Off-site Benefits Research Articles

Optimizing soil conservation through comprehensive benefit assessment in river basins

Land degradation from water erosion poses a significant threat to water security and ecosystem stability, driving global efforts in soil conservation. Quantitative assessment of soil conservation benefits—both on-site and off-site—is crucial for guiding effective conservation strategies. However, existing methodologies often fall short in quantifying the value of these combined benefits. Here, we present a comprehensive framework for quantifying soil conservation service flows in monetary terms, evaluating the effectiveness of both on-site and off-site measures. Applying this framework to the Yellow River Basin (YRB), we employ cost-avoidance algorithms related to soil fertility maintenance, dredging cost reduction, and mitigation of nonpoint source pollution. Our results reveal that while many areas contribute to both on-site and off-site benefits, over half of the YRB relies predominantly on off-site services. By strategically enhancing key regions—which constitute 30% of the basin—we demonstrate that the overall soil conservation service supply can increase by 64.2% over the multi-year average from 2001 to 2020 compared to a consideration of on-site only. These findings underscore the essential role of off-site services in fully understanding soil conservation needs, particularly in large river basins, and the identified priority areas can offer valuable insights for optimizing soil conservation efforts.

Optimizing payment for ecosystem services in a drinking water source watershed by quantifying the supply and demand of soil retention service

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) plays a vital role in coordinating the relationship between ecosystem services supply and demand sides in watersheds. The upstream soil retention service brings significant off-site benefits to the downstream stakeholders. To fill gaps in the supply and demand of soil retention services for PES, we developed an approach that combined long-term observation data, hydrological model, and cost-benefit analysis. We applied and demonstrated the approach in a typical drinking water source watershed. By constructing the relationship between water clarity and the demanded trophic state, we identified the demand for soil retention as the suspended sediment concentration ≤4.4 mg L−1 at a transboundary station. Then, a well-calibrated hydrological model was applied to simulate the downstream sediment reduction under 36 upstream reforestation scenarios. Results showed that cropland reforestation effectively reduced downstream sediment loads by up to 37.8%. However, the efficiency of cropland reforestation for soil retention supply was influenced by its area, slope, and location. The cost-benefit analysis revealed that the feasible sediment reduction was 11,000 t per year, and the market-equilibrium price was 5800 CNY (Chinese Yuan, 7 CNY equaled 1 USD in 2020) per ton. The downstream side should pay 64 million CNY annually for soil retention provided by reforesting at upstream sloping cropland of 8° or above. This study suggested that the approach was helpful for integrating soil retention service supply and demand at a watershed scale to support PES decision-making.

Modeling the on-site and off-site benefits of Atlantic forest conservation in a Brazilian watershed

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are used as an approach to promote ecosystem conservation and restoration for hydrologic and other benefits. To quantify these benefits, we modeled the on-site (for rural landowners) and off-site benefits (for downstream water users relying on a large reservoir) of a pioneer municipal level PES project in Brazil established in 2005. We modeled the effects of landscape change on soil loss and sediment export from the Posses watershed using the InVEST model and a methodology that considered real aspects of the landscape and uncertainties in the input data and parameters, as well as economic factors. Results showed that a 3% increase in forest cover coupled with soil conservation practices led to a 0.9–3.5% and a 4.0–13.3% decrease in soil loss and sediment export, respectively. Part of this reduction was due to forest restoration and construction of micro-dams, which were built to improve infiltration close to unpaved roads. We show that PES projects enhance regulating services, providing benefits both onsite and to downstream reservoirs.

Global Importance of Indigenous and Local Communities’ Managed Lands: Building a Case for Stewardship Schemes

The role of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in sustainably using and managing natural resources is becoming broadly recognised within some international platforms (e.g., the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). However, the support for IPLCs to continue managing their land is either completely absent or scanty. This paper presents the value of only four ecosystem services, estimated at USD 1.16 trillion per year, that are delivered from IPLCs managed lands alone (excluding coastal, marine, and other resources). These four ecosystem services (ES), i.e., carbon sequestration, biocontrol, air, and water regulation offer offsite benefits to the wider regional and global populations yet without returns to the IPLCs themselves except for facing more climate and natural disaster-related challenges mainly caused by the actions of mainstream society. It further outlines key challenges and advocates for establishing stewardship mechanisms to promote and support IPLCs land management practices that will effectively help in protecting and preserving biodiversity, water, and other natural resources on Earth to sustain and enhance human well-being.

