Category: Ecosystem Service Information

Some Observations on Measurement

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The evolution of ecosystem service markets is dependent upon the ability to accurately measure.

In order to measure, a number of other issues become important. Scale, for example, is relevant to the level of precision. Temporal issues need to be considered because of the ‘changes’ that occur over time with what you are measuring.  In essence, any measurement is a function of a number of physical and chemical condtiona and properties.

Thanks to computers (and the people that concieved of and built them), we are able to model many of those spatial and temporal effects and can ‘measure.’ 

We’ve recently been involved in a number of issues with regional land surveyors. It would seem that with the advent of very high accuracy GPS, GIS, and database systems we would be able to make stable high accuracy ground measurements. Once those measurements are made, we would only need to remeasure if the physical conditions related to the measurements changed. Well, as it works out, the professional of land surveying rest on the fundamental premise that the ‘measurer’ is the standard for measurement …..not the physical measure itself.

I can understand that the history of land surveying is based upon judgements from previous physical descriptions of the land (‘twenty-seven steps east to maple tree’). In that historical context, the standard for measurement WAS the ‘measurer’s interpretation. Today, GPS, with proper control standards, allows the tool to be the standard, and that tool is more accurate than other human measuring methods.

All of this silly talk is merely to say that, as we are better able to measure and quantify environmental conditions and ecosystem services, we also need to be aware of existing historical standards and practices and be willing to ‘update’ those policies as we improve the environment by properly valuing it.

USDA Announces New Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2008–Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer today announced the intention to establish a new USDA Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets and the creation of a federal government-wide Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board to assist the Secretary of Agriculture in the development of new technical guidelines and science-based methods to assess environmental service benefits which will in turn promote markets for ecosystem services including carbon trading to mitigate climate change.

“Our Nation’s farms, ranches and forests provide goods and services that are vital to society – natural assets we call “ecosystem services,” said Schafer. “The Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets will enable America’s agriculture producers to better compete, trade their services around the world, and make significant contributions to help improve the environment.”

Agriculture producers provide many ecosystem services which have historically been viewed as free benefits to society – clean water and air, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and scenic landscapes. Lacking a formal structure to market these services, farmers, ranchers and forest landowners are not generally compensated for providing these critical public benefits. Market-based approaches to conservation are proven to be a cost-effective method to achieve environmental goals and sustain working and natural landscapes. Without financial incentives, these ecosystem services may be lost as privately-owned lands are sold or converted to development.

Secretary Shafer intends to name Sally Collins Director of the Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets (OESM). Organizationally, OESM will be located within the Office of the Secretary providing direct access to the Secretary. Collins will assume this position after serving as Associate Chief of the USDA Forest Service for the past 8 years, where she pioneered concepts for ecosystem services and markets as part of that agency’s sustainable land management mission.

OESM will provide administrative and technical assistance to the Secretary in developing the uniform guidelines and tools needed to create and expand markets for these vital ecosystem services and will support the work of the Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board. As directed by the authorizing legislation the first ecosystem services to be examined will be carbon sequestration. The Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets and the Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board will be established to implement actions authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill.

The Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board will be comprised of the Secretaries of Interior, Energy, Commerce, Transportation, and Defense; the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors; the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology ; the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and, the Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Secretary of Agriculture will Chair the Board. The Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Administrator of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will serve as vice-chairs.

Nominations will be sought in the near future for a federally chartered public Advisory Committee to advise the Board. The Advisory Committee will include farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, Tribal representatives, as well as representatives from State natural resource and environmental agencies, agriculture departments, and conservation and environmental organizations.

Voluntary Carbon Standard

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From the Report:

This document provides guidance and additional context for users of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), the VCS Program Guidelines, and the VCS Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) project tools. At the beginning of each section, relevant content from the respective VCS document (VCS, the VCS Program Guidelines, and the VCS AFOLU project tools) is presented verbatim in a box after which the relevant guidance is provided. In case of any discrepancies between: a.) this guidance document; and b.) the most up-to-date versions of the VCS, the VCS Program Guidelines, or VCS AFOLU project tools documents, information contained in the documents mentioned under b.) is considered binding. This document should be cited as: “Voluntary Carbon Standard – Guidance for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use Projects (VCS 2007.1, 2008).” VCS Association. Available at: http://www.v-c-s.org

The rules contained in the VCS 2007.1, VCS Program Guidelines, and the AFOLU project tools have been developed to enable high-quality AFOLU projects from around the world to generate Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs) that are credible, robust, permanent and fungible. The result of an intensive eighteen-month development process managed by the VCS AFOLU Advisory Group and overseen by the VCS Steering Committee, these guidelines employ innovative and best-practice thinking in order to create standards that are at once rigorous and workable. After considerable public input, working groups composed of leading experts in each of the four AFOLU project categories authored this guidance and the associated AFOLU text found in the VCS, Program Guidelines and Tools. More than twenty independent reviewers, including preeminent risk experts, investors, NGO representatives and project developers supported these efforts and provided detailed feedback during the evolution of these AFOLU rules and guidance.

