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Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the face of external biophysical stressors
... In addition, sometimes measuring/estimating service flows requires complex and expensive assessments to boost confidence. 14,30,31 Often, schemes trade a single-service commodity (e.g., credits for carbon sequestration or nitrogen removal), rather than rewarding the provision of multiple services, where restored wetlands are designed and positioned to optimize cost-effective delivery of that service (Tables S1 and S2). 18,32 As wetlands can deliver multiple ecosystem services, 1 schemes that focus on a single service (i.e., the primary benefit) do not value and reward the provision of co-benefits (i.e., the secondary benefits). ...
... 36,37 Quantification of ecosystem service provision in marketbased schemes can often constitute a substantial cost that affects financial viability. 31,36,39 For example, G€ unther et al. 40 estimated in 2018 that assessing carbon for a 52 ha re-wetted fen in north-eastern Germany cost between V150,000 and V300,000 over 2-3 years. Several mechanisms, including standard setting, applying trading ratios and using direct fund investment, have been trialed to reduce the compliance costs of participating in wetland restoration projects. ...
... 51,52 Fund structures that include a centralized agency means the assessment and administrative burden can be low relative to environmental market approaches. 31,39,53 Both habitat stamp and LAWF schemes offer many learnings that could be used to improve the success of PES schemes in restoring wetlands (Table S1). ...
Wetlands provide ∼$47.4 trillion/year worth of ecosystem services globally and support immense biodiversity, yet face widespread drainage and pollution, and large-scale wetlands restoration is urgently needed. Payment for ecosystem service (PES) schemes provide a viable avenue for funding large-scale wetland restoration. However, schemes around the globe differ substantially in their goals, structure, challenges, and effectiveness in supporting large-scale wetland restoration. Here, we suggest wetland-based PES schemes use common asset trusts (CATs) to build investment portfolios of wetlands across landscapes that sustain and enhance overall provision of multiple ecosystem services. CATs can meet the needs of multiple investors, permit bundled payments, and provide flexibility to invest in the restoration of numerous services/values, all using a coordinated, highly collaborative, prioritized, and transparent process. CATs would support financial viability, facilitate efficiency to reduce administrative burdens, and enable credibility and social licence building to restore wetland values and services globally.
... PES as an economic tool is increasingly being used to protect ecosystems and their ecosystem services under threat, improving climate change mitigation efforts on a global scale and reducing carbon emissions from land use change. However, biophysical stressors external to the PES project site, such as forest fires, can threaten ecosystem stability and become a challenge for PES project development (Friess et al., 2015). Strategies to deal with these stressors should be incorporated into the PES project, such as: exposure and vulnerability assessment, mitigation and financial instruments for accommodation. ...
... Strategies to deal with these stressors should be incorporated into the PES project, such as: exposure and vulnerability assessment, mitigation and financial instruments for accommodation. (Friess et al., 2015). ...
Eventos climáticos extremos e registros de desastres têm aumentado no Brasil e ainda é recente a criação de políticas públicas consolidadas para a gestão do risco de desastres. A história de ocupação e desenvolvimento econômico do país levou a retirada da cobertura vegetal original e um possível desequilíbrio nos ecossistemas e seus serviços que contribuem com soluções sustentáveis para a redução do risco de desastres (RRD), adaptação às mudanças climáticas e desenvolvimento sustentável. Os programas de pagamentos por serviços ambientais (PSA) podem servir como instrumentos de políticas ambientais de transferência de recursos financeiros para quem presta serviços ambientais. O Brasil regulamentou recentemente a Política Nacional de Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais (PNPSA) – Lei no 14.119/2021 – e este estudo objetivou verificar a inclusão dos serviços ecossistêmicos de regulação que contribuem para a RRD nesta legislação. Utilizou a análise de diagnóstico de problemas apresentada pelo Guia de Políticas Públicas (Casa Civil da Presidência da República, 2018) organizado em etapas com metodologia mista. Essa pesquisa contribui com as investigações científicas para o PSA e discute as contribuições da PNPSA na área de redução do risco de desastres que possam trazer ganhos socioambientais diante do contexto de crise ambiental global.
... From 2012 to 2015, the focus of the research is on determining the role that coastal ecosystems such as seagrass and mangroves play in carbon sequestration and conservation [69][70][71][72][73][74]. Moreover, the concept of blue carbon is a recurring theme, emphasizing the importance of carbon storage in these ecosystems for mitigating climate change [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]. From 2016 to 2018, due to the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, research has been primarily focused on examining how blue carbon relates to the SDGs [77], as well as how to translate blue carbon into practical policies and actions [78][79][80]. ...
... First, we must estimate the carbon price, and then we must address economic, social, and governance issues [142,259]. Despite increasing promotion of PES to protect blue carbon ecosystems, biophysical stressors external to the PES site (pollution, etc.) will affect the potential contribution of PES sites [75,260]. One of the few positive stories for ocean acidification is that if ocean acidification results in a significant increase in above-and below-ground biomass, this increase in sequestration capacity will be worth between £500 and 600 billion between 2010 and 2100 [70]. ...
Abstract: Halfway through Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, only 15 percent of the goals have been reached. As a carbon storage and climate change mitigation mechanism, blue carbon is closely related to sustainable development goals and plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. In spite of its great potential, blue carbon still faces several challenges in terms of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Herein, this review aims to retrieve all known impacts of blue carbon on sustainable development through research published on the Web of Science from 2012 to 2023 using a sequence of bibliometric analyses. Keywords such as "blue carbon" and "sustain*" (including "sustainability", "sustainable", etc.) were used for article extraction. CiteSpace, a science mapping tool, was used to capture and visually present the bibliometric information in the research about blue carbon and sustainable development. Upon reviewing the existing literature, no study has concentrated on bibliometrically analyzing and visualizing studies about blue carbon and sustainable development. This study sets out to fill this gap by examining the key areas of concentration in published works on blue carbon and sustainable development from 2012 to date. Moreover, the integration of blue carbon and sustainable development may help to develop supportive policies for marine carbon sinks. Despite the valuable contribution of this study to the blue carbon and sustainable development body of knowledge, generalizations of the results must be made cautiously due to the use of a single database, which in this case is the Web of Science.
... More importantly, non-anthropogenic influences, including tropical storms/cyclones may cause the loss of carbon, but cannot be controlled. These factors are external to the PES site, they should be considered outside of the control of a PES site manager (Friess et al., 2015). Therefore, mangrove PES projects should be framed against the levels of risk that can affect carbon gains. ...
... Therefore, mangrove PES projects should be framed against the levels of risk that can affect carbon gains. This risk also needs to be assessed, mitigated, or accommodated and requires management actions like credit buffers where more credits are generated than sold to compensate for losses or a spatially large-scale threat assessment (Friess et al., 2015;Friess et al., 2020). ...
Mangrove forests are often distributed in estuaries and tropical and subtropical coastal areas, where the tides come in and out every day. Mangroves play a significant role in human life in these areas. The study used PlanetScope images in 2017, 2020 and 2023 combined with NDVI index to build mangrove maps and determine biomass and carbon stocks for Quang Yen town. Results showed that the area of mangrove forests in Quang Yen town was 3470.026. 3358.81 and 3418.10 hectares for 2017, 2020, and 2023, respectively. The accuracy of the mangrove forest map between years was 88%, 88% and 88%, respectively. The total AGB reserves were 18,302,976 tons, 94,104,161 tons and 145,035,226 tons. The total AGC was 8,693,913 tons, 44,699,477 tons and 68,891,730 tons for 2017, 2020 and 2023. The use of remote sensing technology to build carbon strock maps for mangrove forests in Quang Yen town can be applied to other provinces especially for different periods. These findings are essential for sustainable mangrove management in the study area. At the same time, finding suitable solutions. Blue Carbon and Payment for Ecosystem Services are effective solutions that can be applied here to minimize risks and enhance the effectiveness of mangrove forests in the future.
... Increasing awareness of these types of issues have also highlighted how seemingly 'outside' factors can fundamentally shape PES function (Friess, Phelps, Garmendia, & Gomez-Baggethun, 2015). In particular, biophysical stressors that are external to PES sites, such as forest fires, pollution, sea level rise, and invasive species can deeply affect ecosystem stability and service provision (e.g., Funk, Matzek, Bernhardt, & Johnson, 2014;Khatun et al., 2015;Khatun, Corbera, & Ball, 2016). ...
... Thus, identifying and quantifying ES with the inclusion of the impact of invasive species at landscape level is required. Friess et al. (2015) identify three broad strategies to operationalise such schemes, and these are (a) define target ES, establishing a baseline of ES supply, and the expected conservation outcomes; (b) identify PES participants, notably service providers and beneficiaries; and (c) design an institutional mechanism whereby ES beneficiaries compensate ES providers. In short, PES can take many forms and involves a combination of positive incentives, policy programmes, and private-led conservation projects (Khatun, 2011). ...
Terrestrial invasive species have been identified as one of the largest threats to endemic plants and wildlife in Galapagos and their spread remains one of the biggest challenges for the region. The management of these species is a common link among all land use activities and their spread impacts all residents as economic activities in Galapagos are linked to its status as a unique landscape. The study aims, through the use of key informant interviews, policy documents and literature, to provide new insights into plant invasive species management by exploring two land use interventions ‐ and the associated challenges and opportunities – currently being proposed by policymakers, academics and other relevant actors. These are 1) local sustainable agricultural production and 2) policies and mechanisms, specifically the ‘Buen vivir’ paradigm with/and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). It explores how these can create bridges and be beneficial to both conservation and development. However, whilst the initiatives offer real opportunities to manage and control invasive species, challenges remain in the form of how these activities will be carried out and by whom. Findings show that probable success is dependent on community inclusion with coordinated and integrated approaches from robust institutions with connectivity among land use actors/managers. In addition, support is needed for organisations/stakeholders that are currently tackling the invasive species issue. Studies on land use remain crucial as relatively contained and pristine landscapes such as Galapagos are likely to be increasingly important as a means to detect human‐induced alterations at the frontiers of ecology.
... Adams et al., 2009;Latour, 2016). The lack of sediment and increased salinization of freshwater are other consequences of the changing hydrological regimes in the US deltas, causing land subsidence and land loss from the SLR, especially in the Mississippi and Sacramento-San Joaquin Deltas (Day et al., 1997;Friess et al., 2015;Loucks, 2019;McInnes, 2018;Rasch et al., 2005). Recently, the negative impacts of waterway modification in the US have driven several states to begin removing many old dams and restoring the natural flow regimes of rivers (Day et al., 2021;Kemp et al., 2014;McInnes, 2018). ...
Deltas have a remarkable capacity to sustain human populations, owing to their productivity and biodiversity. The increasing demand for fertile land and valuable resources in deltas has driven dramatic anthropogenic changes in deltas around the world, resulting in their ecological degradation. To make informed decisions regarding management of land in deltas, it is essential to expand the current understanding of the underlying causes and consequences of delta changes. This knowledge is critical for developing effective spatial solutions to deltas. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of existing literature on delta changes over time and across diverse regions. Utilizing the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) conceptual framework, we sought to identify the driving factors and consequences associated with these changes to gain a deeper understanding. In doing so, we explored (1) differences in study focus among regions, and (2) the causes and effects of delta changes. After reviewing 384 articles, we found that delta-change studies have become increasingly popular over the past two decades, particularly in Northeast Asia, North America, and South Asia. However, Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, which account for almost 50 % of large deltas worldwide, have had few studies. The most mentioned indirect drivers are demography, economy, and governance, which are strongly linked to land use/cover change and waterway modification. These drivers are also strongly linked to many land changes, particularly forest and wetland loss, in deltas worldwide. We suggest that future research should focus on areas and deltas that are currently underrepresented, especially those in biodiversity hotspots and areas where the population depends heavily on delta ecosystems and associated nature's contributions to people (NCPs).
... This alarming statistic paints a worrisome picture for the future, as it is projected that numerous species will cease to exist by 2020 (Polidoro et al., 2010). Numerous threats and stressors, that is, anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic, pose a risk to the longevity of mangroves in various coastal systems, and they originate from different sources and occur at multiple scales (Friess, Phelps, et al., 2015;Friess, Thompson, et al., 2015). In addition, policy challenges and ineffective approaches impede reconciliation between different government departments, stakeholders, and forestreliant communities in improving livelihoods and the mangrove conservation process. ...
The sole home for the iconic Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris), the Sundarbans mangrove forest, 5 is now confronting multi-layered threats. This paper aims to analyse the existing integration 6 approaches to conserve the invaluable wild species of the Sundarbans mangrove forest and 7 critically evaluate the pragmatism and challenges of the integration approaches, such as in-8 situ and ex-situ methods, and the role of development partners, which include non-9 governmental organisations (NGOs) and other actors. This study finds that tree cover 10 substantially increased by only 4% in the Sundarbans mangrove forest, whereas various 11 forms of mangrove forest degradation are prevalent. The vulnerability of the wildlife 12 sanctuaries, national parks, captive breeding centres, Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs), 13 eco-parks, and wildlife and game reserves also raises questions regarding the preservation of 14 wild species. Yet, many local and foreign-run NGOs are launching numerous projects to 15 conserve the Sundarbans mangrove forest and improve the livelihood of coastal forest-reliant 16 communities.
... All three negative flows from centres of wealth dominate, and extend beyond jurisdictional bordersor across markedly different sociocultural contexts within countriesin a process known as telecoupling (Liu et al., 2013). Conventional, largely site-level conservation, is inadequate for tackling these transboundary flows associated with global wealth drivers (Gordon et al., 2010;Friess et al., 2015;Díaz et al., 2019). ...
