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Climate change will shift the composition of northern Minnesota forests from boreal to temperate by the end of the century. This shift in forest composition will likely affect outdoor recreation, a valuable ecosystem service and a key economic driver for the region. In this context, the objective of our paper is to empirically examine the relationship between forest composition and recreation. We analyze the effect of changes in forest composition for seven forest types on seven types of recreation using a lognormal pooled panel regression model for Minnesota's Laurentian Mixed Forest Province. Earlier research showed forest composition affected recreation at the level of broad groups of broadleaved or coniferous species. We find a statistically significant empirical association between forest composition and recreation at the forest type level (forest types within those broad groups). This relationship varies across forest types and recreation categories. For example, big game hunting is positively related to elm-ash-cottonwood and white-red-jack pine and negatively associated with aspen-birch. We find individual forest types within broad groups of broadleaved or coniferous forests, have different relationships with recreation, so that these broad groups are not sufficient in capturing the effect of forest composition on recreation. Our results are of interest in the context of current shifts in forest composition caused by climate change, which could also affect recreation. Our findings suggest adding a forest composition lens to existing policies could facilitate strategies for more effective recreation management and climate change adaptation. • Forest composition has a statistically significant effect across recreation types. • Individual forest types within broad groups have different effects on recreation. • The same forest type has different effects on different types of recreation. • Adding a forest composition lens can improve climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SEM models interactions among climate, forest composition, deer, and recreation. • Climate change will cause a shift from boreal to temperate species. • Forest composition affects recreation in the presence of climate and deer. • Climate, mainly temperature, affects both forest composition and recreation. • Model results could help inform better climate adaptation strategies. Climate change will likely cause changes in the composition of forests worldwide, with consequent impacts on forest ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide. In northeastern Minnesota, climate change will likely cause a shift from boreal to temperate forest by the end of the century. Such a shift will affect species populations such as deer and outdoor recreation, a valuable ecosystem service with over $4 billion in annual expenditures in hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing. In this paper, a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework is used to model four key variables, climate change, deer, forest composition, and outdoor recreation, as an interactive system with data from the Laurentian Mixed Forest (LMF) region of Minnesota. A series of SEM models of increasing complexity are used to draw out the individual and system level effects. The results show: a strong empirical relationship between forest composition and recreation; climate affects both forest composition and recreation, mainly through temperature effects; deer affects both forest composition and recreation. A systems modeling approach like SEM is needed because there are important complex interactions, such as the effect of deer on forest composition and of forest composition on deer. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discounting plays a central role in decisions about global environmental change that affect the well-being of future generations. Discounting the future more heavily tilts decisions toward the present, making it less likely that society will undertake actions to mitigate climate change or other global environmental change. This article reviews the standard economics approach to discounting that emerges from solving for optimal savings and investment through time. Discounting depends on the pure rate of time preference and differences in consumption levels across time, giving rise to different marginal utilities of consumption. Discounting for problems like climate change that impact future generations involves an ethical dimension. This article includes discussions of ethical dimensions of discounting related to intragenerational and intergenerational equity and also covers behavioral economics, ecological economics, and mainstream economics approaches to discounting. The article closes with a review of the debates over discounting in climate change policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed an interconnected and tightly coupled globalized world in rapid change. This article sets the scientific stage for understanding and responding to such change for global sustainability and resilient societies. We provide a systemic overview of the current situation where people and nature are dynamically intertwined and embedded in the biosphere, placing shocks and extreme events as part of this dynamic; humanity has become the major force in shaping the future of the Earth system as a whole; and the scale and pace of the human dimension have caused climate change, rapid loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities, and loss of resilience to deal with uncertainty and surprise. Taken together, human actions are challenging the biosphere foundation for a prosperous development of civilizations. The Anthropocene reality—of rising system-wide turbulence—calls for transformative change towards sustainable futures. Emerging technologies, social innovations, broader shifts in cultural repertoires, as well as a diverse portfolio of active stewardship of human actions in support of a resilient biosphere are highlighted as essential parts of such transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global environmental change challenges humanity because of its broad scale, long-lasting, and potentially irreversible consequences. Key to an effective response is to use an appropriate scientific lens to peer through the mist of uncertainty that threatens timely and appropriate decisions surrounding these complex issues. Identifying such corridors of clarity could help understanding critical phenomena or causal pathways sufficiently well to justify taking policy action. To this end, we suggest four principles: Follow the strongest and most direct path between policy decisions on outcomes, focus on finding sufficient evidence for policy purpose, prioritize no-regrets policies by avoiding options with controversial, uncertain, or immeasurable benefits, aim for getting the big picture roughly right rather than focusing on details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including sustainable development, ecosystem services, and empirical economics.

