12 Ecosystem Services
The third topic in the holistic techniques group is ecosystem services. Natural ecosystems provide humans with many and diverse benefits and products. These benefits are called ecosystem services. In theory, recognizing the value of nature through the services it provides should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In other words, if we align economic forces with conservation principles that explicitly link human and environmental well-being then theory can become practice. In this chapter we will cover the background and justification for emphasizing ecosystem services as a technique for conservation, and the attempts made to place economic value on those services. We will end with a case study on payments for ecosystem services to ranchers in Central and Southern Florida.
BACKGROUND ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Natural ecosystems provide humans with many diverse products and benefits (Daily 1997). Recognition of these products and benefits, known as ecosystem services, is considered important for increasing investments in conservation (De Groot et al. 2010). Often in the process of engineering ecosystems for valued products like food, wood, and fiber, many other less valued benefits become diminished or eliminated. The importance of ecosystem services has been growing in science, conservation, and government policies since the late 1990s with the publication of Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, edited by Gretchen Daily of Stanford University (1997). This book made the argument that society should invest in the conservation of ecosystems to secure a diversity of services that support human well-being. Fish (2011) expanded on this idea by saying that we need to think holistically about how any given project, proposal or plan impacts the provisioning of ecosystem services and human well-being. Altogether, the basic idea is to identify and assign values to ecosystem services for justifying conservation efforts, and making the protection of natural ecosystems important and appealing to the public, businesses, and the government. Or, put more simply, that “nature provides humans with benefits” (Persson et al. 2015).
Ecosystem services may be defined in slightly different ways, but the central idea is that natural ecosystems support human well-being (Millennium ecosystem assessment 2005). Ecosystem services may be used actively or passively to benefit people (Fisher et al. 2009). These services depend on ecosystem organization, functions, and products. Some common services, such as timber, water supply, and recreation, already have market value, so the benefit can be easily estimated. Other services like air pollution removal, carbon sequestration, soil development, and local-climate mitigation are challenging to convert to a monetary value, but they are nevertheless seen as important benefits to people (Example in Figure 12.1).
The ecosystem services technique for ecological conservation (also termed integrated conservation–development, and community-based natural resource management) includes concepts from both ecology and economics to define benefits, determine valuations, and guide investments in conservation (Braat and De Groot 2012). Capital is defined as a stock of materials or information that exists at a point in time. There are three forms of capital: natural, manufactured, and human. Natural capital can be seen as trees, minerals, clean air and water, and natural lands. Natural capital, or an intact ecosystem, provides a diverse flow of ecosystem services (Fisher et al. 2013). Changes in natural capital will change the benefits to people, and can be thought of as an alteration of the flow of services. Human capital is defined as people that have the capacity to produce valued items. Manufactured capital are things such as machines, buildings, factories, and equipment. Services are flows that transform materials, or the spatial configuration of materials, to enhance the welfare of humans. Ecosystem services consist of flows of materials, energy, and information from natural capital stocks, which combine with manufactured and human capital services to produce human welfare (Costanza et al. 1997). Changes in the particular forms of natural capital and ecosystem services will alter the costs or benefits of maintaining human welfare.
Political leaders, conversation organizations, and scientists around the world are increasingly recognizing ecosystems as natural assets that supply life-support services of tremendous value, and are striving to merge conservation with economic systems (Guerry et al. 2015). The ending statement from a paper by Daily et al. (2009) concisely summarizes the approach and aim: “If we can get the price closer to being “right,” everyday behavior and decisions will be channeled toward a future in which nature is no longer seen as a luxury we cannot afford, but as something essential for sustaining and improving human well-being everywhere.” This fundamental concept of the ecosystem services technique is now working to attract the public, policy-makers, and scientists to advance conservation on an ecosystem scale.
Table 12.1: Ecosystem services used in two studies and one review of policy cases. Sources: Costanza et al. 1997, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, and Fisher et al. 2009.