The convergence of the biodiversity and climate crises, widening of wealth inequality, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the urgent need to mobilize change to secure sustainable futures. Centres of tropical biodiversity are a major focus of conservation efforts, delivered in predominantly site-level interventions often incorporating alternative-livelihood provision or poverty-alleviation components. Yet, a focus on site-level intervention is ill-equipped to address the disproportionate role of (often distant) wealth in biodiversity collapse. Further these approaches often attempt to 'resolve' local economic poverty in order to safeguard biodiversity in a seemingly virtuous act, potentially overlooking local communities as the living locus of solutions to the biodiversity crisis. We offer Connected Conservation: a dual-branched conservation model that commands novel actions to tackle distant wealth-related drivers of biodiversity decline, while enhancing site-level conservation to empower biodiversity stewards. We synthesize diverse literatures to outline the need for this shift in conservation practice. We identify three dominant negative flows arising in centres of wealth that disproportionately undermine biodiversity, and highlight the three key positive, though marginalized, flows that enhance biodiversity and exist within biocultural centres. Connected Conservation works to amplify the positive flows, and diminish the negative flows, and thereby orientates towards desired states with justice at the centre. We identify connected conservation actions that can be applied and replicated to address the telecoupled, wealth-related reality of
... The scale of ecosystem service losses due to habitat destruction and degradation has promoted growing interest in payments for ecosystem services schemes to incentivise conservation measures (Friess et al., 2015). A monetary value reference for ecosystem losses can be useful to incentivise landowners to finance their properties' recovery or implement other environmental programs, as studies have suggested (Lee et al., 2015;Pacheco, 2021). ...
Fire has major impacts on forest ecosystems, with heightened relevance in a Mediterranean country such as Portugal, which within Europe features the highest number of wildfires and the second larger burnt area. After each significant wildfire, the Portuguese Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) assesses the main environmental impacts and proposes emergency stabilisation measures following specific regulations. This study seeks to improve such assessments by using a data triangulation approach to characterise the impacts of wildfires
on ecosystem services in the country. First, a systematic literature review is performed to identify the scientific studies that address the issue. Next, a document analysis of all the emergency stabilisation reports and technical reports available on ICNF’s website is performed. Finally, a survey of experts’ perceptions on the topic completes the analysis. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity definitions of ecosystem services were employed to compare the different findings. The results indicate that the experts perceive wildfires to significantly impact all ecosystem services, even though the literature has so far only focused on 12 of them, and ICNF has so far only focused on 7 in its reports. The potential underlying motives are discussed. In particular, some important impacts identified in the literature, as is the case of Climate regulation, a topic of the highest priority in the European
environmental agenda, have not so far been a topic of focus in ICNF’s reports, which suggests relevant opportunities for enhancing its reporting process in the future.
... To contribute to mitigating ES trade-offs, promoting the conservation of ecosystems and enhancing livelihoods, in recent decades, a number of environmental initiatives such as payments for ecosystem services (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) have been applied from local to global scale (Friess et al., 2015;Bladon et al., 2016;Nava-lópez et al., 2018;Yang et al., 2018;Perevochtchikova et al., 2021). Although market-based approaches and/or PES outcomes and for sustainability remain controversial (Redford and Adams, 2009;Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010;Van Hecken et al., 2015;Yang et al., 2018;Kaiser et al., 2021), it is undeniable that the growth of PES programs have focused on the dual goals of improving ES and contributing to poverty alleviation, especially for the rural poor in developing countries (Gauvin et al., 2010). ...
... The conditions and necessity of implementing PES in an area depend on many factors, thus requiring consideration of ecosystem status and threats such as climate change, deforestation, soil erosion and desertification (Friess et al., 2015). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment showed that more than 60% of ESs in the world are degrading or transforming, and climate change and continuous human disturbance are heavy threats to ESs (Reid et al., 2005;Schröter et al., 2005). ...
Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are becoming a global ecological protection strategy used to promote sustainable social and economic development. However, the current PES research and applications are often local and one-sided. The lack of a unified framework for PES results in a high policy cost and low ecological and social benefits. A large number of local PES experiences need to be comprehensively analyzed to construct a unified PES framework, which can provide support for the implementation and optimization of nature conservation policy in different regions of the world. Here, we combined natural language processing methods to analyze 1919 global studies on PES. We obtained the topics and spatiotemporal distributions of PES, as well as the compensation modes of hotspot ecosystem services in 114 countries worldwide. PES have been studied in 80% of the world (excluding Antarctica), but the research topics and distributions are very uneven. We found a disconnection between PES socioeconomic strategies and knowledge of natural ecosystem dynamics. Therefore, the knowledge and experience of PES must be exchanged globally, and PES need to be further integrated with the sustainable development goal (SDG) framework. We propose a PES framework that couples socioeconomic and ecosystem dynamics and be oriented toward sustainable development to make comprehensive management decisions. On this basis, a consistent PES solution may be provided for future theoretical research and implementation strategies of conservation.
... In further research, it would be interesting to test ScenaLand in larger-scale regions and contexts. Besides, and in order to implement sustainable scenarios, incentives to help farmers adopt sustainable land management practices can be investigated based on the "Polluter Pays Principle" (Valera et al. 2017) or with the introduction of payments for ecosystem services (Friess et al. 2015; Li and Zipp 2019). ...
Scenarios serve science by testing the sensitivity of a system and/or society to adapt to the future. In this study, we present a new land use scenario methodology called ScenaLand. This methodology aims to develop plausible and contrasting land use and management (LUM) scenarios, useful to explore how LUM (e.g. soil and water conservation techniques) may affect ecosystem services under global change in a wide range of environments. ScenaLand is a method for constructing narrative and spatially explicit land use scenarios that are useful for end-users and impact modellers. This method is innovative because it merges literature and expert knowledge, and its low data requirement makes it easy to be implemented in the context of inter-site comparison, including global change projections. ScenaLand was developed and tested on six different Mediterranean agroecological and socio-economic contexts during the MASCC research project (Mediterranean agricultural soil conservation under global change). The method first highlights the socioeconomic trends of each study site including emerging trends such as new government laws, LUM techniques through a qualitative survey addressed to local experts. Then, the method includes a ranking of driving factors, a matrix about land use evolution, and soil and water conservation techniques. ScenaLand also includes a framework to develop narratives along with two priority axes (contextualized to environmental protection vs. land productivity in this study). In the context of this research project, four contrasting scenarios are proposed: S1
(business-as-usual), S2 (market-oriented), S3 (environmental protection), and S4 (sustainable). Land use maps are then built with the creation of LUM allocation rules based on agroecological zoning. ScenaLand resulted in a robust and easy method to apply with the creation of 24 contrasted scenarios. These scenarios come not only with narratives but also with spatially explicit maps that are potentially used by impact modellers and other end-users. The last part of our study discusses the way the method can be implemented including a comparison between sites and the possibilities to implement ScenaLand in other contexts.
... Many blue carbon sink studies have been conducted on the purpose of climate change mitigation in both the natural and social sciences (Friess et al. 2015;Macreadie et al. 2017;Moritsch et al. 2021;Schile et al. 2017). Studies have reviewed the development of blue carbon science and the challenges in clarifying the scientific landscape of blue carbon sinks (Alongi 2012;Duarte and Krause-Jensen 2017;Himes-Cornell et al. 2018;Mcleod et al. 2011). ...
Blue carbon sinks (mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses) are considered an effective nature-based approach for climate change mitigation. Despite growing interest, a systematic review of this topic is still scarce. This study evaluated 1348 blue carbon sink-related articles from 1990 to 2020 using bibliometric technology. The results from total of 85 countries, 1538 institutions, and 4492 authors indicated that blue carbon sink research shows the characteristics of rapid growth. The most active country, institution, and author were USA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Duarte C.M., respectively. Relatively close academic collaboration has formed in blue carbon science. Environmental Sciences was the most popular category with 590 papers. The percentages of articles related to mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses were 63.87%, 40.36%, and 40.65%, respectively. Mangrove carbon sinks are the most popular topic, and stable isotope and remote sensing are the most researched technologies for mapping and quantifying blue carbon sinks. The threats to blue carbon sinks are complex and distinctive. Restoration, conservation, and management of blue carbon ecosystems aimed to improve their carbon sink capacity are becoming hot issues and should be further investigated in the future. These findings provide a scientific roadmap for further research in this field and will enable stakeholders to identify the research trend.
... Sustainably and equitably governing transboundary environmental problems is a significant challenge, yet panacea policy responses informed by misrepresentative semantics can be damaging and incur distributive burdens that extenuate the vulnerabilities of already marginalized groups Friess, Phelps, Garmendia, & Gómez-Baggethun, 2015;Harwell, 2000;Thung, 2018). For example, the blanket ban of all fire that occurred following the extensive peatfires in Indonesia unduly impacted swidden farmers on mineral soils -i.e. ...
Once fire-resistant rainforests are becoming fire prone. Uncontrolled fires reflect new ecologies of the Anthropocene, driven by interactions of multiple actors and sectors across scales. They threaten the ecological integrity of tropical forests, impact global climate regimes and importantly cause considerable social and economic burdens. Numerous smallholder farming communities throughout the forested tropics experience the immediate place-based damages of uncontrolled fires and increasingly flammable landscapes. However, these burdens remain largely ‘invisible’ as leading narratives concentrate on losses accrued at aggregate scales, including to climate and biodiversity. Rather, smallholder farmers are often cast as culprits of contagion rooted in colonial condemnation of their customary fire-based agricultural practices. We use an environmental justice lens, notably the dimensions of recognition and distribution, to reveal the distributional burdens of uncontrolled fires for these land managers. We use empirical data from four case studies in three countries: Brazil, Madagascar and the Philippines, to explore the i) burdens of uncontrolled fire, ii) changing risks, iii) drivers and iv) responses to uncontrolled fire, and finally, the v) level of smallholder dependence on intentional fire. We show that place-based burdens of uncontrolled landscape fire are significant, including in landscapes where fire frequency is low. Burdens are both material and non-material and include infringements on food security, health, livelihoods, social relations and the burden of prohibitive fire policy itself. Equitable responses to uncontrolled fires must be sensitive to the distinctions between fire types. Further, we suggest that through bringing visibility to the place-based burdens of uncontrolled fires, we can begin to co-design resilient responses that avoid placing the final burden of risk reduction on to marginalized smallholder farming communities.
... Worldwide, mangrove forest areas have decreased by 0.3-0.7% per year [3]. Many mangrove forests are in the area of pond or other aquaculture cultivation systems, making mangrove forests vulnerable to runoff of nutrients and organic matter [4][5]. Mangrove forests, under pressure from climate change and changes in coastal ecosystems, are valuable ecosystems globally. ...
Avicennia alba is one of the best mangrove colonies. A. alba seems to adapt well to grow stably on dynamic flat mud. A. alba species through their root growth, vare able to rely on sediments quickly, resist the hydrodynamic force of waves and tidal currents within a few days and then withstand the movement of sediments in the upper sedimentary layers. While from Ceriops tagal propagules and Rhizophora mucronata, after falling from the mother tree, certain dehydration levels stimulate the initiation of root formation as a sign to show dormancy propagules. As a result, root formation cis delayed when propagules float in the sea during dispersal. Meanwhile, the formation phase of mangrove propagules is faster in conditions of low salinity than in conditions of high salinity, and if during the rainy season, conditions for propagules' information are better. However, these two species follow different strategies for the distribution and formation of mangrove zoning, and these findings contribute to the explanation of the distribution of different species.
... Through consultation, targeted poverty alleviation projects can be discussed and implemented, such as the National Poverty Alleviation Project (Guo et al., 2019) and various compensation policies (e.g. Natural Forest Conservation Programme, Public Welfare Forest Policy, Sloping Land Conversion Programme) for forest protectors outside nature reserves (Friess et al., 2015;Jack et al., 2008). The framework presented in this study can provide technical support in that process, as spatially explicit modelling of ESs allows future scenarios of ecomanagement to be generated and explored (Adem Burkhard et al., 2018). ...
Natural vegetation is important for ecosystem services (ESs) provision, but is decreasing rapidly due to human-driven land use change, especially rapid expansion of commercial plantations. This is leading to a decrease in ESs provision, so measures are urgently needed to protect natural vegetation. Human activities, especially commercial plantations, can also lead to differences in vegetation types and associated ESs provision. This feature varies with altitude, an issue which has received insufficient attention. In this study, four ESs relevant to stakeholders (carbon storage, nitrogen export, sediment retention and water yield) were assessed. InVEST models and statistical methods (ANOVA; exploratory hierarchical clustering) were used to analyse: 1) similarities/differences in ESs provision between different vegetation types and 2) spatial differences in ESs in different altitude zones in the Xishuangbanna region of China. The results showed that vegetation types in Xishuangbanna and their ESs supply capacity differed markedly, with the overall ESs supply capacity of natural forests exceeding that of commercial plantations. Promotion of mixed organic agriculture can be a balanced measure to secure future economic development and ecological protection. This study can act as reference for vegetation protection in other areas within and beyond China.
... Cash forest encroachment could bring huge benefits to villagers; the value provided by conservation is high, mainly to the relevant companies and tourists. Managers should solve this problem from the perspective of benefit distribution by providing ecological compensation to local residents, as beneficiaries should pay for ecosystem services (Friess et al., 2015;Jack et al., 2008). ...
