A methodology for adaptable and robust ecosystem services assessment

Ecosystem Services (ES) are an established conceptual framework for attributing value to the benefits that nature provides to humans. As the promise of robust ES-driven management is put to the test, shortcomings in our ability to accurately measure, map, and value ES have surfaced. On the research side, mainstream methods for ES assessment still fall short of addressing the complex, multi-scale biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics inherent in ES provision, flow, and use. On the practitioner side, application of methods remains onerous due to data and model parameterization requirements. Further, it is increasingly clear that the dominant one model fits all paradigm is often ill-suited to address the diversity of real-world management situations that exist across the broad spectrum of coupled human-natural systems. This article introduces an integrated ES modeling methodology, named ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), which aims to introduce improvements on these fronts. To improve conceptual detail and representation of ES dynamics, it adopts a uniform conceptualization of ES that gives equal emphasis to their production, flow and use by society, while keeping model complexity low enough to enable rapid and inexpensive assessment in many contexts and for multiple services. To improve fit to diverse application contexts, the methodology is assisted by model integration technologies that allow assembly of customized models from a growing model base. By using computer learning and reasoning, model structure may be specialized for each application context without requiring costly expertise. In this article we discuss the founding principles of ARIES - both its innovative aspects for ES science and as an example of a new strategy to support more accurate decision making in diverse application contexts

Analysis of ecosystem services provision in the Colombian Amazon using participatory research and mapping techniques

Over the last two decades indigenous peoples in the lower Caquetá River basin in Colombia have experienced detrimental changes in the provision of important ecosystem services in ways that have significant implications for the maintenance of their traditional livelihoods. To assess these changes we conducted eight participatory mapping activities and convened 22 focus group discussions. We focused the analysis on two types of change: (1) changes in the location of ecosystem services provisioning areas and (2) changes in the stock of ecosystem services. The focal ecosystem services include services such as provision of food, raw materials and medicinal resources. Results from the study show that in the past two decades the demand for food and raw materials has intensified and, as a result, locations of provisioning areas and the stocks of ecosystem services have changed. We found anecdotal evidence that these changes correlate well with socio-economic factors such as greater need for income generation, change in livelihood practices and consumption patterns. We discuss the use of participatory mapping techniques in the context of marginalized and data-poor regions. We also show how this kind of information can strengthen existing ecosystem-based management strategies used by indigenous peoples in the Colombian Amazon

Viable Reserve Networks Arise From Individual Landholder Responses To Conservation Incentives

Abstract Conservation in densely-settled biodiversity hotspots areas often requires setting up reserve networks that maintain sufficient contiguous habitat to support viable species populations. Because it is difficult to secure landholder compliance with an tightly constrained reserve network design, attention has shifted to voluntary incentive mechanisms, such as purchase of conservation easements by reverse auction or through a fixed-price offer. These mechanisms carry potential advantages of transparency, simplicity, and low cost. But uncoordinated individual response to these incentives has been assumed to be incompatible with conservation goals of viability (which depends on contiguous habitat) and biodiversity representation. We model such incentives for southern Bahia in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the biologically richest and most threatened global biodiversity hotspots. Here, forest cover is spatially autocorrelated and associated with depressed land values, a situation that may be characteristic of longsettled areas with forests fragmented by agriculture. We find that in this situation, a voluntary incentive system can yield a reserve network characterized by large, viable patches of contiguous forest, and representation of subregions with distinct vegetation types and biotic assemblages -without explicit planning for those outcomes

Targeting and implementing payments for ecosystem services: Opportunities for bundling biodiversity conservation with carbon and water services in Madagascar

