{"id":161,"date":"2008-12-18T16:33:19","date_gmt":"2008-12-18T20:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=161"},"modified":"2008-12-18T16:33:19","modified_gmt":"2008-12-18T20:33:19","slug":"usdas-new-office-of-ecosystem-services-and-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2008\/12\/18\/usdas-new-office-of-ecosystem-services-and-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA&#8217;s new Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usda.gov\/img\/content\/usdaicon80_70.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft img-fluid\" src=\"http:\/\/www.usda.gov\/img\/content\/usdaicon80_70.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\">The USDA announced today that it will establish an Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets.\u00a0 According to their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usda.gov\/wps\/portal\/!ut\/p\/_s.7_0_A\/7_0_2KD?contentidonly=true&amp;contentid=2008\/12\/0307.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press release<\/a>, the office will help develop new guidelines and methods to assess ecosystem service benefits and create markets for ecosystem services.\u00a0 The authorization for this office was approved in this summer\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2008\/POLITICS\/06\/18\/farm.bill\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Farm Bill<\/a>, which Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer <a href=\"\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/05\/14\/AR2008051400371.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">spoke out against<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Ecosystem services are one way that ecologists can place a currency on the valuable services our environment provides, such as water filtration and air purification, carbon sequestration, pollination and recreation. The new office\u2019s first priority will be carbon sequestration.\u00a0 Says the press release:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cAgriculture producers provide many ecosystem services which have historically been viewed as free benefits to society \u2013 clean water and air, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and scenic landscapes. Lacking a formal structure to market these services, farmers, ranchers and forest landowners are not generally compensated for providing these critical public benefits. Market-based approaches to conservation are proven to be a cost-effective method to achieve environmental goals and sustain working and natural landscapes. Without financial incentives, these ecosystem services may be lost as privately-owned lands are sold or converted to development.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Valuing ecosystem services in a way that allows environmental benefits to act as currency is one way that conservation ecologists can raise awareness about the importance of environmental protection. <strong>What does the ecological community think about this new office? Is this the right approach to valuing ecosystem services?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The USDA announced today that it will establish an Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets.\u00a0 According to their press release, the office will help develop new guidelines and methods to assess ecosystem service benefits and create markets for ecosystem services.\u00a0 The authorization for this office was approved in this summer\u2019s Farm Bill, which Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer spoke out against&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[110,111,112,70],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","tag-agriculture","tag-ecosystem-services","tag-farm-bill","tag-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}