The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States

Mattijs Van Maasakkers

Description

A detailed, critical analysis of the most advanced efforts to create ecosystem services markets on a watershed scale in the United States

The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States is a detailed, critical analysis of the most advanced efforts to create ecosystem services markets in the United States. With the help of in-depth case studies of three well-known attempts to create such markets––in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Ohio River basin and the Willamette River basin––the book explains why very few of these markets have actually succeeded even after close to two decades of much scholarly enthusiasm, significant federal funding and concerted efforts by NGOs, government agencies and private businesses.

Based on interviews, policy analysis and participatory observation, three features of markets for ecosystem services emerge as particularly problematic. First, the logic of displacement or the idea that particular elements of an ecosystem can be separated, quantified and traded across landscapes or watersheds runs counter to political interests, environmental beliefs and people’s connections to specific places. The second problem is that of measurement. By highlighting the long and often contentious histories of specific measurement systems used in ecosystem services markets, van Maasakkers shows that these quantification methods embed a range of assumptions and decisions about what counts when conserving or restoring (parts of) ecosystems. The third problem is related to participation in environmental decision-making. Since the requirements to buy offsets stem from federal and sometimes state regulations (based on the Clean Water Act or the Endangered Species Act), the opportunities and requirements for public participation are much more in line with typical policy implementation processes as opposed to voluntary decisions about buying and selling in an ideal typical market. How meaningful participation in this hybrid form of regulatory market is possible is not clear and not something that the proponents of markets have successfully dealt with, if at all.

 

List of Illustrations; List of Interviews; Acknowledgments; 1. Introducing Ecosystems to the Marketplace; 2. Creating Places for Markets; 3. Producing Equivalence; 4. Developing Participation; 5. Trading Places; Bibliography; Index.

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Environmental policy
• Public policy
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783086047
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States
Anthem Ecosystem Services and Restoration
The Anthem Ecosystem Services and Restoration Series presents lessons for practical decision making by governments, businesses and NGOs seeking to incorporate the language and logic of ecosystem services into their activities. Ecosystems provide valuable services to individuals, organizations and society more generally, but the practical application of this principle is not at all straightforward. Policymakers, businesses and advocacy organizations around the world are developing innovative ways of incorporating ecosystem services into decision making through the creation of markets, trusts and policies of various kinds. This series seeks to develop a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives and to generate a more informed understanding of which interventions result in the most effective and sustainable outcomes.
Series Editor
Lawrence Susskind – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Editorial Board
Marina Alberti – University of Washington, USA
Jayanta Bandyopadhyay – Independent policy researcher in environment and development, India
Robert Costanza – Australian National University, Australia
Marta Echavarría – Ecodecision, Ecuador
Pushpam Kumar – UNEP and University of Liverpool, UK
Matthias Ruth – Northeastern University, USA
Anne Spirn – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
The Creation of Markets for Ecosystem Services in the United States
The Challenge of Trading Places
Mattijs van Maasakkers
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2016
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

Copyright © Mattijs van Maasakkers 2016

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maasakkers, Mattijs van, author.
Title: The creation of markets for ecosystem services in the United States: the challenge of trading places / Mattijs van Maasakkers.
Description: London; New York, NY: Anthem Press, [2016] | Series: Anthem ecosystem services and restoration series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016038799 | ISBN 9781783086023 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Ecosystem services – United States. | Environmental quality – Economic aspects – United States. | Environmental protection – Economic aspects – United States.
Classification: LCC QH541.15.E267 M33 2016 | DDC 333.720973–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016038799