Abstract A central challenge in the Mississippi River Basin is how to continue to support profitable agricultural production, provide water supply, flood control, transportation, and other benefits, while reducing the current burden of environmental degradation. Several practices have been shown to reduce nutrient runoff and water pollution, and improve soil fertility, while often yielding profits for farmers. Yet many of these beneficial practices remain underutilized. Participants at an expert workshop identified five candidate financial mechanisms that could increase adoption of these beneficial farming practices in four focal Midwest states in the next five years: crop insurance premium subsidies, transformation of the private service provider business model, expansion and targeting of 2019 U.S. Farm Bill funding, development of new state funds, and direction of post-disaster federal funds towards habitat restoration, particularly in floodplains. This study provides rough approximations of the change in nutrient runoff and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the annualized costs, and the nutrient and GHG reductions per dollar likely to result from deployment of each financial mechanism. Based upon these approximations, the adoption of these programs could reduce annual nitrate flows at the outlet of the Ohio and Upper Mississippi River Basins by 25%, surpassing the intermediate 2025 target (20% reduction) and achieving more than half of the long-term target (45% reduction) set by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force. These approximations also illustrate that these five mechanisms could provide the same GHG reductions (∼43 Tg CO 2 e yr−1) as taking 12 coal-fired energy plants offline. The total cost of these five financial mechanisms is estimated at ∼$2.6 billion, or 64 g of nitrates and ∼17 kg of CO 2 e per dollar spent. These proposed solutions all face political, financial, cultural or institutional challenges, but with industry support, creative political action, and continued communication of both private and public benefits, they can create meaningful nutrient reductions and rebuild soils by 2022. Highlights • Financial mechanisms for incentivizing land use practices that reduce impacts in Mississippi River Basin are explored. • Five mechanisms with potential to create swift and widespread change are analyzed. • These five mechanisms can achieve the intermediate 2025 target for reducing the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. • The GHG reductions achieved by these mechanisms would be equivalent to taking 13 coal fired power plants offline. • A sliding scale for crop insurance has the largest impact and is also the most cost effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Environmental protection, even with strong environmental laws on the books, often fails in developing countries because of limited government ability to monitor and enforce environmental laws. An alternative route to government monitoring and enforcement involves partnerships with private firms and non-governmental organizations. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the Responsible Soy Project, a partnership between Cargill and The Nature Conservancy, to curb deforestation following the opening of a new soybean export facility in the Brazilian Amazon. We find that the project significantly decreased deforestation rates in properties enrolled in the project, despite its late arrival two years after the opening of the export facility. Theoretical predictions and empirical results show that the impacts of the project were greater on smaller properties that are more likely to be credit-constrained, and on properties initially not in compliance with Brazil's Forest Code that faced binding constraints on deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The provision of many ecosystem services depends on the spatial pattern of land use across multiple landowners. Even holding land use constant, ecosystem service provision may change through time due to climate change. This paper develops an auction mechanism that implements an optimal solution for providing ecosystem services through time with multiple landowners who have private information about the net benefits of alternative uses of their land. Under the auction, each landowner has a dominant strategy to truthfully reveal their private information. With this information a regulator can then implement the optimal landscape pattern, which maximizes the present value of net benefits derived from the landscape, following the rules of the auction mechanism. The auction can be designed as a subsidy auction that pays landowners to conserve or a tax auction where landowners pay for the right to develop. Our mechanism optimizes social adaptation of ecosystem management to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable outside funding will be required to overcome the financial shortfalls faced by most of Africa’s protected areas. Given limited levels of external support, it will be essential to allocate these funds wisely. While most recent studies on conservation triage have recommended prioritizing reserves with the highest remaining conservation value (the “last best places”), such investments are complicated by the fact that these same reserves often attract the greatest revenues from ecotourism and thus the most attention from corrupt local governments. Alternatively, philanthropic organizations might achieve greater returns from investing in the management of neglected areas with lower current conservation value but with less financial leakage from corruption. We outline here how high levels of corruption could favor a strategy that shifts investments away from the last best places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress in ecosystem service science has been rapid, and there is now a healthy appetite among key public and private sector decision makers for this science. However, changing policy and management is a long-term project, one that raises a number of specific practical challenges. One impediment to broad adoption of ecosystem service information is the lack of standards that define terminology, acceptable data and methods, and reporting requirements. Ecosystem service standards should be tailored to specific use contexts, such as national income and wealth accounts, corporate