developing countries (Pearce 2007 Env Res Econ)
If 1% of ecotourism revenues were spent on conservation, that would equal official aid.
We spend a lot of time asking whether strict-sense conservation money is spent correctly. Much less attention is spent on asking whether ecotourism money is spent on conservation actions
Can ecotourism pay for conservation?
A short history of ecotourism in Madre de Dios, Peru
Even dirt roads improve access
1975 = 2 ecolodges 2006 = 35
Average length of stay = 2-3 nights
So, in terms of land use, ecotourism companies directly control the following areas, through ownership of titled lands on some form of concession (tourism, conservation, brazil nut).
Ecotourism is a successful business strategyfor Tambopata (1980-2006)
BUT: Is ecotourism a failed conservation strategy?
“A desperate race to make money while you still can.” - Richard Leakey (May 2007, Guardian newspaper)
PES: “…pay for what you want (e.g. protected rain forest), rather than pay for something indirectly related to it (e.g., capital for improving eco-tourism).” - Ferraro & Kiss (2003, Science)
Positive return on investment leads to land acquisition
89% of acreage acquired by the 4 most profitable lodges
Great Wall of Ecotourism
Controlling trail systems
Capturing the insurance and option value of forest near lodges
Personal interest in conservation