Over the past 50 years, cash forest encroachment presents a major threat to tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia. Economic and social benefits provided by natural conservation and the loss of these benefits through encroachment must be accounted for. Here, we evaluated ecosystem services provided by a protected rainforest, Mengyang Reserve in China, in comparison to a simulated scenario where possible encroachment occurs. Strict conservation (i.e., current state) provided more value from carbon stocks, greenhouse gas sequestration, domestic water supply, and nature-based recreation. Yet, local villagers still aspire to expand their cash forests, especially rubber and tea. Based on our conservative estimate, the cash tree encroachment basically satisfying the cultivation needs of the villagers would reduce the net value by approximately 50% per year. Through placing numerical values on loss and benefit, governmental policy makers and local stakeholders might be able to visualize the impact of conservation policy guidance. Horizontal transfer payment based on village-explicit opportunity costs should be proposed from the context-specific valuation of ecosystem services, and should include increased funding, simplifying the process, and expanding the scope of payments. Our results provide a useful lesson on the understanding the effectiveness of ecosystem services value in tropical reserves.
... With human-related nutrient enrichment on coastal areas expected to increase in the coming decades coupled with global warming (increasing by 1.1-5°C according to IPCC scenario predictions of future temperature) (Koch et al., 2015), mangrove forests will experience greater interacting stresses of eutrophication and rising temperatures (Lovelock et al., 2009). Many mangrove forests are located within increasing aquaculture pond developments, making them vulnerable to nutrient and organic matter runoff (Friess et al., 2015). ...
The establishment and wellbeing of seedlings governs the spread and survival of mangrove forests. Eutrophication and global warming are major challenges endangering mangrove ecosystem integrity. How these stressors affect seedling growth is not well understood. In a mesocosm experiment we grew mangrove seedlings in temperature-controlled chambers and investigated single and combined effects of temperature (23 and 33 °C), organic matter and dissolved nutrients on seedling trait morphology. Seedling survival was lowest in organic matter treatments. Combined effects of temperature and nutrients caused significant differences in root morphology with fewer but longer and thicker 3rd order roots, fewer 2nd and no 1st order roots in nutrient-enriched (23 °C) compared to non-enriched treatments (33 °C). Our results indicate these seedlings are less resilient to withstand their dynamic environment, in which they must settle and establish, due to lower root complexity. Mangrove ecosystems are negatively affected by global and local stresses; if new seedlings, which support forest recovery, are also affected then this amplifies stresses.
... Use of habitat creation through wetlands and vegetated ditches to reduce flooding or storm damage or to mitigate water pollution, improve water quality and compensate for loss elsewhere [77][78][79][80][81] Use of satellite remote sensing data to find and repair/compensate damage to ecology or habitat loss, mainly used for oil spills currently but could be applied to habitat loss [82] Use of geoengineering such as urea fertilisation to increase fish populations or using natural sediment transport systems to deposit sediment along the coastline to compensate for loss [83] Use of natural resources to increase flood defence level, such as mangrove restoration or afforestation [84] Use of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes to conserve threatened ecosystems or to compensate over and above the value of ecosystem lost [85] Soft engineering approaches to provide compensation such as mangrove afforestation, coral reef transplants or introductions, marine reserves, planting of water filtering plants [86] Use of bioremediation methods like those seen in water pollution incidents [87] Incorporating net gain bargaining in development of marine energy, integrating ecosystem service impacts into decision making [88] Targeting certain impacts to improve status of certain species, some impacts more effectively mitigated than others [89] Predicting need for biodiversity offsetting for habitat or biodiversity loss using a projects Environmental Impact Assessment [90] Note: These solutions are just to provide examples within each category. They are not a comprehensive list of solution options schemes or other catchment based activities. ...
Tidal lagoons are presented as an environmentally friendly alternative to tidal barrages. This does not mean that their environmental impacts can be overlooked. A UK government review recommended a pilot scheme lagoon go ahead, with careful environmental monitoring. Despite recent government rejection of a lagoon scheme, it is still more important than ever to consider environmental solution options for any future lagoon developments. There are no operating lagoons in the world and so their environmental impacts are not fully understood. However, there is a vast quantity of literature available from other industries addressing similar impacts in the coastal, ocean and river environments. This systematic review follows the PRISMA and CEE guidance. Using this methodology the available literature covering relevant solution options from other industries that could be applied to future lagoon developments was quantified. This presents an investigation into solution options only, giving a quantitative analysis of what resources are available, how this compares to industry understanding, where the expertise lies globally, what impacts are being addressed and how applicable the solutions are for lagoon application. This paper analyses the extent and relevance of this available research on solutions as a resource for the nascent lagoon industry. Over half of the solutions found in this review require only small shifts in development for them to be realistic solution options for the lagoon industry in the future. This review opens the door on a vast and valuable resource and justifies the need for further investigation into solutions for the lagoon industry.
... Coastal area is one of the most productive ecosystem in featuring resilience of materials, energy, and organisms as nature based solutions (Alves et al., 2013;Halpern et al., 2012;Sutton-Grier et al., 2015;Treasure et al., 2015). However, rapid urbanization and development in coastal area leads to dramatic deteriorate ecosystems, such as loss of wetland, water quality deterioration, and biodiversity loss (Chaffin et al., 2016;Friess et al., 2015;Ma et al., 2014;Peng et al., 2015). Terrestrial ecosystems and ocean health becomes one of the principal focus of research in terrestrial and marine ecosystems (Halpern et al., 2012;Li et al., 2017;Samhouri and Levin, 2012). ...
Coastal area is a typical, complex area interacted between terrestrial and ocean systems. Catastrophic regime shifts of coastal ecosystem may occur as a result of gradual changing forces exerted by external factors. In this study, we presented an indicator-based framework which includes the land-water-biodiversity (LWB) nexus indices of catastrophe analysis to emphasize resilience of Xiamen, a coastal city of China, associated with implementation of integrated coastal management (ICM). The results demonstrate the changes of equilibria in land, water, and biodiversity subsystems that were divided into three periods (1996–2000, 2000–2012, and 2012–2015). The implementation of several ICMs helped to preserve resilient coastal ecosystems since 1997, which indicates effective guidance of resilient coastal management on coastal land, water and biodiversity. Based on trends of indicator changes, we identified the main indicators controlling catastrophic transformation of the LWB nexus system state, which include built-up area and coastal reclaimed area in land subsystem, seawater quality in water subsystem, and all four biodiversity indices. The identified key drivers to catastrophic regime shifts can help to navigate decision making in resilient coastal ecosystem management. The Xiamen case study provides a systematic and quantitative framework for resilience assessment of integrated coastal management and sustainable development.
... PES must account for risks to permanence (point ii), and in particular natural risks caused by climate change and different patterns of erosion that might reduce the area dedicate to grazing. A series of strategies must be adopted to minimise these risks, from the evaluation of exposure and vulnerability of saltmarshes to external stressors, to their mitigations provided by a larger scale of participants; from the formulation of landscape-scale PES schemes to the promotion of financial instruments such as insurance or PES credit buffers to replace or make alternative payments for a failed project (Friess et al., 2015). Other forms of risks are internal to the project management such as lack of sufficient funds to meet the opportunity costs of reduced grazing or reversal to higher intensive use in habitats outside the area of intervention. ...
Saltmarshes provide important services including flood control, climate regulation, and provisioning services when grazed by livestock for agriculture and conservation purposes. Grazing diminishes aboveground carbon, creating a trade-off between these two services. Furthermore, saltmarshes are threatened by overgrazing. To provide saltmarsh protection and ensure the continuing delivery of ecosystem services, there is a need to incentivise land managers to stock environmentally sensible densities. We therefore investigated the possibility of agri-environmental schemes and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) to compensate for lost livestock revenue under reduced grazing regimes and provide carbon sequestration and other benefits. This is the first study to consider the benefits arising from a potential carbon market to saltmarshes, although similar schemes exist for peatland and woodland. We calculated the net economic benefit (costs of livestock production are removed from revenue) to farmers obtained from a hectare of grazed saltmarsh under low (0.3 Livestock Units per hectare per year), moderate (0.6), high (1.0) and very high (2.0) stocking densities accounting for livestock revenue, carbon benefits, and agri-environmental subsidies. We repeated the procedure considering additional benefits transferred from the literature in terms of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services provided by protected saltmarshes. The net benefits were assessed for a range of market carbon prices and social costs of carbon, e.g. the opportunity cost of carbon for society. Applying the model to Scottish saltmarshes we find that the current range of market prices could prompt transitions from high to moderate regimes in areas where livestock value is low, however break-even prices for transitions showed high spatial variability due to spatial variability in livestock values. In some areas of the West Highlands, the break-even carbon price is negative, indicating that the current agri-environmental schemes are able to more than compensate for the lost revenue accruing to farmers by a reduced grazing density. However, in other areas, such as the Outer Hebrides, the break-even carbon price is positive. Private PES schemes or increased public subsidies should then be provided to generate net benefits. It is reasonable to infer that a pure carbon market may have limited scope in incentivising consumers to buy carbon services, especially in areas with limited local number of buyers and corporates of small size. Under this circumstance, a premium carbon market offering bundled ecosystem services may help reduce grazing pressure across a larger number of Scottish saltmarshes, thereby providing globally important climate regulation services and at the same time protecting sensitive habitats.
... The comparative performance of forest conservation initiatives is a research topic of much debate (Bruner et al., 2001;Engel et al., 2008;Ferraro & Hanauer, 2014;Joppa et al., 2008;Nelson & Chomitz, 2011;Nepstad et al., 2006), within which fire is identified as a key stressor, although it is often overlooked in their design (Barlow et al., 2012;Friess et al., 2015). Despite the importance of reserves for conservation, sustainable development and stabilising climate change (Ricketts et al., 2010;Silvestrini et al., 2011;Soares-Filho et al., 2010), their effectiveness at mitigating fire prevalence is not fully understood (Morello et al., 2017). ...
Global environmental change has motivated multiple interventions in pursuit of sustainable outcomes within tropical forest landscapes. Fire is recognised as a key stressor facing forest conservation efforts. Large‐scale accidental fires are increasingly prevalent across the forested tropics, generating negative impacts across sectors and scales. Policy responses to mega‐fires in the Brazilian Amazon have been diverse but all are dominated by an anti‐fire narrative that highlights long‐stigmatised smallholder agricultural practices. Despite forest conservation initiatives and fire management policies, escaped fire (wildfire) remains pervasive. Forest conservation initiatives are often situated in contexts where swidden agriculture prevails, generating a need for an improved understanding of the interplay between fire management and conservation initiatives on the ground. We explore these dynamics through a case study approach in three leading forest conservation initiative types, situated across diverse contexts in the Brazilian Amazon: a Reduction of Emissions of Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) site (in Middle Solimões region), an extractive reserve (RESEX) (in Arapíuns region), and a Green Municipality Pact (GMP) (in Paragominas). Between sites, climate and colonisation histories vary, yet all demonstrate that farmers experience the burden of escaped fire, attesting to the failure of fire management policies and suggesting that fire (as currently managed) threatens forest conservation goals. Restrictive fire management policies do not replace the necessity of fire‐based agriculture and rather serve to disempower swidden farmers by making burning increasingly illicit. We show that awareness of fire‐free alternatives exists, yet experience is limited and constraints are considerable. We argue that marginalising fire use in the context of forest conservation initiatives contributes to a legacy of failed interventions and jeopardises partnerships between communities and conservation practitioners. Finally, we suggest that given the absence of imminent and viable fire‐free alternatives, particularly in sites where swidden and conservation collide, a new model of fire warrants experimentation.
... Engaging buyers in PES may be challenging if they are uncertain about the likelihood of PES outcomes as was found to be the case with sugarcane companies involved in a watershed PES scheme in Columbia (de Lima et al. 2017). This is warranted since PES schemes can face considerable uncertainty; for example, biophysical stressors such as forest fires and sea-level rise can affect ecosystem service provision and permanence (Friess et al. 2015). ...
Environmental sustainability relies on the adequate financing of biodiversity conservation—increasingly from the private sector. Meanwhile, corporate sustainability relies on the effective management of natural capital and ecosystem services used in production. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) offers an important practical mechanism for addressing these issues. However, the uptake of corporate-financed PES has been underwhelming, implying that companies may face institutional and motivational challenges to participate in PES. This article presents an assessment framework to determine the conduciveness of PES to real-world corporate environmental strategies and actions, be they (a) voluntary or compliance-based, (b) reactive or proactive, (c) requiring low or high amounts of data, (d) seeking a direct or indirect return on investment (ROI), (e) conducted proximal to or far from the operation site, (f) short-term or long-term, and (g) utilising internal or external resources. Interview data elicited from public, private, and civil sector actors in Thailand and the Philippines highlights key barriers to corporate-financed PES. Results imply companies may be: (1) hesitant to get involved with unknown or uncertain concepts such as ecosystem services; (2) reluctant to fund the technical studies and repeat payments that PES requires; (3) disinterested in direct ROI—instead content with philanthropic projects that can boost public relations; and (4) bound by protocols that restrict the spatial and temporal scales at which PES can operate. To overcome these challenges, policy makers could devise reputational and economic incentives, and incorporate ecosystem services into existing institutions such as environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and ISO 14001. Meanwhile, PES practitioners (government agencies and NGOs) should use quick and simple metrics to quantify ecosystem services, and tolerate buyer willingness-to-pay. Increasing corporate ecosystem service demand, and participation in PES, will likely require firm-level institutional change, and business strategies to improve supply chain management and mitigate the negative effects of environmental and climate change.
... More difficult to assess are 'indirect use values', which have been traditionally calculated either as a function of products that are harvested elsewhere, such as off-shore fisheries, or as the projected investment to maintain or substitute ecosystem services provided by unimpacted systems, in case of subsequent losses. Despite these difficulties, there is an increasing tendency to advocate a shift from a local subsistence paradigm to a 'pay for ecosystem service' or PES paradigm Friess et al. 2015). ...