sustainability reporting, land-use planning, and environmental impact assessments. Many standard-setting organizations already exist, and the research community will make the most headway toward rapid uptake of ecosystem service science by working directly with these organizations. Progress has been made in aligning with existing organizations in areas such as product certification and sustainability reporting, but a major challenge remains in mainstreaming ecosystem service information into core public and private use contexts, such as agricultural and energy subsidy design, national income accounts, and corporate accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central challenge of the 21st century is to develop economic, social, and governance systems capable of ending poverty and achieving sustainable levels of population and consumption while securing the life-support systems underpinning current and future human well-being. Essential to meeting this challenge is the incorporation of natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides into decision-making. We explore progress and crucial gaps at this frontier, reflecting upon the 10 y since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. We focus on three key dimensions of progress and ongoing challenges: raising awareness of the interdependence of ecosystems and human well-being, advancing the fundamental interdisciplinary science of ecosystem services, and implementing this science in decisions to restore natural capital and use it sustainably. Awareness of human dependence on nature is at an all-time high, the science of ecosystem services is rapidly advancing, and talk of natural capital is now common from governments to corporate boardrooms. However, successful implementation is still in early stages. We explore why ecosystem service information has yet to fundamentally change decision-making and suggest a path forward that emphasizes: (i) developing solid evidence linking decisions to impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services, and then to human well-being; (ii) working closely with leaders in government, business, and civil society to develop the knowledge, tools, and practices necessary to integrate natural capital and ecosystem services into everyday decision-making; and (iii) reforming institutions to change policy and practices to better align private short-term goals with societal long-term goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving sustainability, i.e., meeting the needs of current populations without compromising the needs of future generations, is the major challenge facing global society in the 21st century. Navigating the inherent trade-offs between provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting ecosystem services, and doing so in a way that does not compromise natural capital needed to provide services in the future, is critical for sustainable resource management. Here we build upon existing literature, primarily from economics and ecology, to present an analytical framework that integrates (1) the ecological mechanisms that underpin ecosystem services, (2) biophysical trade-offs and inherent limits that constrain management options, (3) preferences and values of stakeholders, and (4) explicit analysis of how systems evolve through time to ensure the goal of meeting the needs of future generations. Well-known ecological models define the relationships and trade-offs among services that represents an "efficiency frontier." Well-known methods in economics that combine preferences that define the willingness of stakeholders to trade off ecosystem services on the efficiency frontiers illuminate desirable outcomes that meet human needs. System dynamics show how the system will evolve with consequent impacts on ecosystem services and human well-being and the effects this has on achieving sustainability. Heterogeneity in biophysical constraints, uncertainty, technological advances, and obstacles imposed by societal factors and governance regimes influence potential and realized ecosystem services. Using a set of contrasting scenarios, we illustrate how progress can be made toward sustainability and the important obstacles that must be addressed in doing so. Our framework for analyzing sustainability drawn from economics and ecology is intended to make an integration of concepts from both disciplines accessible to a wider audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive wealth is a measure designed to address whether society is on a sustainable development trajectory. Inclusive wealth is defined as the aggregate value of all capital assets. Increases in inclusive wealth indicate an improved productive base capable of supporting a higher standard of living in the future. To be truly inclusive, measures of inclusive wealth must include the value of all forms of capital that contribute to human well-being: human capital, manufactured capital, natural capital, and social capital. Sustainability concerns have increased attention on the ways of measuring the value of natural capital. We review various attempts to measure natural capital and to incorporate these into inclusive wealth including estimates using national wealth accounts and integrated ecological and economic models used to estimate ecosystem services. Empirically measuring the value of various types of capital in terms of a common metric is hugely challenging, and no current attempt to date can be said to be fully inclusive. Despite the empirical challenges, inclusive wealth provides a clear, coherent, and systematic framework for addressing sustainable development. Combining measures of semi-inclusive wealth that capture forms of capital that can be relatively easily measured in monetary terms with a set of biophysical metrics capturing important aspects of natural capital that are difficult to measure in monetary terms may provide a good set of signals of whether society is proceeding along a sustainable development trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ecosystem services are public goods whose provision depends on the spatial pattern of land use. The pattern of land use is often determined by the decisions of multiple private landowners. Increasing the provision of ecosystem services, though beneficial for society as a whole, may be costly to private landowners. A regulator interested in