Browsing by Subject "Ecosystem services"
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Item Open Access A Financial and Economic Assessment of the Conservation of Northwestern Madagascar Mangroves(2016-04-29) Witt, EmilyPrograms such as REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) that provide financial incentives to maintain natural carbon stocks are being implemented worldwide to address climate change and the conservation of threatened ecosystems. In developing countries, where the relative cost of conservation is high, these programs are especially attractive to promote sustainable resource use and prevent conversion of valuable ecosystems to other land uses. To incorporate REDD effectively in these areas, the financial costs and benefits resulting from the project implementation needs to be accessed. Quantification of income received from ecosystem services under baseline and project scenarios needs to be estimated, along with other costs of conservation management in order for a comprehensive comparison to be done. Ensuring that the project not only generates additional value, but also promotes the livelihoods of communities that rely on these ecosystems is key to the long-term sustainability of conservation efforts. This report serves as a cost-benefit analysis case study in Ambro-Ambanja Bay, Madagascar. This financial analysis looks at Blue Ventures’ proposed conservation of mangrove forests in Northwestern Madagascar using a REDD project. Project cash flows center around net income derived from certain ecosystem services, carbon income generated from REDD and project implementation and transaction costs. One limitation of this analysis is the exclusion of several partial, indirect and non-use ecosystem services provided by the Ambro-Ambanja Bay mangrove forest. To address this, a total economic valuation framework of all ecosystem services provided by Ambro-Ambanja Bay mangroves was created to provide additional insight into the entire estimated value of healthy mangrove forests. The first chapter of this report provides a background on mangrove ecosystems, the state of Ambaro-Ambanja Bay mangroves, and the general objectives of the proposed project. The second chapter provides an overview of methods used to estimate deforestation, methods used to derive the net income generated from various ecosystem services, and estimates of the costs associated with the project. The chapter details how these costs and benefits were derived under the baseline and project scenarios to provide insight on the impacts the two scenarios have on the estimated financial cash flows. The third chapter consists of a financial analysis of the project from the perspective of each of the major stakeholders. The financial assumptions are stated along with an overview of the government, project developer and community perspectives. Costs and benefits for each perspective were summarized in the form of net present values (NPV), which were calculated under various scenarios. It was found that the project was profitable for the government and community perspectives, and breakeven for the project developer, when carbon income was included. Major differences in NPVs between the assorted scenarios were analyzed and the sensitivities of those NPVs to changes in the stated assumptions were also tested. The fourth chapter details a proposed framework for valuing the additional ecosystem services that were not valued in the initial cost benefit analysis. An overview of those ecosystem services along with the various methods chosen to value each service is discussed. Benefit transfer was the main method employed to value the partial, indirect and non-use services. The section then details what literature estimates, data and calculations were used or are needed to derive the annual per hectare value provided by each service from healthy Ambaro-Ambanja Bay mangroves. The fifth chapter identifies the aspects of the project that might introduce risk to the long-term sustainability of the project. These risks include delayed benefits from the community perspective due to a 14 year project payback period, heavy reliance on carbon credit income for project profitability from the community perspective, and reliance on donor funding to break even from the project developer perspective. Proposed management considerations to mitigate these risks include project refinancing, potential development of an additional project income generating activity, and diversification of donor funding sources. This report makes several key points and recommendations: • Analyzing project profitability from the perspective of all major stakeholders is important in identifying where potential risks lie and who will be bearing those risks. • Although measures of net present value provide a simplified summary of the total discounted value received, it is critical to look deeper into the characteristics of the distribution of costs and benefits over time and the impacts it might have on stakeholders, especially those that are risk-averse. • Assumptions based on extremely volatile and new markets, such as the Voluntary Carbon Market, need to be made with caution and tested for project sensitivity. • Estimation and assessment of the total economic value (TEV) of all of the ecosystem services is needed to determine the true value of healthy mangroves in Ambaro-Ambanja Bay. The indirect value of these services and the impact of deforestation on that value need to be considered by the stakeholders.Item Open Access A Preliminary Assessment of the Blue Carbon Capacity of Belizean Mangroves with Ecological, Economic, and Policy Perspectives(2015-04-24) Chang, Sylvia; Green, Ashley; Kelley, EmmaIn recent years, mangrove forests have experienced increasing deforestation rates in Belize due to coastal development. Our client, the Belize Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, and Sustainable Development, wants to determine the potential for Belizean mangrove blue carbon to provide funding opportunities through international financing schemes for the conservation and enhancement of mangroves. Mangrove forests are coastal wetlands along the intertidal zone of tropical and subtropical coastlines. Mangrove, salt marsh, and seagrass ecosystems have significant abilities to sequester and store carbon in their biomass and sediments – the carbon stored in these coastal ecosystems is referred to as “blue carbon.” The impact of mangrove deforestation