A Benefit Transfer Toolkit for Fish, Wildlife, Wetlands, and Open Space

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Economic Benefits of Conserving Natural Lands: Case Study: Yaquina Bay Conservation Opportunity Area, Oregon

In this study, which forms part of a set of five case studies that cover natural lands in Florida, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico and Oregon, we develop estimates of the economic value of several human uses supported by Yaquina Bay, a 29 square-mile area in coastal central Oregon that has been identified as a conservation opportunity area (COA) in Oregon’s Conservation Strategy. Our analysis develops quantitative estimates of the economic value associated with recreational fishing and commercial crabbing, oyster harvests and livestock production. It also estimates the value of the carbon sequestration service provided by the ecosystems found in Yaquina Bay and the value of the open space premiums that accrue to residential properties located in the vicinity of undeveloped open spaces. Land use, land management and conservation planning, in order to achieve economically sensible results, should take into account the economic value generated by the conservation of undeveloped lands and the fact that the increasing relative scarcity of these lands will only increase conservation values. With a large share of both ecologically and economically valuable undeveloped lands in private ownership, not just in the Yaquina Bay study area but also at state and national levels, existing financial incentive systems that encourage land conservation on private lands will need to be improved and in many cases additional ones will need to be created in order to better align privately and socially desirable outcomes. This is a challenging task whose urgency is increasing in lockstep with the continuing loss and degradation of natural lands

Natural climate solutions for the United States

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Science Advances 4 (2018): eaat1869, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat1869.Limiting climate warming to <2°C requires increased mitigation efforts, including land stewardship, whose potential in the United States is poorly understood. We quantified the potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)—21 conservation, restoration, and improved land management interventions on natural and agricultural lands—to increase carbon storage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We found a maximum potential of 1.2 (0.9 to 1.6) Pg CO2e year−1, the equivalent of 21% of current net annual emissions of the United States. At current carbon market prices (USD 10 per Mg CO2e), 299 Tg CO2e year−1 could be achieved. NCS would also provide air and water filtration, flood control, soil health, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience benefits.This study was made possible by funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. C.A.W. and H.G. acknowledge financial support from NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System program (NNH14ZDA001N-CMS) under award NNX14AR39G. S.D.B. acknowledges support from the DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program under the award DE-SC0014416. J.W.F. acknowledges financial support from the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation grant no. DEB-1237517

Bosques urbanos y mitigación de la contaminación: análisis de los servicios y perjuicios de los ecosistemas

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the concepts of ecosystem services and disservices when assessing the efficacy of using urban forests for mitigating pollution. A brief review of the literature identifies some pollution mitigation ecosystem services provided by urban forests. Existing ecosystem services definitions and typologies from the economics and ecological literature are adapted and applied to urban forest management and the concepts of ecosystem disservices from natural and semi-natural systems are discussed. Examples of the urban forest ecosystem services of air quality and carbon dioxide sequestration are used to illustrate issues associated with assessing their efficacy in mitigating urban pollution. Development of urban forest management alternatives that mitigate pollution should consider scale, contexts, heterogeneity, management intensities and other social and economic co-benefits, tradeoffs, and costs affecting stakeholders and urban sustainability goals