Economic and Environmental Sustainability: Working with New Partners and Incentives

1. Economic and Environmental Sustainability: Working with New Partners and Incentives Frank Casey, Ph.D Conservation Economics Program Defenders of Wildlife Conference of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association Washington, DC. March 3, 2009

2. Cooperative Conservation • Marketplace for Nature • Conservation Registry • Other Partnership Options • Why Do It?

3. Cooperative Conservation Activities It Can Be Done • California Rangeland Conservation Coalition • Willamette Partnership • North Carolina “Inner” Banks

4. Ecosystem Service Markets • Climate, water, and gas regulation • Water supply, nutrient supply • Soil formation, nutrient cycling • Waste management, biological control • Wildlife habitat, food production • Recreation, cultural and scenic values • Provisioning services

5. What is an ecosystem marketplace? System for buying and selling ecosystem services Wetland and conservation banks Offset, or cap-and-trade programs Voluntary transactions

6. Why an ecosystem marketplace? • Doubled population by 2020 • Habitat loss and fragmentation • Climate change, water shortages, endangered species

7. Why? Existing programs are not enough: 100% compliance is not enough Regulations are unevenly applied Investments are scattered and piecemeal

8. Marketplace for Nature • Try to capture multiple values • Buyers needed • Conservation opportunity areas exist: state wildlife action plans • Rules of the game: Federal Office of Ecosystem Services and Marketing

9. Essential elements of the Marketplace for Nature • Ecologically effective • Address multiple values • Strategic investment at landscape scale • Transparent and credible to public • Accessible with low transaction costs

10. What is the Conservation Registry? • An online, centralized database • Tracks and maps conservation projects across the landscape • Synthesis and project management tool

11. The Registry captures . . . Three categories of actions: • Habitat Restoration and Management • Enhanced Conservation Status • Monitoring, Education and Research Projects can be: • Proposed, in progress, completed and ongoing management projects

12. Conservation Registry home page: www.conservationregistry.org

14. Other Areas for Conservation Partnerships Control of Invasive Species 2009 Economic Stimulus: Matching Gray with Green Economic Valuation of Conservation Benefits Open space property values premium Wetland conservation Threatened and endangered species conservation Recreational use and values: hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/science_and_economics/conservation_economics/valuation/benefits_toolkit.php

15. Resources Ecosystem services benefits valuation toolkit/models http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/science_and_economics/conservation_economics/index.php Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project: http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/agriculture/FRESP.html Willamette Partnership: http://www.williamettepartnership.org/tools-templates. Countingontheenvironment.pdwiki.com National Working Group on Ecosystem Services Valuation: atodd@fs.fed.us Parametrix, Inc. EcoMetrix: Environmental Services Accounting: dhess@parametrix.com Pinchot Institute: http://pinchot.org/current_projects/baybank

16. Why Partnerships

17. But Importantly

18. THANK YOU Frank Casey - fcasey@defenders.org Sara Vickerman – svickerman@defenders.org Conservation Economics Program Defenders of Wildlife