Bioindicator-Based Method for Valuing Marine Ecosystem Services

Identification Information

Citation

Originator: Freeman, Perter, Randell Rosenberger, Gil Sylvia, Selina Heppell, and Michael Harte

Publish Date: 2011

Online Link: None

BPA Project #:

Contact Information

Agency: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Name: Lindsay Aylesworth

Job Position: Marine Reserves Program Leader

Telephone: 541-867-4741

E-Mail Address: lindsay.x.aylesworth@odfw.oregon.gov

Description

Abstract: The proposed creation of marine reserves at Redfish Rocks in Port Orford, Oregon, and at Otter Rock near Newport, Otter Rock, and Depoe Bay, Oregon, creates an opportunity to develop and test a framework for identifying, estimating, monitoring and evaluating the nonmarket costs and benefits of marine reserves in Oregon. The goal of this analysis is to derive candidate indicators of long-term ecological change related to the creation of marine reserves to serve as a starting point for survey development for assessing trade-offs associated with the nonmarket benefits resulting from the creation of marine reserves. These survey indicators will integrate ecological models with the knowledge and preferences of stakeholders in order to allow the use of easily understandable indicators within survey scenarios (the economic component), while providing ecological linkages among these indicators and the assessment endpoints that determine values (the ecological component). The goal of this process is to allow a value to be placed on ecological measurements that in themselves may seem obscure to the stakeholders—and therefore would not be appropriately valued —through their bundling and translation into indicators that have value-related meaning. This report describes the gathering and synthesis of ecological and socioeconomic data required to translate bioindicators into survey indicators, which represent nonmarket benefits in the form of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services can be defined as “aspects of ecosystems utilized (actively or passively) to produce human well-being” (Fisher et al. 2009, p. 645). Ecosystem services of coastal systems include (Beaumont et al. 2007; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005): provisioning services, which are the direct products obtained from the ecosystem such as fish taken for food; regulating services, such as the role that extensive kelp beds can play in preventing shoreline erosion; cultural services, which provide nonmaterial benefits to humans, such as the identity a community and its population have as a fishing community or a center for whale watching and; supporting services, which are necessary for the production of other ecosystem services, but do not directly benefit humans, such as the habitat structure provided by a rocky reef. The methods used include the use of community focus groups and expert opinion. Community focus groups were organized in each study community (i.e., Port Orford and Newport/Depoe Bay), and two meetings were scheduled with each group. The expert opinion of researchers at Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife helped consolidate ecosystem services identified by stakeholders into survey indicators that are appropriate for a stated-preference context. Technical details regarding this project and its outcomes are provided in the main body of this report. It is important to measure baseline conditions of proposed marine reserves in particular, and the marine environment in general, in order to evaluate and track changes in ecological conditions, ecosystem services, and social welfare over time. Therefore, monitoring plans should carefully consider the many benefits and costs of changes to the marine environment.

Purpose:

Time Period of Content:

Geographic Extent: Oregon

Status: Final

Use Constraints: Prepared for Oregon Dept. Fish and Wildlife

Format: PDF

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Is a physical copy maintained for reference at Headquarters? Unknown