providing incentives to landowners for increased provision of ecosystem services often lacks complete information on landowners' costs. The combination of spatially dependent benefits and asymmetric cost information means that the optimal provision of ecosystem services cannot be achieved using standard regulatory or payment for ecosystem services approaches. Here we show that an auction that sets payments between landowners and the regulator for the increased value of ecosystem services with conservation provides incentives for landowners to truthfully reveal cost information, and allows the regulator to implement the optimal provision of ecosystem services, even in the case with spatially dependent benefits and asymmetric information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threats to species from commercial fishing are rarely identified until species have suffered large population declines, by which time remedial actions can have severe economic consequences, such as closure of fisheries. Many of the species most threatened by fishing are caught in multispecies fisheries, which can remain profitable even as populations of some species collapse. Here we show for multispecies fisheries that the biological and socioeconomic conditions that would eventually cause species to be severely depleted or even driven extinct can be identified decades before those species experience high harvest rates or marked population declines. Because fishing effort imposes a common source of mortality on all species in a fishery, the long-term impact of a fishery on a species is predicted by measuring its loss rate relative to that of species that influence the fishery's maximal effort. We tested our approach on eight Pacific tuna and billfish populations, four of which have been identified recently as in decline and threatened with overfishing. The severe depletion of all four populations could have been predicted in the 1950s, using our approach. Our results demonstrate that species threatened by human harvesting can be identified much earlier, providing time for adjustments in harvesting practices before consequences become severe and fishery closures or other socioeconomically disruptive interventions are required to protect species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the return on investment (ROI) from public land conservation in the state of Minnesota, USA. We use a spatially-explicit modeling tool, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), to estimate how changes in land use and land cover (LULC), including public land acquisitions for conservation, influence the joint provision and value of multiple ecosystem services. We calculate the ROI of a public conservation acquisition as the ratio of the present value of ecosystem services generated by the conservation to the cost of the conservation. For the land scenarios analyzed, carbon sequestration services generated the greatest benefits followed by water quality improvements and recreation opportunities. We found ROI values ranged from 0.21 to 5.28 depending on assumptions about future land use change, service values, and discount rate. Our study suggests conservation is a good investment as long as investments are targeted to areas with low land costs and high service values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services analysis can help recognize the full costs and benefits of land management decisions. Quantification and valuation of services can enhance policies and regulations and, if linked with payments or incentives, properly reward private decisions that yield public benefits. However, the field of ecosystem services research is relatively new and quantification and valuation remains highly uncertain. While there is significant uncertainty about the biophysical production of ecosystem services, there is additional uncertainty about the value of services. This paper explores how uncertainty associated with valuation of ecosystem services in agriculture affects the ranking of land use alternatives in terms of social net benefits. We compare the values of four land use scenarios in the Minnesota River Basin, USA, by combining a range of value estimates for these services with varying estimates for returns from agricultural production. Although variations in ecosystem service values are significant, fluctuations in agricultural returns more significantly determine how scenarios rank with regard to delivery of total value. This analysis suggests that addressing uncertainty in ecosystem service valuation is critical to accurately assessing tradeoffs in land use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recently, some members of the conservation community have used ecosystem services as a strategy to conserve biodiversity. Others in the community have criticized this strategy as a distraction from the mission of biodiversity conservation. The debate continues, and it remains unclear whether the concerns expressed are significant enough to merit the opposition. Through an exploration of the science of biodiversity and ecosystem services, we find that narrow interpretations of metrics, values, and management drive much of the tension and make the common ground appear small. The size of this common ground depends on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services and how they respond to management interventions. We demonstrate how understanding this response can be used to delimit common ground but highlight the importance of differentiating between objectives and approaches to meeting those objectives in conservation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We analyze how the threat of a potential future regime shift affects optimal management. We use a simple general growth model to analyze four cases that involve combinations of stock collapse versus changes in system dynamics, and exogenous versus endogenous probabilities of regime shift. Prior work in economics has focused on stock collapse with endogenous probabilities and reaches ambiguous conclusions on whether the potential for regime shift will increase or decrease intensity of resource use and level of resource stock. We show that all other cases yield unambiguous results. In particular, with endogenous probability of regime shift that affects system dynamics the potential for regime shift causes optimal management to become precautionary