on carbon sequestration in Belize could be significant, but little is known about how much carbon is stored in Belizean mangroves. The goal of this project was to provide a preliminary assessment of the potential of blue carbon in Belize. This project was broken down into three objectives: ecology, economic, and policy. The goal of the ecology portion of this study was to provide preliminary estimates of the blue carbon stocks of Belize’s mangroves. This required data on the extent of Belizean mangroves, which were obtained from a 2010 study by Emil Cherrington and colleagues, as well from a 2014 update provided by Mr. Cherrington. Using this spatial data, four different approaches were applied to estimate the mangrove blue carbon stocks. The first was a meta-analysis evaluating the pre-existing knowledge of belowground carbon storage in mangrove ecosystems in the Caribbean. This analysis identified a linear relationship between belowground carbon storage and latitude, which was used to estimate that approximately 9.4 Tg are stored in the belowground blue carbon pool in Belize. The Blue Carbon Initiative’s Coastal Blue Carbon guidebook was used to make another estimate and this method suggests that approximately 23.3 Tg of blue carbon are stored in the mangrove forests of Belize. Using physiographic mangrove type-specific estimates from carbon studies in Mexico (Adame et al. 2013), a third estimate approximated that there are 29.6 Tg of blue carbon stored in the mangrove forests of Belize. The large variation between these initial estimates emphasized the need to complete in-country mangrove blue carbon sampling. Thus, a study was undertaken combining aboveground mangrove biomass data from the University of Belize’s Environmental Research Institute and soil carbon data from a field study we completed in August 2014. Although this estimate is limited in scope due to its inclusion of only two of the four blue carbon pools, this methodology suggests that there are 13.0 Tg of blue carbon stored in Belize’s mangroves. The second goal of this study was to conduct a preliminary economic analysis of the value of the blue carbon stocks and identify the factors influencing the feasibility of a blue carbon offsets project. Having an estimate of the economic costs and benefits for a blue carbon offsets program helps show the net economic value of actions to conserve or enhance mangroves. Economic analysis will help show when carbon payments can justify the cost of changing local behavior and determine how might a carbon payments project might compete with alternative land uses in Belize. Using preliminary carbon stock estimates and project criteria estimates, we conducted a case study of a net present value (NPV) analysis to determine the economic feasibility of a blue carbon offsets project for 25% of the mangroves on Turneffe Atoll. Not surprisingly, the analysis shows that a blue carbon offsets project cannot outcompete coastal development on Turneffe when the cost for land acquisition is high. Under the scenario without accounting for land acquisition cost, a carbon price greater than $10 per tCO2e is necessary to generate enough revenue to sustain the blue carbon project. The potential for Belize to enter the blue carbon market depends on three factors: the future risk of mangrove deforestation, price of land acquisition, and success of blue carbon credits. The bundling of blue carbon credits with payments for ecosystem services is a potential avenue worth exploring for future blue carbon projects. The third and final objective was to complete a preliminary assessment of the status of mangroves and mangrove conservation in Belize and policies that could promote a reduction of emissions generated by destruction of vegetation as well as increase blue carbon sequestration. We provide an assessment of the threats to mangroves and discussed issues confronting mangrove conservation in Belize. This is followed by an outline of the relevant laws, policies, agencies, and actors. We then used the Blue Carbon Policy Framework 2.0 (Herr et al. 2012) - a report that outlines options for the assimilation of blue carbon into existing policy initiatives - to identify specific actions Belize can take at the national level to facilitate blue carbon activities. We also discuss potential sources of funding for blue carbon initiatives in Belize, and potential obstacles to implementing blue carbon initiatives. A literature review coupled with interviews with officials from the Government of Belize, researchers from the field, and non-governmental organization representatives served to inform the development of this section of the report. According to the Blue Carbon Initiative, there are three high priority activities national governments should undertake to incorporate blue carbon priorities and activities into climate change mitigation efforts at the national level (Herr and Pidgeon 2012). These activities include: (1) “development of national blue carbon action plans, outlining specific national circumstances, opportunities, needs and limits;” (2) “conducting national scientific carbon, ecological and socio-economic assessments of shallow coastal marine ecosystems;” and (3) “conducting national cost-benefit analysis of including blue carbon activities into national climate change mitigation strategies” (Herr and Pidgeon 2012). In addition to these three high priority activities, the Blue Carbon Initiative brief (Herr and Pidgeon 2012) also describes additional measures developing countries should undertake to ensure mitigation activities at the national level effectively incorporate blue carbon activities. This report identifies specific actions from that brief that are applicable for Belize and provides additional actions we recommend based on our analysis.Item Open Access AN ANALYSIS OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND BENEFITS TO GUIDE CONSERVATION IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY WATERSHED(2021-04-30) Cai, Chuqi; Dixon, Ardath; Jaffe, Catherine; Rieger, ErikThe Chesapeake Bay Watershed drains approximately 64,000 square miles of farms, cities, and forests into the largest estuary in the United States. The watershed crosses six state boundaries and is home to over 18 million people. Our client, the Chesapeake Conservancy, is a long-standing contributor to conservation and restoration efforts throughout this complex watershed. Recently, the Conservancy and its regional