Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-grvzd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-17T16:36:13.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Collateral benefits from public and private conservation lands: a comparison of ecosystem service capacities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2015

A. VILLAMAGNA ,
L. SCOTT  and
J. GILLESPIE
A. VILLAMAGNA*
Affiliation:
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA
L. SCOTT
Affiliation:
Environmental Science Program, Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
J. GILLESPIE
Affiliation:
Environmental Science Program, Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr A. Villamagna, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Plymouth State University, Plymouth, NH 03264, USA e-mail: amvillamagna@plymouth.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Protected areas remain the most commonly used tool for in situ conservation; however growth in the USA's system of public lands has stagnated while private land conservation continues to expand. Easements can provide a range of ecosystem services (ESs), but it is unknown whether conservation easements maintain ES capacities equivalent to public protected areas. Evaluation of the capacity of seven ESs on federal and state protected areas and conservation easements in the USA using spatially-explicit ES models and publicly available data indicated that ES capacities in easements were equal to or greater than capacities within state or federal protected areas for six of seven services and, when bundled together, conservation easements protected greater focal ES capacity than other conservation areas. Economic incentive programmes and regulatory mechanisms may be used to stimulate capacity improvements for surface water regulation, riparian filtration, erosion control, and carbon storage on conservation easements, and landscape-level conservation efforts should (1) continue to protect natural and uninhabited areas that provide ecosystem and biological diversity, (2) expand private conservation efforts close to human population centres, and (3) limit future development to areas with high regulating service capacity that can sustain new population growth.

Keywords

conservation easementsgeographic information systemspositive externalitiesprotected areas