A sedimentological connectivity approach for assessing on-site and off-site soil erosion control services

Abstract Soil erosion, a widely-occurring phenomenon in the terrestrial environment, affects land productivity and infrastructure security negatively both on-site and off-site. Therefore, soil erosion control services (SECS) are one of the most fundamental ecosystem services for human well-being. Although previous SECS assessments elaborated the benefits from preventing on-site soil erosion and soil loss comprehensively, the off-site benefits remain vague. They are usually estimated only through multiplying the capacity of on-site soil erosion prevention by land-use-based, and spatially consistent, allocation coefficients. The corresponding overestimation, item omission, and inability to represent the spatial heterogeneity of SECS may lead to great uncertainties. In addition, the SECS decay with travel distance is not well represented, because of a neglect of the cascading nature of SECS formation and its delivery. Here, to address these deficiencies, a cascade framework for SECS assessment is developed that incorporates the concept of sedimentological connectivity over the landscape. This approach quantifies both the on-site soil erosion prevention and mitigation of sediment delivery over the landscape, based on an understanding of the cascading nature of soil erosion and sediment delivery, by referring to the framework of WATEM/SEDEM that potentially reveals the sedimentological connectivity over landscape. A monetized valuation of SECS delivered to local communities was derived by employing a land-use based replacement cost technique, which takes cultivated land units as a SECS receiver and conveyer. The approach was applied in a loess catchment located in the middle Yellow River basin, China as a case study. For this watershed, with an area of 54.2 km2, the gross soil erosion reduction was up to 156.93 × 104 t; the reduction of sediment input was 11.28 × 104 t; and the reduction in gross sediment export is up to 181.34 × 104 t. The monetized SECS value delivered to utilized land units was 910.13 × 104 CNY. The approach described provides a tool that specifically addresses the SECSs directly useful to humans, contributes to quantifying the soil erosion control services provided by the landscape, and improves the reliability of SECS evaluation.

Ecosystem services provision by gully control. A review

Gully erosion causes severe damage to crops and infrastructures and affects the provision of ecosystem services worldwide. To assess the potential of gully control measures to protect ecosystem services and assess the conditions required for their large-scale implementation, this paper critically evaluates a range of gully control measures documented in the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT). Environmental and socio-economic impacts of technologies are assessed, as well as the implications for ecosystem services, costs and benefits of implementation, and stakeholder’s perception. It is demonstrated how gully control measures provide notable on-site and off-site benefits for socio-economic, cultural, ecological, and production goals, and to protect crucial ecosystem services. Control measures particularly contribute to soil and water conservation and to regulating ecosystem services by controlling soil erosion, water cycling, and natural hazards. Most effective control measures consist of combined vegetative and structural measures and of catchment wide interventions. While implementation of gully control can initially be expensive, on the long term, the cost-benefit ratio is usually positive. Moreover, the results emphasize the importance of evaluating control measures considering monetary aspects and all ecosystem services they provide. Nevertheless, individual farmers can often not afford the implementation and maintenance costs due to barriers for implementation and therefore require sustained institutional support.

Decision Support Tool for Enhancing the Economic Impact of Construction using Offsite Systems

