The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States

The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States PDF Author: Mattijs van Maasakkers
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783086041
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States is a detailed analysis of the most advanced efforts to create markets for ecosystem services in the United States. With the help of in-depth case studies of three well-known attempts to create such markets––in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Ohio River basin and the Willamette River basin––the book explains why very few of these markets have actually succeeded even after close to two decades of much scholarly enthusiasm, significant federal funding and concerted efforts by NGOs, government agencies and private businesses. Based on interviews, policy analysis and participatory observation, three features of markets for ecosystem services emerge as particularly problematic. First, the logic of displacement or the idea that particular elements of an ecosystem can be separated and traded across landscapes or watersheds runs counter to political interests, environmental beliefs and people's connections to specific places. The second problem is that of measurement. Quantification methods embed a range of often contentious assumptions and decisions about what counts when restoring ecosystems. The third problem is related to participation in environmental decision-making.

The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States

The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States PDF Author: Mattijs van Maasakkers
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783086041
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States is a detailed analysis of the most advanced efforts to create markets for ecosystem services in the United States. With the help of in-depth case studies of three well-known attempts to create such markets––in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Ohio River basin and the Willamette River basin––the book explains why very few of these markets have actually succeeded even after close to two decades of much scholarly enthusiasm, significant federal funding and concerted efforts by NGOs, government agencies and private businesses. Based on interviews, policy analysis and participatory observation, three features of markets for ecosystem services emerge as particularly problematic. First, the logic of displacement or the idea that particular elements of an ecosystem can be separated and traded across landscapes or watersheds runs counter to political interests, environmental beliefs and people's connections to specific places. The second problem is that of measurement. Quantification methods embed a range of often contentious assumptions and decisions about what counts when restoring ecosystems. The third problem is related to participation in environmental decision-making.

Trading Places

Trading Places PDF Author: Mattijs Johannes Van Maasakkers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
The concept of ecosystem services has become ubiquitous in environmental planning and policy. One way of turning the insight that society depends on nature for a wide range of benefits into practice is by creating markets for ecosystem services. Despite much enthusiasm and research, relatively few such markets have been implemented successfully. The basic question that this dissertation seeks to answer is why has it been so difficult to create successful markets for ecosystem services in the United States? Based on an in-depth analysis of efforts to create markets for ecosystem services in the Willamette River basin and the Chesapeake Bay watershed, I have identified three important challenges to ecosystem service market (ESM) creation. The first is push back from people care deeply about particular places. It is hard to honor such concerns when basic market logic assumes that environmental qualities can and should be easily moved from place to place. The second reason is dissatisfaction with measurement systems used to calculate how many credits a particular project or place is worth. Since many of the participants in a proposed market have different interests, the demands they create on these measurement tools are incompatible. The third and final reason it has been so difficult to create markets for ecosystem services in the United States is that it is difficult to bring together all the relevant stakeholders and give them a chance to participate in decisions regarding market design. Who should participate, what form this engagement should take and who has the authority to initiate a market are all questions that are exceedingly difficult to answer. I offer several suggestions regarding ways of overcoming these three challenges.

Creating Markets for Ecosystem Services

Creating Markets for Ecosystem Services PDF Author: Greg Murtough
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Ecosystem services are the functions performed by ecosystems that lead to desirable environmental outcomes, such as air and water purification, drought and flood mitigation, and climate stabilisation. Markets rarely exist for them. This study examines how newly defined property rights have been used to create markets in Australia and the United States. The Commission found that creating these markets - such as tradeable credits for carbon sequestration - can be an effective way for governments to achieve their environmental goals.

Trees at Work

Trees at Work PDF Author: Forest Service (U.S.)
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160943607
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
This guide showcases the increasing interest in ecosystem services, discusses the motivations for valuations of FES (forest ecosystem services) at the State level, and places this work in the context of economic accounting. Readers may be interested in this report to expand their understanding of approaches used and value forest ecosystem services. However, the intended target audience for this report is State forestry officials charged with requesting, selecting, guiding, and evaluating the results of FES assessments in their states. Foresters, construction officials utilizing forest based products, educators, instructors and students in the fields of environmental science and forestry, environmentalists, and investors in the forest products category may also be interested in this work. Check out our Environment & Nature resources collection here:https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/environment-nature Trees & Forests collection here:https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/environment-nature Water Management collection here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/water-management

Nature and the Marketplace

Nature and the Marketplace PDF Author: G. M. Heal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
In recent years, scientists have begun to focus on the idea that healthy, functioning ecosystems provide essential services to human populations, ranging from water purification to food and medicine to climate regulation. Lacking a healthy environment, these services would have to be provided through mechanical means, at a tremendous economic and social cost. Nature and the Marketplace examines the controversial proposition that markets should be designed to capture the value of those services. Written by an economist with a background in business, it evaluates the real prospects for various of nature's marketable services to “turn profits” at levels that exceed the profits expected from alternative, ecologically destructive, business activities. The author: describes the infrastructure that natural systems provide, how we depend on it, and how we are affecting it explains the market mechanism and how it can lead to more efficient resource use looks at key economic activities -- such as ecotourism, bioprospecting, and carbon sequestration -- where market forces can provide incentives for conservation examines policy options other than the market, such as pollution credits and mitigation banking considers the issue of sustainability and equity between generations Nature and the Marketplace presents an accessible introduction to the concept of ecosystem services and the economics of the environment. It offers a clear assessment of how market approaches can be used to protect the environment, and illustrates that with a number of cases in which the value of ecosystems has actually been captured by markets. The book offers a straightforward business economic analysis of conservation issues, eschewing romantic notions about ecosystem preservation in favor of real-world economic solutions. It will be an eye-opening work for professionals, students, and scholars in conservation biology, ecology, environmental economics, environmental policy, and related fields.