The United Nations launched the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2001, and this effort became a standard-setting application of the ecosystem services concept (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). The goal was to assess the consequences ecosystem change can have on human well-being (Figure 12.2) (Alcamo 2003). Thousands of scientists from all over the world were involved, and together they developed a methodology of ecosystem services analysis. This framework for ecosystem services is commonly used today, and sets the standard for identifying and categorizing these services. Ecosystem services were organized into three classes, with a fourth class that supports the production of services (Table 12.1). The first class is provisioning services that are directly used by people such as food, fiber, fuel, clean water, space for recreation, and others. These goods and services are commonly marketed, and estimations of their values are easily calculated. A second class is cultural services that include religious values, heritage, social relations, aesthetics, and other societal values. These services benefit people in many ways, but are largely noneconomic and their monetary values are often difficult to estimate. The third class is regulating services, which shape and modify local climate, erosion, pests, water quality, and other ecosystem features. The benefits provided by regulating services can be hard to estimate and quantify, so ascribing a monetary value for them is challenging. The final category is supporting services, which create the conditions necessary for the production of the other three classes of services that people directly use. Most of these supporting services involve cycling or production of biologically-linked compounds like water, nutrients, oxygen, biomolecules, and biomass. These are essential components of ecosystems, though assigning monetary values for them can be difficult. The relationship between these services with human well-being has been described, which is informative as to why these services are important (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Monetary values were not featured in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reporting, but increasing and decreasing trends in services production were identified to communicate the impact of ecosystem change on human well-being. Overall, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment stimulated efforts to include ecosystem services practices in ecological conservation.
A few other applications of the ecosystem services technique sought to identify and classify services. Costanza et al. (1997) estimated the value of biomes across 17 ecosystem services (Table 12.1). This list of ecosystem services predated the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework and is simpler by comparison. Fisher et al. (2009) reviewed thirty-four cases where ecosystem services were included in environmental management policy-making (Table 12.1). They classified ecosystem services into broad categories of: water, forests, cultural, climate, natural threats, erosion, products, biodiversity, and ecosystem processes. Shepherd et al. (2016) charted the global trend (positive trend, negative trend, no trend, ambiguous trend, or no indicators detected) for a variety of provisioning, regulating, and cultural service (Table 12.2). These applications of ecosystem services highlight potential services for consideration in actual conservation cases. Examples such as these have been useful to practitioners (wetland example in Figure 12.3).
Table 12.2: Global status of ecosystem services. Source: Shepherd et al. 2016
MANAGEMENT OF ECOSYSTEMS FOR SERVICES
For effective management and conservation of ecosystems that provide natural services, there is a need to engage the local society in the planning process. The approach for how to address this need has not yet been established for ecosystem services support. First, the ecosystem has to be assessed to identify ecosystem services, beneficiaries, and responsible management organizations. These issues must be resolved to allow the ecosystem services process to be incorporated into local land use planning. How should an ecosystem’s structure and function be maintained in order to sustain the flow of services that are in demand? The valuation of services can be important for assessing tradeoffs related to the costs of ecosystem maintenance and the production of services. Then the engaged group of stakeholders, managers, conservationists, and the public can debate the possibilities and limitations of what can be done to maintain the ecosystems and their valued services. This step starts the planning of a vision and strategy for protecting a natural ecosystem and the services it provides. Also, an agenda of objectives and actions are needed to form policies and practices to maintain the ecosystem. With the management plan in place and with local support, the process of coordinating actions across parties to pursue the vision and strategy for ecosystem protection can begin.
While there has been much interest in ecosystem services for ecological conservation, it has not received much attention in the scientific literature (Laurans et al. 2013). This begs the question: to what degree is it actually used in mainstream applications? The impact of ecosystem services concepts on environmental decision-making is not evident, with marketed goods and services being the more predominant factor in most cases (National Research Council 2005). Ecosystem services ideas have more recently found their way into discussions of conservation and management programs. Non-governmental conservation organizations have been out in front of this issue by adopting the spirit of ecosystem services. The true merger of ecosystem ecology and economics has begun, and there have been several prominent applications of ecosystem services practices with the vision of ecosystems benefiting mankind.
INCREASING RESEARCH FOCUS ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Scientific investigation into ecosystem services has increased greatly in recent years (Cowling et al. 2008; McDonough et al. 2017). One avenue of research has focused on the need to learn more about the species and properties of ecosystems that are important for producing ecosystem services (Kremen 2005). There is also a need to characterize and specify the conditions that are important for supporting individual services. And, there is a need to understand how to protect service providers within an ecosystem. There can be multiple species that are important for providing services, and we need to know how redundancy of service providers works. Drivers of ecosystem function may provide services with similar dynamics, making it easier to manage the flow of services. If that commonly holds, then ecosystem services could be managed together as components of an ecosystem. The structure of ecosystems which support a variety of services needs to be identified in order to maintain efficiently functioning ecosystems, stabilize the flow of services, and enhance resilience of the ecosystem to disturbances. Much research is focused on these points to understand the dynamics of ecosystems and the services they provide (Costanza and Farber 2002).