The construction industry is facing productivity stagnation across the globe, and several hypotheses to explain this phenomenon exist, most often associated with low use of digitisation, skills shortages and unpredictable market trends. Yet the economic context is more multi-faceted and the different economic drivers are closely interconnected, however research typically addresses each in isolation. This research paper aims to decipher the influence of key economic drivers on the economy, using the UK context as a barometer for international trends, and proposes how offsite technologies with varying levels of value added in the factory may be utilised to mitigate economic challenges. To achieve this, two key objectives were set: firstly to propose a theoretical framework supported by previous research on decision-support for offsite systems; and secondly to develop an infographic style visualisation to express this theoretical framework as an interactive tool. Following from the dual nature of the research objectives, the research employs a mixed methodology rooted in qualitative research techniques dealing with complex subject matters. A robust literature review with associated subsequent framework proposal was the first stage of the research, followed by data visualisation experiments and tools usability trials using focus group methods to collect preliminary data. The results indicated that there was existing evidence upon which to base the theoretical framework for enhancing economic impact using offsite solutions, with six key strands: sustainability, culture, human capital, productivity, digitisation and regulatory. However, the visualisation of this framework into an interactive tool was a novel concept and required an inter-disciplinary approach for data representation. Overall, this paper presents a unique qualitative tool, which can be utilised to simplify the concepts behind offsite construction and the potential economic impact of using offsite. The tool is aimed at decision-makers and stakeholders who may not be familiar with modern methods of construction, and those who would like to prioritise offsite benefits in a given scenario.

Regional pest suppression associated with widespread Bt maize adoption benefits vegetable growers

Transgenic crops containing the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) genes reduce pests and insecticide usage, promote biocontrol services, and economically benefit growers. Area-wide Bt adoption suppresses pests regionally, with declines expanding beyond the planted Bt crops into other non-Bt crop fields. However, the offsite benefits to growers of other crops from such regional suppression remain uncertain. With data spanning 1976-2016, we demonstrate that vegetable growers benefit via decreased crop damage and insecticide applications in relation to pest suppression in the Mid-Atlantic United States. We provide evidence for the regional suppression of Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), European corn borer, and Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), corn earworm, populations in association with widespread Bt maize adoption (1996-2016) and decreased economic levels for injury in vegetable crops [peppers (Capsicum annuum L.), green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), and sweet corn (Zea mays L., convar. saccharata)] compared with the pre-Bt period (1976-1995). Moth populations of both species significantly declined in association with widespread Bt maize (field corn) adoption, even as increased temperatures buffered the population reduction. We show marked decreases in the number of recommended insecticidal applications, insecticides applied, and O. nubilalis damage in vegetable crops in association with widespread Bt maize adoption. These offsite benefits to vegetable growers in the agricultural landscape have not been previously documented, and the positive impacts identified here expand on the reported ecological effects of Bt adoption. Our results also underscore the need to account for offsite economic benefits of pest suppression, in addition to the direct economic benefits of Bt crops.

Modeling Smallholder Farmers' Preferences for Soil Management Measures: A Case Study From South Ethiopia

Land degradation is a major environmental problem in Ethiopia posing serious threats to agricultural productivity and livelihoods. The interactions of numerous socio-economic, demographic, natural, and institutional factors constitute the underlying causes of soil degradation in Ethiopia. However, there exist evidence gaps on the contextual factors that hinder investments on soil conservation among smallholders. Using primary data generated through a stated preference survey among 359 sample smallholder farm households in Southern Ethiopia, this study investigates investment constraints on soil management technologies among smallholders. A random parameter logit model was implemented to estimate the model. Results indicate that smallholders are willing to invest in soil management technologies if appropriate incentive mechanisms, primarily, secured land tenure rights and access to finance are in place. Unfortunately, the prevailing land tenure regime in the country does not allow private property rights on land and smallholders have very limited access to credit. Thus, instituting secure land rights and improving credit access to smallholders should be considered as key interventions to enhance adoption of soil management technologies. The study highlights that policy interventions that incentivize adoption of soil management measures provide not only on-site private benefits but wider societal off-site benefits through the provision of multiple ecosystem services.

Impacts of Soil and Water Conservation on Land Suitability to Crops: The Case of Anjeni Watershed, Northwest Ethiopia