This book informs readers on the ecology, ecosystem services, and management of Sundaland wetland ecosystems, discussing the concepts and tools necessary to conserve these imperiled habitats. Sundaland is a biogeographically defined area of South East Asia characterised by an exceptional concentration of endemic species. The unprecedented loss of wetland habitats within Sundaland warrants urgency in implementing conservation actions. The authors are both researchers who have witnessed the ongoing losses of wetland habitats in Sundaland.
The first chapter introduces fundamental concepts of ecosystems, ecological processes and ecosystem services of coastal and inland wetlands. The second chapter provides an overview of the global and regional conservation status of these ecosystems. The third chapter advances the importance of wetlands management at the landscape level (drainage basins), and proposes to adopt the concept of Ecotonal Networks (ENTs) as a sustainable management method, within the theoretical framework of Resilience Theory. The fourth chapter showcases potential flagship species that can aid in raising awareness on these endangered but poorly-known ecosystems. The fifth chapter discusses sustainable ecotourism as a viable and profitable industry to manage non-urban wetland areas of Sundaland, while providing specific suggestions for future developments.
The book is written for ecosystem managers, conservation scientists, ecologists, and nature enthusiasts. It consists of a coherently arranged set of scientifically accurate tools that consider societal, cultural, and economic factors to succeed in the conservation of the Sundaland wetlands, as well as other wetland habitats in the world.
... Aspects of such cross-scale or off-site effects are increasingly acknowledged through the concept of 'leakage'-in which interventions to reduce environmental pressures at one site may be locally successful, but also displace and increase these pressures elsewhere-in research fields such as land-system science [19], sustainability modelling [20], sustainability governance [15,21], and industrial ecology [2]. Many decisions are sensitive to leakage, ranging from climate change mitigation efforts for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDDþ) [22], the design of coastal management plans, protected area creation, design of Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes [23], and the impacts of renewable energy regulations on biofuel demand [24]. However, leakage is generally defined in terms of a single resource stock (e.g. ...
The connected nature of social-ecological systems has never been more apparent than in today's globalized world. The ecosystem service framework and associated ecosystem assessments aim to better inform the science-policy response to sustainability challenges. Such assessments, however, often overlook distant, diffuse and delayed impacts that are critical for global sustainability. Ecosystem-services science must better recognise the off-stage impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services of place-based ecosystem management, which we term 'ecosystem service burdens'. These are particularly important since they are often negative, and have a potentially significant effect on ecosystem management decisions. Ecosystem-services research can better recognise these off-stage burdens through integration with other analytical approaches, such as life cycle analysis and risk-based approaches that better account for the uncertainties involved. We argue that off-stage ecosystem service burdens should be incorporated in ecosystem assessments such as those led by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Taking better account of these off-stage burdens is essential to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of cross-scale interactions, a pre-requisite for any sustainability transition.
... Involucrar elementos relacionados con amenazas (locales y globales) externas y el cambio global que afecten la adicionalidad y la provisión de SE.Friess, et al., (2015)La estructura de gobernanza en los PSE no depende solamente de las intervenciones públicoprivadas, sino que se deben considerar una serie de agentes intermediarios que aportan en el proceso.Schomers et al., (2015)La implementación de PSE puede generarse a partir del involucramiento de otros instrumentos, que permitan generar procesos más efectivos con respecto a la conservación y preservación de los SEMatzdorf et al., (2014)Los resultados de los PSE dependen de diversos contextos políticos, socioculturales e institucionales en los que operan. Se debe prestar atención sobre las condiciones en las que se establecen las compensaciones y en qué condiciones los PES pueden hacer una contribución significativa a la conservación de los ecosistemas.Muradian et al., 2013En los programas de PES, la demanda de SE difiere en el tipo, escala, recurso para pago, tipo de actividad a pagar, la efectividad en las formas de medición, el monto y la forma en que se realizan los pagos.Engel et al., (2008)Fuente: Elaboración propiaBaggethun et al., (2010) ...
El presente documento pretende establecer las bases conceptuales con respecto a la aplicación de instrumentos económicos en procesos de conservación de la biodiversidad y los servicios ecosistémicos (BySE), para sustentar la estrategia BanCO2. Inicialmente, se brinda una contextualización sobre instrumentos económicos, tanto en definiciones como en clasificaciones, para posteriormente revisar algunas experiencias de aplicación de PSE a nivel nacional y de allí rescatar algunas lecciones aprendidas para la formulación de la estrategia en el departamento del Meta. Finalmente, se establece un esquema conceptual con respecto a la implementación de la estrategia en el departamento.
... Further, technological substitutes are limited in that they generally are implemented to solve a single problem, rather than facilitating the supply of a multitude of benefits that may be realized from natural regulating ES (Villamagna et al., 2013). As pressures are growing and interacting in synergistic and sometimes unpredictable ways (Buma, 2015;Friess et al., 2015;Piggott et al., 2015), some environmental policy has begun to acknowledge the limitations of technological implements and instead urges a greater awareness for the importance of regulating and compensatory processes (see Koch et al., 2009;Connell and Ghedini, 2015;World Bank, 2016). Ultimately, a better understanding of regulating ES may hold the key to enhancing ecological resilience (Rist et al., 2014;Sutherland et al., 2014). ...
Regulating ecosystem services (ES) fundamentally underpin biosphere integrity, human safety, and the provision of most other ES. However, the pathways by which regulating ES generate benefits for people are complex and vary spatially and temporally. Emerging ES decision-making frameworks underemphasize regulating services because they focus on ES that have more obvious links to human wellbeing (e.g., in close proximity to beneficiaries with very short time lags). Lack of attention towards regulating ES can lead to unintended management trade-offs that create risk for human wellbeing and can cause immediate and delayed impacts on cultural and provisioning ES. Therefore, a remaining challenge for ES frameworks is to address the full ensemble of processes and feedbacks whereby ecosystems contribute to human wellbeing over time, including through regulating services. We address this challenge by (i) reviewing the complexities associated with regulating ES components—capacity, ecological pressures, and demand, (ii) exploring the spatial and temporal variability that influence regulating ES components, including the flow of service benefits, and (iii) illustrating the interdependency of regulating ES components through examples of ES that are linked hydrologically. We conclude that ES capacity, pressure, demand and the flow of benefits are distinct, but intricately linked components that influence how regulating ES provide benefits and improve human wellbeing. We pose that ES assessment frameworks could be improved by including indicators of regulating ES that differentiate between the capacity to provide a regulating ES, the demand for the same, and the actual service that is conveyed, the latter of which is influenced by underlying capacity and ecological pressure. These indicators should also be spatially and temporally explicit to fully incorporate the dynamic influence of temporal variability, spatial scale, and landscape configuration on regulating ES and the benefits they yield.
... Aspects of such cross-scale or off-site effects are increasingly acknowledged through the concept of 'leakage'—in which interventions to reduce environmental pressures at one site may be locally successful, but also displace and increase these pressures elsewhere—in research fields such as land-system science[19], sustainability modelling[20], sustainability governance[15,21], and industrial ecology[2]. Many decisions are sensitive to leakage, ranging from climate change mitigation efforts for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDDþ)[22], the design of coastal management plans, protected area creation, design of Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes[23], and the impacts of renewable energy regulations on biofuel demand[24]. However, leakage is generally defined in terms of a single resource stock (e.g. ...
The connected nature of social-ecological systems has never been more apparent than in today’s globalized world. The ecosystem service framework and associated ecosystem assessments aim to better inform the science–policy response to sustainability challenges. Such assessments, however, often overlook distant, diffuse and delayed impacts that are critical for global sustainability. Ecosystem-services science must better recognise the off-stage impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services of place-based ecosystem management, which we term ‘ecosystem service burdens’. These are particularly important since they are often negative, and have a potentially significant effect on ecosystem management decisions. Ecosystem-services research can better recognise these off-stage burdens through integration with other analytical approaches, such as life cycle analysis and risk-based approaches that better account for the uncertainties involved. We argue that off-stage ecosystem service burdens should be incorporated in ecosystem assessments such as those led by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Taking better account of these off-stage burdens is essential to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of cross-scale interactions, a pre-requisite for any sustainability transition.
... Joppa et al., 2016). While it is important to take a comprehensive and cross system approach to studying threats to these ecosystems ( Alvarez-Romero et al., 2011) as threats to intertidal in many coastal systems can be diverse in origin (Friess et al., 2015), without a cohesive approach there is a risk that some threats are being missed, while others over-emphasized. One practical implication of whether intertidal ecosystems are characterized marine or terrestrial is whether threat mitigation is the responsibility of marine or terrestrial protected areas. ...
The protection of intertidal ecosystems is complex because they straddle both marine and terrestrial realms. This leads to inconsistent characterisation as marine and/or terrestrial systems, or neither. Vegetated intertidal ecosystems are especially complex to classify because they can have an unclear border with terrestrial vegetation, causing confusion around taxonomy (e.g., mangrove-like plants). This confusion and inconsistency in classification can impact these systems through poor governance and incomplete protection. Using Australian mangrove ecosystems as a case study, we explore the complexity of how land and sea boundaries are defined among jurisdictions and different types of legislation, and how these correspond to ecosystem boundaries. We demonstrate that capturing vegetated intertidal ecosystems under native vegetation laws and prioritizing the mitigation of threats with a terrestrial origin offers the greatest protection to these systems. We also show the impact of inconsistent boundaries on the inclusion of intertidal ecosystems within protected areas. The evidence presented here highlights problems within the Australian context, but most of these issues are also challenges for the management of intertidal ecosystems around the world. Our study demonstrates the urgent need for a global review of legislation governing the boundaries of land and sea to determine whether the suggestions we offer may provide global solutions to ensuring these critical systems do not fall through the cracks in ecosystem protection and management.
... Another advantage of results-based PES is that they can induce farmer innovation by specifying desired outcomes without prescribing specific measures to achieve such outcomes (Hanley and White, 2013). In practice, ES results often depend not only on landholders' activities, but also on external factors (e.g., weather, natural forest fires) (Friess et al., 2015;Naeem et al., 2015). A major disadvantage of results-based PES then is that they push the risk of non-delivery onto service providers who are often risk averse. ...
Payments for environmental services (PES) have become a popular approach to address environmental degradation. However, evidence on its effectiveness is scarce and rather mixed. PES is not a panacea, but there are many cases where PES can be a promising tool. Yet, poor PES design translates into poor performance of the instrument. PES design is a complex task; the devil is in the detail of a number of PES design features. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance in dealing with this complexity through a comprehensive review of PES design that is accessible to both academics and practitioners. Practitioner guidelines on deciding whether PES is the best approach and for selecting among alternative design features are presented. PES design has to start from a careful understanding of the specific ecological and socio-economic context. We now know a lot about which design features are best suited to which context. It is time to put these insights into practice.
... Regrowing forests might also in future be more prone to fire risk, and other episodic events such as wind-throw or insect outbreaks 46,47 , crucial ecosystem features not yet represented well in models 48 . This question of 'permanence' has been an important point of discussion at conferences under the UNFCCC, and also endangers the success of payment-forecosystem-services schemes that target conservation measures, as it is unclear how an increasing risk of losing carbon-uptake potential can be accounted for 49,50 . Given that we may be greatly underestimating the present-day F RL , and therefore missing or underestimating the importance of key driving mechanisms, projections of future terrestrial carbon uptake and losses appear more fraught with uncertainty than ever. ...
The terrestrial biosphere absorbs about 20% of fossil-fuel CO2 emissions. The overall magnitude of this sink is constrained by the difference between emissions, the rate of increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and the ocean sink. However, the land sink is actually composed of two largely counteracting fluxes that are poorly quantified: fluxes from land-use change and CO2 uptake by terrestrial ecosystems. Dynamic global vegetation model simulations suggest that CO2 emissions from land-use change have been substantially underestimated because processes such as tree harvesting and land clearing from shifting cul- tivation have not been considered. As the overall terrestrial sink is constrained, a larger net flux as a result of land-use change implies that terrestrial uptake of CO2 is also larger, and that terrestrial ecosystems might have greater potential to sequester carbon in the future. Consequently, reforestation projects and efforts to avoid further deforestation could represent important mitigation pathways, with co-benefits for biodiversity. It is unclear whether a larger land carbon sink can be reconciled with our current understanding of terrestrial carbon cycling. Our possible underestimation of the historical residual terrestrial carbon sink adds further uncertainty to our capacity to predict the future of terrestrial carbon uptake and losses.
... Managing such external factors is often a complex process and requires a large scale regional assessment study. For instance, as Friess et al. (2015) note, designing a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) mechanism to handle external factors needs to carefully consider a series of complex steps-from the evaluation of onsite large-scale impacts of stressors to willingness on the part of external stakeholders to take mitigation action and/or to pay for such actions. Evaluating all those steps is beyond the scope of this paper. ...
