Read about or comment on the following research and case studies or tell us about your own research or case study, lessons learned, best practices or other personal experiences in the comments section below.

Two recent reports have helped to elucidate the monetary benefits that ecosystem services provide to Canadians. The first, entitled The Value of Natural Capital in Settled Areas in Canada, by Nancy Olewieler, provides a compelling case for preserving and restoring natural areas in some of Canada’s most populated watersheds. Dr. Olewieler found that protecting wetlands, forests, grasslands and estuaries in the Lower Fraser Valley, an area of over 16,000km2 which includes the Greater Vancouver Area, could save the region hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in the future. The services provided by wetlands alone in the form of assimilating agriculture inputs such as phosphorus and nitrogen were estimated to be worth at least $230 million per year in forgone treatment costs alone, without factoring in the increased infrastructure costs associated with new treatment plants. Dr. Olewieler came to similar conclusions in the Grand River watershed in Ontario, where the value of ecosystem services was estimated to be $195/hectare/year, in the Upper Assiniboine River watershed ($65/hectare/year), and the Mill River watershed in PEI ($142/hectare/year). The most substantial savings would be gained from saved government payments (less land requiring crop insurance), increased recreational fishing and hunting, and decreased water treatment for phosphorus reduction. These estimates show that there is a significant economic case for preserving ecosystem services across the country.

A second report, entitled Counting Canada’s Natural Capital: Assessing the Real Value of Canada’s Boreal Ecosystem by Mark Anielski and Sara Wilson, was a similar endeavour intended to quantify the value of Canada’s boreal forest, which stretches from Newfoundland to the Yukon. The researchers first calculated the net market values of all activities that make use of the boreal; timber harvesting; mineral, oil and gas extraction; and hydroelectric generation. The net value from these activities amounted to $48 billion per year, however the figure was adjusted to $37 billion after environmental (air pollution) and social (subsidies) costs were included. The authors then calculated the net value of total non-market values of the boreal, which included the economic value of carbon sequestration by forests and peatlands, wilderness recreation, biodiversity, water supply and regulation, pest control, non-timber forest products, and aboriginal subsistence values. The total economic value of these services amounted to $93 billion, approximately 2.5 times greater than the value of resource extraction and hydro-electricity.

Initiatives such as the Agricultural Policy Framework, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, the Prairie Conservation Action Plan and many prior government and non-government initiatives have used instruments like land use agreements, conservation easements, land purchase and leasing, property tax credits and others to recognize and reward provision of EG&S by Canadian farmers for over 20 years.

On November 18, 2005, Canada’s first pilot project seeking to protect and restore ecosystem services on agricultural land (known as Alternative Land-Use Services or ALUS) was initiated in the Regional Municipality of Blanshard, Manitoba. The program was originally conceived by the Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s largest farm organization, with the support of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Manitoba Agriculture, Food & Rural Initiatives, the Regional Municipality of Blanshard, Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation, and the Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District. Farmers are compensated varying amounts for the different services their lands provide: $5 per acre for managed grazing areas, and $15 per acre for natural areas, riparian areas and wetlands taken out of agricultural production, and $25 per acre for certain ecologically sensitive lands. The program has expanded to other pilot sites, including Norfolk County in Ontario. This past spring, Prince Edward Island became the first province to adopt ALUS as a province-wide policy.

Currently, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is assessing 8 specific pilot projects (to which the Blanshard ALUS pilot is one) that incorporate the idea of EG&S into policy instruments. Some of these other pilots include evaluating the economic and environmental costs and benefits of wetland restoration and retention in South Tobacco Creek, Manitoba, identifying and assessing the provisioning of EG&S by the primary agriculture sector in Nova Scotia, and estimating the social and economic value of EG&S from agro-forestry practices in Canada. It is important to stress that valuing ecosystem goods and services is still a novel concept. In time, a better understanding of the links between ecosystems and the economy, and the development of policies that seek to secure EG&S, will emerge.

It is also worth examining a number of other Canadian initiatives, including AAFC’s additional pilot projects; Alberta’s work on carbon and EG&S; and work on environmental markets including cap and trade, mitigation banking, transferable rights, etc… 

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