At the ecosystem scale, there is a concern that optimizing some services can change ecosystem functions, leading to a transition to a new ecosystem with much different service production (Elmqvist et al. 2003). For example, converting a prairie landscape into a largely agricultural production zone will terminate many ecosystem services. This scale of service reorientation results in a new domesticated ecosystem that lacks a high variety of services. More subtly, the concern is that managing ecosystem services could alter the ecosystem through time and reduce levels of other desirable services. Research on this concern needs to identify thresholds or tipping points that are associated with a transition to a new ecosystem with a different set of services. The goal of this research is to consider managing ecosystem services in a way that does not diminish the resilience of the ecosystem to maintain its basic nature.
SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL FACTORS SHAPING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
At the ecosystem services level, information is being generated on ecosystem attributes that shape the distribution, production, and persistence of services. Much attention has been aimed at spatial distribution of ecosystem services and when service benefits are generated in time (Naidoo et al. 2008; Fisher et al. 2013). With this information, conservationists and environmental managers can specify landscape locations and times that produce specific services and maintain the requirements for service production. Also, management organizations must be matched to the ecosystem scales that are important for maintaining services production. Mapping of ecosystem service locations and times has been a research priority for maintaining service hot spots in a landscape context (Schröter and Remme 2016).
Some studies have related ecosystem services to land cover classes in an effort to map ecosystem services patterns across a landscape (Chan et al. 2006; Koschke et al. 2012). This is a way to design conservation plans which maintain land cover classes in an effort to sustain service production. A thorough study of this type was done by Chan et al. (2006) across the Central Coast Ecoregion of California. Six ecosystem services were mapped (carbon storage, crop pollination, flood control, forage production, recreation, and water provision) and planning units of 500 ha were tracked across the ecoregion. Almost all spatial correlations among ecosystem services were low, indicating that services were not sharing the same spatial patterns on the landscape. One moderate correlation was between carbon storage and water provisioning, since higher elevations were forested and received more precipitation. Cities and human population centers influenced the distribution of demand for some services, and shaped some service maps. This study and others point to the need for multidisciplinary teams in planning ecosystem service strategies due to the complex pattern of service production and its inconsistent distribution. For planning ecosystem services across large landscapes, there have to be broad conservation goals and a variety of stakeholders and experts involved.
A current priority for science is to improve our understanding of the relationships among ecosystem services within an ecosystem (Bennett et al. 2009). Recent studies indicate that many services respond differently to changing conditions and will not respond in synchrony (Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010).
Thus, there is a real risk that managing ecosystem to maximize some of the more desirable services will lead to tradeoffs in other services (Abson and Termansen 2010). In contrast, there are some findings that indicate that some ecosystem services responses are linked together with some drivers, which raises the prospect of synergies among sets of services (Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010). A better understanding of service tradeoffs and synergies can yield efficiencies in managing sets of services and avoiding undesirable tradeoffs. Ecosystem services that have common response patterns are often called service bundles (Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010). These service bundles have been identified by both spatial distribution and homogeneous response patterns, indicating coincidence of both location and behavior. This knowledge can help to support better management and conservation efforts, since bundling ecosystem services broadens and simplifies planning for maintaining the flow of services.
ECONOMIC VALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Research on the methods for economic valuation of individual ecosystem services is ongoing (Costanza et al. 1997; Pimm 1997; Mendelsohn and Olmstead 2009). This level of investigation requires merging ecology and economics, which is a new challenge. Also, estimates of services valuations need to be presented to decision-makers and the public, and explained in a way that justifies efforts to conserve these services. The greatest challenge is for non-market based ecosystem services, as these need novel and creative methods for determining valuations. Research on monetary valuation of ecosystem services is ongoing and is critical to the science-based agenda for promoting this ecological conservation technique.