Old growth mangroves in existing protected areas store more carbon than restored forests or plantations. Carbon storage in such forests has economic value independent of additionality, offering opportunities for policy makers to ensure their maintenance, and inclusion in climate change mitigation strategies. Mangrove forests of the Everglades National Park (ENP), South Florida, though protected, face external stressors such as hydrological alterations because of flooding control structures and agriculture impacts and saltwater intrusion as a result of increasing sea level rise. Moreover, decreased funding of Everglades’ restoration activities following the recent economic crisis (beginning 2008) threatens the restoration of the Greater Everglades including mangrove dominated coastal regions. We evaluate several economic and ecological challenges confronting the economic valuation of total (vegetation plus soil) organic carbon (TOC) storage in the ENP mangroves. Estimated TOC storage for this forested wetland ranges from 70 to 537 Mg C/ha and is higher than values reported for tropical, boreal, and temperate forests. We calculate the average abatement cost of C specific for ENP mangroves to value the TOC from 2–3.4 billion; estimated unit area values are 13,859/ha–23,728/ha. The valuation of the stored/legacy carbon is based on the: 1) ecogeomorphic attributes, 2) regional socio-economic milieu, and 3) status of the ENP mangroves as a protected area. The assessment of C storage estimates and its economic value can change public perception about how this regulating ecosystem service of ENP mangrove wetlands (144,447 ha) supports human well-being and numerous economic activities. This perception, in turn, can contribute to future policy changes such that the ENP mangroves, the largest mangrove area in the continental USA, can be included as a potential alternative in climate change mitigation strategies.
... While the presence of external stressors may reduce ecosystem service provision and the effectiveness of PES, this does not mean that PES is untenable in such situations. Friess et al. (2015) describe a number of approaches to deal with external stressors in a PES context. While they vary in design and process, all of these approaches focus on siting a PES scheme in the most suitable biophysical location or reducing the risk of external stressors to financial assets. ...
Mangrove forests provide a multitude of ecosystem services, many of which contribute to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) along tropical coastlines. In the face of rapid deforestation, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has been heralded as a potential avenue for financing conservation, although PES schemes remain in an embryonic state for mangroves. Several challenges must be overcome if mangrove PES is to advance. Firstly, challenges exist in quantifying multiple ecosystem services, especially those that contribute to DRR, such as wave attenuation and the control of coastal erosion. Secondly, the permanence of quantified ecosystem services is a central tenet of PES, but is not guaranteed in the dynamic coastal zone. Mangroves are affected by multiple stressors related to natural hazards and climate change, which are often outside of the control of a PES site manager. This will necessitate Financial Risk Management strategies, which are not commonly used in coastal PES, and introduces a number of management challenges. Finally, and most importantly, PES generally requires the clear identification and pairing of separate service providers and service users, who can potentially overlap in the context of DRR. This chapter reviews and discusses these emerging issues, and proposes potential solutions to contribute to the more effective implementation of mangrove PES. Ultimately however, difficulties in pairing separate and discreet service providers and users may render PES for DRR unfeasible in some settings, and we may need to continue traditional modes of DRR finance such as insurance and donor support.
Human society in the Anthropocene is globally connected and relies on flows of goods and services for its prosperity and wellbeing. However, quantitative understanding of the flows of ecosystem services (ES) embedded in trade (virtual ES flow) across multiple human-natural systems remains limited. Here, we develop a framework to quantify virtual ES flows by integrating multi-region input–output modeling and ES mapping, and apply it to examine water provisioning and climate regulation services, using China and its major urban agglomeration as a case study. Our results showed that virtual flows of ES were substantially greater than the direct utilization of water and carbon resources, confirming the dependency on virtual flows of ES in highly urbanized regions. Interestingly, the virtual flows were mainly connected to distant rather than adjacent regions, highlighting the importance of considering cross-scale dynamics and managing long-distance flows in policy-making. Our framework holds the potential for broader applications, including the exploration of various types of ES and sustainability-related issues.
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) can promote different types of governance arrangements to address the triple challenge of biodiversity loss, climate change and air pollution. These institutional arrangements, however, do not explicitly incorporate climate change into the ecosystem’s capacity to provide services. In this study, we explore why and how to incorporate climate uncertainties using as example the Altos de Cantillana Nature Reserve, a unique biodiversity hotspot in Central Chile. First, prioritized ecosystem services (ES) were grouped in bundles and linked to measured and modeled impacts of climate change on key water-related processes. Second, institutional barriers to PES were identified from case studies and analyzed considering challenges in a changing climate. Finally, bundles with different levels of risk were matched to six recommendations that better incorporate levels of risks to the uncertainty of climate change into Payment for Ecosystem Services in Chile.
Payments for ecosystem services programs (PESPs) are increasingly being adopted globally to enhance sustainability outcomes. There are also hundreds of studies yearly on various aspects of PESPs, but research on their contributions to sustainability of communities and the ecosystems they depend upon at the global scale are rare. Our global review explores twelve key characteristics of PESPs at three different phases (inputs – implementation – outputs and outcomes) and their relationship types of these characteristics to sustainability outcomes. To do so, we review 376 peer-review journal articles on PESPs, and test three hypotheses related to these relationships. Our findings confirm that the relationships between each of these characteristics and sustainability outcomes are bidirectional and/or multidirectional to some extent and can be positive, negative or both, depending on specific cases and research methods used to study these relationships. The findings also disclose that separating one characteristic as the primary causal factor in any relationship or outcome is not easy as relevant characteristics are linked in a complex network. Thereby, determining key characteristics of PESPs that drive relationships for the sake of sustainability is important. Through analyzing relationships between PESP characteristics, this study offers a series of suggestions to further aid the contributions of PESPs’ contributions to sustainability in the future.
Blue carbon (BC) research has progressed over the years and is continuously evolving. Several existing review papers are available and scrutinized BC research, yet, knowledge gaps and overlaps in science and practice remain a challenge. Thus, we conducted a literature review on 1179 BC-related documents including peer-reviewed articles, technical reports/policy briefs, books/book chapters, conference presentation abstracts, dissertations/theses, and news articles. The work undertaken was guided by three research objectives-(1) to identify the knowledge gaps, trends, and updates in BC literature, (2) to determine the geographic distribution of BC research, and (3) to review the timeline of BC research and elucidate critical issues that potentially drag BC advancement. Key results showed, that, firstly, BC literature favors academic research papers over gray literature (e.g., guidelines, policy briefs). This is critical since research papers are hard to access and process by non-technical persons and practitioners worldwide, thus, promoting gray publications particularly those dedicated to policymakers and coastal managers such as policy briefs and technical manuals are highly encouraged. Secondly, there is an uneven geographic distribution of BC documents, roughly reflecting weak international collaborations among scholars from developing and developed countries. Additionally, this can be attributed to scholar's limited capabilities and international networks. Lastly, BC research remained in favor of natural/ physical/applied sciences in comparison to social and policy-oriented papers. Despite this, we noted that the number of social-driven publications in the last two years is increasing, which can change trends in the future. The findings of this review, covering the last 12 years of BC research, can be instrumental to coastal managers and/or practitioners in terms of developing state of the art BC management strategies that are science-based. Moreover, the results can support scholars by complementing their future research agendas to avoid unnecessary overlaps and/or redundancies that can potentially drag the advancement of BC science.
Ecosystem services (ES) are key to maintaining sustainable regional development. Climate change and land cover and land use change (LULC) are one of the main factors leading to changes in regional ecosystem services. Existing studies have simulated regional ES changes under different future scenarios, providing valuable guidance for regional sustainable management. However, most studies focus on the effects of individual factors (LULC or climate change) on ES, paying insufficient attention to the coupled effects of the two elements. Yunnan Province is a biodiversity hotspot facing challenges in ES in the context of future climate change and rapid socio-economic development. In order to achieve sustainable management, policies must be developed in advance to address possible future ecological risks. In this study, we simulated the coupled effects of climate change and LULC on six types of ES using the SD, FLUS, and InVEST models. The scenario framework of shared socioeconomic pathways SSP245 and SSP585 was combined with LULC scenario dynamics to assess the changes of ES in 2030 and 2050, identifying sensitive areas and providing a scientific basis for local ecosystem management. In 2020, the eastern part of Yunnan Province was the coldspot area for all ES. Under the future scenarios, Yunnan Province's ES show different loss rates and distinct spatial heterogeneity. Future climate change and LULC changes have a more significant negative impact on water conservation and water quality purification. About 66% of its counties will become sensitive areas for water production services, and 37% of counties will endure reduced water purification functions by more than 50%. According to the analytical results, we then proposed several suggestions to improve regional ES management.
The idea of linking stressors, services providing units (SPUs), and ecosystem services (ES) is ubiquitous in the literature, although is currently not applied in areas contaminated with heavy metals (HMs), This integrative literature review introduces the general form of a deterministic conceptual model of the cross-scale effect of HMs on biogeochemical services by SPUs with a feedback loop, a cross-scale heuristic concept of resilience, and develops a method for applying the conceptual model. The objectives are 1) to identify the clusters of existing research about HMs effects on ES, biodiversity, and resilience to HMs stress, 2) to map the scientific fields needed for the conceptual model's implementation, identify institutional constraints for inter-disciplinary cooperation, and propose solutions to surpass them, 3) to describe how the complexity of the cause-effect chain is reflected in the research hypotheses and objectives and extract methodological consequences, and 4) to describe how the conceptual model can be implemented. A nested analysis by CiteSpace of a set of 16,176 articles extracted from the Web of Science shows that at the highest level of data aggregation there is a clear separation between the topics of functional traits, stoichiometry, and regulating services from the typical issues of the literature about HMs, biodiversity, and ES. Most of the resilience to HMs stress agenda focuses on microbial communities. General topics such as the biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship in contaminated areas are no longer dominant in the current research, as well as large-scale problems like watershed management. The number of Web of Science domains that include the analyzed articles is large (26 up to 87 domains with at least ten articles, depending on the sub-set), but thirteen domains account for 70–80% of the literature. The complexity of approaches regarding the cause-effect chain, the stressors, the biological and ecological hierarchical level and the management objectives was characterized by a detailed analysis of 60 selected reviews and 121 primary articles. Most primary articles approach short causal chains, and the number of hypotheses or objectives by article tends to be low, pointing out the need for portfolios of complementary research projects in coherent inter-disciplinary programs and innovation ecosystems to couple the ES and resilience problems in areas contaminated with HMs. One provides triggers for developing innovation ecosystems, examples of complementary research hypotheses, and an example of technology transfer. Finally one proposes operationalizing the conceptual methodological model in contaminated socio-ecological systems by a calibration, a sensitivity analysis, and a validation phase.
This chapter provides an assessment of the value of marine ecosystems. Figures show a high value but there are major differences between studies. Notwithstanding this, their importance is clear. It is also clear that the trend is for a decline in most ecosystem services derived from such ecosystems in spite of higher levels of exploitation, because of the degradation to the ecosystems in many locations. The causes of the degradation are over exploitation, misuse of the marine biomes as a waste sink, conversion of coastal systems, and loss of habitat and climate change. This degradation is not inevitable and can be reversed. A key role in doing so is to estimate the costs and benefits of marine-related activities and the incorporation of those costs in setting regulations and designing policies to manage the marine environment. The chapter has reviewed a range of instruments, to see how they can help to move the use of these ecosystems towards a more sustainable use. At present, while there are some developments that indicate a shift in a more encouraging direction, we also have government interventions, particularly some subsidies that are harmful to the marine environment. There is also a greater need to increase cooperation in setting regulations that apply across extra-territorial jurisdictions. Finally, management in this area has to take account not only of the overall costs and benefits of different interventions, but also pay special attention to the way in which they impact on the many vulnerable groups that depend on marine resources for their livelihoods. Sadly, their conditions are worsening in many countries.
Although emergy theory has made progress in the field of eco‐compensation research, there is still a lack of review articles, summarizing the existing knowledge structure in this area of study. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to provide a reference for researchers by characterizing the current status of emergy theory in the field of eco‐compensation and to establish the internal logic structure among existing studies, based upon a qualitative analysis of textual data. Inspired by the grounded theory, twelve concepts within five categories of emergy theory were extracted by open, axial, and selective coding of relevant literature. Concepts were extracted from the texts and categories were determined according to the inherent logical relationships among those concepts. The “knowledge structure model of emergy theory in the field of eco‐compensation” was constructed and the following five principal categories were identified: “emergy indicators system,” the “integration of methods and theories,” “research subjects,” “calculation of compensation standards,” and “research concerns.” Moreover, core and supporting genera were also identified from these five axial codes. Finally, the research focuses and hotspots were explored according to the theoretical frameworks as indicated by the core and supporting genera. The findings of this paper provide a reference for researchers to further promote innovation in the application of emergy theory in the field of eco‐compensation.
Mangroves are tidally dependent wetlands that are influenced often by alterations in hydrology associated with coastal developments that impact their distribution, health, and function. Alteration in frequency, depth, duration, and seasonality of tidal inundation can lead to changes in forest condition, although these stress‐adapted ecosystems may persist for many years before succumbing to mortality. However, arresting this decline through hydrological restoration can significantly improve ecosystem condition and the provision of ecosystem services. Much of the mangrove resource on Marco Island, Florida, USA, is unhealthy if not already dead or dying due to soil structural shifts, permanent flooding, and peat compression resulting from road construction, tidal restriction, and delays in restoration actions. In order to determine the impact of restricted hydrology on these mangrove forests, we examined soil surface elevation change and soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content along a degradation gradient and within a small‐scale, community‐driven restoration area. Using a space‐for‐time substitution approach, we found that the restoration of regular tidal inundation to Marco Island mangroves has the potential to increase C sequestration in surface soils alone from 0 to 360 g C/m 2 /yr (3.60 Mg C/ha/yr) and increase N sequestration from 0 to 24 g N/m2/yr (0.24 Mg N/ha/yr). Additional sequestration benefits would be realized with aboveground forest recovery. Successful mangrove restoration trials and small community‐based projects such as those on Marco Island could serve as a model for larger efforts and empower stakeholders and policy makers to restore other wetlands and better manage coastal carbon.
