LE3 .A278 2009

2009

Lusby, Linda

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Environmental Science

Earth & Environmental Sciences

The concept of ecosystem services offers an important opportunity to reframe the “value” of biodiversity and natural resources. Our western economic system has tended to consider nature and ecosystem components as “externalities” and this in turn has led to the undervaluing or non-valuing of ecosystem services which are life-supporting necessities for humans and other organisms. This current research began with the hypothesis that a nature preserve could be more accurately described and its value defined as a bank for ecosystem services. The United Nations Environment Programme’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) provided the framework for assessment of a forested watershed landscape near the town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia. A qualitative assessment of the Wolfville Watershed Nature Preserve (protected through a joint venture of the Town of Wolfville and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust) revealed a multitude of environmental services that are being provided to the surrounding human and non-human community. Many of these services would be degraded or severely reduced if the conservation easement on the property was not protecting the site from development. A preliminary assessment of the site as a carbon sink was conducted as part of the study and these quantitative data revealed that the property provides an important service in just this one factor alone. The results of this study indicate that there is potential to use this method of environmental assessment in other situations to support conservation and land protection. Although the concept is not without its definitional and procedural difficulties, the use of the ecosystem services framework permits us to more accurately present the value of nature. This in turn could be of great use for agencies seeking to protect land from development.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:574