Mapping the Off-Site Benefits from Protected Areas Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services include natural resources like fresh water and intangible benefits like scenic views and cultural significance. In analyzing Ontario’s provincial parks system, SIG examined two methodologies for quantifying and assessing these services to develop a better framework for evaluation
Forest Carbon Markets: Native People Quantify The Growing Value Of Native Lands
Carbon markets are based on the premise that sources (greenhouse gas-emitting power plants, vehicles, farm animal waste) and sinks (greenhouse gas-absorbing forests, biogas digesters, healthy soil) can be “traded” between states, regions and countries to help each other offset and reduce overall carbon emissions. While carbon markets are not a perfect solution to atmospheric carbon reduction, they have benefits…not least of which is getting communities to take stock of their natural resources and find ways to better manage, protect, and restore them.
Preventing California’s Catastrophic Wildfires Requires Careful Forest Management
In 2015, the world experienced the strongest El Niño year on record, and forest fires tore through homes, businesses and lives in many parts of the world – one of which was California. That year 150,000 acres burned in the state, costing over USD $1 billion in insurance claims.
