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Development of Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Indicators for Estuaries and Coasts
Citation:
Berry, W., Jim Latimer, J. Kiddon, AND P. Ringold. Development of Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Indicators for Estuaries and Coasts. Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) 24th Biennial Conference, Providence, RI, November 05 - 09, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Environmental decision makers have to make tradeoffs every day. Many environmental problems are “wicked problems”, they do not have single optimal solutions, but have a range of solutions, each of which might be favored by a different set of stakeholders. How do we decide between solutions? How do we know which resources to protect, or what habitat to restore? One concept which can help is that of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are those goods and services produced by the environment that benefit people. The ecosystem services easiest to get your head around are final ecosystem goods and services (FEGS). We define FEGS as “components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed or used to yield human well-being,” e.g., fish in the water. It is important to realize that different beneficiaries may see FEGS differently. For example, recreational fisherman may feel that the beauty of the setting is as important as the number and species of fish present. A commercial fisherman, in contrast might not care about the setting, but would care about the market value of his catch. In this presentation we explore a subset of FEGS from estuaries and near coastal environments. We compare and contrast FEGS from three classes of fishers: commercial, recreational, and subsistence. Ultimately the list of FEGS we generate will be combined with those from other habitats (e.g., forests and streams) to develop better metrics for the ongoing National Aquatic Resource Surveys.
Description:
Ecosystem services are those goods and services produced by the environment that benefit people. The concept aims to aid in the assessment of tradeoffs based on goods and services produced by the environment. Over the past seven years EPA has developed a framework for classification of Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, including estuaries and near coastal and marine environments. FEGS are “components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed or used to yield human well-being.” By defining FEGS in this way they can be used in a consistent way for assessing ecosystem services. The process to develop coastal FEGS requires the identification of beneficiaries who use the coastal environment. We present an example using commercial and recreational anglers (both catch and release and catch and consume) as unique users of the coastal environment. For all fishermen, the types of fish and their abundances are of direct relevance. For fish consumers, the levels of pathogens, parasites, and chemicals in the edible portions of the fish are also directly valued. More generally, the presence of uncontaminated water in the fishing area is important as it poses a risk to water contact activity for fishermen. For recreational anglers the appeal of the setting may also be important. Once FEGS were finalized we acquired data sets at the national, regional, or state scale. We represent those data in graphical forms to augment national coastal assessments by the EPA. In the future we will develop FEGS for additional beneficiaries including, for example, aquaculturists, coastal land owners, and swimmers.