Cash for Conservation (Working Paper)

Payments for Ecosystem Services through Compensatory Mitigation on State Trust Lands in Arizona, Colorado and Montana

Author(s): Culp, Susan, Alison Berry and Joe Marlow
Publication Date: November 2011

40 pages; Inventory ID WP11SC1; English

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Cash for Conservation: Payments for Ecosystem Services through Compensatory Mitigation on State Trust Lands in Arizona, Colorado and Montana	PDF	1.97 MB

Abstract

State land agencies throughout the West manage trust lands to provide revenue streams for the beneficiaries of the trust, predominantly K-12 public education and other public institutions. This revenue comes from three primary sources: surface leases, such as grazing and agriculture; subsurface lease uses like mineral extraction; and trust land sales and disposition. Over the last two decades greater interest has emerged around the ecosystem services provided by intact, large-scale and functional landscapes. Ecosystem services are the benefits to human communities that accrue from natural processes and biodiversity. Some examples of these benefits include water filtration, climate stabilization, nutrient cycling, crop pollination, and carbon sequestration. Stakeholders and trust land management departments alike have realized that the vast amounts of state trust land represent a tremendous opportunity to provide vital ecosystem services and that participation in these rapidly developing markets would enable trust land managers to earn revenues from those activities.

This working paper will explore opportunities for state trust land managers to participate in ecosystem services markets, particularly through mitigation or conservation banking to provide compensatory mitigation credits under §404 of the Clean Water Act and §7 and 10 of the Endangered Species Act. Since these markets are the most well-developed and connected to federal regulations requiring compliance, they are likely to be the most robust markets and highest value credits for state trust land managers to initially tap. The target study geography includes the states of Arizona, Colorado, and Montana, reviewing demand for compensatory mitigation in these regions, as well as barriers and opportunities to state trust land manager participation in these markets.