The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services

The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services PDF Author: J. B. Ruhl
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1597267694
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services is the first comprehensive exploration of the status and future of natural capital and ecosystem services in American law and policy. The book develops a framework for thinking about ecosystem services across their ecologic, geographic, economic, social, and legal dimensions and evaluates the prospects of crafting a legal infrastructure that can help build an ecosystem service economy that is as robust as existing economies for manufactured goods, natural resource commodities, and human-provided services. The book examines the geographic, ecological, and economic context of ecosystem services and provides a baseline of the current status of ecosystem services in law and society. It identifies shortcomings of current law and policy and the critical areas for improvement and forges an approach for the design of new law and policy for ecosystem services. Included are a series of nine empirical case studies that explore the problems caused by society’s failure to properly value natural capital. Among the case study topics considered are water issues, The Conservation Reserve Program, the National Conservation Buffer Initiative, the agricultural policy of the European Union, wetland mitigation, and pollution trading. The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services is a groundbreaking look at the question of whether and how law and policy can shape a sustainable system of ecosystem service management. It is an accessible and informative work for faculty, students, and policy makers concerned with ecology, economics, geography, political science, environmental studies, law, and related fields.

Creating Markets for Ecosystem Services

Creating Markets for Ecosystem Services PDF Author: James E. Salzman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Created by the interactions of living organisms with their environment, ecosystem services support our society in many critical ways, from providing clean air and water, decomposing waste, and pollinating flowers, to regulating climate, and pacifying floodwaters. Interest in ecosystem service markets has recently exploded, with a cover article in The Economist just a few months ago. Scholarship in the field, though, is still quite young. Despite their immense practical value, with rare exception, ecosystem services are neither prized by markets nor explicitly protected by the law. In recent years, an increasing number of initiatives around the world have sought to create markets for services, some dependent on government intervention and some created by entirely private ventures. These experiences have demonstrated that investing in natural capital rather than built capital can make both economic and policy sense. Informed by the author's recent experiences establishing a market for water quality in Australia, this Article fully explores the implications of an ecosystem services approach to environmental protection. The piece reviews the range of current payment schemes and identifies the key requirements for instrument design. Building off these insights, the piece then examines the fundamental policy challenge of payments for environmental improvements. Despite their poor reputation among policy analysts as wasteful or inefficient subsidies, payment schemes are found throughout environmental law and policy, both in the U.S. and abroad. This Article takes such payments seriously, demonstrating that they should be favored over the more traditional regulatory and tax-based approaches in far more settings than commonly assumed.

Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship

Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship PDF Author: F Stuart Chapin III
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387730338
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
The world is undergoing unprecedented changes in many of the factors that determine its fundamental properties and their in- ence on society. These changes include climate; the chemical c- position of the atmosphere; the demands of a growing human population for food and ?ber; and the mobility of organisms, ind- trial products, cultural perspectives, and information ?ows. The magnitude and widespread nature of these changes pose serious challenges in managing the ecosystem services on which society depends. Moreover, many of these changes are strongly in?uenced by human activities, so future patterns of change will continue to be in?uenced by society’s choices and governance. The purpose of this book is to provide a new framework for n- ural resource management—a framework based on stewardship of ecosystems for human well-being in a world dominated by unc- tainty and change. The goal of ecosystem stewardship is to respond to and shape change in social-ecological systems in order to s- tain the supply and opportunities for use of ecosystem services by society. The book links recent advances in the theory of resilience, sustainability, and vulnerability with practical issues of ecosystem management and governance. The book is aimed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students of natural resource management as well as professional managers, community leaders, and policy makers with backgrounds in a wide array of d- ciplines, including ecology, policy studies, economics, sociology, and anthropology.

Governing the Provision of Ecosystem Services

Governing the Provision of Ecosystem Services PDF Author: Roldan Muradian
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400751761
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
Founded on the core notion that we have reached a turning point in the governance, and thus the conservation, of ecosystems and the environment, this edited volume features more than 20 original chapters, each informed by the paradigm shift in the sector over the last decade. Where once the emphasis was on strategies for conservation, enacted through instruments of control such as planning and ‘polluter pays’ legislation, more recent developments have shown a shift towards incentive-based arrangements aimed at those responsible for providing the environmental services enabled by such ecosystems. Encouraging shared responsibility for watershed management, developed in Costa Rica, is a prime example, and the various interests involved in its instauration in Java are one of the subjects examined here.

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) PDF Author: Emily Fripp
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 6021504577
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
One of the aims of the CoLUPSIA project is to explore options for establishing payments for ecosystem services (PES) within the two districts where the project is working: Seram and Kapuas Hulu. These guidelines were prepared to support the CoLUPSIA team in completing this assessment and have since been revised to incorporate some findings from the field assessments.