The intersection of economic demand for ecosystem services and public policy: A watershed case study exploring implications for social-ecological resilience

Abstract

Regional economies depend, to varying degrees, on water-based ecosystem services. As growing populations and other pressures increasingly stress underlying ecosystems, it is imperative that society better understand the linkages between economic and ecological systems, and how policy seeks to mediate competing interests. However, detailed analysis is often beyond the reach of resource-constrained local governments. Two general principles are proposed for conceptualizing linkages between ecological and economic systems. These principles are used to reformulate an existing ecosystem services classification system, which is then applied to the Mississippi Valley watershed in Ontario, Canada, to identify areas of high economic demand for water-based ecosystem services. Incorporating upstream–downstream linkages and climate change considerations, the extant policy framework is assessed for its ability to manage these systems-based considerations, informing a discussion of how policy, property rights, and other system attributes could combine to drawdown ecological resources and undermine the opportunity for others to access needed ecosystem services. This has the potential to create feedback and exacerbate resilience challenges or, with improved understanding of policy linkages, inform countermeasures to improve ecosystem management.