Information

Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 204 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Banerjee, S., Secchi, S., Fargione, J., Polasky, S. & Kraft, S. (2013) How to sell ecosystem services: a guide for designing new markets. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11 (6): 297–304.Google Scholar
Bonnells, M. (2012) Private nature reserves: an innovative wetland protection mechanism to fill in the gaps left by the Swancc and Rapanos rulings. Environs 36: 1–34.Google Scholar
Butchart, S.H., Walpole, M., Collen, B., van Strien, A., Scharlemann, J.P., Almond, R.E., Baillie, J.E., Bomhard, B., Brown, C., Bruno, J., et al. (2010) Global biodiversity: indicators of recent declines. Science 328 (5982): 1164–1168.Google Scholar
Chape, S., Harrison, J., Spalding, M. & Lysenko, I. (2005) Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360 (1454): 443–455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Czymmek, K.J., Ketterings, Q.M., van Es, H.M. & DeGloria, S.D. (2003) The New York nitrate leaching index. CSS Extension Publication E03–2, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA: 34 pp. [www document]. URL http://nmsp.cals.cornell.edu/publications/extension/nleachingindex.pdf Google Scholar
Dissmeyer, G.E. (2000) Drinking water from forests and grasslands: a synthesis of the scientific literature. General Technical Report-Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service SRS-39, Asheville, NC, USA [www document]. URL http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs039/gtr_srs039 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Figgis, P. (2004) Conservation on private lands: the Australian experience. Report. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Fishburn, I.S., Kareiva, P., Gaston, K.J. & Armsworth, P.R. (2009) The growth of easements as a conservation tool. PLoS One 4 (3): e4996.Google Scholar
Fry, J., Xian, G., Jin, S., Dewitz, J., Homer, C., Yang, L., Barnes, C., Herold, N. & Wickham, J. (2011) Completion of the 2006 National Land Cover Database for the Conterminous United States. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 77 (9): 858–864.Google Scholar
Fuller, R.A., McDonald-Madden, E., Wilson, K.A., Carwardine, J., Grantham, H.S., Watson, J. E., Klein, C.J., Green, D.C. & Possingham, H.P. (2010). Replacing underperforming protected areas achieves better conservation outcomes. Nature 466 (7304): 365–367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gage, M.S., Spivak, A. & Paradise, C.J. (2004). Effects of land use and disturbance on benthic insects in headwater streams draining small watersheds north of Charlotte, NC. Southeastern Naturalist 3 (2): 345–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gesch, D.B. (2007) The National Elevation Dataset. In: Digital Elevation Model Technologies and Applications: The DEM Users Manual, 2nd Edition. ed. Maune, D., pp. 99–118. Bethesda, Maryland, USA: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.Google Scholar
Gordon, A., Langford, W.T., White, M.D., Todd, J.A. & Bastin, L. (2011) Modelling trade offs between public and private conservation policies. Biological Conservation 144 (1): 558–566.Google Scholar
Griffith, J., Stehman, S. & Loveland, T. (2007) Landscape trends in Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States ecoregions. Environmental Management 32 (5): 572–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingraham, M.W. & Foster, S.G. (2008) The value of ecosystem services provided by the US National Wildlife Refuge System in the contiguous US. Ecological Economics 67 (4): 608–618.Google Scholar
Jackson, S.F. & Gaston, K.J. (2008) Incorporating private lands in conservation planning: protected areas in Britain. Ecological Applications 18: 1050–1060.Google Scholar
Kramer, R.A. & Eisen-Hecht, J.I. (2002) Estimating the economic value of water quality protection in the Catawba River basin. Water Resources Research 38 (9): 21–1.Google Scholar
Langholz, J. & Lassoie, J. (2001) Combining conservation and development on private lands: lessons from Costa Rica. Environment, Development and Sustainability 3 (4): 309–322.Google Scholar
Lim, K.J., Sagong, M., Engel, B.A., Tang, Z., Choi, J. & Kim, K. (2005) GIS-based sediment assessment tool. Catena 64: 61–80.Google Scholar
Mascia, M.B. & Pailler, S. (2011) Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) and its conservation implications. Conservation Letters 4 (1): 9–20.Google Scholar
Mayer, P.M., Reynolds, S.K., McCutchen, M.D. & Canfield, T.J. (2007) Meta-analysis of nitrogen removal in riparian buffers. Journal of Environmental Quality 36 (4): 1172–1180.Google Scholar
Merenlender, A.M., Huntsinger, L., Guthey, G. & Fairfax, S.K. (2004) Land trusts and conservation easements: Who is conserving what for whom? Conservation Biology 18 (1): 65–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NCDPR (2014) The park system: overview [www document]. URL http://www.ncparks.gov/About/system_main.php Google Scholar
NCED (2013) National conservation easement database version 2 [www document]. URL http://nced.conservationregistry.org/ Google Scholar
NRCS (1972) National Engineering Handbook. Hydrology, Section 4. Chapters 4–10. Washington, DC, USA: USDA.Google Scholar
NRCS (2003) RUSLE2 (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation: Version 2) [www document]. URL http://fargo.nserl.purdue.edu/rusle2_dataweb/RUSLE2_Index.htm Google Scholar
PRISM Climate Group (2010) PRISM climate data. PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, OR, USA [www document]. URL http://prism.oregonstate.edu Google Scholar
Reyers, B., Polasky, S., Tallis, H., Mooney, H.A. & Larigauderie, A. (2012) Finding common ground for biodiversity and ecosystem services. BioScience 62 (5): 503–507.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. (1995) Species Diversity in Space and Time. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, J.M., Davis, F.W., McGhie, R.G., Wright, R.G., Groves, Turner, C. & Estes, J. (2001) Nature reserves: do they capture the full range of America's biological diversity? Ecological Applications 11 (4): 999–1007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soil Survey Staff (2010) Web Soil Survey. Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, USA [www document]. URL http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/ Google Scholar
Stein, S.M., Alig, R.J., White, E.M., Comas, S J., Carr, M., Eley, M., Elverum, K., O’Donnell, M., Theobald, D.M., Cordell, K., Haber, J. & Beauvais, T.W. (2007) National forests on the edge: development pressures on America's national forests and grasslands. General Technical Report. PNWGTR-728. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station Portland, OR, USA: 26 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, W.R., Wilcove, D.S. & Swain, H.M. (2006) Assessing the effectiveness of reserve acquisition programs in protecting rare and threatened species. Conservation Biology 20 (6): 1657–1669.Google Scholar
USDA Agriculture Research Service (2007) Revised universal soil loss equation 1.06. Bulletins: rainfall erosivity factor [www document]. URL http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/docs.htm?docid=5990 Google Scholar
USDA, NRCS, USGS & EPA (2010) Watershed boundary dataset for North Carolina and Virginia [www document]. URL http://nhd.usgs.gov/data.html Google Scholar
USGS (2012) Gap analysis program: protected areas database of the United States (PADUS), version 1.3 Combined feature class. [www document]. URL http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/metadata/ Google Scholar
USGS (2013) Gap analysis program: species data [www document]. URL http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/species/ Google Scholar
Villamagna, A.M. & Angermeier, P.L. (2015) A methodology for measuring and mapping ecosystem services provided by watersheds. In: Ecosystem Services and River Basin Ecohydrology, ed. Chicara, L., Mueller, F. & Fohrer, N.. London, UK: Springer.Google Scholar
Villamagna, A.M., Angermeier, P.L. & Bennett, E.M. (2013 a) Capacity, pressure, demand, and flow: a conceptual framework for analyzing ecosystem service provision and delivery. Ecological Complexity 15: 114–121.Google Scholar
Villamagna, A.M., Angermeier, P.L. & Niazi, N. (2013 b) Evaluating opportunities to enhance ecosystem services in public use areas. Ecosystem Services 7: 167–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villamagna, A., Mogollon, B. & Angermeier, P. (2014) A multi-indicator framework for mapping cultural services: the case of freshwater recreational fishing. Ecological Indicators 45: 255– 265.Google Scholar
Von Hase, A., Rouget, M. & Cowling, R.M. (2010) Evaluating private land conservation in the Cape Lowlands, South Africa. Conservation Biology 24 (5): 1182–1189.Google Scholar
Wilson, B.T., Woodall, C.W. & Griffith, D.M. (2013) Forest carbon stocks of the contiguous United States (2000–2009). USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Newtown Square, PA, USA [www document]. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0004 Google Scholar
West, L., Wills, S. & Loecke, T. (2013) Rapid assessment of US soil carbon for climate change and conservation planning: summary of soil carbon stocks for the conterminous United States. United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Center, USA [www document]. URL http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_050979.pdf Google Scholar
WRI (2007) Gaining ground: increasing conservation easements in the US South. World Resources Institute Issue Brief. Southern Forests for the Future Incentive Series [www document]. URL http://wri.org/publication/Gaining-Ground Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Villamagna Supplementary Material

Table S1

Download Villamagna Supplementary Material(File)
File 16.8 KB