partners have adopted a framework to conserve 30% of the watershed by 2030 and 50% by 2050. Our research aims to advance the scientific and economic case for this ambitious 30 by 30 land protection goal. Using a case study approach, we apply geospatial and economic analyses to examine and communicate the key ecological and economic benefits these lands provide to both people and nature. Our process is couched in a multi-criteria, ecosystem services framework. Our results show hotspots of unprotected lands along the eastern and western shores of the bay with multiple co-benefits projected to increase in economic value over time. Targeting 30 by 30 conservation actions to these lands will likely maximize regional conservation benefits.Item Open Access Assessing the current and future status of aquatic and hydrologic ecosystem services in the French Broad River Basin(2017-04-28) Thompson, Brenna; Shapiro, Hannah; Warnell, KatieEcosystem services are the benefits that people receive from nature, and are an increasingly important component in conservation planning. Many of these ecosystem services are threatened, however, by land use change and development, climate change, and pollution. This project assesses the current state of several water-related ecosystem services in western North Carolina’s French Broad River Basin, which includes the city of Asheville, and compares this to a potential future state given predicted changes in development patterns and climate. We identify where sources of water-related ecosystem services are located within the watershed, how many people they serve, where threats to ecosystem services are located, and how ecosystem services and aquatic biodiversity may be affected by future climate and land use changes. Our findings show that climate change and development will have significant implications for the future provisioning and regulation of ecosystem services and the habitat of aquatic biodiversity in western North Carolina.Item Open Access Bird conservation would complement landslide prevention in the Central Andes of Colombia.(PeerJ, 2015-01) Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Pimm, Stuart LConservation and restoration priorities often focus on separate ecosystem problems. Inspired by the November 11th (2011) landslide event near Manizales, and the current poor results of Colombia's Article 111 of Law 99 of 1993 as a conservation measure in this country, we set out to prioritize conservation and restoration areas where landslide prevention would complement bird conservation in the Central Andes. This area is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, but also one of the most threatened. Using the case of the Rio Blanco Reserve, near Manizales, we identified areas for conservation where endemic and small-range bird diversity was high, and where landslide risk was also high. We further prioritized restoration areas by overlapping these conservation priorities with a forest cover map. Restoring forests in bare areas of high landslide risk and important bird diversity yields benefits for both biodiversity and people. We developed a simple landslide susceptibility model using slope, forest cover, aspect, and stream proximity. Using publicly available bird range maps, refined by elevation, we mapped concentrations of endemic and small-range bird species. We identified 1.54 km(2) of potential restoration areas in the Rio Blanco Reserve, and 886 km(2) in the Central Andes region. By prioritizing these areas, we facilitate the application of Article 111 which requires local and regional governments to invest in land purchases for the conservation of watersheds.Item Open Access COASTAL CLIMATE ADAPTATION: Ecological and Socioeconomic effects of Climate Change in Dare, Hyde, and Tyrrell Counties(2012-04-26) Boudreau, DanielleClimate change threatens the ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of Dare, Hyde, and Tyrrell counties as they are the three lowest-lying counties in all of North Carolina, making them particularly vulnerable to sea level rise (SLR) and changes in storm intensity and frequency. The objectives of this study are to : (1) summarize the socioeconomic importance of these three counties, including an evaluation of ecosystem services provided by coastal and marine environments; (2) project the potential biophysical impacts climate change may have in the future; and (3) conclude with an evaluation of the current climate adaptation policies and strategies, including land-use plans and shoreline stabilization, that the North Carolina state government, local county governments, and nonprofits are implementing. The research demonstrates that the local economies in these counties are driven by agriculture, commercial fisheries, and tourism, with ecosystem services providing valuable resources to both local and state populations. The consequences of climate change in the region are vast and unpredictable meaning effective climate adaptation strategies must be developed now before the implications of climate change become a reality. Current climate adaptation policies provide only short-term solutions to a long-term problem. It is recommended that communities weigh the economic, social, and cultural costs of armoring the shoreline versus retreating further inland. Conservation organizations should focus their efforts inland in order to acquire conservation easements anticipating where the coastline will be in 100 years.Item Open Access Designing A Biological Corridor in Oaxaca, Mexico(2020-04-24) Erdman, Krista; Myers, Kimberly; Patterson, Virginia; Wang, ZifengSituated in the biodiversity hotspot of Oaxaca, San Juan Lachao and San Pedro Juchatengo boast an impressive collection of faunal species. Protecting these animals is critical to both prevent extinction and support the communities’ cultures and economies. In our study, we focused on six species – white-tailed deer, jaguarundi, ocelot, puma, peccary, and coati – to locate potential conservation areas and generate a corridor to connect them. Using camera trap observations collected by community members, remotely sensed data, and information gathered in the field, we employed statistical models to map the distribution of each focal species based on probability of occurrence. We then prioritized conservation areas by selecting sizable regions with overlapping distributions. Finally, we calculated least cost paths to find an optimal corridor site. To facilitate future studies, we