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are generating a lot of attention among conservationists because they have the potential to create new funding opportunities for biodiversity protection and other ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being. A number of recent publications have suggested ways to target and implement PES projects in order to maximize their cost-effectiveness and efficiency, and the Heredia Declaration (this issue) sets forth a list of agreed-upon principles concerning the use of PES schemes. One of those principles concerns the "bundling" of joint products of intact ecosystems in PES schemes in order to maximize the benefits to society. There have been several recent studies focusing on the degree of overlap between biodiversity and other ecosystem services and therefore the opportunities and constraints to bundling these services. Building on this idea, the bulk of this paper focuses on developing a method for selecting sites for PES where the main interest is to bundle biodiversity with other ecosystem services. We focus our analysis on Madagascar, a country with globally important biodiversity that is also beginning to explore the utility of PES as a conservation mechanism. Specifically, we assess the opportunities for bundling biodiversity conservation with carbon and water services at the national scale and identify where using PES to protect these areas of multiple benefits would be most cost-effective and efficient. This analysis identifies almost 30,000 km2 -- out of 134,301 km2 -- of natural habitat that could potentially meet biodiversity conservation goals and protect additional ecosystem services through a PES scheme. One of the places identified by our methodology corresponds to an ongoing conservation project that has already begun using payments from carbon emission reductions to protect standing forests and restore important biodiversity corridors -- the Ankeniheny-Mantadia-Zahamena Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration Project. This project site was selected for its high biodiversity and carbon values, lending credibility to our spatial targeting methodology and providing a case study to draw insights on how multiple-benefit PES schemes can be implemented in biodiversity "hotspots". In the discussion section of this paper we draw on experiences from this project to consider how many of the principles outlined in the Heredia Declaration affect implementation of PES schemes in Madagascar, providing lessons for similar countries experimenting with PES for biodiversity conservation.Biodiversity Bundling Carbon Madagascar Payments for ecosystem services Water quality

Designing spatially explicit incentive programs for habitat conservation: A case study of the Bicknell's thrush wintering grounds

The Bicknell's thrush (Catharus bicknelli) is among North America's migratory bird species of greatest conservation concern. Protecting habitat at both ends of its range has been identified as a high priority action. An estimated 90% of the species' global population overwinters on the island of Hispaniola, where ongoing habitat loss is a severe problem. Preventing further loss of Bicknell's thrush habitat on Hispaniola will require, among other efforts, establishing conservation areas on private lands, where success will depend on cooperation with landowners. This paper considers a voluntary incentive program to landowners in the Dominican Republic to yield a cost-effective network of protected habitat to sustain overwintering Bicknell's thrush populations. TAMARIN, a Geographic Information System (GIS) based model, evaluates the economic and ecological considerations for a voluntary bid scenario where landowners sell their property rights to a government agency or non-governmental organization. Results indicate that two scientific reserves in northeastern Dominican Republic could be connected under one viable forest fragment valued at US $5.5 x 106, increasing the total protected land by 87% to 19,357 ha. Incorporating the spatial variability of economic costs and biological benefits into a conservation program, such as the Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Protection Fund will help planners achieve habitat conservation at least cost.Incentive mechanisms Conservation TAMARIN Bicknell's thrush Migratory birds Dominican Republic

Observations on the relationship between SIR-C radar backscatter and the biomass of regenerating tropical forests

SIR-C SAR data were related to the above ground biomass of regenerating tropical forests in Amazonia, Brazil. C- and L- band SAR data in the conventional polarization configurations showed no significant relationship with forest biomass, which were estimated in the field to range from 63·8-141·1 tha -1. However, the strength of the relationships was increased through the use of backscatter ratios and stratification of the forests by dominant species. These results support the view that backscatter ratios enhance the relationship between radar backscatter and biomass, perhaps beyond some quoted radar saturation levels, by reducing the effect of differences due to forest type. They also demonstrate that an ability to differentiate between forests of different species composition, and canopy geometry, increases the strength of the relationship between the SAR backscatter and biomass. © 1997, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved

Water supply sustainability (m³/year) for rice agriculture in the two areas considered.

<p>Water supply sustainability (m³/year) for rice agriculture in the two areas considered.</p

Relative values for open space proximity source, use, and flows source, under alternative urban growth scenarios Green-Duwamish watershed, WA, USA.

<p>Relative values for open space proximity source, use, and flows source, under alternative urban growth scenarios Green-Duwamish watershed, WA, USA.</p

A simplified image of a small part of the ARIES knowledge base.

<p>The MEA ES categories on the left are broken down into the benefits in the middle, only some of which (in blue) are directly connected to beneficiaries. Dashed lines exemplify indirect relationships that, when taken as the description of legitimate ecosystem services, have the potential of causing “double counting” by identifying benefits that are “intermediate” and not “final”, i.e., not directly linked to beneficiaries. Beneficiaries are depicted on the right, with non-rival benefits in green and rival benefits in orange.</p