Ecosystem service opportunities
In addition to exploring opportunities for alternative agricultural products, there is growing interest in creating new products and markets based on ecosystem services.
‘Ecosystem services’ can be defined as the benefits that people derive from the environment and include (among many others): pollination, regulation of climate, pest control, genetic resources, maintenance and regeneration of habitat, filtration and erosion control and healthy waterways. (56)
One way of ensuring the ongoing provision of an ecosystem service is to generate a market for it, whereby an ecosystem service becomes a commodity of exchange. A recent study estimated the value of ecosystem services within the Goulburn-Broken catchment to be between $200 and $400 million per annum. (57) A market-based approach not only helps to ensure the continued provision of essential ecosystem services, but also provides the potential for an alternative or complementary source of income for landholders whose land is no longer suitable for traditional agricultural production.
The Victorian Government is trialling market-based programs under its ecoMarkets initiative to encourage environmental preservation and restoration. (58) EcoTender and BushTender are competitive tender processes aimed at increasing the extent and improving the management of native vegetation on private land, to create environmental benefits at both the local and catchment scale.
These ecoMarket programs are market-like delivery schemes rather than fully fledged markets and government investment to date ($14 million over 4 years) is inadequate to drive landscape scale change. However, they can serve as test beds for credit systems, setting the price for services and informing the development of full ecosystem services markets, and deserve greater government investment.
To drive the development of genuine eco-markets, the Victorian Government needs to create a price for ecosystem services by setting scientifically determined legislated targets for landscape and river restoration. These targets would set a ‘cap’ on landscape degradation and provide the regulatory drivers to give value to ecosystem services. Additional research is needed to explore the potential of ecosystem service markets to provide alternative and transitional income streams for landholders on marginal land.
References
(56) Binning, Cork, Parry and Shelton (2001) Natural Assets: An Inventory or Ecosystem Goods and Services in the Goulburn Broken Catchment, CSIRO
(57) Schoots, I. (2008) Opportunities for ecosystem services to enhance river health in the Goulburn Broken Catchment, Prepared for Environment Victoria’s Healthy Rivers Campaign, February 2008
(58) www.dse.vic.gov.au/ecomarkets