in the sense of maintaining higher resource stock levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Global change issues are complex and the consequences of decisions are often highly uncertain. The large spatial and temporal scales and stakes involved make it important to take account of present and potential consequences in decision-making. Standard approaches to decision-making under uncertainty require information about the likelihood of alternative states, how states and actions combine to form outcomes and the net benefits of different outcomes. For global change issues, however, the set of potential states is often unknown, much less the probabilities, effect of actions or their net benefits. Decision theory, thresholds, scenarios and resilience thinking can expand awareness of the potential states and outcomes, as well as of the probabilities and consequences of outcomes under alternative decisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Urban tree cover benefits communities. These benefits' economic values, however, are poorly recognized and often ignored by landowners and planners. We use hedonic property price modeling to estimate urban tree cover's value in Dakota and Ramsey Counties, MN, USA, predicting housing value as a function of structural, neighborhood, and environmental variables, including tree cover, using a spatial simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) error model. We measure tree cover as percent tree cover on parcels, and within 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1000m. Results show that tree cover within 100 and 250m is positive and statistically significant. A 10% increase in tree cover within 100m increases average home sale price by $1371 (0.48%) and within 250m increases sale price by $836 (0.29%). In a model including both linear and squared tree cover terms, tree cover within 100 and 250m increases sale price to 40–60% tree cover. Beyond this point increased tree cover contributes to lower price. Tree cover beyond 250m did not contribute significantly to sale price. These results suggest significant positive effects for neighborhood tree cover, for instance, for the shading and aesthetic quality of tree-lined streets, indicating that tree cover provides positive neighborhood externalities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Ecosystem-based management is logistically and politically challenging because ecosystems are inherently complex and management decisions affect a multitude of groups. Coastal ecosystems, which lie at the interface between marine and terrestrial ecosystems and provide an array of ecosystem services to different groups, aptly illustrate these challenges. Successful ecosystem-based management of coastal ecosystems requires incorporating scientific information and the knowledge and views of interested parties into the decision-making process. Estimating the provision of ecosystem services under alternative management schemes offers a systematic way to incorporate biogeophysical and socioeconomic information and the views of individuals and groups in the policy and management process. Employing ecosystem services as a common language to improve the process of ecosystem-based management presents both benefits and difficulties. Benefits include a transparent method for assessing trade-offs associated with management alternatives, a common set of facts and common currency on which to base negotiations, and improved communication among groups with competing interests or differing worldviews. Yet challenges to this approach remain, including predicting how human interventions will affect ecosystems, how such changes will affect the provision of ecosystem services, and how changes in service provision will affect the welfare of different groups in society. In a case study from Puget Sound, Washington, we illustrate the potential of applying ecosystem services as a common language for ecosystem-based management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current approaches to conservation and natural-resource management often focus on single objectives, resulting in many unintended consequences. These outcomes often affect society through unaccounted-for ecosystem services. A major challenge in moving to a more ecosystem-based approach to management that would avoid such societal damages is the creation of practical tools that bring a scientifically sound, production function-based approach to natural-resource decision making. A new set of computer-based models is presented, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs tool (InVEST) that has been designed to inform such decisions. Several of the key features of these models are discussed, including the ability to visualize relationships among multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity, the ability to focus on ecosystem services rather than biophysical processes, the ability to project service levels and values in space, sensitivity to manager-designed scenarios, and flexibility to deal with data and knowledge limitations. Sample outputs of InVEST are shown for two case applications; the Willamette Basin in Oregon and the Amazon Basin. Future challenges relating to the incorporation of social data, the projection of social distributional effects, and the design of effective policy mechanisms are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic analysis has much to contribute to understanding and analyzing the conservation of biological diversity and the provision of ecosystem services. These issues are vitally important and relatively understudied by economists to date. Application of economic tools is needed to understand the benefits and costs of conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services. Application of economic tools is needed to evaluate management and policy options both in terms of cost effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis. This article reviews recent developments in the area of conservation economics and discusses important challenges that remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impacts of energy use can impose large costs on society. We quantify and monetize the life-cycle climate-change and health effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions from gasoline, corn ethanol, and cellulosic ethanol. For each billion ethanol-equivalent