Coastal wetlands have disproportionately high carbon densities, known as blue carbon, compared to most terrestrial ecosystems. Mangroves and their blue carbon stocks are at risk globally from land‐use and land‐cover change (LULCC) activities such as aquaculture, alongside biophysical disturbances such as sea‐level rise and cyclones. Global estimates of carbon emissions from mangrove loss have been previously unable to differentiate between the variable impacts of different drivers of loss. This article discusses the impacts that different LULCC activities and biophysical disturbances have on carbon stocks (biomass and soil) and greenhouse gas fluxes (CO2 and CH4). The dynamics of carbon stocks and fluxes depends on the type of LULCC; aquaculture often results in biomass and soil carbon removal, and some forms of agriculture can substantially increase methane emissions. Natural disturbances have mixed impacts on mangrove carbon; sea‐level rise will drown some mangroves and their carbon stocks but provide opportunities for new carbon accumulation, while cyclones can have immediate negative impacts on stocks but positive impacts on sequestration during recovery. Mangrove rehabilitation practices can actively restore carbon stocks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from previous land uses. It is critical to consider the type of LULCC when estimating carbon emissions due to mangrove loss or rehabilitation. Mangrove blue carbon is now high on the international conservation policy agenda, and a better understanding of how carbon stocks and fluxes respond to anthropogenic and biophysical disturbance may provide better incentives for mangrove conservation and sustainable management.
There is increasing interest in protecting, restoring and creating ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems (BCE; mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses) to sequester atmospheric CO2-C and thereby contribute to climate change mitigation. While a growing number of countries aspire to report greenhouse gas emission and carbon sequestration changes from these ecosystems under voluntary international reporting requirements, few countries have domestic policy frameworks that specifically support the quantification and financing of carbon emission abatement through BCE management.
Australia, as home to approximately 5–11% of global blue carbon stocks, has a substantial interest in the development of blue carbon policy. Here we assess the potential inclusion of blue carbon within Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund, emphasizing issues and approaches that have global relevance. We used a participatory workshop of scientific experts and carbon industry stakeholders to identify blue carbon management actions that would meet the requirements of the Fund. In total, twelve actions were assessed for their greenhouse gas emission abatement potential and the ability to measure abatement reliably, using a combination of available data and qualitative and quantitative methods, including expert knowledge.
We identify and discuss the five most relevant and promising activities, encompassing the protection, restoration and creation of mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses. On a per area basis, mean abatement intensity of organic carbon (Corg) was highest for the (re)introduction of tidal flow resulting in establishment of mangrove (13–15 Mg Corg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) and tidal marsh (6–8 Mg Corg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), followed by land use planning for sea-level rise for the creation of new mangrove habitat (8 Mg Corg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). The avoided disturbance of existing mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses has the twofold benefit of avoiding remineralisation of existing stocks, plus the future annual abatement associated with the net sequestration of atmospheric CO2-C as Corg with the continued functioning of these BCE. Our approach offers a template that uses best available information to identify options for carbon abatement through management of coastal landscapes, and details current knowledge gaps and important technical aspects that need to be considered for implementation in carbon crediting schemes.
The theory and practice associated with payments for ecosystem services (PES) feature a variety of piecemeal studies related to impacts of socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental variables, lacking efforts in understanding their mutual relationships in a spatially and temporally explicit manner. In addition, PES literature is short of ecological metrics that document the consequences of PES other than land use and land cover and its change. Building on detailed survey data from Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve (FNNR), China, we developed and tested an agent-based model to study the complex interactions among human livelihoods (migration and resource extraction in particular), PES, and the Guizhou golden monkey habitat occupancy over 20 years. We then performed simulation-based experiments testing social and ecological impacts of PES payments as well as human population pressures. The results show that with a steady increase in outmigration, the number of land parcels enrolled in one of China’s major PES programs tends to increase, reach a peak, and then slowly decline, showing a convex trend that converges to a stable number of enrolled parcels regardless of payment levels. Simulated monkey occupancy responds to changes in PES payment levels substantially in edge areas of FNNR. Our model is not only useful for FNNR, but also applicable as a platform to study and further understand human and ecological roles of PES in many other complex human-environment systems, shedding light into key elements, interactions, or relationships in the systems that PES researchers and practitioners should bear in mind. Our research contributes to establishing a scientific basis of PES science that incorporates features in complex systems, offering more realistic, spatially and temporally explicit insights related to PES policy or related interventions.
In this chapter, Unai Pascual and colleagues address the link between sustainable forest management initiatives, the climate change policy arena and foreign aid. Pascual et al. discuss the role of foreign aid in helping to achieve sustainable forest management, framing this as the condition for delivering multiple ecosystem services, and considering the potential for donor support for the forestry sector associated with new climate finance. The chapter explores the conditions for promoting forest conservation through foreign aid, taking into account the varying interests of multiple actors. The authors warn that while REDD+ financing, catalysed by foreign aid, has the potential to move beyond traditional sustainable forest management efforts, the mechanism still faces uncertainty over the long-term sustainability of financing, thus affecting the scalability of the mechanism.
The Sundaland biodiversity hotspot, defined by the biogeographic divides of the Kangar-Pattani line to the north and the Wallace’s line to the East, is a terrestrial unit of conservation priority within Southeast Asia. Within the Sundaland biodiversity hotspot—that includes the Nicobar Islands, part of the Malay Peninsula (southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia), Singapore, Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Borneo—are areas either currently under intense development pressures, or areas that have undergone significant anthropogenic transformation. The first chapter of this book introduces ecological concepts and the ecosystem services rendered by coastal and inland wetlands within Sundaland.
Agricultural fires are a double-edged sword that allow for cost-efficient land management in the tropics but also cause accidental fires and emissions of carbon and pollutants. To control fires in Amazon, it is currently unclear whether policy-makers should prioritize command-and-control or incentive-based instruments such as REDD +. Aiming to generate knowledge about the relative merits of the two policy approaches, this paper presents a spatially-explicit agent-based model that simulates the causal effects of four policy instruments on intended and unintended fires. All instruments proved effective in overturning the predominance of highly profitable but risky fire-use and decreasing accidental fires, but none were free from imperfections. The performance of command-and-control proved highly sensitive to the spatial and social reach of enforcement. Side-effects of incentive-based instruments included a disproportionate increase in controlled fires and a reduced acceptance of conservation subsidies, caused by the prohibition of reckless fires, and also indirect deforestation. The instruments that were most effective in reducing deforestation were not the most effective in reducing fires and vice-versa, which suggests that the two goals cannot be achieved with a single policy intervention.
REDD+ is an important development in environmental and social justice policy instruments. However, its success depends on a network of complex contingencies, and the achievement of difficult governance transformations in countries that are under severe economic pressure. It ought be obvious that there are significant risks associated with this endeavour, but overt risk management, using standard approaches, is not evident. This paper highlights some of the many risks that the governance of REDD+ (in common with most environmental policy innovations) needs to pay attention to in order to avoid policy failure. There are eight distinct elements that have to work for the REDD+ program to achieve its public policy goals, and each of these carries its own risk. These are: securitisation of carbon sequestration; protection for complex non-carbon values, ensuring the integrity of the supply of credit; multi-level administration and aggregation of tradeable carbon interests; managing the social and economic imbalance of interests; deploying new methods for measurement and securitisation of interests; ensuring a platform of rules, administrative and enforcement systems, teams and intelligence networks; and achieving price and ‘brand’ competitiveness in a crowded carbon offsets marketplace. Although the issues listed in this paper are not comprehensive, they highlight major concerns and support the argument that a comprehensive and systematic approach to policy risk is likely to add value to the REDD+ implementation. The paper suggests that good management practice would separate risk management from policy or instrument development, and embed this aspect of good governance with a sufficient level of authority to ensure that the negative potentials are managed with a degree of vigour consistent with the importance of the issues.
This chapter reviews the literature to understand the significance of making decisions about the prevention and/or control of invasive alien species (IAS) that ignore impacts on ecosystem services. It reports damage costs associated with IAS in monetary terms. The costs presented for various provisioning, regulating, and cultural services may be roughly comparable since most of the literature mostly clusters around the early 2000s. Whether damage costs of any magnitude will change the way IAS is managed will naturally depend on the benefits of the activities that lead to the introduction and spread of each species. Identifying potential damage costs and estimating their magnitude is a positive first step towards properly accounting for the full impact of IAS.
REDD+ is an important development in environmental and social justice policy instruments. However, its success depends on a network of complex contingencies, and the achievement of difficult governance transformations in countries that are under severe economic pressure. It ought be obvious that there are significant risks associated with this endeavour, but overt risk management, using standard approaches, is not evident.
This paper highlights some of the many risks that the governance of REDD+ (in common with most environmental policy innovations) needs to pay attention to in order to avoid policy failure. There are eight distinct elements that have to work for the REDD+ program to achieve its public policy goals, and each of these carries its own risk. These are: securitisation of carbon sequestration; protection for complex non-carbon values, ensuring the integrity of the supply of credit; multi-level administration and aggregation of tradeable carbon interests; managing the social and economic imbalance of interests; deploying new methods for measurement and securitisation of interests; ensuring a platform of rules, administrative and enforcement systems, teams and intelligence networks; and achieving price and ‘brand’ competitiveness in a crowded carbon offsets marketplace.
Although the issues listed in this paper are not comprehensive, they highlight major concerns and support the argument that a comprehensive and systematic approach to policy risk is likely to add value to the REDD+ implementation. The paper suggests that good management practice would separate risk management from policy or instrument development, and embed this aspect of good governance with a sufficient level of authority to ensure that the negative potentials are managed with a degree of vigour consistent with the importance of the issues.
In addition to their negative impacts on biodiversity, alien plant species often affect ecosystem processes in ways that degrade ecosystem services for humans, resulting in economic losses. Timely intervention to control the spread of invaders can minimize economic and ecological damages, whereas lapses or delays in funding weed control can be extremely costly in the long run. Using recent decreases in funding for invasive plant management in California as an example, we argue that managers must make a broader case for investing in the control of invasive species to prevent the loss of ecosystem services. In particular, managers need to partner with academic scientists, private landowners, and the public sector to quantify the impact of invasive weeds on service provision, assess where services are most at risk and who benefits from the avoided cost of weed control, and create mechanisms to fund invasive species management through payment for ecosystem services. © 2013 The Author(s) 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: [email protected]
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Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is a market-based approach to environmental management that compensates land stewards for ecosystem conservation and restoration. Because low-income households and communities control much of the ecologically sensitive land in developing countries, they potentially stand to gain from PES, as environmentally responsible stewardship is assigned a value by various actors in society. To date, however, instances of PES benefiting the poor have been limited mainly to specific localities, small-scale projects, and a handful of broader government programs. We analyze the size, characteristics, and trends of PES to evaluate its future potential to benefit low-income land stewards in developing countries. We estimate that by the year 2030, markets for biodiversity conservation could benefit 10–15 million low-income households in developing countries, carbon markets could benefit 25–50 million, markets for watershed protection could benefit 80–100 million, and markets for landscape beauty and recreation could benefit 5–8 million. If payments and markets reach these potentials, they could provide a non-negligible contribution to poverty alleviation at the global level.
Although conservation efforts have sometimes succeeded in meeting environmental goals at the expense of equity considerations, the changing
context of conservation and a growing body of evidence increasingly suggest that equity considerations should be integrated into conservation
planning and implementation. However, this approach is often perceived to be at odds with the prevailing focus on economic efficiency that
characterizes many payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes. Drawing from examples across the literature, we show how the equity impacts
of PES can create positive and negative feedbacks that influence ecological outcomes. We caution against equity-blind PES, which overlooks these
relationships as a result of a primary and narrow focus on economic efficiency. We call for further analysis and better engagement between
the social and ecological science communities to understand the relationships and trade-offs among efficiency, equity, and ecological outcomes.
As species adapt to a changing climate, so too must humans adapt to a new conservation landscape. Classical frameworks have distinguished between fine- and coarse-filter conservation strategies, focusing on conserving either the species or the landscapes, respectively, that together define extant biodiversity. Adapting this framework for climate change, conservationists are using fine-filter strategies to assess species vulnerability and prioritize the most vulnerable species for conservation actions. Coarse-filter strategies seek to conserve either key sites as determined by natural elements unaffected by climate change, or sites with low climate velocity that are expected to be refugia for climate-displaced species. Novel approaches combine coarse- and fine-scale approaches—for example, prioritizing species within pretargeted landscapes—and accommodate the difficult reality of multiple interacting stressors. By taking a diversified approach to conservation actions and decisions, conservationists can hedge against uncertainty, take advantage of new methods and information, and tailor actions to the unique needs and limitations of places, thereby ensuring that the biodiversity show will go on.
Marginal land use changes can abruptly result in non-marginal and irreversible changes in ecosystem functioning and the economic values that the ecosystem generates. This challenges the traditional ecosystem services (ESS) mapping approach, which has often made the assumption that ESS can be mapped uniquely to land use and land cover data. Using a functional fragmentation measure, we show how landscape pattern changes might lead to changes in the delivery of ESS. We map changes in ESS of dry calcareous grasslands under different land use change scenarios in a case study region in Switzerland. We selected three ESS known to be related to species diversity including carbon sequestration and pollination as regulating values and recreational experience as cultural value, and compared them to the value of two production services including food and timber production. Results show that the current unceasing fragmentation is particularly critical for the value of ESS provided by species-rich habitats. The article concludes that assessing landscape patterns is key for maintaining valuable ESS in the face of human use and fluctuating environment.