also classified a highly accurate land use land cover map for the region. Our results identified two priority conservation areas in Lachao totaling 2,774 ha. In future studies, we recommend adjusting the camera trap protocol to extend into Juchatengo and focus on potential conservation areas that have not yet been observed. Additional environmental variables collected at the camera trap sites would also likely markedly improve our distribution models. For indigenous communities that rely on their collective lands for living, biological diversity is an essential aspect of their management practices and is integral to their livelihoods and cultural values. Livelihood activities by indigenous communities also have important implications on local biodiversity both as a source of stress and as a potential force of environmental stewardship. Alternative livelihood projects (ALPs) refer to conservation interventions that intend to reduce people’s reliance on threatened natural resources,generate economic benefits and increase local support for conservation. ICICO has actively promoted ALPs in the two agrarian communities that we worked with, San Juan Lachao and San Pedro Juchatengo, as a strategy for integrating biodiversity and socioeconomic goals. In this part of our project, we studied the socioeconomic effects of the proposed biological corridor and explored the potential for alternative livelihood projects in the client communities. We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with leaders from Lachao and Juchatento, to determine perceptions of benefits and barriers regarding ALP’s and a proposed biological corridor connecting the two communities. We spent time with community members in the field to build trust and gather supporting data from conversations regarding the project. Then, we conducted an in-depth literature review of case studies of four types of alternative livelihood projects identified by ICICO as being of particular interest and relevance for these communities: forest-based carbon offset, non-timber forest product, agroforestry and ecotourism. From the review of literature, we drew lessons that can inform the development of projects in our client communities. Integrating the coding and data analyses from the interviews and the literature review, we determined recommendations towards implementing ALP’s and conservation activities that will link the communities and support the corridor.Item Open Access Distribution of Natural Capital Financing in Markets(2024-04-26) Zepecki, Caroline; Go, Li Jia; Graybill, BryanNatural capital finance is an emerging space wherein natural resources are conceptualized as assets that contribute to economic productivity through the provision of ecosystem services. Natural capital, also referred to as natural assets, stocks fall into four main categories: (1) Agriculture, (2) Biodiversity, (3) Fisheries & Aquaculture, and (4) Ecosystems & Forests including soil, minerals, and animals, and significantly impact the sustainability and economic well-being of businesses and nations. It is essential to understand the role that natural capital stocks play in providing various necessary ecosystem services, which in turn reduce climate change-related investment risks. Additionally, building investment and conservation cases around the existence value of natural capital by measuring ecosystem services provides a mechanism to drive investment into ecosystem restoration and conservation. This project is an exploration of various ecosystem services, methods for quantifying their value in target ecosystem types, and investment frameworks for natural capital as an asset class. We conducted this project in collaboration with Ortec Finance, a leading global provider of technology and solutions for risk and return management, to better understand the value of natural capital and the potential for reducing climate change-related risks through the implementation of conservation and restoration projects. Our team's objective was to contribute to Ortec’s knowledge base of how various natural capital stock types influence global economic activity, considering ecosystem service quantification, climate-related risks to ecosystem service provision, and any corresponding investment risks. Chapter 1 provided a first-pass valuation of the carbon sequestration potential of terrestrial forests in South Carolina, with the results highlighting the feasibility of using open-source models and data to assess the environmental and economic value of terrestrial forest ecosystems, presenting a proof of concept for potential future applications in the client’s target regions. Chapter 2 highlights the critical ecosystem services provided by mangroves, such as coastal flood protection and corresponding asset protection, categorizes various climate-related risks and environmental thresholds impacting mangrove populations, and examines investment frameworks for mangrove natural capital investment. Chapter 3 highlights the value created by the agricultural sector in Brazil, how the agricultural expansion is destroying globally significant natural capital underpinning regional climate regulation and ecosystem services that enable agricultural productivity in the region, identifies countries and actors relevant to the client’s interests driving deforestation through agricultural demand, discusses the risks and costs associated with the collapse of these ecosystem services, and the potential costs of mitigating these risks. All chapters investigate quantification methodologies for a specific ecosystem service, and how that can be used to assign value to specific natural capital stocks. This analysis provides a proof of concept for natural capital stock valuations based on a single ecosystem service— a complete stock valuation, encompassing all ecosystem services provided at a site, is necessary for investors looking to leverage quantifiable “returns” from proper stock management. Key findings- • As natural capital develops and matures as an asset class, frameworks to comprehensively quantify stock values should encompass all ecosystem services provided to avoid “cheapening” nature by oversimplifying valuation methods. • For natural capital asset managers, purchasing stocks of depleted terrestrial forest/mangrove forest/farmland presents a vast opportunity to generate stable, meaningful returns by improving natural resource management practices to maximize ecosystem service outputs. • For