For the entire Report:

http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/documents/cms_documents/Guidance%20for%20AFOLU%20Projects.pdf

2008 EPA Report on the Environment

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EPA today released the “2008 Report on the Environment: Highlights of National Trends” (2008 ROE HD), which provides the American people with an important resource for better understanding trends in our nation’s health and environment. The report is intended for a general audience and summarizes highlights of the more comprehensive “EPA’s 2008 Report on the Environment,” which was released in May, and provided the scientific and technical information. Together the two reports present national environmental trends and inform EPA’s strategic planning process with the best available, scientifically sound information.

EPA also launched a new Web site that allows the user to search the full technical report for specific trends in air, water, and land.

The 2008 ROE HD, ROE and searchable eROE: http://www.epa.gov/roe

Bioplanning

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Ms. Beresford-Kroeger, 63, is a native of Ireland who has bachelor’s degrees in medical biochemistry and botany, and has worked as a Ph.D.-level researcher at the University of Ottawa school of medicine, where she published several papers on the chemistry of artificial blood. She calls herself a renegade scientist, however, because she tries to bring together aboriginal healing, Western medicine and botany to advocate an unusual role for trees.

She favors what she terms a bioplan, reforesting cities and rural areas with trees according to the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, pesticidal and herbicidal properties she claims for them, which she calls ecofunctions.

For the enitre article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/science/12prof.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

An Interesting Discussion

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Over the past couple of days I’ve had several discussions with Rhode Island USDA NRCS about their development of a Rapid Watershed Assessment (RWA). The RWA gives NRCS, farmers, and conservation organizations the ability to prioritize conservation actions, determine the best economies for those conservation actions, and adaptively manage conservation and farm systems.

Part of the discussion involved a desire by NRCS to integrate the many different conservation and environmental plans/databases/information systems….and the difficulty with realizing that goal. I think part of the problem with any of these cooperative visions for information and data is the unknown cost of such complex tasks. Most conservation organizations and governmental departments have few funds for this kind of complex development…and it is expensive.

One of the opportunities that arise from ecosystem service markets, and the financial assets they create, is the potential for cash to finance these assessment, valuation, and monitoring systems. Within a bit of forethought, we can develop planning and assessment tools that allow for valuation, monitoring, and brokering of ecosystem services.

Agricultural Ecosystems: Facts and Trends

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The World Business Council for Sustainable Development and IUCN have recently released this valuable overview of global agricultural practices and the potential of sustainable practices.

From one section:

As wealth increases so does per capita calorie intake. The demand for a more diverse diet that includes animal protein such as meat and milk products requires more land to produce. What role do consumers play when choosing their diet? Do consumers need to be encouraged to have a vegetarian diet?

Meat consumption in China has more than doubled in the last 20 years and it is projected to double again by 2030.

Consumer concerns about food safety, the origin of produce and environmental impacts are also driving improvements in food quality throughout the global agri-food value chain.

Diet changes in richer countries towards increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables contribute to generating less calories per hectare. For instance China is gradually abandoning field crops – such as cereals – to produce vegetables and fruit; it has now become the world’s largest producer of vegetables and apples.

Producing meat, milk, sugar, oils and vegetables typically requires more water than producing cereals. Average water use also differs greatly between feed-based meat production and grazing systems.

Food production to satisfy a person’s daily dietary needs takes about 3,000 liters of water – a little more than one liter per calorie.

The Report:

Agricultural Ecosystems

USDA CEAP

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In 2003 the USDA began the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) to quantify the environmental benefits from conservation practices on private lands. Andy Manale, a Senior Analyst at USEPA, has been working on the team and has spoken well of CEAPs work.

They have been working on a number of pilots that carefully quantify environmental effects from specific conservation practices. For more:

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/nri/ceap/index.html

Ecosystem Services: A 21st Century Policy Challenge

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Attached is an issue of Choices Magazine which is a publication of the American Agricultural Economics Association. It is an interesting look at the farm as managed ecosystem. There is an article by the faculty at the University of Rhode Island concerning our USDA Conservation Innovation Grant…the Bobolink Project.

Here’s the link:

http://www.choicesmagazine.org/magazine/pdf/block_9.pdf