A forest carbon (C) offset is a quantifiable unit of C that is commonly developed at the local or regional project scale and is designed to counterbalance anthropogenic C emissions by sequestering C in trees. In cap-and-trade programs, forest offsets have market value if the sequestered C is additional (more than would have occurred in the absence of the project) and permanent (sequestered within the project boundary for a specified period of time). Local management and ecological context determine the rate of C sequestration, risk of loss, and hence the market value. An understanding of global C dynamics can inform policy but may not be able to effectively price an ecosystem service, such as C sequestration. Appropriate pricing requires the assistance of ecologists to assess C stock abundance and stability over spatial and temporal scales appropriate for the regional market. We use the risk that sequestered C will be emitted as a result of wildfire (reversal risk) to show how ecological context can influence market valuation in offset programs.
Extreme climatic events and land-use change are known to influence strongly the current carbon cycle of Amazonia, and have the potential to cause significant global climate impacts. This review intends to evaluate the effects of both climate and anthropogenic perturbations on the carbon balance of the Brazilian Amazon and to understand how they interact with each other. By analysing the outputs of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 4 (AR4) model ensemble, we demonstrate that Amazonian temperatures and water stress are both likely to increase over the 21st Century. Curbing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 62% in 2010 relative to the 1990s mean decreased the Brazilian Amazon's deforestation contribution to global land use carbon emissions from 17% in the 1990s and early 2000s to 9% by 2010. Carbon sources in Amazonia are likely to be dominated by climatic impacts allied with forest fires (48.3% relative contribution) during extreme droughts. The current net carbon sink (net biome productivity, NBP) of +0.16 (ranging from +0.11 to +0.21) Pg C year−1 in the Brazilian Amazon, equivalent to 13.3% of global carbon emissions from land-use change for 2008, can be negated or reversed during drought years [NBP = −0.06 (−0.31 to +0.01) Pg C year−1]. Therefore, reducing forest fires, in addition to reducing deforestation, would be an important measure for minimizing future emissions. Conversely, doubling the current area of secondary forests and avoiding additional removal of primary forests would help the Amazonian gross forest sink to offset approximately 42% of global land-use change emissions. We conclude that a few strategic environmental policy measures are likely to strengthen the Amazonian net carbon sink with global implications. Moreover, these actions could increase the resilience of the net carbon sink to future increases in drought frequency.
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.
In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over-reliance on payments as win-win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly among policy makers and practitioners, about the limitations of such instruments and to encourage a dialogue about the policy contexts in which they might be appropriate.
The worse air pollution due to haze from fires occurred in the Southeast Asia during the strongest 1997-1998 El Nino event in the last century. The dense haze came from forest and peat fires mainly occurred in Indonesia. Recent fires in Indonesia have become an annual phenomenon nevertheless rapid deforestation rate showed declined trend. In addition, Indonesia formally admitted very large amount of C0 2 emission mostly from fires and deforestation (about 3.01 billion tonnes after the United States). Indonesia is now requested to reduce air pollution due to haze and carbon emissions at the same time. For an execution of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus) in Indonesia, it is also essential to develop an effective firefighting strategy. In this paper, recent hotspot data captured by NASA MODIS from 2002 to 2010 was analyzed to grasp the recent fire trend in the whole Indonesia. As Indonesia is not so small country, various grid sizes utilizing latitude and longitude angles from I xI to 0.0 I xO.O I degrees were used for various analysis purposes. Analysis results using one degree grids clearly showed the highest hotspot density areas in Indonesia located in Kalimantan and Sumatra Islands. Among them, One of the Mega Rice Project (MRP) regions (~rid center: south latitude 3°, east longitude 114°) showed extremely high hotspot density, 0.188 hotspots/km /year. Two regions in Riau and South Sumatra of Sumatra Island followed the MRP area and their hotspot densities were 0.111 and 0.106 hotspots/km 2 /year, respectively. Other high hotspot density regions were mostly found in deforested area on peat. Analysis results on seasonality of peat fire showed strong correlation with El Nino event. Finally, the authors are now proposing an effective fire forecast method based on recent fire trend in Indonesia.
We explore the potential for payments for ecosystem services (PES) to reconcile conservation and development goals, using a case study of an experimental PES intervention around the Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda. The scheme involves the purchase of biodiversity conservation services from local communities in four selected locations. Although a portion of the payment is awarded at the household level, it is the collective action of the community that determines the level of the payment. Contracts are negotiated annually and include performance indicators within each participating community. We examine the ability of PES to achieve conservation and development objectives, through three sub-questions: Is the PES scheme effective? Is it legitimate and fair? Is it equitable? Our findings indicate that the relationship between these evaluation criteria is complex, with both trade-offs and synergies. In this case study the effectiveness of PES is dependent on the equitable distribution of the payment, participants’ belief and acceptance of the service being paid for, institutional histories that aid in the establishment of legitimacy and fairness, and the complementary nature of PES to more conventional enforcement methods.
Recently, the inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef have declined rapidly because of deteriorating water quality. Increased catchment runoff is one potential culprit. The impacts of land-use on coral growth and reef health however are largely circumstantial due to limited long-term data on water quality and reef health. Here we use a 60 year coral core record to show that phosphorus contained in the skeletons (P/Ca) of long-lived, near-shore Porites corals on the Great Barrier Reef correlates with annual records of fertiliser application and particulate phosphorus loads in the adjacent catchment. Skeletal P/Ca also correlates with Ba/Ca, a proxy for fluvial sediment loading, again linking near-shore phosphorus records with river runoff. Coral core records suggest that phosphorus levels increased 8 fold between 1949 and 2008 with the greatest levels coinciding with periods of high fertiliser-phosphorus use. Periods of high P/Ca correspond with intense agricultural activity and increased fertiliser application in the river catchment following agricultural expansion and replanting after cyclone damage. Our results demonstrate how coral P/Ca records can be used to assess terrestrial nutrient loading of vulnerable near-shore reefs.
Ocean acidification has emerged over the last two decades as one of the largest threats to marine organisms and ecosystems. However, most research efforts on ocean acidification have so far neglected management and related policy issues to focus instead on understanding its ecological and biogeochemical implications. This shortfall is addressed here with a systematic, international and critical review of management and policy options. In particular, we investigate the assumption that fighting acidification is mainly, but not only, about reducing CO2 emissions, and explore the leeway that this emerging problem may open in old environmental issues. We review nine types of management responses, initially grouped under four categories: preventing ocean acidification; strengthening ecosystem resilience; adapting human activities; and repairing damages. Connecting and comparing options leads to classifying them, in a qualitative way, according to their potential and feasibility. While reducing CO2 emissions is confirmed as the key action that must be taken against acidification, some of the other options appear to have the potential to buy time, e.g. by relieving the pressure of other stressors, and help marine life face unavoidable acidification. Although the existing legal basis to take action shows few gaps, policy challenges are significant: tackling them will mean succeeding in various areas of environmental management where we failed to a large extent so far.
The originality of the REDD proposal is its incentives-based mechanism designed to reward the governments of developing countries for their performance in reducing deforestation as measured against a baseline. This mechanism is founded on the hypothesis that developing countries ‘pay’ an opportunity cost to conserve their forests and would prefer other choices and convert their wooden lands to other uses. The basic idea is, therefore, to pay rents to these countries to compensate for the anticipated foregone revenues. The reference to the theory of incentives (in its principal–agent version) is implicit but clear. In this REDD-related framework, the Government is taken as any economic agent who behaves rationally i.e. taking decisions after comparing the relative prices associated to various alternatives, then deciding to take action and implementing effective measures to tackle deforestation and shift the nation-wide development path.
Time lags can be found throughout the invasion process, including in the arrival, establishment, and impacts of invaders. While we often lack the information necessary to generate quantitative expectations of invader performance, some types of lags are not surprising. For example, populations often grow exponentially in the early phases of invasion, and this will give rise to an inherent lag. More broadly, early rates of anthropogenic invasion were much slower than what we are now witnessing, but as the vectors of invasion have also increased dramatically over time, this early lag is not unexpected. Many other lags, however, appear dramatically prolonged, and can come to an end with changes to the invader or its environment. For example, exotics can exist in relatively low numbers for decades before exploding, or invaders can become more aggressive over time and increase their impacts on native species. Invasion-related lags are critical for our efforts to manage invaders, as they may lead us to make inaccurate assessments of the risks posed by invaders as well as miss critical windows for action. Recognition of the phenomenon of long lags before sudden changes in invader dynamics also suggests that we adopt a strict precautionary principle: we should assume that any invader has the potential for undesirable effects and that long periods of seemingly consistent behaviour can be poor predictors of what invaders will do in the future.
Ecotechnology - the use of natural ecosystems to solve environmental problems - should be a part of efforts to shrink the zone of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.
This report is a project of Earth Economics. The authors are responsible for the content of this report. Funding
Concepts and theory for the design and application of terrestrial reserves is based on our understanding of environmental, ecological, and evolutionary processes re- sponsible for biological diversity and sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems and how hu- mans have influenced these processes. How well this terrestrial-based theory can be applied toward the design and application of reserves in the coastal marine environment depends, in part, on the degree of similarity between these systems. Several marked differences in ecological and evolutionary processes exist between marine and terrestrial ecosystems as ramifications of fundamental differences in their physical environments (i.e., the relative prevalence of air and water) and contemporary patterns of human impacts. Most notably, the great extent and rate of dispersal of nutrients, materials, holoplanktonic organisms, and reproductive propagules of benthic organisms expand scales of connectivity among near- shore communities and ecosystems. Consequently, the ''openness'' of marine populations, communities, and ecosystems probably has marked influences on their spatial, genetic, and trophic structures and dynamics in ways experienced by only some terrestrial species. Such differences appear to be particularly significant for the kinds of organisms most exploited and targeted for protection in coastal marine ecosystems (fishes and macroinvertebrates). These and other differences imply some unique design criteria and application of reserves in the marine environment. In explaining the implications of these differences for marine reserve design and application, we identify many of the environmental and ecological processes and design criteria necessary for consideration in the development of the ana- lytical approaches developed elsewhere in this Special Issue.
Global stressors, including climate change, are a major threat to ecosystems, but they cannot be halted by local actions. Ecosystem management is thus attempting to compensate for the impacts of global stressors by reducing local stressors, such as overfishing. This approach assumes that stressors interact additively or synergistically, whereby the combined effect of two stressors is at least the sum of their isolated effects. It is not clear, however, how management should proceed for antagonistic interactions among stressors, where multiple stressors do not have an additive or greater impact. Research to date has focussed on identifying synergisms among stressors, but antagonisms may be just as common. We examined the effectiveness of management when faced with different types of interactions in two systems - seagrass and fish communities - where the global stressor was climate change but the local stressors were different. When there were synergisms, mitigating local stressors delivered greater gains, whereas when there were antagonisms, management of local stressors was ineffective or even degraded ecosystems. These results suggest that reducing a local stressor can compensate for climate change impacts if there is a synergistic interaction. Conversely, if there is an antagonistic interaction, management of local stressors will have the greatest benefits in areas of refuge from climate change. A balanced research agenda, investigating both antagonistic and synergistic interaction types, is needed to inform management priorities.
We review the evidence of regime shifts in terrestrial and aquatic environments in relation to resilience of complex adaptive ecosystems and the functional roles of biological diversity in this context. The evidence reveals that the likelihood of regime shifts may increase when humans reduce resilience by such actions as removing response diversity, removing whole functional groups of species, or removing whole trophic levels; impacting on ecosystems via emissions of waste and pollutants and climate change; and altering the magnitude, frequency, and duration of disturbance regimes. The combined and often synergistic effects of those pressures can make ecosystems more vulnerable to changes that previously could be absorbed. As a consequence, ecosystems may suddenly shift from desired to less desired states in their capacity to generate ecosystem services. Active adaptive management and governance of resilience will be required to sustain desired ecosystem states and transform degraded ecosystems into fundamentally new and more desirable configurations.
Environmental problems have contributed to numerous collapses of civilizations in the past. Now, for the first time, a global collapse appears likely. Overpopulation, overconsumption by the rich and poor choices of technologies are major drivers; dramatic cultural change provides the main hope of averting calamity.
From the 1930s to 1990, the coastal zone of Louisiana lost an estimated 3,950 square kilometers, or 1,526 square miles, of wetlands (i.e., periodically flooded land containing emergent vegetation. This loss of wetlands resulted, for the most part, from
inundation or erosion of wetlands rather than from the draining or filling characteristic of many wetland losses elsewhere. In addition, large areas of brackish and freshwater wetlands have become progressively more saline as salt water has increasingly invaded the deteriorating coastal zone. Because 40% of U.S. coastal wetlands are
found in Louisiana, this loss constitutes about 80% of the total national coastal wetland loss. Louisiana coastal wetlands are exceptionally valuable in terms of coastal fisheries and migratory waterfowl, protection of low-lying population centers from hurricanes and other storms, and oil and gas production. Furthermore, the greatly accelerated rates of coastal wetland loss appear to be the unintended result of massive human disturbances of these wetlands and intervention (for purposes of flood protection, water supply, maritime commerce, energy production, and wildlife management) in the processes that sustain coastal wetlands...
(Full article is available from the Jstore archive - https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25735693.pdf)
The farm policy debate in the US continues to evolve rapidly as priorities and perceptions change. For some time now risk protection has been the primary rationale used to justify federal farm programs; hence the commonly expressed need for a farm safety net. As the 2008 farm bill neared its expiration and debate began on a new farm bill, direct payments became perceived as the least politically defensible of the existing farm programs, since direct payments provide no risk protection. Thus, it became widely agreed that direct payments would be reduced or eliminated to reach budget reduction targets. Some may argue that policy-makers adopted and maintained crop insurance premium subsidies simply as a mechanism for transferring federal dollars to crop farmers. It is certainly true that if crop insurance policies are priced correctly, premium subsidies effectively transfer income from taxpayers to crop insurance purchasers.
