Marine Ecosystem Services Publications
Green Economy in a Blue World
January 2012 - by United Nations Environment Programme, et al.
This report highlights how ecological health and economic productivity of marine and coastal ecosystems, which are currently in decline around the globe, can be boosted by shifting to a more sustainable economic paradigm that taps their natural potential. Released by the United Nations Environment Programme and partners, it further highlights how the sustainable management of fertilizers would help reduce the cost of marine pollution caused by nitrogen and other nutrients used in agriculture, which is estimated at $100 billion per year in the European Union alone.
Financing Options for Blue Carbon: Opportunities and Lessons from the REDD+ Experience
November 2011 - by David Gordon, Brian C. Murray, Linwood Pendleton, and Britta Victor
When development pressures transform mangroves, seagrass, and coastal wetlands, carbon stored in their biomass and soil is released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. One way to counter these pressures and thereby conserve the carbon stored in these habitats (referred to as “blue carbon”) is to provide payments for the environmental services they provide. This paper analyzes current and potential options for carbon mitigation payments as a source of blue carbon finance. With other work that has focused on the payments needed to secure blue carbon, this paper can help stakeholders assess funding gaps and direct scarce resources to those activities that will provide the greatest blue carbon benefits.
Environmental Management of Deep-Sea Chemosynthetic Ecosystems: Justification of and Considerations for a Spatially-Based Approach
June 2011
This report is the result of a June 2010 workshop sponsored by the International Seabed Authority in Dinard, France. Linwood Pendleton, director of ocean and coastal policy at the Nicholas Institute, along with deep sea biologists and policy makers attended and contributed to this report. It presents the first design principles for the comprehensive management of chemosynthetic environments in the global ocean and serves to introduce chemosynthetic ecosystems into the discourse of systematic marine spatial planning.
State of the Science on Coastal Blue Carbon: A Summary for Policy Makers
May 2011 - by Samantha Sifleet, Linwood Pendleton, and Brian C. Murray
The natural science of blue carbon is evolving rapidly, and many policy makers remain uncertain about the biophysical potential of these habitats as engines of carbon storage. To better manage the ecosystem services provided by coastal blue carbon, we need a good scientific understanding of how coastal habitats sequester and store carbon, where on the planet carbon is stored in these habitats, how rapidly the habitats are being modified with a risk of carbon release into the atmosphere or water column, and the mechanisms and rate of carbon emissions that follow habitat conversion. This report examines the current science as it relates to these topics. In doing so, it aims to give policy makers a feel for what is known and unknown about coastal blue carbon.
Green Payments for Blue Carbon: Economic Incentives for Protecting Threatened Coastal Habitats
April 2011 - by Brian C. Murray, Linwood Pendleton, W. Aaron Jenkins, and Samantha Sifleet
This report examines the critical question of whether monetary payments for blue carbon—carbon captured and stored by coastal marine and wetland ecosystems—can alter economic incentives to favor protection of coastal habitats such as mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes. This idea is analogous to payments for REDD+ (reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation), an instrument of global climate policy that aims to curtail forest clearing, especially in the tropics. Like payments for REDD+, incentives to retain rather than emit blue carbon would preserve biodiversity as well as a variety of other ecosystem services at local and regional scales.
Payments for Blue Carbon: Potential for Protecting Threatened Coastal Habitats
November 2010 - by Brian C. Murray, W. Aaron Jenkins, Samantha Sifleet, Linwood Pendleton, and Alexis Baldera
Coastal habitats worldwide are under increasing threat of destruction through human activities such as farming, aquaculture, timber extraction, or real estate development. This loss of habitat carries with it the loss of critical functions that coastal ecosystems provide: support of marine species, retention of shorelines, water quality, and scenic beauty, to name a few. These losses are large from an ecological standpoint but they are economically significant as well. Because the value of these ecosystem services is not easily captured in markets, those who control these lands often do not consider these values when choosing whether to clear the habitat to produce goods that can be sold in the marketplace. This is a form of market failure that leads to excessive habitat destruction. As a result, scientists, policymakers, and other concerned parties are seeking ways to change economic incentives to correct the problem. This is a revised version of a previously published policy brief.
Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning in North Carolina
November 2009 - by Linwood Pendleton and Mike Orbach
Legal Bedrock for Rebuilding America's Ocean Ecosystems
April 2009 - by Mary Turnipseed, Larry B. Crowder, Raphael D. Sagarin and Stephen E. Roady
Iron Fertilization in the Ocean for Climate Mitigation: Legal, Economic, and Environmental Challenges
October 2007 - by Raphael Sagarin, Megan Dawson, David Karl, Anthony Michael, Brian Murray, Michael Orbach, Nicole St. Clair
Pathway to Ocean Ecosystem-Based Management: Design Principles for Regional Ocean Governance in the United States
October 2005 - by Ingrid Nugent and Tim Profeta
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