Bundling of ecosystem services to increase forestland value and enhance sustainable forest management

There has been increasing interest in the use of market-based approaches to add value for forestland and to assist with the conservation of natural resources. While markets for ecosystem services show potential for increasing forestland value, there is concern that the lack of an integrated program will simply add to the complexity of these services without generating significant public benefits. If not designed properly, these fragmented programs can result in the restoration of many small sites that lack ecological integrity and are unlikely to provide the benefits from protecting larger and more contiguous areas. An integrated approach that combines or bundles services and provides financial incentives for forest landowners may be more effective to achieving broad conservation goals, including enhancing fish and wildlife habitat, improving watershed health, sequestering carbon to mitigate climate change, and providing other ecosystem services at an ecologically relevant scale. We outline some of the policy and regulatory frameworks for some of the emerging markets for ecosystem services in the United States, and discuss the role that different regulatory agencies play for each of these services. We then assess the potential benefits for bundling different ecosystem services such as water quality, wetlands, species conservation, and carbon and describe an integrated accounting protocol for combining these services.

► Current ecosystem services markets for wetlands, water and carbon are disconnected. ► Bundling of ecosystem services provides an improved method for integrating markets. ► We describe a protocols and standards process for integrating different services. ► Ecosystem services markets increase forestland value and help conserve critical services.