A Focus on Payments for Ecosystem Services Jeff Prestemon, with assistance from Evan Mercer

 Forest Disturbance and Management Economics  Economics of natural disturbances—fire, hurricanes, pests, invasives— Holmes, Prestemon, Abt, Mercer  Timber salvage economics—Prestemon, Holmes  Climate change adaptation and mitigation—Holmes, Wear, Prestemon  Forests and crime—Prestemon  Policy and Program Evaluation  Markets for ecosystem services—Mercer  Taxes and forest management—Greene  Policies and programs—Greene, Mercer  Natural Resource Assessment and Forecasting  Markets and trade—Prestemon, Wear, Holmes, Abt  Bioenergy markets—Abt  Regional, national, and international assessments—Wear, Prestemon, Abt, Holmes

 Ecosystem Services: the benefits people obtain from forests  Marketable—e.g., hunting leases, water, carbon credits  Non-marketable—e.g., habitat for non-game animal species, air filtration, esthetics

 Most ecosystem services are provided free of charge  Production of ecosystem goods (such as timber or oil) are favored over the conservation of ecosystems and services.  Forest land is undervalued  Without a market and no government or private sector actions, many ecosystem services are under- provided compared to how they are valued.  Markets can be developed  Pay landowners for the services produced.  But who pays? 4

 Drinking water providers  Sewage treatment plants  Developers  Industrial polluters and energy companies  Individual Citizens and Communities  Federal, state and local governments

 2010 National Report on Sustainable Forests ▪ Indicator 6.27 Revenues from Forest Based Environmental Services (Mercer 2011)  Taking Stock: Payments for Forest Ecosystem Services in the United States. (Mercer, Cooley and Hamilton 2011) ▪ Ecosystem Marketplace and USDA Forest Service.

 Assess state of forest-based PES in the United States  Focus on actual payments to landowners to manage (or reforest) their forestlands to produce ecosystem services

 Forest-based PES  At least $1.9 billion per year  By Source:  Private: 81%  Government Agencies: 19%  By Type  Wetland Mitigation Banking: 38% ▪ 173 landowners  Hunting Leases/fees: 22%  Conservation Easements: 17% ▪ 1.8% of private landowners have them  Carbon Offsets: 0.001%

 U.S. Forest Service funded grant  Evan Mercer is working with Buck Kline (VA DOF) and Southern Group of State Foresters  Seeks to develop a methodology for producing consistent measures of these payments across states, get this approach broadly adopted  Contact: Evan Mercer,