each ecosystem type outlined, the ecosystem service valuation framework can be used to justify conservation and restoration measures. • The most appropriate investment mechanisms will vary between natural capital types, depending on the stakeholders who rely most on specific ecosystem services. • Beyond just natural capital asset management, insurance instruments designed for ecosystems, impact investment, and nature-based Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) companies all have a role to play in the growing global conservation finance landscape. Furthermore, this project holds significant relevance to Ortec, as each chapter systematically outlines potential climate risks that threaten the prosperity of the ecosystems discussed. It is crucial to comprehend how ecosystem services, rendered by various forms of natural capital, might fluctuate in the forthcoming decades as climate change impacts intensify. For businesses whose supply chains depend on the ecosystem services provided by the highlighted ecosystem types, grasping the potential variations in ecosystem service provision—and understanding how these changes might influence operational risks—is imperative. This work is highly pertinent in the wake of the release of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, put forth by the UN Environment Programme in late 2023, which introduces a framework to “assess, disclose, and manage nature-related risks and impacts by businesses and financial institutions worldwide” (UNEP FI). Nature risk is investment risk; understanding the breadth and magnitude of socioeconomic contributions from ecosystem service contributions is integral to responsible investment management.Item Unknown Ecological Limitations and Potentials of Artificial Aquatic Systems(2018) Clifford, ChelseaAn abstract of a dissertation: As humans increasingly alter the surface geomorphology of the Earth, a multitude of artificial aquatic systems have appeared, both deliberately and accidentally. Human modifications to the hydroscape range from alteration of existing waterbodies to construction of new ones. The extent and ecosystem services of these systems are underexplored, but likely substantial and changing. Instead of simply accepting that artificial ecosystems have intrinsically low values, environmental scientists should determine what combination of factors, including setting, planning and construction, subsequent management and policy, and time, impact the condition of these systems. Scientists, social scientists, and policymakers should more thoroughly evaluate whether current study and management of artificial aquatic systems is based on the actual ecological condition of these systems, or judged differently, due to artificiality, and consider resultant possible changes in goals for these systems. The emerging recognition and study of artificial aquatic systems presents an exciting and important opportunity for science and society.
Irrigation ditches are ubiquitous features of water networks in rural and urban settings in drylands, and are thus potentially important habitats within the modern hydroscape. The habitat value of ditches and other artificial systems depends on whether these systems respond to local and watershed-scale land use in similar ways to natural features, or whether artificial origin inherently constrains a system's ecological condition. The ditches and creeks of Bishop, California are fed by water from the same minimally developed watershed on the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and so served to test whether artificial and natural waters in the same watershed setting and with shared water can provide similar habitat. We sampled benthic macroinvertebrates at 52 sites within the town, stratified by substrate and season. Communities varied by substrate and season as expected, but did not differ significantly between artificial and natural streams. Instead, both types of streams changed as water flowed from undeveloped desert through town, suggesting that irrigation ditches respond to local urbanization in much the same way that natural streams do. Differences in finer-scale spatial structure of community similarity suggest that community assembly processes may differ between natural and artificial channels, but potential mechanisms for these differences are unclear. This study demonstrates that artificial aquatic systems may have substantial ecological value, and suggests that the poor condition of many artificial aquatic systems may reflect stressful watershed settings rather than something intrinsic to their artificiality.
The drainage ditches of the North Carolina Coastal Plain do not merely degrade wetlands; they themselves have ecological structural characteristics of wetlands. We surveyed 32 agricultural, freeway, and forested ditch reaches across this region for hydrologic indicators, soil organic matter, and plants. All showed some hydrologic indicators and had some soil organic matter, with easterly, swampy forests having the most, though with substantial variation across all and few significant differences between types. All had hydrophytic herbaceous plant communities in the sense of at least half their percent cover belonging to obligate, facultative wetland, or facultative taxa. These herbaceous communities differed significantly across site types (F=3.25, d.f.= 2, p=0.001), and responded to both landscape-level factors like nearby development coverage and local-level factors like apparent mowing. Sample sites were not well mapped in well-used federal aquatic databases; the National Hydrography Dataset only included one on a “CanalDitch” flow line, and the National Wetlands Inventory only included two within “partially drained/ditched” areas, and none as individual “excavated” features. Others were mis-categorized, but neither database included any highway sampling sites. Despite this limited information about extent, variation and management impact suggests that human potential to impact wetland structure of these manmade aquatic ecosystems throughout the North Carolina Coastal Plain, and beyond, could be large.