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-602-3 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-602-5 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
In memory of Lukas van Maasakkers
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introducing Ecosystems to the Marketplace
1.a The Promise(s) of Markets for Ecosystem Services
1.b Why Are Markets for Ecosystem Services so Difficult to Create?
1.c How to Study Markets for Ecosystem Services
1.d Chapter Overview
2. Creating Places for Markets
2.a Places versus Markets
2.b Ecological Outsourcing in Oregon
2.c Moving Matter out of Place in Pennsylvania
2.d Markets as Displacements
3. Producing Equivalence
3.a How to Measure Ecosystem Services for Markets
3.b Pipes versus Fields in the Ohio River Basin
3.c No Two Wetlands Are the Same
3.d Markets and Nonequivalence
4. Developing Participation
4.a Selection, Interaction and Authority
4.b Nutrient Net and an Effort to Create Trading at the Bay Scale
4.c EPRI and the Role of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
4.d Seeking Consensus in Oregon
4.e Markets without Participants
5. Trading Places
5.a From Displacement to Spatializing Interests
5.b From Nonequivalence to Improving Places
5.c From Opposition to Building Consensus
5.d Conclusion
List of Interviews
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Website crediting platforms for the Willamette Marketplace and the Chesapeake Bay Bank
2.1 The three regions in the United States where the efforts to create markets for ecosystem services have taken place
Tables
1.1 Proponents and markets (describing specific credit types where more than one exist)
2.1 Federal statutes and regulatory agencies in Counting on the Environment
2.2 Statutes and regulatory agencies in the Chesapeake Bay Bank
3.1 Credit types and measurement systems during Counting on the Environment
4.1 Water Quality Trading in Chesapeake Bay states
Acknowledgments
This book is the outcome of multiple displacements, professionally and personally. It started as a dissertation at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), expanded during a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and ultimately finished at Ohio State University’s City and Regional Planning section. Along the way, a significant number of people contributed to the manuscript through feedback, conversations and brainstorms. None of them contributed more significantly than my dissertation committee members, Larry Susskind, Sheila Jasanoff and the late Judy Layzer. It is hard to imagine a more supportive, engaged and stimulating set of professors to shepherd one through the dissertation process and beyond. Larry and Sheila continue to be wonderful mentors, for which I am deeply grateful. Judy’s untimely passing is a deeply felt loss to the community of scholars on environmental policy and planning, and I personally miss her good humor, relentless focus on writing style and quality and incisive feedback.
A project like this relies on the willingness of busy practitioners to explain and discuss their work with an academic outsider like me. For their generosity and patience I would like to sincerely thank all the people who volunteered their time to answer my questions, in person, over the phone or in writing. Their insights and passion have made my exploration of markets for ecosystem services truly enjoyable, engaging and frequently surprising.
Many friends, colleagues and (former) students have contributed to this book in a myriad of ways. I would like to thank all of them for listening patiently while I was going on and on about the latest version of the Shade-a-Lator or some other element of the project that they probably didn’t really care to hear about (again). At MIT, I benefited tremendously from my conversations with fellow DUSP PhD students in my cohort as well as Todd Schenk, Atul Pokharel and Nick Marantz, Danya Rumore, Kelly Heber and Bruno Verdini. Throughout my time as a graduate student I enjoyed support from TNO, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research. Adriaan Slob, Mike Duijn and Jos Brils (now with Deltares) in particular were always willing to listen to my halting explanations of profoundly foreign policies and practices. At Harvard, I enjoyed numerous wonderful conversations about this project with the other fellows in the Science, Technology and Society program at the Kennedy School and during my time in the Belfer Center. At Ohio State, I have found a wonderful community of scholars in and around the Knowlton School. Moving to the Midwest made it especially rewarding to study the efforts in that region, and I would like to thank the students who supported me during that phase of the project: Alex Wesaw, Emily Knox, Catherine Brokenshire and David Kilroy.
Finally, I would like to thank my family in the Netherlands and the United States for their support and patience throughout graduate school and now beyond. My wife, Sarah, introduced me to planning and has continued to teach me about this wonderful field. She makes me want to be a better person every day, for which I am deeply grateful. My sons, Frits and Menno, have enlightened and enlivened every day of my life since their births.
These people have helped in the creation of this book tremendously, but all the mistakes remaining, if any, are mine.
Chapter 1
Introducing Ecosystems to the Marketplace
On Sunday, September 7, 2008, the federal government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which was a dramatic moment in the financial crisis that originated in the housing market. 1 Estimates of the cost to the government of this extraordinary action were around $25 billion. 2 This event, and the broader financial crisis it was a part of, made longtime proponents of the markets that had just collapsed question the most basic assumptions underlying those institutions. 3
Three days after this takeover, a group of people gathered in Ellicott City , Maryland, a short drive from Washington, DC, to discuss the creation and expansion of a very different kind of market. The offic