The economic justification for maintaining ecosystem services is the other dimension of this ecological conservation technique. Mechanisms for incentivizing ecosystem conservation are often based on economic values (Jack et al. 2008). Natural ecosystems are commonly exploited and greatly altered for production of goods and services for markets (Farnworth et al. 1981). However, research by Balmford et al. (2002) on the values of goods and services delivered by a relatively intact biome, and one which has been converted to typical forms for human use, showed that the loss of non-marketed goods and services may commonly surpass the economic worth of the marketed products (Figure 12.4). For example, the research showed that there were high initial benefits when destructive fishing techniques were used, such as blasting, but sustainable fishing yielded benefits over the long-term (Balmford et al. 2002). The social benefits of sustainable exploitation (e.g., coastal protection and tourism) were also lost through blasting. The economic value of retaining an essentially intact reef was almost 75% higher than that of destructive fishing (at $3300/ha compared with $870/ha) (Balmford et al. 2002). This example argues for better economic valuation of natural ecosystem services which confronts short-term private gains with long-term public loss of natural services. There are three rationales that underlie this short-term perspective on economic gains: 1) Lack of fair valuations for ecosystem services leads to domination of market-based actions; 2) Ecosystem conversions and degradation are commonly justified by tangible local-scale gains rather than losses to society at an expansive scale in space and time; 3) Finally, government policies often encourage short-term economic benefits. The private benefits of conversion are often exaggerated by interventions such as government tax incentives and subsidies. These pressures promote the loss of natural ecosystems, foil sustainable use of natural landscapes, and encourage decision-makers to favor programs which support near term economic gains (Balmford et al. 2002). In short, “Our relentless conversion and degradation of remaining natural habitats is eroding overall human welfare for short-term private gain” (Balmford et al. 2002). An effective merger of ecological science with economics may stop or slow these trends and justify new thinking about ways we approach the conservation of natural landscapes and ecosystems. Retaining as much as possible of what remains of nature through a combination of sustainable use, conservation, and compensation for attendant opportunity costs, makes economic as well as moral sense (Balmford et al. 2002).
There are many challenges to fully valuing a wide range of ecosystem
services. Methods are available for valuing both marketed goods and direct benefits to people. However, most services do not contribute directly to human needs (e.g., food production) because most services have indirect benefits (e.g., nutrient cycling). These indirect benefits are diffuse and usually not directly used by people. Such services are often time delayed, and difficult to quantify. Another challenge is that valuations are often specified and considered as stable so they are viewed as independent of the dynamics of ecosystems. Another issue is the risk that follows from the loss of some services. For example, mangroves provide flood protection from coastal storms, but their removal makes space for shrimp farms. Floods are considered rare events, but when they occur the safety and protection that mangroves provide is a clear benefit. Thus, the timing of benefits are often distant from decisions and threats. Placing valuations on cultural benefits poses another challenge because they are difficult to quantify. There are often mismatches between the temporal and spatial scales of ecosystem services and the scales that human institutions follow. All these issues diminish confidence in many of the valuations placed on ecosystem services, and make this a challenging part of the ecosystem services technique.
To accomplish ecosystem services valuation, there are many needs. Data should be available on the timing of service benefits, location of benefits, rates and flows of benefits, demand for human use, relevant government policies and incentives, and importance to human well-being. The economic frame-work used to determine values for ecosystem services must also meet these criteria. Values can be ascribed to or associated with a service. How can values be estimated under varying supply and demand conditions (i.e., marginal valuation)? Can the benefits be exchanged with other more confidently valued benefits? What is the cost of maintaining ecosystems to provide a set of services? Currently there are scientists and economists taking on the challenge of accurately assessing diverse ecosystem services valuations.
Valuing ecosystem services is not easily accomplished (Balmford et al. 2002), yet information on the economic estimates of benefits is seen as important for justifying protecting natural ecosystems (Cimon-Morin et al. 2013). Several conventional economic valuation tools are being used to estimate the monetary values of these services. Revealed-preference approaches are tools that can be used to estimate the amount paid for goods and services that directly shows their value (Lovett 2019). Travel costs indicate how much monetary value is incurred to enjoy services that are associated with an ecosystem. Hedonic methods are used to estimate economic values for ecosystem services that directly affect market prices. Hedonic methods are most commonly applied to variations in housing prices that reflect the value of local environmental attributes. Production costs indicate the value of services that can be used to increase output as in farming. Stated-preference approaches ask people about either their willingness to pay for an ecosystem service (contingent-valuation method), or their choice among scenarios with different services and costs (conjoint analysis) (Lovett 2019). Cost-based approaches can also be used to estimate the value of some services (Lovett 2019). The cost to replace a habitat that provided a needed service, such as a riparian buffer that provided water filtration from agricultural fields. Avoidance or insurance costs can be used to estimate the monetary value of services that, if removed or re duced, would increase exposure to harm, like coastal flooding when marshes are removed. These estimation methods have been used for natural resource services to estimate costs of damage to public goods, and for crafting policies that are environmentally efficient. They can also be applied to ecosystem services for estimating values that can be used to justify protecting natural ecosystems (Cimon-Morin et al. 2013).