Artificial lakes are a dominant aquatic ecosystem type, but the processes controlling their condition are under-explored. Here we use structural equations modeling to compare the formation of algal blooms and associated water quality issues in 1,045 artificial and 870 natural lakes in the United States using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Lakes Assessment data. We compare chemical and physical measurements associated with water quality and the relationships between them, and find that the processes are significantly different between natural and artificial lakes, in a way that suggests impacts of interference with thermal stratification through dam management in reservoirs. However, both the overall processes and the distributions of the data are roughly similar between the two origin types, and between 2007 and 2012 sample years. Artificial lakes are lakes, and process-based explorations of their behavior can help us better know management options.
Taken together, this dissertation examines an artificial version of each of the major aquatic ecosystem types: stream, wetland, and lake. It examines the processes controlling their ecological condition with increasing intricacy with each chapter, and finds ways that artificial aquatic ecosystems are both similar to and different from natural ones. This dissertation provides a new way of looking at the constraints and opportunities that artificial waterbodies afford those in charge of them and interested in their conservation potential.
Item Unknown Economic Valuation of Environmental Impacts of a 2D Seismic Survey in the Marañon River Basin, Peru(2014-04-25) Manrique Zeder, LisethThis study seeks to estimate in monetary terms the impacts on the ecosystem services of a 2D seismic Project in the rainforest region of Peru. Economic valuation of the environmental impacts of land use projects is an important part of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) in Peru. EIAs are used to establish a social and environmental base line, identify impacts, and establish mitigation measures and compensations. Legislation is very broad in regard to the goals and ways to conduct economic valuations. Assessments are not comparable and/or use overly general secondary data. In this context, this study proposes a way to both standardize and improve the economic valuation methods for EIAs in Peru by using local data on the impacts on the ecosystem services and on the economy of the people that depend on them and accounting for the impacts after the project has ended. The impact of the project on the carbon capture and storage are calculated through valuation of carbon stocks, deforestation carbon flux loss, and reforestation carbon flux. The impacts on the economic activities that depend on ecosystem services are also estimated for agriculture, hunting and fishing. The results of this analysis vary largely from the ones obtained for the same project using overly generalized data from literature reviews and research conducted in other parts of the world. This shows the bias that overly discretionary guidelines generates; it is also a call to the environmental authorities to establish a common ground for economic valuations in EIA and the benefits that this could represent for the authorities, local communities and the companies that conduct projects in Peru. The first part of this document provides an introduction to the topic, followed by a description of the methods applied and an identification of the project’s impacts. These impacts are then assessed by prevention and mitigation measures in the fourth part. The impacts are classified in potential and residual impacts. The residual impacts after the mitigation plans are valued using data from local sources, forest inventories, household surveys and relevant literature.Item Unknown Ecosystem Services in a Conservation Planning Framework(2009-04-24T13:53:29Z) Cooley, DavidNatural ecosystems provide several important services to society, including water purification, crop pollination, and carbon storage. Until recently, however, these services were not paid for in market transactions, giving landowners little incentive to provide services at optimal levels. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have addressed this by compensating landowners for the services they provide. PES have the potential to become powerful tools for conservation work, prompting the need for conservation planning for these services. In this project, the modeling tool InVEST was used to determine the spatial distributions of four ecosystem services (carbon storage, water purification, pollination, and biodiversity protection) for a study area in North Carolina. The outputs of these models were then overlaid to determine areas of the landscape that are important for the provision of multiple services. The individual and multiple ecosystem service maps were then used to help prioritize investment in specific property parcels based on the ecosystem services each provides under several land use change scenarios, including afforestation, wetland restoration, and the planting of riparian buffers.Item Unknown Estimating the Opportunity Cost of Lithium Extraction in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia(2009-12-04T05:15:30Z) Aguilar-Fernandez, RodrigoIf the world plans to be moving away from oil based transport and towards hybrid and electric vehicles, lithium supply is the key factor. The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia holds the largest source of lithium in the world; however, its extraction will bring a trade off with the environment. Due to the arid nature of the climate, the Salar de Uyuni basin has a sensitive ecosystem heavily dependent on water resources. Consequently, local people’s subsistence and well-being also depend on water resources on a daily basis. Studies conducted in the Salar de Uyuni basin concluded that using the same spring as a production input, water consumption for lithium extraction and crop irrigation cannot simultaneously take place. Thus, the fresh water use from the San Geronimo River creates two mutually exclusive projects, lithium mining and quinoa crop with irrigation, generating different gains to the economy of the region. The incremental cash flows model used in this study provides an estimate of the benefits that each project would provide. The results indicate that even after subtracting the opportunity cost of not conducting the quinoa irrigation project and reducing the uncertainty of the model parameters, the net present value (NPV) of the lithium extraction project is still positive and large relative to the economy of the study area. Nevertheless, the distributional and social differences have to be carefully assessed in the future according to the ecosystem services