[Extract] Currently both federal and state governments are refusing their responsibilities to protect the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) through inaction on climate change based on the misuse of the available science while at the same time port authorities, mining companies and governments are evading their responsibilities to manage port developments adequately by using "offsets" (where the funds go to farmers to improve management practices in the GBR catchment). The result of this evasion of responsibility means that the sole responsibility to manage the GBR has been passed on to farmers! So of the three big threats to the GBR – climate change, agricultural pollution and coastal development pollution/degradation – only agricultural pollution is being managed to some extent based on good science.
Aim
Cumulative impact maps are used to identify the spatial distribution of multiple human impacts to species and ecosystems. Impacts can be caused by local stressors which can be managed, such as eutrophication, and by global stressors that cannot be managed, such as climate change. Cumulative impact maps typically assume that there are no interactive effects between stressors on biodiversity. However, the benefits of managing the ecosystem are affected by interactions between stressors. Our aim was to determine whether the assumption of no interactions in impact maps leads to incorrect identification of sites for management.
Location
General, Australasia.
Methods
We used the additive effects model to incorporate the effects of interactions into an interactive impact map. Seagrass meadows in A ustralasia threatened by a local stressor, nutrient inputs, and a global stressor, warming, were used as a case study. The reduction in the impact index was quantified for reductions in the nutrient stressor. We examined the outcomes for three scenarios: no interactions, antagonistic interactions or synergistic interactions.
Results
Cumulative impact maps imply that reducing a local stressor will give equivalent reductions in the impact index everywhere, regardless of spatial variability in a global stressor. We show that reductions in the impact index were greatest in refuges from warming if there was an antagonistic interaction between stressors, and greatest in areas of high warming stress if there was a synergistic interaction. Reducing the nutrient stressor in refuges from warming always reduced the impact index, regardless of the interaction.
Main conclusions
Interactions between local and global stressors should be considered when using cumulative impact maps to identify sites where management of a local stressor will provide the greatest impact reduction. If the interaction type is unknown, impact maps can be used to identify refuges from global stressors, as sites for management.
Payments for ecosystem services (PES) received a lot of academic attention in the past years. However, the concept remains loose and many different conservation approaches are published under the ‘PES label’. We reviewed 457 articles obtained in a structured literature search in order to present an overview of the PES literature. This paper (1) illustrates the different analytical perspectives on PES concepts and types, (2) shows the geographic focus of PES research and (3) identifies the major foci of the overall PES research. The paper finally (4) identifies differences and similarities in conservation programs and main research topics between developing and industrialized countries to (5) disclose potentials for research synergies, should research experiences in the two types of countries be exchanged more deliberately. We demonstrate that only few publications describe Coasean PES approaches. The majority of research refers to national governmental payment programs. The overall design of national PES programs in Latin America resembles the design of those in the US and EU considerably. Programs in the US and EU have been in place longer than most of the frequently published Latin American schemes. However the former are hardly considered in the international PES literature as research is usually published under different terminologies.
This article investigates whether the European Union-Mauritania fisheries agreement, which allocates part of the Europe's financial contribution to the conservation of marine ecosystems located within the Banc d’Arguin National Park, can be regarded as a payment for ecosystem service. A framework for qualification as such payment scheme was established based on an extensive literature review. The criteria identified for the qualification as a payment to ecosystem service pertain to: (1) the definition of the ecosystem service(s) involved; (2) the mechanism involved by the payment; and (3) the nature of the transaction. Interviews with local beneficiaries and subsequent data analysis led to the conclusion that this mechanism could be regarded as a payment to ecosystem service and so, through the European Union-Mauritania Fisheries agreement, the European Union were investing to protect local fish resources that could be exploited by its fishing fleet. This agreement, involving the first International Payment to Ecosystem Service of this kind, marks an important step towards better consideration of marine conservation in international public policy and foreign fishing policy in particular. However, this payment is small when compared to revenues generated through the exploitation of developing countries’ fishing grounds by fishing countries. Nevertheless it opens the door for more detailed applications of payment to ecosystem service schemes to other ecosystems contexts, and can provide a useful alternative source of financing of marine biodiversity conservation.
Concern is growing about the potential effects of interacting multiple stressors, especially as the global climate changes. We provide a comprehensive review of multiple stressor interactions in coral reef ecosystems, which are widely considered to be one of the most sensitive ecosystems to global change. First, we synthesized coral reef studies that examined interactions of two or more stressors, highlighting stressor interactions (where one stressor directly influences another) and potentially synergistic effects on response variables (where two stressors interact to produce an effect that is greater than purely additive). For stressor-stressor interactions, we found studies that examined at least 2 of the 13 stressors of interest. Applying network analysis to analyze relationships between stressors, we found that pathogens were exacerbated by more co-stressors than any other stressor, with ~78% of studies reporting an enhancing effect by another stressor. Sedimentation, storms, and water temperature directly affected the largest number of other stressors. Pathogens, nutrients, and crown-of-thorns starfish were the most-influenced stressors. We found 187 studies that examined the effects of two or more stressors on a third dependent variable. The interaction of irradiance and temperature on corals has been the subject of more research (62 studies, 33% of the total) than any other combination of stressors, with many studies reporting a synergistic effect on coral symbiont photosynthetic performance (n=19). Second, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis of existing literature on this most-studied interaction (irradiance and temperature). We found that the mean effect size of combined treatments was statistically indistinguishable from a purely additive interaction, although it should be noted that the sample size was relatively small (n=26). Overall, although in aggregate a large body of literature examines stressor effects on coral reefs and coral organisms, considerable gaps remain for numerous stressor interactions and effects, and insufficient quantitative evidence exists to suggest that the prevailing type of stressor interaction is synergistic. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Mangrove forests provide important ecosystem services, including protecting coastlines from the impacts of extreme weather events, such as storm surge and erosion. Unfortunately, these same extreme weather events also degrade mangrove forests. Currently, there are no comprehensive financial mechanisms in place to ensure that mangroves are rehabilitated following storm damage. This article explores whether there is a legal basis for applying insurance to mangrove forests, to ensure that mangroves are rehabilitated to retain their protective functions. This article uses Australian insurance law as a case study, and first analyses whether the legal principles underpinning insurance can be extended to mangrove forests, and then addresses the practical difficulties involved in developing an insurance product of this type. This article concludes that mangrove insurance is technically feasible, and provides a series of recommendations for policy-makers and the insurance industry.
A number of international donors, national governments and project proponents have begun to lay the groundwork for REDD+, but tenure insecurity – including the potential risks of land grabbing by outsiders and loss of local user rights to forests and forest land – is one of the main reasons that many indigenous and other local peoples have publicly opposed it. Under what conditions is REDD+ a threat to local rights, and under what conditions does it present an opportunity? This article explores these issues based on available data from a global comparative study on REDD+, led by the Center for International Forestry Research, which is studying national policies and processes in 12 countries and 23 REDD+ projects in 6 countries. The article analyses how tenure concerns are being addressed at both national and project level in emerging REDD+ programs. The findings suggest that in most cases REDD+ has clearly provided some new opportunities for securing local tenure rights, but that piecemeal interventions by project proponents at the local level are insufficient in the absence of broader, national programs for land tenure reform. The potential for substantial changes in the status quo appear unlikely, though Brazil – the only one with such a national land tenure reform program – offers useful insights. Land tenure reform – the recognition of customary rights in particular – and a serious commitment to REDD+ both challenge the deep-rooted economic and political interests of ‘business as usual’.
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is being proclaimed as “a new direction in forest conservation” (Anglesen, 2009: 125). This financial incentives-based climate change mitigation strategy proposed by the UNEP, World Bank, GEF and environmental NGOs seeks to integrate forests into carbon sequestration schemes. Its proponents view REDD+ as part of an adaptive strategy to counter the effects of global climate change. This paper combines the theoretical approaches of market environmentalism and environmental narratives to examine the politics of environmental knowledge that are redefining socio-nature relations in the Rufiji Delta, Tanzania to make mangrove forests amenable to markets. Through a case study of a “REDD-readiness” climate change mitigation and adaptation project, we demonstrate how a shift in resource control and management from local to global actors builds upon narratives of environmental change (forest loss) that have little factual basis in environmental histories. We argue that the proponents of REDD+ (Tanzanian state, aid donors, environmental NGOs) underestimate the agency of forest-reliant communities who have played a major role in the making of the delta landscape and who will certainly resist the injustices they are facing as a result of this shift from community-based resource management to fortress conservation.
Sites that are important for biodiversity conservation can also provide significant benefits (i.e. ecosystem
services) to people. Decision-makers need to know how change to a site, whether development or
restoration, would affect the delivery of services and the distribution of any benefits among stakeholders.
However, there are relatively few empirical studies that present this information. One reason is the lack of
appropriate methods and tools for ecosystem service assessment that do not require substantial resources
or specialist technical knowledge, or rely heavily upon existing data. Here we address this gap by
describing the Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA). It guides local non-specialists
through a selection of relatively accessible methods for identifying which ecosystem services may be
important at a site, and for evaluating the magnitude of benefits that people obtain from them currently,
compared with those expected under alternative land-uses. The toolkit recommends use of existing data
where appropriate and places emphasis on enabling users to collect new field data at relatively low cost
and effort. By using TESSA, the users could also gain valuable information about the alternative land-uses;
and data collected in the field could be incorporated into regular monitoring programmes.
Schemes that reward developing countries for mitigating greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions through forest preservation and restoration are becoming more common. However, efforts to reduce GHG emissions must also consider food production. This creates an apparent conflict, given that agricultural production – a key driver of GHG emissions as a consequence of forest clearance – will increase as human populations continue to grow. We propose that a mosaic of small patches of forest mixed with cropland enables sustainable intensification of agriculture by minimizing soil degradation. Economic analyses of this mixed land-use concept suggest an improvement of long-term economic performance of 19–25% relative to conventional industrial agriculture with large-scale monocropping. Adopting this approach requires farm management plans, landscape zoning, and new instruments to finance sustainable agriculture. We conclude that climate policy and food production can be reconciled through an integrative landscape concept that combines this more sustainable method of agricultural intensification with the reforestation of abandoned lands.
Read More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/110203
While preserving water quality by contracting with farmers has been examined previously, we analyze these arrangements from a different perspective. This study uses a transaction cost framework, in conjunction with detailed case studies of two water quality payment schemes, to examine factors that increase and decrease transaction costs in order to improve policy choice as well as policy design and implementation. In both the Munich and New York City cases, agreements with farmers to change land management practices resolved the water quality problems. In Munich, factors including lack of rural/urban antipathy, homogeneous land use, utilization of well-developed organic standards, and strong demand for organic products decreased transaction costs. Using existing organic institutions addressed a range of environmental issues simultaneously. Factors that decreased transaction costs in both cases included: highly sensitive land was purchased outright and the existence of one large “buyerâ€. Adequate lead time and flexibility of water quality regulations allowed negotiation and development of the watershed programs. Tourism and eco-labels allow urban residents to become aware of the agricultural production practices that affect their water supply. We conclude with recommendations based on the experiences of these cities, both of which have been proposed as models for other schemes.
Multiple activities affect the marine environment in concert, yet current management primarily considers activities in isolation. A shift towards a more comprehensive management of these activities, as with recent emphasis on ecosystem-based approaches to management, requires a means for evaluating their interactive and cumulative impacts. Here we develop a framework for this evaluation, focusing on five core concepts: (1) activities have interactive and cumulative impacts, (2) management decisions require consideration of, and tradeoffs among, all ecosystem services, (3) not all stressors are equal or have impacts that increase linearly, (4) management must account for the different scales of activities and impacts, and (5) some externalities cannot be controlled locally but must be accounted for in marine spatial planning. Comprehensive ocean zoning provides a powerful tool with which these key concepts are collectively addressed.
We used field and laboratory measurements, geographic information systems, and simulation modeling to investigate the potential effects of accelerated sea-level rise on tidal marsh area and delivery of ecosystem services along the Georgia coast. Model simulations using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) mean and maximum estimates of sea-level rise for the year 2100 suggest that salt marshes will decline in area by 20% and 45%, respectively. The area of tidal freshwater marshes will increase by 2% under the IPCC mean scenario, but will decline by 39% under the maximum scenario. Delivery of ecosystem services associated with productivity (macrophyte biomass) and waste treatment ( nitrogen accumulation in soil, potential denitrification) will also decline. Our findings suggest that tidal marshes at the lower and upper salinity ranges, and their attendant delivery of ecosystem services, will be most affected by accelerated sea-level rise, unless geomorphic conditions (ie gradual increase in elevation) enable tidal freshwater marshes to migrate inland, or vertical accretion of salt marshes to increase, to compensate for accelerated sea-level rise.
Mismatches between the spatial scales of human decision-making and natural processes contribute to environmental problems such as global warming and biodiversity losses. People damage the environment through local activities like clearing land or burning fossil fuels, but the damages only become manifest at larger regional or global scales where no one pays for them. Payments for ecological services like carbon sequestration can correct for these damages caused by scale mismatches. This paper presents a spatially explicit land-use model to investigate the consequences of scale mismatches for pollination and carbon storage services and examine the effect of payment for only carbon storage services. The model integrates processes in multiple spatial scales ranging from the parcel level used by landowners’ decision about deforestation, to the larger scale used by animals to pollinate plants, and finally to the global scale where carbon storage services are supplied. We show that payment for carbon storage services can become an effective mechanism to protect forests at the same time that it creates inequities among landowners in income level.These findings suggest that market-based approaches that focus on conservation of a single ecosystem service may reproduce unequal power relations among landowners.