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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Assessment of Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions Information Session Edmonton, November 27, 2013 Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Early days Few people Lots of land & water Fewer limits to growth 2

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Crop production Forage production Wood production Provisioning Carbon storage CO 2 Pollination Water filtration & storage Regulating Inspiration Recreation Cultural Abundant ecosystem services

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Modern era More people Little unallocated land & water More land uses 4

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Time to take stock Modern environmental challenges Growing population Finite land base Multiple land uses Social license to operate Engaged consumers 5

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Time to take stock Modern knowledge requirements State-of-the-environment Changes over time Consistent across Alberta Reliable 6

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute 7 Part of the Roadmap Assessment of ecosystem services & biodiversity Information management Market design

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Reviewing our options Traditional approaches Static inventories Limited field verification Proprietary Transformational systems Dynamic monitoring systems Investment in new data Open access 8

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute ABMI Consistent since 2007 Core mandate is monitoring Not-for-profit corporation Board includes govt & non-govt Province-wide database of biodiversity data, development & land cover Build on traditional inventory & monitoring approaches Incorporate new technology 9

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute ABMI Application Centre Demonstrate relevance to environmental management Information products from raw data Identify & fill (some) gaps Dedicated business unit (2011) Projects Oil sands monitoring Climate change adaptation Assessment of ecosystem services & biodiversity Ecological recovery after reclamation 10 Raw data Scientific knowledge Information products

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Assessment of Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Build from biodiversity core Increase user base Leverage ABMI brand Independent governance Credible science Open access mandate Provincial scope 11

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute How we got here. 12 Province-wide environmental monitoring system 2007 Policy support for market-based instruments 2008 2009 IAFE report on ecosystem service assessment 2010 Riparian assessment protocols for ES Payments 2013 2012 Review of ecosystem service assessment examples Economic evaluation of conservation offsets 2011

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Project Goals 1.Map ecosystem services & biodiversity Timber Forage Water purification Carbon Pollination Biodiversity 2.Demonstrate environmental management applications Stewardship reporting Market-based instruments Regional / watershed planning 13

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Collaborators 14

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Mapping Albertas Ecosystem Services Carbon storage Water purification Pollination Timber production Rangeland forage production Biodiversity

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Example: Water Purification 1.Track water flow using DEM 2.Water picks up sediment based on landcover/ land-use 3.Track sediment deposition 4.Determine important upslope source areas for points of interest (e.g. cities, recreational lakes)

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Ecosystem Service Trade-offs Foley et al. 2005. Science 309:570

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ES provision for specific regions or industries Marketing of natural resource products Ecosystem Service Scorecards Biodiversity Timber Forage Water purification Carbon Pollination

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Link land management to changes in ES MBI`s - Conservation Offsets

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Future ES provision under potential land-use policies Payment for ecosystem services (PES) Conservation offsets Carbon tax/cap & trade Scenario Modelling

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Opportunity Improve Albertas environment by enabling new ways to pay for conservation & reclamation Province-wide maps of ecosystem services & biodiversity Open source models (Mostly) publicly available inputs Beta release March 2014 Demonstrate applications to environmental management Stewardship reporting Market-based instruments Regional / watershed planning 21

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Its Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute 22 Thank You Find us online at www.abmi.ca Images abmi.ca arkive.org wikipedia.org