and the financial model described in this study. In order to incorporate market distortions and foreign exchange implications on the financial model, further economic research is required on both projects. Finally, water resources and its competing uses should be recognized as an economic good, so it could be managed more efficiently and used more equitably in this ecosystem.Item Unknown EVALUATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC MANGROVE SYSTEMS(2018-04-27) Navarro, Vanessa; Fan, JianingAlthough their total area constitutes only a small percentage of global tropical forests, mangroves supply a wide range of goods and services that benefit people, flora and fauna. They protect coastlines from the impact of storms, provide habitat for numerous fish species, improve water quality and even store carbon, thereby alleviating the effects of global climate change. And yet, despite offering all of these benefits, mangrove systems are rapidly shrinking worldwide. To reverse this trend, many studies have attempted to place economic values on the ecosystem services that mangroves provide. In this report, we focus on the mangrove forests of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (ETPS), which includes the countries of Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia. Through a meta-regression of mangrove ecosystem service valuation studies and by utilizing the MangroveCarbon toolbox, we aim to determine the monetary values of the mangrove ecosystem services in this region, and to investigate the factors that most influence those values. The hope is that our analyses will better inform future conservation efforts in the ETPS.Item Unknown Framework for Integrating the Value of Nature in Business Decisions: Utilizing Green Infrastructure for Stormwater Management(2016-04-28) Cough-Schulze, Maya; Hart, Jordan; Halperin, Matthew; Tsai, Jocelyn; Young, BenBusinesses contribute to the degradation of ecosystem services, but also depend on those services for their operations. Most businesses do not incorporate ecosystem services into their decision-making. Existing methods to do so are often costly and time consuming, yet fail to link the public benefits of these services directly to business value. We developed a framework to guide businesses towards accounting for the value of ecosystem services in decision-making, through the context of utilizing green infrastructure practices for stormwater management. We applied this framework to the Stream and Wetland Assessment Management Park, a constructed wetland on the Duke University campus. In our application, we illustrated how the choice between two separate models to predict green infrastructure performance may impact the decision to invest in the project. We also demonstrated that businesses are more likely to adopt green infrastructure, thus invest in ecosystem services, when additional ecosystem service benefits are defined in metrics that directly relate to specific business drivers.Item Unknown Impact of Ecosystem Services Loss to Macroeconomic Productivity(2022-04-22) Hermanson, Max; Chen, Mingyi; Vanasse, Sam; Wang, YifanEcosystem service losses pose an enormous threat not only to the environment, but also to businesses and society. The Duke student team helped its client, Ortec Finance, assess frameworks around ecosystem service losses and risks to different business sectors by conducting a literature review, describing analysis methodologies, and providing recommendations. The literature review showed that quantifying the economic impacts of ecosystem services is effectively done through either partial-equilibrium or computable general-equilibrium models (CGE’s). The foremost publication regarding CGE models was found to be a report by the World Bank, which provides insights into how countries and economic sectors will differ between 2021 and 2030 due to BES losses. Additional literature showed consensus on three sectors: agriculture, raw material mining, and manufacturing are at the highest risk from ecosystem service losses. A flowchart was created to easily summarize how different ecosystem services link to various economic sectors. Geopolitically, developed countries in North America and Europe have low direct GDP dependency on BES. Other developing countries like China, India, and Brazil all have moderate to high GDP dependency. In comparing quantification methodologies used to analyze the economic impacts of ecosystem services, we recommended that Ortec Finance focuses on the Swiss Re BES Index as well as the ENCORE tool. The results from these two main approaches conducted by this report should feed into the expansion of Ortec Finance’s proprietary tool, Climate Maps, on ecosystem services.Item Open Access Land Cover Change and Ecosystem Services on the North Carolina Piedmont 1985 to 2005(2008-04-25T20:38:43Z) Donohue, Michael JohnAnalyses of ecosystem processes are advanced through remote sensing and geostatistical modeling methods capable of capturing landscape pattern over broad spatial and temporal scales. Many ecological studies rely on land cover data classified from satellite imagery. In this, changes in land cover are often presumed to correlate with changes in ecosystem processes or services provided by ecosystems (e.g., watershed protection). Documenting changes in land cover requires that images be classified over time, often using historical images to document landscape change. But this is difficult to do for historical images because we cannot ground-truth old images, lacking actual land cover data from the past. I developed a land cover classification scheme using a classification and regression tree (CART) model generated from 2001 National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and Summer, Fall, and Winter triplets of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery. The model is robust to inter-annual variability in surface reflectance, and thus can be extended in time to classify land cover from images from any time, past or future. The model was used to predict land cover from 1985 to 2005, for a study region in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Temporal and spatial analyses focused on ecosystem services of carbon sequestration and biodiversity support as affected by forest fragmentation. This study offers a landscape-level identification of the relationships between spatial and temporal development patterns and the provision of ecosystem services. The