Ecosystem Services and LCA: The Forest Industry

Session Coordinator: Langdon Marsh, Portland State University

Existing markets rarely take into account the consequences of economic activity on the ability of natural systems to continue to provide needed ecosystem services, such as climate regulation, purification of air and water, mitigation of floods and droughts, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, generation and renewal of soil and soil fertility, detoxification and decomposition of wastes and maintenance of biodiversity. Forests provide these services and others. How can life cycle assessment and the measurement and valuation of ecosystem services be integrated into decisions about investments in forest resource management and provision of manufactured goods and other services to insure that the earth restores and retains its ability to provide the many ecosystem services upon which human health, prosperity and community and individual happiness depend? The panel will discuss how the fields of measurement and valuation of ecosystem services and life cycle assessment might be used in assessing the impacts of forest practices and goods production as well as in incorporating forests products and services in transformative economic systems that aim to produce long term sustainable outcomes for humans and the environment.

Participants:
Langdon Marsh - Fellow, National Policy Consensus Center, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
David Batker - Executive Director, Earth Economics,Tacoma, Washington
Roel Hammerschlag - Staff Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute, US Center Seattle (presentation)
Trista Patterson - Ecological Economist, USDA Forest Service, Sitka, Alaska (presentation)
Matt Weber - Economic Analyst, Ecotrust, Portland, Oregon

 

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: DEFINITIONS, BENEFITS, VALUES AND MEASUREMENT
David Batker, Earth Economics (presentation)

A brief 101 on ecosystem services, with particular emphasis on those supplied by forests. The presentation will include how ecosystem services benefit human beings and are integral to our economic system, how ecosystem services are measured and valued, the difference between value and pricing these services for purposes of payment for and markets in them and governance and other issues related to purchase programs and markets.

 

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN FORESTS: CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS
Matt Weber, Ecotrust (presentation)

A general review of ecosystem services associated with forests will be presented, along with ways these may be brought into societal decision-making. A focus will be the ecosystem service of carbon sequestration. There will be an overview of the carbon market as it relates to forestry, and how partnerships with LCA studies would be useful. Ecotrust work to characterize ecosystem services of forests will also be summarized. Finally, there will be discussion of environmental property rights and how this impacts ecosystem services valuation and equity.