In July the Society released an Emerging Issues paper on ecosystem services:
Download the full paper:
Common ground identified at the workshop, from A.Prof Marjan van den Belt
Ecosystem services in Policy workshop – 9th August 2011
With the help of many of you, the workshop was a great success. It promoted a good deal of conversation and interaction, both in the talks themselves and through bringing together participants from across the range of practices informed by ecosystem services.
As we come to recognise the deep connections between the environment and the economy, policy-makers are grappling with the question of how to implement ecosystem services thinking in a policy setting. The Royal Society of New Zealand brought together researchers and policy-makers to address this question, to share practical examples of progress, and to build an ongoing dialogue about what the answers might be.
The aim of this workshop was to discuss how the ecosystem services approach can help policymakers address a range of issues in policy development, regulation, and monitoring. It was a chance to share how the ecosystem services concept is being used at a range of scales by researchers, local government, and central government. This workshop was an opportunity to:
1) View ecosystem services from a range of perspectives, researchers, local government, and central government
2) Share how ecosystem services approaches are being put into practice across a range of scales and how successful these practices have been so far
3) Discuss how organisations view the value of using an ecosystem services approach in policy and how to use this approach
The workshop was held on the 9th of August, at the Nau Mai meeting room, Te Puni Kōkiri House, 143 Lambton Quay, Wellington.
Ecosystem Services & Policy Workshop programme
(PDF, 300 kB)
Presentations from the day:
- Assoc Professor Marjan van den Belt, Massey University – Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services; “so what”?” Historic overview and projections (Powerpoint, 10.1 MB)
- Dr Brent Clothier FRSNZ, Plant & Food Research – Soil Ecosystem Services: Sustaining Returns on Investment into Natural Capital (Powerpoint, 17.8 MB)
- Dr James Turner, AgResearch – Ecosystem services from a socioeconomic perspective: How we value the natural environment (Powerpoint, 1.4 MB)
- Dr Suzie Greenhalgh -Implementing Ecosystem Services Within Policy Settings (Powerpoint, 1.3 MB)
- Professor Ross Cullen, Lincoln University – Ecosystem Services: impact of a dam on Opihi river (Powerpoint, 3 MB)
- Dr Alec Mackay & Estelle Dominati, SLURI – ES at the Soil level: A Framework for Quantifying and Valuing Soil Ecosystem Services and Use in Resource Management (Powerpoint, 4 MB)
- Professor Steve Wratten FRSNZ, Lincoln University – ES in practice at a farm level: Investing in natural capital to build ecological infrastructure (Powerpoint, 12.5 MB) and Baden Ngan Kee, CEO Waipara Hills Wine Estates (MPEG, 11.7 MB)
- Dr Tim Payn, Scion – Forest Ecosystem Services (Powerpoint, 5.8 MB)
- Dr Roger Young, Cawthron Institute – Ecosystem Services in practice at a catchment level: A decade of integrated work on the Motueka River Catchment (Powerpoint, 9.1 MB)
- Megan Carbines, Auckland Council – Understanding how ecosystems benefit Aucklanders (Powerpoint, 18.4 MB)
- Dr Daniel Rutledge, Landcare Research – Integrating knowledge of ecosystem services into land-use decisions (Powerpoint, 4.2 MB)
- Dr Bill Kaye-Blake, NZIER – Measuring ecosystem services (Powerpoint, 3.6 MB)
- Guy Salmon, Ecologic Foundation – Getting ecosystem services into policy: potential of collaborative governance (Powerpoint, 3.5 MB)
- Jim Nicolson, DOC – Central Government Natural Resources Sector and Ecosystem Management (Powerpoint, 32 kB)
Our lead speaker, Associate Professor Marjan van den Belt, produced a statement of the common ground that she saw as present in the workshop. The statement summarises the workshop discussions. It is a concise page and a half of key points useful to people who could not attend the workshop, aiming to be a fair representation of the key points of the day:
Common Ground on Ecosystem Services (PDF, 419 kB)