project also represents the creation of a multi-annual land cover classification dataset of which few exist, thus providing a framework for further studies of landscape pattern and ecological processes.Item Open Access Mangroves in Ecuador: An application and comparison of ecosystem service models(2015-04-21) Burgess, Paul; Li, Xiangyi; Qin, SiyuMangroves provide an abundant supply of ecosystem services such as coastal protection, fish nursery, recreation, and carbon sequestration. After a severe loss of mangroves predominately due to shrimp farming from 1969 to 2000, Ecuador realized the importance of mangroves and their related ecosystem services. In response, the government’s interest grew to understand ecosystem services valuation (ESV) models that provide robust valuation for the ecosystem services(ES). Working with the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF), this report identified and evaluated applicable ESV models, valued and mapped the ecosystem services values of Ecuadorian mangrove with ESV models. This report aims to calculate the value of ecosystem services of mangroves with the existing modeling tools. The following models were initially considered: InVEST, AIRES, MIMES, Co$ting Nature, EcoServ, LUCI, and SolVES. Each model is different, and therefore likely to generate a different valuation of ecosystem services for the same area. In addition, the report compared the variance within models for four different scenarios: status-quo, lose-all, reforestation, full-recovery. Results include both numerical information and highlight the usefulness of each different modeling tool. Based on results and analyses, suggestions are made on suitable ESV models for mangrove ecosystems, and decision support information are provided to Socio Manglar program of Ministry of Environment of Ecuador.Item Open Access Planning a Sustainable Tree Canopy for Durham(2020-04-24) Hancock, Grace; Vanko, Alex; Xiong, MingfeiTrees are a vital part of a city’s infrastructure. The urban forest provides many ecosystem services to residents including health benefits, air pollution removal, extreme heat reduction, stormwater mitigation, and even lower violent crime rates. Durham, North Carolina is 52% covered by trees, but its canopy is declining from urban development, and it is unevenly distributed due to a history of racial and socioeconomic inequity. Parts of the city that are more urbanized, non-white, and poor tend to have far less tree cover than more rural, white, affluent areas. This Masters Project sought to help TreesDurham and the City of Durham plan a sustainable tree canopy that meets the city’s goal of 55% cover by 2040. Expansion of Durham’s urban forest must address the concerns of the community, maximize ecosystem services, and consider possible changes to city development codes. We addressed these needs by (1) conducting a community survey to understand Durham residents’ attitudes towards city trees, (2) creating a tree-planting prioritization map based on ecosystem services, and (3) modeling the future of Durham’s urban forest under multiple development scenarios. We recommend that TreesDurham and the City of Durham (1) incorporate input from Durham residents, (2) target tree-planting to the areas that need tree ecosystem services the most, including heavily urbanized areas and roadside rights-of-way, and (3) greatly increase tree protection requirements in Durham’s development code. This will ensure that all residents of Durham enjoy access to the benefits of the urban forest.Item Open Access POTENTIAL CHANGES IN ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FROM LAND USE POLICY IN PUERTO RICO(2007-05) Smith, Miranda BEcosystem services are self- evidently important to society as natural capital inputs into economic markets, the basis for life-support systems such as clean air, clean water, and climate control, and are integral to quality of life issues. These services provided by communities of living organisms in their natural environment are, in some instances, invaluable and irreplaceable. Conservation planners must focus on ecosystem services as conservation priorities and target levels of ecosystem services as conservation goals, in order to manage and conserve these beneficial services. This paper explores 1) how Puerto Rico’s draft national land use plan changes the environment’s capacity to provide ecosystem services and 2) the limitations to describing ecosystem services and values. The modeled losses in ecosystem service provision that occur with policy implementation support that ecosystem service conservation is not a goal of the draft land use plan. Limitations of modeling and mapping services likely inhibit policy consideration of ecosystem services, as do the limitations of describing numeric output of models, where they exist. Yet, qualitative outputs from the models provide useful information to policy makers about how land use policies will affect ecosystem services. This study is useful for future projects that wish to utilize ecosystem service mapping and valuation to review policy decision.Item Open Access Private Water Utility Landholdings: Financial and Political Implications(2014-04-25) Vigliotti, TabithaEcosystem services research has led to policies favoring watershed land protection at the federal, state, local, and private levels, notably at drinking water treatment facilities. A few researchers have connected land use and water utilities by estimating surface water treatment costs through raw water sediment load. However, more comprehensive cost-benefit research of private watershed land ownership is absent. In my research, I develop a distributional cash flow model to estimate the magnitude and timing of costs and benefits to a Connecticut private water company, the local community, and to the economy as a whole using Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority data, interviews, regulatory landscape, tax regime, and non-market valuation benefits transfer. The base case model predicts positive NPV to all parties in Connecticut: $3,828,432,329 to the economy from 2010 through 2025, where $1,461,824,087 of that is from benefits to the company and $2,366,608,242 is from benefits to the community. Sensitivity analysis implies these findings may be robust to systematic changes (+/- 10% and +/-20%) to input parameters. The distribution of costs and benefits lends itself to political economy considerations and future policy reflections.