Ecosystem Markets for Conservation
Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest.- Aldo Leopold, 1934
Families own 35% of the forestland in the United States. They own their woodlands for recreational opportunities (e.g. hunting, fishing, and hiking), scenic beauty, timber production, and preserving rural heritage. These woodland owners manage their woodlands for a variety of reasons, but by keeping their land in tact and wooded, they provide the rest of us with benefits like clean water, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat.
Woodland owners provide plentiful ecological benefit through good forest management. These benefits are enhanced through management activities that help minimize the effects of threats like invasive pests and climate change. These management practices, however, cost money; often, it costs money that the landowner does not have. Increasingly, communities are looking to market-based conservation to provide landowners with economic incentive to sustain healthy management of those woodlands.
What is market-based conservation? Market-based conservation is exactly what it sounds like: conservation of natural areas supported by market mechanisms. This means providing woodland owners with an economic incentive to conserve their woodlands for clean water, wildlife habitat, and clean air. Because we haven’t historically put an economic value on ecosystem services, they are traditionally undervalued. Providing payment for particular management practices ensures at least two things: 1) that the benefits of woodlands are recognized and valued appropriately; and 2) that the woodland owner can continue providing these benefits into the future. Our projects help woodland owners keep their woods in-tact by providing economic incentive for providing and enhancing particular ecosystem services, like water quality, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration.
For more information on ecosystem services, visit Ecosystem Marketplace’s
Conservation Backgrounder.
What are some examples of ecosystem markets? Markets for ecosystem services aren’t necessarily a new idea. Hunting leases, for example, are a specific economic payment in exchange for particular ecosystem service--wildlife. The cost of your hunting lease is general determined by competing neighbors and the quality of wildlife habitat—if you mange your woods for more quail you’re likely to get a higher price from hunters than your neighbors who don’t. What’s different today about ecosystem markets is there is a greater range of ecosystem services with a viable market. Rather than just hunting leases or timber, woodland owners are participating in markets that focus on water quality, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. These markets encourage strong stewardship for maximized ecosystem service value (e.g. incentives to landowners for demonstrated healthy watershed stewardship).
AFF currently has two projects funded through the NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant program to develop and implement innovative, self-sustaining, replicable market-based conservation projects. The
first project, awarded in 2008 in partnership with Longleaf Alliance focuses on sandhill habitat in Alabama and Georgia, critical for the survival of the gopher tortoise and associated species. The
second project, in partnership with Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Western Foothills Land Trust and White River Partnership focuses on critical watersheds in the Northern Forest. In 2007, AFF invested in two carbon credit projects that help landowners participate in voluntary carbon markets. These projects are coordinated by local organizations and are independently run with support from AFF. For more information about carbon as an ecosystem service,
click here.
There are also other conservation incentive programs, which aren’t formal markets but do provide economic incentives for management activity. Many of the 2008 Farm Bill programs, like EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentive Program) and WHIP (Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program) are examples. In these programs, the federal government gives a woodland owner money to help defray the cost of specific management activities. For more information on Farm Bill programs, check out our
brochure on available programs.
More on markets forWATER QUALITY WILDLIFE HABITAT & BIODIVERSITY CARBON SEQUESTRATION What does it mean for me?Ecosystem services are, by definition, services that nature provides society
so we are all affected by their decline or enhancement. If you’re a
family woodland owner, then your forests are providing your neighbors with essential services. As a woodland owner you may be eligible to participate in one of the emerging ecosystem markets. AFF currently leads projects on
water,
wildlife, and
carbon sequestration.
If you’re a
natural resource professional you know that your job and the rural economy depend on many ecosystem services. You may be interested in any nearby developing projects in your area, or how you might be to replicate one for your area. Check out Ecosystem Marketplace’s
news and reports on emerging ecosystem markets.
If you’re a
city-dweller, you’re a beneficiary of these services every time you take a sip of water or a walk outside. You are a key audience to engage in any policy discussion about ecosystem services and making sure their valued appropriately. Talk to your local and state representatives about ecosystem services and how we should to protect and enhance them. See our sheet on
policy objectives for enhanced ecosystem services.
For more information on ecosystem markets, contact Todd Gartner
tgartner@forestfoundation.org.
