Managing for Ecosystem Service Benefits

Ecosystem services (ES) are essential for human health, and putting a price on these services requires a means of measuring the relative value of each service as well as changes associated with their supply and use. This study measured the change in ES resulting from the use of integrated land management (ILM) and conservation offsets (CO) in the Carmon Creek area of Alberta. The assessment compared the supply of ecosystem services including timber supply, carbon storage, water purification (phosphorus and nitrogen loadings), and biodiversity intactness, under three scenarios: a business as usual scenario in which it is assumed that the involved resource extraction companies, Shell and DMI, do not coordinate their activities on the landscape, an ILM scenario in which the companies coordinate activities, and an ILM/CO scenario in which ILM facilitates the establishment of CO. The project presents a cost-benefit analysis of the ecosystem services (ES) assessment results, valuing the supply of ES under each scenario relative to the associated implementation costs.

ILM reduced the area cleared for roads as Shell and DMI used the same road to access their resources. ILM also allowed DMI to access and harvest timber from an area surrounding Shell’s footprint which would have otherwise been uneconomical to harvest due to access issues. The pursuit of ILM in combination with CO results in a reduction in the total area cleared and hence, the greatest increase in the supply of ES. The cost of pursuing the BAU scenario exceeded the cost of pursuing ILM and CO, with the value of doing so significantly magnified when the monetary value of ES was taken into account.