Soil loss in Ethiopia due to water erosion is a serious economic and environmental problem. Soil and water conservation (SWC) practices provide multiple onsite and offsite benefits. Thus, the present study was carried out to examine the long-term impacts of SWC measures in improving ecosystem services in general and land suitability to crop production in particular. Land suitability classes (LSC) were accounted using the multi-criteria analysis (MCA) on bio-physical variables of the environment. LSC were sorted by combining the FAO framework of land evaluation with GIS tools. Thus, LSC for teff (Eragrostis teff), maize (Zea mays L.), barley (Hordeum vulgaris L.), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were found S2 and S3 in 1984 and 1997 whereas in 2010, some areas were transformed to S1 classes for wheat and teff. Suitable land allocation for these crops was made and 50% of the watershed is found to be S1 class for wheat while about 40% is in S2 class for all crops. In 1997 barley and teff covered 29.2% and 28.9%, respectively. While in 2010, 19% of the area was covered by teff, 18.9% by maize, 16.9% by barley and 15.6% by wheat. Wheat and maize showed significant spatial expansions that are best indicator crops for the betterment of the land quality or soil improvement.

To Consider or Not to Consider? The Materiality of Off-site Benefits in Compulsory Purchase Law

To Consider or Not to Consider? The Materiality of Off-site Benefits in Compulsory Purchase Law

Ecology, changes in fisheries, and energy estimates in the middle stretch of the River Ganges

The River Ganges is the most important of all Indian rivers. It is being harnessed for several onsite and offsite benefits for various sections of society. Through varied man-induced interventions, over the years, the river system has recorded changes in its ecological functions, especially at some stations of the middle stretch viz., Kanpur, Varanasi and Allahabad. An attempt has been made in the present paper to understand changes with regard to key parameters of water quality, fish species composition and catches in this stretch, covering the highly populated major states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. For this purpose, data available over the years and some new data were utilized. These data reveal that siltation over the years has lowered water volumes and depths at various sections in the middle stretch with over 90% of the sediment comprising sand. The water quality in terms of pH remained higher (7.0 to 8.8) at some stations while dissolved oxygen remained lower (4.5 to 5.8 ppm) in comparison to upper and lower river stretches, suggesting progressive eutrophication. Other parameters, especially nutrients, also showed variations, coupled with variability in plankton density and primary productivity in this stretch reflecting changes in ecological functions. These changes coupled with various engineering interventions has resulted in drastic changes in water flows in the main river channel, the cumulative impact is evident in the drop in fish catches from 932 kg km−1 in the 1960s to 382 kg km−1 in the recent past, and the shift in species dominance from Indian major carps to less economic varieties. This has affected the livelihoods of fishers. The general lack of concern and awareness among the river authorities on requirements of river fishery management has been observed to be main reasons for these changes. Possible policy and governance interventions required to restore the river for sustainable fishery have also been suggested in this paper.

On-site and off-site economic benefits of dryland salinity mitigation resulting from establishment of perennial vegetation on farms: a breakeven analysis

The salinisation of agricultural land, natural habitats, water resources and non-agricultural infrastructure is a serious problem in southern Australia. A number of government programs have attempted to reduce the substantial costs of degradation. For such interventions to be justified, the level of salinity resulting from private landholder decisions must exceed the level that is optimal from the point of view of society as a whole, and the costs of government intervention must be lower than the value of benefits gained by society. This research adapts an existing hydrological/economic model representing external costs from dryland salinity affecting any biological or physical asset. The model is used to identify those variables that have the biggest impact on the net-benefits possible from government intervention. The key variables that have the biggest impact on net-benefits of dryland salinity mitigation are the value of the off-site asset and the lag time before the onset of dryland salinity in the absence of intervention. In many cases, the off-site hydrological and economic benefits from planting perennial vegetation are small, so that the returns from perennial plants need to be almost as high as those from traditional annual crops and pastures, if they are to be worth growing.

THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF PROTECTING INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREAS: A SPATIAL HEDONIC PRICE STUDY IN NEW MEXICO