gallons of fuel produced and combusted in the US, the,combined climate-change and health costs are $469 million for gasoline. $472-952 million for corn ethanol depending on biorefinery heat source (natural gas, corn stover, or coal) and technology, but only $123-208 million for cellulosic ethanol depending on feedstock (prairie biomass, Miscanthus, corn stover, or switchgrass). Moreover, a geographically explicit life-cycle analysis that tracks PM2.5 emissions and exposure relative to U.S. population shows regional shifts in health costs dependent on fuel production systems. Because cellulosic ethanol can offer health benefits from PM2.5 reduction that are of comparable importance to its climate-change benefits from GHG reduction, a shift from gasoline to cellulosic ethanol has greater advantages than previously recognized. These advantages are critically dependent on the source of land used to produce biomass for biofuels, on the magnitude of any indirect land use that may result, and on other as yet unmeasured environmental impacts of biofuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We characterize the optimal harvest of a renewable resource in a generalized stochastic spatially explicit model. Despite the complexity of the model, we are able to obtain sharp analytical results. We find that the optimal harvest rule in general depends upon dispersal patterns of the resource across space, and only in special circumstances do we find a modified golden rule of growth that is independent of dispersal patterns. We also find that the optimal harvest rule may include closure of some areas to harvest, either on a temporary or permanent basis (biological reserves). Reserves alone cannot correct open access, but may, under sufficient spatial heterogeneity and connectivity, increase profits if appropriate harvest controls are in place outside of reserves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the importance of ecosystem services to humans. Ecosystem services are goods and services for the survival of human beings and take the nature of public goods as they are free of charge. According to the author, in order to benefit from ecosystem services, information and incentive problems must be solved. Economists, as well as ecologists and social scientists, are asked to consider ecological production functions, valuation and incentives.

Expanding human population and economic growth have led to large-scale conversion of natural habitat to human-dominated landscapes with consequent large-scale declines in biodiversity. Conserving biodiversity, while at the same time meeting expanding human needs, is an issue of utmost importance. In this paper we develop a spatially explicit landscape-level model for analyzing the biological and economic consequences of alternative land-use patterns. The spatially explicit biological model incorporates habitat preferences, area requirements and dispersal ability between habitat patches for terrestrial vertebrate species to predict the likely number of species that will be sustained on the landscape. The spatially explicit economic model incorporates site characteristics and location to predict economic returns for a variety of potential land uses. We apply the model to search for efficient land-use patterns that maximize biodiversity conservation objectives for given levels of economic returns, and vice versa. We apply the model to the Willamette Basin, Oregon, USA. By thinking carefully about the arrangement of activities, we find land-use patterns that sustain high levels of biodiversity and economic returns. Compared to the 1990 land-use pattern, we show that both biodiversity conservation and the value of economic activity could be increased substantially. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Agriculture produces more than just crops. Agricultural practices have environmental impacts that affect a wide range of ecosystem services, including water quality, pollination, nutrient cycling, soil retention, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. In turn, ecosystem services affect agricultural productivity. Understanding the contribution of various agricultural practices to the range of ecosystem services would help inform choices about the most beneficial agricultural practices. To accomplish this, however, we must overcome a big challenge in measuring the impact of alternative agricultural practices on ecosystem services and of ecosystem services on agricultural production. A framework is presented in which such indicators can be interpreted as well as the criteria for selection of indicators. The relationship between agricultural practices and land-use change and erosion impact on chemical use is also discussed. Together these ideas form the basis for identifying useful indicators for quantifying the costs and benefits of agricultural systems for the range of ecosystem services interrelated to agriculture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Global conservation needs far exceed the available resources, so scarce resources must be used cost-effectively. Although many conservation priory-setting frameworks used by NGO’s or public agencies explicitly claim to emphasize efficiency or wise investment, none actually incorporates costs in a formal return-on-investment (ROI) framework. We illustrate here how an ROI framework can be applied to real world resource allocation decisions faced by conservation organizations. We present two examples: (1) allocating resources to purchase land in 21 ecoregions that make up the Temperate Forest Habitat in the US; (2) allocating resources among a variety of conservation actions (not just land purchase) in Mediterranean habitats, with rates of habitat loss factored into the analysis. An important feature of both case studies is that costs vary by orders of magnitude, depending on where or how one is doing conservation. Second, because costs and biodiversity are not well correlated, enormous savings are possible by applying an ROI analysis. Moreover, recommended priorities after including costs in the calculations often deviate substantially from priorities based solely on biodiversity measures. Hence we argue that a major effort of conservationist biologists should be to include and record the costs of conservation actions. If serious attention is not given to returns on investment, it implies that “money is