Payment Vs. Compensation For Ecosystem Services: Do Words Have A Voice In The Design of Environmental Conservation Programs?

In the training of pre-service teachers, promoting changes in everyday activities to favour environmental conservation is still a challenge. This paper discusses the main difficulties of pre-service teachers in the process of building relationships between sustainability and their lifestyle. For this purpose, a problem-based learning programme was designed, consisting of three socio-ecological problems. In each of them, we analysed three components which define these interdependences: pressures, importance and solutions for conservation. There were 72 participants in the whole programme and 1296 responses were assessed, by establishing three levels of sophistication for the relationships between sustainability and their lifestyle in each component. The pre-service teachers readily admitted the pressures on the environment exerted by certain everyday activities. In addition, they progressed on the identification of the importance of ecosystem services in their lives, and they pay attention to those services linked to socio-economic and cultural activities. The greatest difficulties lay in proposing solutions of conservation that involve changes in personal habits towards more-sustainable ones. These difficulties are discussed, as well as the educational implications that may be derived.

Download Full-text

Method for the quantitative evaluation of ecosystem services in coastal regions

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.6234 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e6234

Author(s):

Tomonari Okada ◽

Yugo Mito ◽

Erina Iseri ◽

Toshiyuki Takahashi ◽

Takanori Sugano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Social Systems ◽

Tidal Flats ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

The State ◽

Improvement Project ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Environmental Improvement ◽

The Relationship

Wetlands, tidal flats, seaweed beds, and coral reefs are valuable not only as habitats for many species, but also as places where people interact with the sea. Unfortunately, these areas have declined in recent years, so environmental improvement projects to conserve and restore them are being carried out across the world. In this study, we propose a method for quantifying ecosystem services, that is, useful for the proper maintenance and management of artificial tidal flats, a type of environmental improvement project. With this method, a conceptual model of the relationship between each service and related environmental factors in natural and social systems was created, and the relationships between services and environmental factors were clarified. The state of the environmental factors affecting each service was quantified, and the state of those factors was reflected in the evaluation value of the service. As a result, the method can identify which environmental factors need to be improved and if the goal is to increase the value of the targeted tidal flat. The method demonstrates an effective approach in environmental conservation for the restoration and preservation of coastal areas.

Download Full-text

Seizing Center Stage: Ecosystem Services, Live, at the Convention on Biological Diversity!

Human Geography ◽

10.1177/194277861300600105 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 64-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Daniel Suarez ◽

Catherine Corson

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Social Space ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Ecological Crisis ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Project Financing ◽

Financial Flows ◽

Non Profit ◽

The Social

Over the past decade, the concept of ecosystem services has become a central guiding framework for environmental conservation. Techniques of valuation, payments to protect ecosystem services, and efforts to put a price on nature increasingly characterize environmental policy. We analyze the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP-10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as a critical moment in the production of ecosystem services as a discourse. Through analysis of specific examples of the rollout, performance, and strategic deployment of ecosystem services, particularly as embodied in The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project (TEEB) at CBD/COP-10, we illustrate how arguments justifying ecosystem services became persuasive and compelling in the social space of the meeting. We examine the prevalence of a narrative that relies on three successive claims: (1) conservation has failed to conserve biodiversity, which has catalyzed a pending ecological crisis; (2) this crisis is caused by incorrectly priced nature and insufficient financing for conservation; and (3) the economics of ecosystem services provides the means to attract new financial flows, to neutralize political opposition, and to save biodiversity. The CBD/COP-10, we argue, provided a stage for the performance of this narrative, the alignment of actors from the private, public and non-profit sectors around ecosystem services, and the institutionalization of its tenets in policy documents and project financing— all of which worked to constitute the hegemony of ecosystem services. We conclude by asserting that, as conservationists embrace ecosystem services, at the expense of alternative models, they reproduce it as a discourse, thus constituting and reinforcing its hegemony, and the conditions that originally limited their choices.

Download Full-text

Co-producing environmental conservation and social equity: Is conditionality in Payments for Ecosystem Services a necessity or impediment?

AEA Randomized Controlled Trials ◽

10.1257/rct.8286 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Bauchet

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Social Equity ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Payments For Ecosystem Services

Download Full-text

Integrating estimates of ecosystem services from conservation programs and practices into models for decision makers

Ecological Applications ◽

10.1890/09-0285.1 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 21 (sp1) ◽

pp. S128-S134 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Ned H. Euliss ◽

Loren M. Smith ◽

Shuguang Liu ◽

Walter G. Duffy ◽

Stephen P. Faulkner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Conservation Programs

Download Full-text

A Study of Environmental Conservation Programs in the Tourism Sector and Communicating with Tourists

Material Cycles and Waste Management Research ◽

10.3985/mcwmr.26.201 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 201-206

Author(s):