I. INTRODUCTION Undeveloped, open-space lands, such as Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) and Congressionally designated Wilderness Areas (WAs) provide a number of nonmarket benefits to society, which may not be fully accounted for in land management decisions. Although the status of WAs is relatively certain, (1) the status of IRA lands is tied to Federal agency rulemaking and a protracted political and legal debate, which makes their condition highly uncertain. The 58.5 million acres of IRA lands represent about 7% of all forested lands (Berrens et al., 2006), and 30% of all National Forest lands in the United States; they are often located on the fringe or buffer of many WAs lands (USDA, 2001 a). (2) The policy debate over the fate of IRAs centers on whether to manage them consistent with Wilderness designation. Given the difficulties of measuring the benefits of protecting IRA lands, and the changes that the federal regulations governing IRAs have experienced in the last 15 yr, this debate is far from over. As of this writing, a State Petition Rule allows each state to petition the protection of these areas to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2005). (3) In New Mexico (NM), Governor Bill Richardson filed a petition in May 2006 to protect all 1.6 million acres of IRAs in the state (and an additional 100,000 acres in the Valle Vidal unit of the Carson National Forest). This petition and other similar protection-oriented petitions from other states with IRAs rest on the arguments that these lands provide various ecosystem and amenity services, recreation values, and cultural significance, both on-site and off-site on proximal lands, and further that these values would be lost or significantly degraded if commercial activities were allowed on these lands. Nationwide, the IRA policy debate involves questions about the relative values of protection versus development. The state of NM has submitted a petition based largely on the nonmarket environmental benefits that IRAs provide in the state. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether one type of benefit--off-site benefits accruing to homeowners in proximity to IRAs--is observable as a hedonic premium paid for in housing prices in NM. Because there are other potential benefits (e.g., on-site recreation values, and nonuse values) derived from protecting IRAs and WAs (Morton, 1999), the estimated off-site benefits to homeowners may only represent a small portion of the Total Economic Value (TEV) of these lands (e.g., see Loomis, 1996). As a state that is becoming relatively more dependent on the role of natural landscapes and amenities, including protected forests and grasslands, within the regional economy (e.g., Berrens et al., 2006; Hand et al., 2008a, 2008b; Rasker et al., 2008), the importance of the 1.6 million acres of IRAs may plausibly lie in their role as protected open spaces. If IRAs provide nonmarket benefits, as argued nationally (Loomis and Richardson, 2000), then NM is a place where they should be observable. Because the benefits provided by IRAs do not have explicit market prices associated with them, testing the validity of this argument requires the application of nonmarket methods (Champ, Boyle, and Brown, 2003). This study applies a hedonic pricing framework to NM residential housing values by combining the 2000 Decennial Census data with available Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. Spatial hedonic models are estimated to determine whether the density of IRAs has a positive and statistically significant effect on the median price of a home in NM. Results indicate that there is a 5.6% gain in the price of a house from being located in or adjacent to a Census tract with IRAs. In the aggregate, this gain represents 3.5% of the value of owner-occupied units in NM ($1.9 billion in capitalized value or an annualized value in perpetuity of $95 million, assuming a 5% interest rate). II. CURRENT POLICY DEBATE The final Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which was designed to protect 58. …

Environmental Services and the Precautionary Principle: Using Scenarios to Reconcile Conservation and Livelihood Objectives in Upper Catchments

Strategies for environmental governance and conservation in Africa have relied on regulatory mechanisms (policies) that further restrict already limited livelihood options by prohibiting certain land uses and isolating people from forest resources. Environmental service rewards (ESR) present an opportunity for incentives-based conservation, enabling livelihood and conservation goals to be more easily reconciled. Yet context has an important effect on the viability of ESR and on the trade-offs or synergies that emerge between conservation and livelihood, local and off-site benefits. This article analyzes ethnobotanical data from three sites in the eastern African highlands to analyze the likely consequences of applying diverse regulatory and incentive (ESR) schemes. Data illustrate that when applied in isolation, carbon rewards can undermine water conservation and local livelihood objectives alike through expansion of fast-growing tree species at the expense of water supply and other land uses. The article presents an approach for building upon local knowledge and scenario analysis during the planning phase of environmental service reward schemes to identify a suite of incentive and regulatory mechanisms most likely to reconcile local livelihood with local, national, and international conservation objectives.