no object.” [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We analyze a model of environmental regulation with learning about environmental damages and endogenous choice of emissions abatement technology by a polluting firm. We compare environmental policy under discretion, in which policy is updated upon learning new information, versus under rules, in which policy is not updated. When investment in abatement technology is made prior to the resolution of uncertainty, neither discretion nor rules with either taxes or standards achieve an efficient solution except in special cases. When there is little uncertainty, rules are superior to discretion because discretionary policy gives the firm an incentive to distort investment in order to influence future regulation. However, when uncertainty is large, discretion is superior to rules because it allows regulation to incorporate new information. Taxes are superior to standards under discretion regardless of the relative slopes of marginal costs and marginal damages for the case of quadratic abatement costs and damages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent advances in ecology are of great potential relevance to economists. Here we present two ecological models of mechanisms of competition and coexistence, and use these to derive how the primary productivity of ecosystems, the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere and stored by plants, the efficiency of resource use, and the spatial and temporal variability of productivity and resource use should depend on diversity. We then discuss the relevance of these results to (1) ecosystem services and the economic value of diversity and (2) the functioning of any competitive system, including the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We combine a simple trade model with a species–area curve to derive the effect of trade on biodiversity conservation. Trade causes specialization in production that drives specialization in ecosystems and their associated biodiversity. When trading partners contain similar species in autarky, trade has little effect on global biodiversity but lowers local biodiversity. On the other hand, with high endemism, specialization causes significant declines in both local and global biodiversity. If preferences for biodiversity conservation are sufficiently high, overall utility may decline with a move toward free trade unless corrective conservation policy is instituted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) goal of preventing species extinctions. Approach to conservation; Provisions of the ESA; Conclusion.

Examines use of the initial taxonomic survey by plug-in estimator to estimate the expected number of species that would be observed in a second survey. Description of the plug-in estimator; Assessment of the performance of the plug-in estimator; Assumption on the analysis.

This paper develops a two period noncooperative game-theoretic model of a Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (HMFS) fishery. In each period, the fish stock migrates from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of a coastal state into the high seas, where distant water fishing (DWF) harvesters may harvest. We show that having an EEZ improves total welfare by reducing total harvest and that the degree of the welfare improvement increases when the number of harvesters in an HMFS fishery increases. We also show that an increase in the number of DWF harvesters leads to a larger harvest and rent dissipation. With open-access in the second stage, resource rent is totally dissipated for DWF harvesters, but not for the coastal state harvesters, which still earn positive rent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the effectiveness of the US Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Conversion of agricultural land into wildlife preserves; Possible downsizing of the CRP in the mid-1990s; Need to improve the selection of agricultural land which will be converted; Recommendations for targeting CRP to conserve wildlife habitat.

The large-scale loss of ecosystem assets around the world, and the resultant reduction in the provision of nature's benefits to people, underscores the urgent need for better metrics of ecological performance as well as their integration into decision-making. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is a measure of the aggregate monetary value of final ecosystem-related goods and services in a specific area and for a given accounting period. GEP accounting captures the use of many ecosystem services in production processes across the economy, which are then valued in terms of their benefits to society. GEP has five key elements that make it transparent, trackable, and readily understandable: (1) a focus on nature's contributions to people; (2) the measurement of ecosystem assets as stocks and ecosystem services as flows; (3) the quantification of ecosystem service use; (4) an understanding of ecosystem service supply chains through value realization; and (5) the disaggregation of benefits across groups. Correspondingly, a series of innovative policies based on GEP have been designed and implemented in China. The theoretical and practical lessons provided by these experiences can support continued policy innovation for green and inclusive development around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declining biodiversity and ecosystem functions put many of nature's contributions to people at risk. We review and synthesize the scientific literature to assess 50-y global trends across a broad range of nature's contributions. We distinguish among trends in potential and realized contributions of nature, as well as environmental conditions and the impacts of changes in nature on human quality of life. We find declining trends in the potential for nature to contribute in the majority of material, nonmaterial, and regulating contributions assessed. However, while the realized production of regulating contributions has decreased, realized production of agricultural and many material commodities has increased. Environmental declines negatively affect quality of life, but social adaptation and the availability of substitutes partially offset this decline for some of nature's contributions. Adaptation and substitutes, however, are often imperfect and come at some cost. For many of the contributions