Ecosystem Services
The ways that we understand and manage our ecosystems, and the resources within them, are very intimately tied to how our economy is structured and how it functions. The words ecology, economy and ecosystem share roots of meaning in the Greek word “oikos” (eco-), which can be roughly interpreted to mean “household” – or the basic unit of society. ‘Ecology’ refers to the study of the household, ‘economy’ to management of the household, and ‘ecosystem’ to the household systems. As pressures on our resources and the way we manage them grow, the importance of thinking more critically about these ‘household’ relationships and of rethinking our economy to reflect the interdependence of ecology and economy heightens as well.
Many new markets are opening up for some ecosystem services – the beneficial ‘products’ of intact, functioning ecosystems that contribute to our society’s long-term health and economic competitiveness. Payments for carbon offsets, water quality trading, and wetland mitigation are some of the more familiar ecosystems service markets available or soon-to-be available for private landowners to participate in.
The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands endorses a broad view of ecosystems services, where the marketable ecological benefits reflect the complexity of the ecosystem itself, and where all actors in natural resource production have a role to play in enhancing the benefits of the household that we all share. Progress in designing the best markets for overall protection of the resilience of our shared environment mean that landowners, harvesters, and other players in natural resource commodity chains can be paid for outcomes of the services they provide to enhance the services we get back from a healthy natural environment – and no longer just for the products harvested from the landscape. The idea is to integrate management and conservation of resources, and to provide consistent financial benefits to stewards.
A bundled approach to ecosystems services seeks a balance in managing for:
- Carbon sequestration
- Biodiversity
- Wetlands mitigation
- Soil Productivity
- Water Quality
- Endangered species conservation
By considering all of these ecosystem services together rather than separately, financial rewards for real ecological outcomes can be determined, and stewards of these services can design business plans rooted in multiple sources of revenue.
Landowners participating in the TCNF’s FSC forest management group, have agreed to planning for the long-term management of their forest lands that can easily translate to a plan for protecting ecosystem services and adding value to the benefits their private land provides to society at large.
Harvesting companies involved in TCNF’s Master Logger Certification/SmartLogging program have committed to superior management practices that add to the social and environmental value of forestlands in the northeastern hardwood region. These companies have also begun to think ahead about a new iteration of their profession – transitioning from mostly extractive activities to balancing those traditional products markets with environmental services through providing monitoring and mitigation services to landowners and conducting much of the documentation required to demonstrate additional benefits in these emerging markets.