Mariko Koda

Keyword(s):

Environmental Conservation ◽

Conservation Programs ◽

Tourism Sector

Download Full-text

Message for Solidarity: A Japanese Perspective on the Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services Developed over Centuries of History

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132212846 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (22) ◽

pp. 12846

Author(s):

Ryoko Ishizaki ◽

Shinju Matsuda

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Forest Ecosystem ◽

Economic Value ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Environmental Services ◽

Cooperative Relationships ◽

Forest Ecosystem Services ◽

History Of ◽

Japanese Perspective ◽

The Government

Payments for ecosystem/environmental services (PES) have emerged internationally as a new environmental conservation concept over the past two decades. By contrast, Japan has a centuries-long history of using various forms of PES. These schemes can be understood as solutions to interregional problems with forest ecosystem services that have been agreed upon and accepted by the society. This paper aims to consider the significance of PES with respect to cooperative relationships by examining historically formed solutions in Japan. The Japanese experience shows that rather than simply being a demonstration of monetary value, PES in upstream forests were a means of communication across regions, expressing interregional solidarity as a core concept. As connections among communities became less visible, the government artificially created solidarity through payments. The payments gradually shifted from having a socioeconomic meaning to having a psychological meaning. The government sought to substantiate the sense of solidarity by making individual users more aware of the meaning of payments. We can find the significance of this type of PES in the fact that payments can be a way to approach the issue of building solidarity by focusing on the function of payments as messengers rather than them merely having an economic value.

Download Full-text

Abiotic ecosystem services: an effective tool for geoconservation

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-213 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lucie Kubalíková

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Well Being ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

International Classification ◽

Ecosystem Assessment ◽

Care Plans ◽

Use Of Resources ◽

European Environmental Agency ◽

Environmental Agency

In the last decades, the concept of ecosystem services has become important to nature conservation. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005) demonstrated the importance of ecosystems for human well-being and identified the services that ecosystems provide to society. Nevertheless, geodiversity (abiotic nature) as an indispensable component of ecosystems was underestimated (Gray 2011). Based on this, the concepts of "abiotic ecosystem services" or &#8220;geosystem services&#8221; were defined and discussed (Gordon, Barron 2012, Gray 2013, Van Ree, van Beukering 2016).The role of geodiversity in ecosystem services has been already recognized, but in specific cases with problems and ambiguities (Brilha et al. 2018, Gray 2018). Practical applications combining geodiversity research and the concept of abiotic ecosystem services are still rather scarce, but it is evident that the wider use of this concept can provide a framework for (geo)conservation activities, sustainable use of resources or educational and tourist activities. The application of the abiotic ecosystem services concept can also enable better communication with policymakers and facilitate the &#8220;infiltration&#8221; of geodiversity&#8217;s importance into care plans for protected sites, regional strategic documents or legislation and policies (Brilha et al. 2018, Schrodt et al. 2019).Abiotic ecosystem services are already included in the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (European Environmental Agency 2018). Nevertheless, there are still several methodological questions regarding the possible practical application.The case study is focused on the assessment of abiotic ecosystem services at Str&#225;nsk&#225; sk&#225;la Rock in Brno (Czech Republic). It is a site protected by law (National Natural Monument since 1978) and currently, a new care plan is prepared. The ecosystem services concept is used to assess the abiotic components of the site (limestone outcrops, abandoned quarries, cave systems). Two approaches are applied (Gray 2013 and European Environmental Agency 2018) and their suitability or ambiguities are discussed. Based on the application of the concepts, the value of geodiversity can be fully recognized and the management of the site thus can be more effective.&#160;References:Brilha J et al. (2018) Geodiversity: An integrative review as a contribution to the sustainable management of the whole of nature. Environmental Science and Policy 86:19&#8211;28European Environmental Agency (2018) Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services V5.1. https://cices.eu/resources/Gordon JE, Barron HF (2012) Valuing geodiversity and geoconservation: developing a more strategic ecosystem approach. Scottish Geographical Journal, 128:278&#8211;297Gray M (2011) Other nature: geodiversity and geosystem services. Environmental Conservation 38(3):271&#8211;274Gray M (2013) Geodiversity: Valuing and Conserving Abiotic Nature. Second Edition. Wiley Blackwell, 495 pGray M (2018) The confused position of the geosciences within the &#8220;natural capital&#8221; and &#8220;ecosystem services&#8221; approaches. Ecosystem Services 34A:106-112MEA &#8211; Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington DC.Schrodt F et al. (2019) To advance sustainable stewardship, we must document not only biodiversity but geodiversity. PNAS 116(33):16155&#8211;16158Van Ree CCDF, van Beukering PJH (2016) Geosystem services: A concept in support of sustainable development of the subsurface. Ecosystem Services 20:30&#8211;36&#160;

Download Full-text