Acceptance of the use of techniques for determining monetary values of ecosystem services has been slow (G mez-Baggethun et al. 2010), but other values can be attributed to ecosystem services. The importance of ecosystem services to the public can be ascertained through focus groups, stakeholder engagement, rating and voting actions, and expert opinions (Christie et al. 2012). Results from these estimates of importance can be used to draw attention of decision-makers to ecosystem services. Monetary valuation can be helpful, but often this information is not heavily used in public policy debates (Fisher et al. 2008). Often leaders do not like to rely entirely on money in controversial public issues. Importance estimates can be used to support conservation policies that protect natural ecosystems much like monetary valuations can support natural ecosystems benefits (Christie et al. 2012).
PAYMENTS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
One application of valuing ecosystem services is to compensate people or communities for undertaking conservation actions that protect the flow or increase the provision of ecosystem services (e.g., water purification, flood mitigation, carbon sequestration; example in Figure 12.5) (Jack et al. 2008; Redford and Adams 2009; Farley and Costanza 2010; Hein et al. 2013). Payments could come in the form of lump sums for their efforts (e.g., planting a buffer strip), or a set rate for scalable actions (e.g., number of trees planted). These payments for ecosystem services are a practical way to incentivize the maintenance of ecosystem services (Nelson et al. 2010). Payments can address market deficiencies where there are non-marketed services that do not provide an economic benefit for maintaining these services. Local people that do not have options to promote ecosystem services are often attracted to payments as inducements to practice conservation. The payments can help promote protection of some ecosystem services, and payments can be tied to ecosystem service production levels.
Funds that are used to pay for ecosystem services in general depend on the demand for those services. Recipients of the services can be charged for access to the services, or their willingness to pay can monetarily support the charges. However, in general, donations and voluntary purchases have not generated funding close to the level at which the services are valued. Funds for payments can be raised by taxes, user fees, fees on development rights, and public subsidies (Farley and Costanza 2010). Also, tradable permits for development can include fees or mitigation arrangements that can pay for ecosystem services (Farley and Costanza 2010). Environmental groups and government agencies can arrange for development mitigation programs that generate funds or conservation actions for protecting the ecosystems and the services provided. These methods work by making developers pay to set aside land in one location in exchange for development rights elsewhere. Also, ecolabeling can reduce market friction by providing information about the origin of products. Demand-driven benefits of services require complex and variable methods of payment.
Incentive programs for promoting natural ecosystems and the services they provide can be complicated. Often secondary measures for service benefits are used because they are easier to estimate and track. For example, forested riparian zones are often counted as water purification systems in agricultural settings, but the actual service is clean water. Secondary measures need to be well understood and effective for estimating actual service benefits. When incentive programs address many ecosystem services, then an agency or managing organization must issue rules and criteria for payments. Also, ecosystem protection where many people live, like a community, adds complexity and calls for a central authority to arrange incentives. That leads to top-down control of ecosystem protection and diminishes community-based strategies. Surrogate measures, a multitude of services, and involvement of numerous people can lead to complicated incentive and conservation programs. These complications could stifle innovative methods and increase the cost of administration.
There are some conservationists opposed to the idea of merging economics and ecology to maintain natural ecosystems which provide services for nature and people (McCauley 2006; Sandbrook et al. 2013), yet the idea has received considerable interest in recent years (Salzman et al. 2018) . Paying for ecosystem services can be interpreted as payment for not damaging nature and curtailing bad behavior. They feel that landowners should be expected to support society and natural features without compensation. There are risks associated with paying for ecosystem services. Markets exist for some goods and services and they can command a large share of attention because they are easy to value. Easily valued services can outweigh other services, and lead to a diminished scope of ecosystem service benefits. Engineered ecosystems may be better at producing select valued goods and diverse services. Ecosystem services have been promoted on the notion that everyone comes out ahead, and little debate has been conducted about the consequences of the technique.
