Everglades Coalition Resolution advocating the Valuation of Ecosystem Services as decision-support for
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) implementation.
WHEREAS, The White House Council on Environmental Quality’s draft revised
version of Principles and Guidelines on national water and land resources policy
will consider both monetary and non-monetary benefits to justify and select a project
that has the greatest net benefits, in which case the monetary benefits can capture
reduced damages measured in dollars while the non-monetary benefits can capture
the increased economic benefits associated with protected or enhanced ecosystem
services and biodiversity; and
WHEREAS, In a 2005 Study titled Valuing Ecosystem Services – Toward Better
Environmental Decision Making, the National Research Council recommends that
policymakers use economic valuation as a means of evaluating the trade-offs in
environmental policy choices, further that an assessment of benefits and costs should
be a part of the information set available to policy makers in choosing among
alternatives; and
WHEREAS, In the 2005 Study, the National Research Council notes that when the
economic benefits of ecosystem services are not estimated, they are de facto given a
value of zero, and this in turn appears to result in a political process that undermines
the national policy of no net loss of wetlands; and
WHEREAS, The National Research Council 2010 Biennial Report notes that the
concept of valuing ecosystem services is promising, and Everglades restoration
planners should be alert to specific opportunities to improve the methods for
economic valuation of ecosystem services and adapt them to the Everglades; and
WHEREAS, The 2010 Plan for Coordinating Science update to the South Florida
Ecosystem Restoration Task Force includes Ecosystem Services as an emerging
theme; and
WHEREAS, Government and non-government time and expense is being put into
“A Conference on Ecosystem Services” - a biennial conference known as ACES,
whose 2008 and 2010 sponsorship includes virtually all CERP federal government
partners, including U.S. Geological Survey employees as Co-Chairs, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Office of Environmental Markets and National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration who is the first to implement a protocol of valuing
ecosystem services as part of their CERP implementation approach; and
WHEREAS, When restoration benefits for Everglades restoration are calculated using the total
economic valuation framework recommended by the 2005 National Research Council Study, the
benefit-to-cost ratios appear to exceed 6:1, with the results that dollar benefits defined provide the
significant basis for supporting Everglades restoration; and
WHEREAS, Existing and restored ecosystem services have significant economic value, with the
overarching challenge to calculate the public and private benefits in terms of total economic value as
a means of achieving an optimal approach of maximizing benefits at the least cost over a long term,
Therefore Be It Resolved that the Everglades Coalition requests the South Florida Ecosystem
Restoration Task Force establish a policy of applying Valuing Ecosystem Services to aid in the
analysis of alternatives, decision-support and economic benefits synthesis for Everglades Restoration,
and that the Science Coordination Group and Working Group should facilitate the execution of this
policy as a means of providing a case study for the nation to follow.
Approved October 25, 2010.
Julie Hill-Gabriel Mark D. Perry
National Co-Chair State Co-Chair
Jhill-gabriel@audubon.org mperry@fos-cc.org
