The UK Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, is calling for world leaders to include the impact on biodiversity in their decision making, warning that the world may be undergoing the sixth greatest extinction ever. He’s contemplating a report on the economic consequences of biodiversity loss, and a pricing of biodiversity in a similar fashion as we’ve priced carbon.

Read more in this article from The Guardian.

The island nation of Micronesia is comprised of 607 small islands that collectively total 271 square miles of land. The inhabitants on these islands still mostly live in traditional villages and live off the land. The idea to turn the whole nation into a world park was first floated ten years ago, but seems to be gaining momentum. The idea of a nation-sized park to preserve the wide diversity of ocean life, and boost the economy with eco tourism, has an appeal that might achieve economic benefits while preserving the native culture.

Read more in this article in TIME.

Grist Magazine has an opinion piece that suggests that conservation efforts would prove to be a popular stimulus for the economy that would provide jobs and lasting impacts. The idea is for good hands-on work restoring forests, rivers, wetlands peat bogs and praries as well as investing in expanding the National Parks system. The jobs that could benefit are soil scientists, equipment operators, water engineers, tree planters, park rangers and other park personnel.

The thinking is that this type of job goes mostly toward labor, because there aren’t high material costs in the kinds of work that needs doings. It’s mostly physical work. And, the restoration of ecosystem services would lead to better biodiversity and would help mitigate against climate change.

I find this to be an intriguing idea, but I worry that those without jobs that are used to desk work may not find this kind of work appealing.

The new ocean-management plan in Massachusetts creates a new regulatory map for coastal waters. The plan assigns specific areas to wind farm development and creates protected areas near the Cape Cod National Seashore. The measures are designed to protect marine ecosystems within state-controlled waters that extend three miles offshore.

The final comprehensive Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan can be found here.

The forest preservation compensation program called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is nearing approval at the climate conference in Copenhagen. The deal compensates countries for preserving their forests, placing a value on the service of forests and other open lands in absorbing carbon dioxide, the key warming gas. Most points of contention in the agreement on REDD have been worked out, and an announcement is expected late this week.

This development will likely mean a huge boost for the use of GIS for forest assessment and monitoring, and it’s good news for resource managers around the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric association has proposed a cap-and-trade type scheme for the better management of national fisheries. Under the catch share proposal, a catch share mechanism would be put in place that places hard limits on the number of fish that can be caught and fishermen are able to buy and sell shares.

The first catch share pilot programs began under the Bush administration and have become an important policy directive under the Obama administration for long-term sustainability. This management approach has proven effective as a mechanism to halt the decline of fisheries and to preserve ocean diversity.

Read a good analysis of the pros and cons of this strategy in the New York Times.

Researchers at the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics (NCED) at the University of Minnesota have developed a virtual stream computer model called Virtual StreamLab to help restore streams to a healthier and more natural state. Virtual StreamLab demonstrates the physics of natural water flows at an unprecedented level of detail and realism.

The researchers believe that the ability to simulate water flow over topography with this degree of realism will provide the insights necessary to improve sustainable stream restoration strategies, help in optimizing techniques to fight erosion, help prevent flooding and restore aquatic habitats in degraded waterways. According to the national data available to the researchers, 44 percent of the nation’s 3.5 million miles of rivers and streams have become degraded due to sedimentation and excess nutrients. This decline has led to impaired water quality over entire watersheds, rendering many streams unhealthy for recreation and public contact. These effects also have serious consequences for the health of aquatic life. Efforts to restore these bodies of water have resulted in an annual cost of more than $1 billion in the United States alone.

NCED is a NSF Science and Technology Center where scientists from previously disparate fields such as geomorphology, engineering, and ecology are working together to understand how biota and ecosystems are linked to landscapes and hydrology, providing predictive insights into how important ecosystem services such as salmon spawning and water quality are linked to each other and to the landscape.

A joint effort among many conservation organizations has produced a new book called, “Natural Solutions: Protected Areas Helping People Cope with Climate Change.” The book outlines the role that protected areas play in reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. The effort combines the expertise of IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, the United Nations Development Programme, Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Bank and WWF.

The organizations urge that protected areas be considered among the top solutions to climate change based upon their impressive contributions that include:

Fifteen percent of the world’s terrestrial carbon stock – 312 Gigatonnes – are stored in protected areas around the world. In Canada, more than four billion tons of carbon dioxide is sequestered in 39 national parks, estimated to be worth $39-87 billion in carbon credits. In the Brazilian Amazon, protected lands are expected to prevent 670,000 km² of deforestation by 2050, representing eight billion tons of avoided carbon emissions.

Protected areas serve as natural buffers against climate impacts and other disasters, providing space for floodwaters to disperse, stabilizing soil against landslides and blocking storm surges. It has been estimated that coastal wetlands in the United States provide $23.2 billion a year in protection against flooding from hurricanes.

Protected areas can keep natural resources healthy and productive so they can withstand the impacts of climate change and continue to provide the food, clean water, shelter and income communities rely upon for survival. Thirty three of the world’s 100 largest cities derive their drinking water from catchments within forest protected areas.

Download the report here.

The Global Partnership on Forest Restoration (GPFLR) has conducted a study using satellite imagery to produce a world map that identifies areas with forest restoration potential. The amount of land identified is more than a billion hectares, which comprises six percent of the planet’s total land area.

Forests once covered more than 50 per cent of the world’s land area. Today that figure is below 30 per cent as a consequence of humans removing forests for unsustainable logging and conversion to other land uses, such as cropping, grazing, industry, and towns and cities. Deforestation continues to be a problem, especially in countries in tropical regions, but the forest area in many countries in temperate regions is increasing. For example, the forest area in Europe increased by an estimated 13 million hectares – about the size of Greece – between 1990 and 2005. However, the rate of deforestation continues to outstrip the rate of reforestation, so that globally the world continued to lose a net 7 million hectares a year – almost the area of Scotland – between 2000 and 2005.

Restoring forests could reduce greenhouse gas emissions without limiting other land uses, such as food production. GPFLR is working with individual countries and local communities to refine their analysis and efforts on a country by country basis.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, and while coordinated conservation efforts are taking place at an unprecedented level worldwide, there are still dramatic declines in species diversity taking place. Climate change threatens to accelerate this process, but it also holds some promise for more coordinated global conservation efforts.

“The time is ripe for a new vision, one that takes both biodiversity and climate change seriously and explores the crucial connections between them. The Copenhagen process is already moving in this direction, and some new global financial mechanisms are also emerging. The World Bank’s climate investment funds are designed to reduce deforestation in order to mitigate climate change. The Global Environmental Facility, an organization that provides grants to developing countries for projects related to promoting biodiversity and other environmental issues, could make a greater contribution if given more funding and more agile management. Both the UN and the World Bank have limited but valuable new financial facilities for reducing emissions from land-use change.”

Read Steven Sanderson’s essay, “Where the Wild Things Were,” in Foreign Affairs for a more thorough assessment of current conservation status.