1 / 15

New Currency of Conservation Conference May 20, 2005

New Currency of Conservation Conference May 20, 2005. The USDA Forest Service and Nature’s Services. Keeping Forests in Forests. Peter J. Roussopoulos, Acting Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry. USDA FS Motive. Keeping Forests in Forests: Focusing on Private Lands—Family Forests

trish
Download Presentation

New Currency of Conservation Conference May 20, 2005

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. New Currency of Conservation ConferenceMay 20, 2005 The USDA Forest Service and Nature’s Services Keeping Forests in Forests Peter J. Roussopoulos, Acting Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry

  2. USDA FS Motive Keeping Forests in Forests: Focusing on Private Lands—Family Forests Maintaining service flows to the public

  3. Current FS Work Update • Conferences/Speeches • Expanding Research • Texas Pilot Project • Ecosystem Marketplace (www.ecosystemmarketplace.com) • Ecosystem Services Weblog (www.ecosystemservices.usda.gov) • Focus Groups

  4. Focus Group Purpose • Listen to diverse stakeholder opinions and ideas • Engage partners in initial discussions about the FS role and potential activities • Support the development of a work plan • Advance FS knowledge of ecosystem services and key challenges

  5. Focus Group Selection • FS team contacted ~250 interested parties on this topic by email and phone • Experts, innovative thinkers, and active organizations were identified and asked to participate in focus groups • 8-12 participants in 3 regional focus groups (29 total participants) • Other interested parties remain engaged through listserv and weblog (www.ecosystemservices.usda.gov)

  6. Focus Group Design • 2 main questions • What few areas should the FS focus its energy on to advance ecosystem service markets? • Roles • Activities • 4-5 opportunities for development • What are some of the challenges the agency may face?

  7. Overall Themes and Advice:FS Activities and Roles Representation and Communication • Develop an aggressive marketing and promotion plan • Craft terminology and messages for varying audiences • Conduct market analysis to determine public values and demands • Support conservation education

  8. Overall Themes and Advice:FS Activities and Roles (2) Engagement • Enable/Draft new legislation and authorities; revamp existing conservation incentive programs • Act as a convener, bring together: • Key stakeholders for a “futuring” process • Agencies for shared understanding and better collaboration and delivery of services • Various partners, potential buyers and sellers, and interested parties • Look to the Farm Bill as a potential vehicle • Jump start markets with seed money or regulation

  9. Overall Themes and Advice:FS Activities and Roles (3) Creation • Conduct Research • Assessment and monitoring • Modeling and projecting • Social sciences—understanding public opinions and values • Systems understanding (cause/effect) • Identify hot spots or priority areas on the landscape • Conduct market analysis to understand trends and demand • Demonstrate to learn—pilot projects and case studies

  10. Overall Themes and Advice:Challenges • Money • Interagency collaboration in an effective manner • Education—communicating the value of conservation to a growing urban public • Terminology—picking the right words • Competing land values continue to rise • Time is of the essence • Re-tooling existing programs and resources to make this work—who will give up what? • Making it simple for landowners to understand and participate

  11. Overall Themes and Advice FS Leadership • Diverse opinions about how much or what type of leadership • FS can use this to re-establish itself as the leader in conservation—redefine the Agency • FS could be a “silent leader”—act as convener and facilitator • There is potential to use NFS lands and land management to stimulate markets by serving as a land-based insurance bank to private landowners

  12. What’s Next for the FS? • Digestion of information • Install Agency structure • Development of a two-year work plan • Active listening and adaptive management

  13. Draft Agency Structure • All related activities report to the Deputy Chief for State & Private Forestry (currently Pete Roussopoulos) • Co-Lead—Director of Cooperative Forestry (Larry Payne) • Deputy Chief Appointed Advisory/Oversight Team: • Coordinated by Dave Cleaves • S&PF—Steve Marshall, Karen Solari • R&D—Tom Crow, Linda Langer • NFS—Anne Zimmerman, Susan Yonts-Shepard, Chuck Myers • Business Operations—Bill Helin • PL&C—Mike Murphy, Steve Hart • International Programs—Alex Moad

  14. Draft Agency Structure • Five Work Groups • Policy • Evaluate Existing • New Opportunities • Science and Technology • Water • Biodiversity/Habitat Loss • Carbon • Communications and Outreach • Marketing • Education • Place-based Learning • Pilot projects • Synthesis and Integration • Across work groups • Support Team

  15. Conclusions • The FS is excited and committed • Current motive is on keeping forests in forests, and focuses on family forests • The FS wants to be as inclusive as possible • Open for comments and suggestions

More Related