of nature, we find differing trends across different countries and regions, income classes, and ethnic and social groups, reinforcing the argument for more consistent and equitable measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development requires jointly achieving economic development to raise standards of living and environmental sustainability to secure these gains for the long run. Here, we develop a local- to- global, and global- to- local, earth- economy model that integrates the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP)- computable general equilibrium model of the economy with the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model of fine- scale, spatially explicit ecosystem services. The integrated model, GTAP--InVEST, jointly determines land use, environmental conditions, ecosystem services, market prices, supply and demand across economic sectors, trade across regions, and aggregate performance metrics like GDP. We use the integrated model to analyze the contribution of investing in nature for economic prosperity, accounting for the impact of four important ecosystem services (pollination, timber provision, marine fisheries, and carbon sequestration). We show that investments in nature result in large improvements relative to a business- as- usual path, accruing annual gains of $100 to $350 billion (2014 USD) with the largest percentage gains in the lowest- income countries. Our estimates include only a small subset of ecosystem services and could be far higher with inclusion of more ecosystem services, incorporation of ecological tipping points, and reduction in substitutability that limits economic adjustments to declines in natural capital. Our analysis highlights the need for improved environmental--economic modeling and the vital importance of integrating environmental information firmly into economic analysis and policy. The benefits of doing so are potentially very large, with the greatest percentage benefits accruing to inhabitants of the poorest countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the investment in the wildlife conservation, highlighting Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It states that CBD was signed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. It mentions that there are more evidence on which to base estimates for the costs of protecting terrestrial sites of biodiversity significance.

A response is presented from the authors of the article "Finding common ground for biodiversity and ecosystem services," published in a 2012 issue.

A response from the authors of the article "Natural capital and ecosystem services informing decisions: From promise to practice" in the 2015 issue is presented.

The article comments on the study by M. Bode on the role of socioeconomic data in conservation planning. According to the author, the study suggests that conservationists spend more effort in assessing threat levels and costs and less effort worrying about which taxonomic group to use as a surrogate measure for biodiversity. He adds that the high variability of cost and threat data makes cost figure prominently in cost-effective conservation that maximizes the biological return per dollar.

The article comments on a study by Armsworth and colleagues which shows how the unintended consequences of buying land for conservation lead to negative feedbacks on conservation objectives. The researchers combined economic analysis of land markets with conservation planning. They suggested that buying land for conservation can lead to increases in land prices and shift development.

High-quality water resources provide a wide range of benefits, but the value of water quality is often not fully represented in environmental policy decisions, due in large part to an absence of water quality valuation estimates at large, policy relevant scales. Using data on property values with nationwide coverage across the contiguous United States, we estimate the benefits of lake water quality as measured through capitalization in housing markets. We find compelling evidence that homeowners place a premium on improved water quality. This premium is largest for lakefront property and decays with distance from the waterbody. In aggregate, we estimate that 10% improvement of water quality for the contiguous United States has a value of $6 to 9 billion to property owners. This study provides credible evidence for policymakers to incorporate lake water quality value estimates in environmental decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) literature provides strong evidence of the biophysical basis for the potential profitability of greater diversity but does not address questions of optimal management. BEF studies typically focus on the ecosystem outputs produced by randomly assembled communities that only differ in their biodiversity levels, measured by indices such as species richness. Landholders, however, do not randomly select species to plant; they choose particular species that collectively maximize profits. As such, their interest is not in comparing the average performance of randomly assembled communities at each level of biodiversity but rather comparing the best-performing communities at each diversity level. Assessing the best-performing mixture requires detailed accounting of species' identities and relative abundances. It also requires accounting for the financial cost of individual species' seeds, and the economic value of changes in the quality, quantity, and variability of the species' collective output--something that existing multifunctionality indices fail to do. This study presents an assessment approach that integrates the relevant factors into a single, coherent framework. It uses ecological production functions to inform an economic model consistent with the utilitymaximizing decisions of a potentially risk-averse private landowner. We demonstrate the salience and applicability of the framework using data from an experimental grassland to estimate production relationships for hay and carbon storage. For that case, our results suggest that even a risk-neutral, profit-maximizing landowner would favor a highly diverse mix of species, with optimal species richness falling between the low levels currently found in commercial grasslands and the high levels found in natural grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]