EXAMPLES OF PAYMENTS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES PROGRAMS
The United States Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program provides payments to farmers to take highly erodible and environmentally sensitive land out of production and undertake resource conserving practices (e.g., planting permanent vegetation on environmentally sensitive cropland) for 10 or more years (Stubbs 2014; Conservation Reserve Program 2021). Even though this program was established in the mid-1980s prior to the concept of ecosystem services, the aim was to restore agricultural lands for production of a variety of ecosystem services. The program is large and has paid more than $1.8 billion to take 36 million acres out of agricultural production (Nelson et al. 2008). In addition, grassland signups are increasing (Conservation Reserve Program 2021). The Conservation Reserve Program promotes ecosystem service benefits like restoring natural habitats and carbon sequestration from restoring forests. Payments are important for getting private landowners in the Conservation Reserve Program, but the program is unclear on what ecosystem services are attained. Monitoring and evaluation of restored agricultural lands are needed to demonstrate the gains in specific ecosystem services.
MIXED SUCCESS AT IMPLEMENTING VALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
The World Bank has a lengthy record of designing development projects that are aimed at improving both economic and environmental conditions for people. Success on both goals is termed a “win-win outcome. Tallis et al. (2008) reviewed 32 World Bank projects that had a goal of “win-win” between 1993 and 2007. Only five of 32 had clear gains in terms of environmental conservation and poverty alleviation, thus indicating a very low success rate (Figure 12.6). A full accounting of ecosystem services might improve evaluation of both human and ecosystem well being. However, there are complications in doing this. Most World Bank projects focused on one environmental benefit at a time, rather than a whole ecosystem service agenda. Economic returns respond quickly, but ecosystem changes may take many years before benefits are visible. Also, different ecosystem services respond on different spatial and temporal scales making a comprehensive accounting difficult. World Bank development projects that address conservation and human benefits could take into account the use of ecosystem services, tradeoffs among services, and economic returns from service markets. This strategy fits with the concept of integrating human and ecosystem processes for mutual benefit (Farber et al. 2006).
Costanza et al. (2017) published a paper titled: “Twenty years of ecosystem services: How far have we come and how far do we still need to go?” The authors reviewed the history leading up to two 1997 publications on ecosystem services, outlined subsequent debates, research, and institutions they triggered, summarized lessons learned during the twenty years since 1997, and provided recommendations for the future of research and practice. The authors concluded that “the substantial contributions of ecosystem services to the sustainable well-being of humans and the rest of nature should be at the core of the fundamental change needed in economic theory and practice if we are to achieve a societal transformation to a sustainable and desirable future” (Costanza et al. 2017).
CASE STUDY: PAYMENTS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES TO RANCHERS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA
Central and Southern Florida has been transformed from a landscape that was dominated by wetlands (Everglades) to an intensively developed region (Anderson and Rosendahl 1998). Most land not in parks or preserves has been converted to agriculture and urban or suburban development. With the demand for developable land, a massive engineering effort was built to drain land and move water to the coast and Lake Okeechobee. Water control structures were common, an extensive canal system was built, and then flood control structures were needed. Fast flowing water carries high nutrient concentrations into Lake Okeechobee and nearby coastal waters. Lake waters have doubled in phosphorus concentration since the 1970s (Bohlen et al. 2009). This led to eutrophication and increased algal blooms that degraded waters for aquatic life and recreational use. The lake drains southward into the Everglades and has changed in flood flows, low flows, and nutrient concentrations. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (United States Department of the Interior 2021), developed in 2000, aimed to restore, protect, and preserve the water resources of Central and Southern Florida, including the Everglades. The projected cost was estimated at about $7.8 billion of public funds from the United States government and the State of Florida to enact 68 projects over 36 years (Carter and Sheikh 2003). Many of the canals and flood protection barriers were slated to be removed and modified to restore more natural water flows across the landscape. The restoration effort also included buying land to restore wetlands for treating land drainage to remove phosphorus, constructing reservoirs to retain water and slowly release it, and developing aquifer storage wells. In short, the aim was “getting the water right” at a great cost to the public (Clarke and Dalrymple 2003).