Paying for Biodiversity Conservation Services

One of the most important reasons for the degradation of biodiversity, in mountain areas and elsewhere, is that the people who make land use decisions often receive few or no benefits from biodiversity conservation. Understandably, therefore, they generally ignore potential biodiversity benefits when choosing land use practices. The end result is that biodiversity is often lost, as are many other off-site benefits such as the regulation of hydrological flows. Efforts to enhance biodiversity conservation need to take account of the constraints faced by individual land users, who decide what practices to adopt on their land. Over the years, a variety of efforts have been made to boost the profitability of biodiversity-friendly practices for land users, with mixed results. A further approach, which has received increasing attention in recent years, is to provide direct payments for the provision of environmental services such as biodiversity conservation. The simple logic of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) is that compensating land users for the environmental services a given land use provides, makes them more likely to choose that land use rather than another. The Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project, which is being implemented by the World Bank with financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is piloting the use of PES as a means of generating biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration services in watersheds at three sites in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Stream corridor restoration research: a long and winding road

Stream corridor restoration research and practice is presented as an example of the application of ecology and engineering to solve a class of environmental problems. Interest and public investment in stream corridor restoration has increased sharply in developed nations over the last two decades, as evidenced by the volume of technical and refereed literature. However, real progress at the regional and national scale depends on successful research outcomes. Research addressing problems associated with stream corridor ecosystem restoration is beset by numerous problems. First, terms referring to restoration are loosely defined. Secondly, stream ecosystems are not amenable to rigorous experimental design because they are governed by a host of independent variables that are heterogeneous in time and space, they are not scalable, and their response times are often too long for human attention spans. These problems lead to poorly controlled or uncontrolled experiments with outcomes that are not reproducible. Extension of results to other sites or regions is uncertain. Social factors further complicate research and practice—riparian landowners may or may not cooperate with the experiment, and application of findings normally occurs through a process of suboptimal compromise. Economic issues, namely assigning costs for present and future ecosystem services that provide off-site benefits, further impede progress. Clearly, the situation calls for a hybrid approach between the rigor of the ecologist and the judgment and pragmatism of the engineer. This hybrid approach can be used to develop creative, low-cost approaches to address key factors limiting recovery.

Integrated Natural Resource Management: Approaches and Lessons from the Himalaya

Saxena, K., K. Rao, K. C. Sen, R. Maikhuri and R. Semwal 2001. Integrated Natural Resource Management: Approaches and Lessons from the Himalaya . Conservation Ecology 5(2):14. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00289-050214

Value of oak woodlands and open space on private property values in southern California

This paper evaluates the extent to which dedicated open space in California’s oak woodlands in a rapidly urbanizing area in southern California, influences private land and home prices. The Santa Rosa Plateau area in southern Riverside County was the location for this pilot study. Data on home and land value for 4,800 parcels surrounding an 8,300 acre oak woodland open space owned and operated a private land conservancy were collected. This was merged with spatial data from vegetation maps using a geographic information system (GIS). Distance from each parcel to the edge of the open space land, to the nearest trailhead and to the nearest stand of native oaks was calculated. Hedonic regression showed that both land and home value decreased as the distance from the open space boundary, trailheads, and local stands of native oak habitat increased. The model results were applied to the overall home and land parcels in the study area. A decrease of 10 percent in the distance to the nearest oak stands and to the edge of the permanent open space land resulted in an increase of $4 million in the total home value, and an increase of $16 million in total land value in the community. This demonstrates the off-site benefits of open space areas and native oak woodland stands in increasing overall land and home value of an entire community. There is economic value for conservation of native habitats. This promising method of analysis will be useful in future work to characterize how different configurations of open space design influence the land and home markets.

Economics of Soil Conservation: The Upper Mahaweli Watershed of Sir Lanka

This paper estimates the benefits and costs of soil conservation in the Upper Mahaweli Watershed of Sir Lanka. The costs of soil erosion control include the implementation costs of control measures, while the benefits are reductions in the costs of soil erosion. In contrast to many studies in developed countries, the on‐site benefit of soil erosion control in Sri Lanka is estimated to be greater than the off‐site benefit While a social benefit‐cost analysis demonstrates that it is socially desirable to implement conservation measures, the private financial analyses indicate that it is feasible for individual farmers to adopt the conservation measures. Despite private economic feasibility, programs addressing farmers' reluctance to adopt soil conservation measures may be preferable to public intervention in soil conservation activities when the on‐site benefits are greater than the off‐site benefits.