STEWARDSHIP ECOSYSTEM SERVICES SURVEY STUDY

Transcription

1 STEWARDSHIP ECOSYSTEM SERVICES SURVEY STUDY University of Florida- School of Forest Resources and Conservation: F. Escobedo, D. Adams, S. Delphin, N. Timilsina, A. Abd-Elrahman, T. Stein, C. Demers, M. Kreye, A. Frank, N. Kil University of Florida- Food and Resources Economics Department: T. Borisova The Nature Conservancy: T. Kroeger

2 Background Florida s non-industrial private forests provide many ecosystem services to society; recognizing this value is important Florida Forest Stewardship Program () provides technical assistance to non-industrial private forest landowners important conservation program and a key outreach mechanism

3 Problem Florida currently has approximately 2,000 forest landowners enrolled in the 14% have completed management plans 437,823 acres across the State of Florida Additionally each property has unique forest types, management objectives, ecological conditions, etc. How to measure, assess ecosystem services and educate landowners and policy makers about benefits of conserving working forests?

4 Objectives 1. Identify ecosystem services of importance to both private landowners and public land managers 2. Quantify the ecosystem services of lands using available data, statistical analysis and models 3. Economic valuation of 5 ecosystem services 4. Synthesize/ spatially analyze results at multiple scales 5. Develop extension education and outreach activities for decision-makers (State and County level) Photo courtesy of J. Seiler

5 Learning Points Multi-disciplinary approach: Foresters, ecologists economists, biometricians, human dimensions, geospatial analysts What an ecosystem service is/is not depends on who/when you ask Foresters difficult time with timber being an ecosystem service InVEST model: Expensive and time consuming; better results using primary data (FIA) Methods for quantifying Tradeoffs and identifying influential forest structure needed

6 Methods Overview 1. Geospatial Florida Land Use, Land Cover classification System spatial data (Landsat TM- 30m) Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Service and Tradeoffs (InVEST) Water Purification model 2. Statistical-spatial analyses of field data USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) timber and carbon data (43 plots on s and 489 within 1 mile) 3. Benefits transfer, meta-analysis and econometric modeling Willingness to pay for water resource protection -forest conservation programs literature Valuation of avoided loss of habitat for key species 4. surveys, expert elicitations (Delphi method)

7 Carbon Storage and Timber Volume Carbon stocks and timber production on properties and adjacent lands Northeastern and central Florida: Net timber volume greater on forests than on adjacent non- forests and in northern Florida NFL: Average total carbon stocks on forests were greater than in immediately adjacent Non- forests Forest Types Longleaf Pine Mixed upland hardwood North western Non- FIA Units (Mg C/HA) North Eastern Non- Central Non- Southern Non- NA NA NA NA NA 142 NA 191

8 Land Manager and Public Landowner Perceptions Survey survey of land managers and public landowners Perceptions on ecosystem services 594, 37% response rate, 27 mostly county agencies Perceptions, preferences, importance differ widely Land managers: Recreation, aesthetics, wildlife habitat, and natural resources conservation NIPF: Enjoyment of scenery, overall environmental quality for recreation opportunities, and quality of drinking water Familiarity with terms such as ecosystem services and carbon storage was highly variable

9 Economic Value of Water Resource Protection and Forest Conservation Our econometric model predicts that the public is WTP: Increasingly more each year to protect water quality in unpolluted water bodies More for programs that focus on protecting water resources within their own watershed/basin Less for programs that reduce private landowner control of forest lands (acquisition/easements) Program process may have a large influence on WTP and on public support for such programs

10 Water Quality Economic value of water resource protection and forest conservation A benefit transfer of annual household willingness-to-pay (WTP) values (2010 US dollars) to the lower Suwannee River watershed located in the northwest region of Florida (Median annual household income = $35,371). Policy Site Resource Program Annual Household WTP CI (95%) Population Total Annual WTP Lower Suwannee River Watershed Streams and rivers Wetlands, lakes and all water resources Acquisition/ Easement Non-specific program Acquisition/ Easement Non-specific program $2.29 $ $ ,000 $105,340 $43.79 $ $ ,000 $2,014,340 $6.51 $ $ ,000 $299,460 $ $ $ ,000 $5,878,340

11 Wildlife Economic analysis of the value of conserving habitat for 5 threatened or endangered wildlife species Benefit transfer and expert elicitation Economic value of the avoided losses in bald eagle, redcockaded woodpecker, Florida black bear, gopher tortoise, Florida scrub-jay populations by forest management objectives ~ $54 M PV

12 Results Altogether, we estimate that the typical acre of forest land enrolled in the program provides ecosystem services that have a present value of $5,030 per acre In relative terms, water provided the largest share of the value (66%), followed by carbon stocks (25%), timber production (7%) and wildlife (2%) Average Present Value (2010$) Service Description All lands Per hectare Per acre Percent of total Water purification Value of maintaining water quality $1,446,357,500 $8,160 $3,300 66% Carbon stocks Value of carbon stocks, ($19 per MgC) $558,827,870 $3,150 $1,280 25% Timber Value of timber using the InVEST model $10,100,545 $825 $330 7% Wildlife (Non-use value) Value of preventing up to 5% loss in populations of 5 charismatic species $54,112,000 $305 $120 2% Total $2,069,398,000 $12,440 $5, %

13 Extension Education and Outreach Foresters - Earn 2 Cat. 1 CFEs: Forest Stewardship Polycom Workshop: The Green Value of Your Woods December 12, :00 4:00 PM ET (12:00 3:00 PM CT) Broadcast to UF-IFAS Extension facilities across Florida. Select your location when registering.

14 Education and Research Student training 1 Post-Dec, 3 PhD, 2 MS, 3 undergraduate Peer-Reviewed Publications Timilsina, N., et al. (2012). A framework for identifying carbon hotspots and forest management drivers. Journal of Environmental Management, doi.org/ /j.jenvman Delphin, S. et al. (Submitted). Assessing and mapping potential losses of ecosystem services from hurricanes: Implications for timber and carbon storage. Kreye M. et al. (Submitted). The Value of Forest Conservation for Water Quality Protection. Timilsina N. et al. (Submitted). Predicting understory species richness from available forest inventories using regression trees.

15 Acknowledgements Florida Forest Service (FFS) SESS contract # , and UF-SFRC for funding Funding for this publication and associated research is provided in part by the USDA Forest Service. This institution is an equal opportunity employer. FFS: Charlie Marcus, Steve Jennings, Tony Grossman, M. Humphrey UF: Tim White, Chris Demers, Zoltan Szantoi USDA Forest Service: Sam Lambert and Tom Brandeis