Large cattle ranches dominate the landscape north of Lake Okeechobee and their runoff drains rapidly to the lake (Flaig and Reddy 1995). These ranches have changed the land cover and disrupted the water regime with drainage canals. In 2005, Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project (FRESP) was established to develop a cost effective approach for ranch owners to produce ecosystem services that would retain water on their property and reduce nutrient concentrations (The Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project 2011). The project was initiated through a partnership between The World Wildlife Fund and a regional government agency (South Florida Water Management District) which jointly recognized that existing approaches to water quality management were not delivering desired water quality outcomes in Lake Okeechobee and downstream estuaries in Florida (Lynch and Shabman 2011). The vision of the FRESP was to attract ranch owners with service payment contracts to modify water management on their properties for storage and nutrient load reductions (Lynch and Shabman 2007; Bohlen et al. 2009). The buyer was the state agency and the sellers were ranchers who were willing to modify the structure and management of existing water control devices. Modifications allowed higher water retention on fields and wetlands, and prevented phosphorus runoff (Wainger and Shortle 2013). The program’s administrative objectives were to be cost-effective for governments, profitable for ranch owners, provide needed ecosystem services, and feasible to administer. The FRESP included cattle ranchers, environmental organizations, academic scientists, and agencies of the United States government and the State of Florida. The potential environmental benefits were intended to contribute to efforts to restore major waterways in Central and Southern Florida, serve the interests of ranching businesses, and serve as a model for cost-effective provisioning of ecosystem services.
Ranchers who joined the FRESP worked to meet the needed services on their ranches. Drained wetlands were restored, and canal water was pumped into wetlands for natural nutrient reductions. Pastures were used to store water (Figure 12.7), and minor water retention structures were built to impound surface runoff. The FRESP measured ecosystem service performance to ensure payments were justified. Ranch lands were not taken out of production, and payments contributed to the financial stability of the ranch. One aim was to retain ranchlands in operation because other developments were often more environmentally damaging to waterway protection. Also, compatible water conservation practices on ranches were less costly to the public, and maintained agricultural production for economic benefits.
The FRESP was successful in its recruiting of participating ranch owners and subsequent implementation of water management practices (Cheatum et al. 2011; Meyer et al. 2016). Getting the interested people involved in FRESP was essential. Ranchers that were interested in Florida’s environment were critical in exploring the program’s benefits and practices. Agency leaders that were critical to the FRESP were the ones that departed from normal agency practices and expanded their methods. Also, scientists were important for designing evaluation methods for ranch practices and program documentation. However, some ranchers resisted involvement in the FRESP, because the program required additional practices above and beyond current practices for water and waste management. Some ranch owners wanted to concentrate on intensive production, which would interfere with water storage and elevated nutrient runoff. Finally, Florida was experiencing rapid population growth and some ranchers were interested in selling land for development. For success, the interested people had to be engaged, though not all parties went along with the FRESP.
FRESP needs were diverse and it was a challenge to get it established (Wainger and Shortle 2013). Program leaders had to depart from normal practices and face policy and regulatory issues. Also, leaders were responsible for political support and initial startup financing. The payments had to be justified, and an evaluation system was needed to document ranch-generated environmental benefits. There were state and federal permit issues that needed to be resolved, and initial cost-sharing investments. Record keeping was novel for ecosystem service payments but required. Negotiating and executing contracts was new, and these often ranged from 5 to 20 years to accommodate wet and dry years for steady ranch payments. The processes for establishing prices for ecosystem services was new and demanded accountability. Finally, financing for the long-term needed to be secured.
The FRESP achieved two important goals. The program demonstrated that public investment can be cost effective for water retention and nutrient treatment on agriculturally productive ranches. The program also contributed to economic sustainability of cattle ranching in a region that was under intensive development and posed great threats to Florida’s waterways. This program became a role model for other payments for ecosystem services programs in the United States (Shabman and Lynch 2013). The program demonstrated that this ecological conservation technique can be practical and effective when ecosystem services are truly needed.
SUMMARY
Common study topics related to ecosystem services are patterns of the response of services to change, distribution of service flows in space and time, conditions that promote stability of services, tradeoffs and synergies among services, and resilience of ecosystems when managed for some services (Carpenter et al. 2009). Valuation of ecosystem services requires collaboration among ecologists and economists and holistic thinking. Some notable conservation efforts and analyses have used the ecosystem services technique. The priority has been to identify a broad range of ecosystem services that benefit people, and to ascertain practical measures of service benefits. Payment for providing ecosystem services has been implemented to promote conservation, and provide direct benefits to local people who control ecosystems. The record on payment success has been mixed (Bussiere et al. 2015), but there is optimism that this strategy can work for conservation and people. Overall, ecosystem services as a conservation strategy has potential but, as expected, the challenge is working through impediments (Daily and Matson 2008).
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