Category Archives: Publications

Policy and Planning for Coastal Ecosystems in British Columbia through a Blue Carbon Lens. WCEL

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Subject: 
Climate Adaptation, Blue Carbon, Nature-Based Climate Solutions, Coastal Ecosystems
Author: 
Deborah Carlson – Staff Lawyer
Summary: 

Healthy coastal ecosystems are essential for maintaining biodiversity and liveable coastal communities, providing critical habitat, water quality protection, food and medicinal plants for harvesting, lessening of coastal erosion, resilience to climate change, and flood regulation.

Perhaps less well known is that coastal ecosystems also play an important role in long-term carbon storage and sequestration. This paper looks at emerging policy opportunities and needs in Canada, and specifically British Columbia, for “blue carbon” – the carbon stored in vegetated coastal ecosystems – and how protecting blue carbon as a climate action measure aligns with coastal biodiversity protection and resilience more broadly.

Publication Date: 
November 18, 2020
Publication Pages: 
44
Publication Format: 
PDF

Guide to Coastal and Ocean Protection Law in British Columbia

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This is an important new publication by  West Coast Environmental Law

Guide to Coastal & Ocean Protection Law in BC (PDF)

Ocean Law Guide - Cover Image (aerial of ocean wildlife/herring spawn)

Subject: Marine Protection, Coastal and Ocean LawsAuthor: Stephanie Hewson, Linda Nowlan, Georgia Lloyd-Smith, Deborah Carlson & Michael Bissonnette

Summary: 

Are you concerned about the health of your local shoreline, and wondering what your government(s) can do to help? Curious about the complex web of laws, policies and regulations governing the BC coast and ocean? Interested in learning how different authorities and jurisdictions can work together?

Our Guide to Coastal and Ocean Protection Law in BC is a comprehensive resource that covers the wide array of legal tools available to Indigenous, federal, provincial and local governments to protect the coast and ocean in BC.

In addition to being a resource on marine spatial protection law, this Guide is a record of what has been accomplished on the Pacific coast over the last several decades – providing examples that demonstrate how different legal tools have been employed to preserve the health of coastal and marine ecosystems. 

This Guide was developed with the generous support of the Sitka Foundation and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. Publication Date: December 3, 2020Publication Pages: 324Publisher: West Coast Environmental LawPublication Format: PDF

Coastal erosion as a sediment source – implications for shoreline management

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Puget Sound Feeder Bluffs: Coastal erosion as a sediment source and its implications for shoreline management Shipman et al 2014 .
See the PDF: pugetsoundhardening1406016

feederbluffreport

This report examines the role of eroding bluffs as a source of sediment for Puget Sound beaches and includes a review of related geology and coastal processes. It summarizes recent mapping of feeder bluffs and examines ways in which this information can be used to improve shoreline management.

This report is one part of a larger project on Puget Sound feeder bluffs that also includes maps and a series of web pages that cover much of the material in this report. The project was funded by EPA and the WA Department of Fish and Wildlife. Hugh Shipman and colleagues  published this  important report on feeder bluffs processes and management. Coastal Watershed Index of Port Angeles has been working on the complex and critical topic of feeder bluff management for over a decade. One of their biggest challenges is imparting the critical and unique elements of feeder bluff function and management (including the reality that there are no ‘soft armoring’ techniques appropriate for this land form ). This report provides scientific and management focus specifically to feeder bluffs of the Salish Sea- it’s long overdue.

 

feederbluffmaps

 

Part 2 is of the maps of feeder bluffs of Puget sound:

 

 

 

Accessed Nov 4, 2014 at :
https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/SummaryPages
Maps: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/publications/1406016part2.pdf/1406016.html.

See More on Feeder Bluff mapping:

 

 

 

 

 

BC Government Publications Index for Stewardship Centre on Coastal Planning and Land Use

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BC Government Publications
Index for:
Stewardship Centre for British Columbia
Coastal Shore Stewardship: A Guide for Planners, Builders and Developers on Canada’s Pacific Coast

http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/368207/

The four PDFs linked to this government site have also been included here since we find that external URLs often change:
Part 1: Coastal Shore Stewardship A Guide for planners, Builders and Developers on Canada’s Pacific Coast: part1

Part 2  Coastal Planning and Approvals, Who does What: part2

Part 3  Don’t disrupt, Don’t harden, Don’t pollute: Land Development,  Marine Facilities, Seawalls and Revetments, etc.   Links to many  Stewardship resources; part3

Internet resources: internetaddresses

The Effect of Seawalls

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“Seawalls damage virtually every beach they are built on. If they are built on eroding beaches—-and they are rarely built anywhere else,—-they eventually destroy the beach. ”  –Cornelia Dean, (Science Editor of the New York Times) Against the Tide, The Battle of America’s Beaches 53 (1999) 

A serious problems which has developed on the coastline  of Metchosin, is the building of seawalls under the pretext of protecting private property from erosion. Owners of properties along a coast are often not aware of the mechanics of the interaction with ocean energy of the shoreline. After an intense storm, evidence of erosion along a shore-front often leads land owners, desperate to save their property to go to often very expensive extremes in order to try to protect their property.

A survey of literature from various parts of the world indicates this is not only a local problem, but is indeed very wide spread. The series of photographs documented on this website from Puget Souperkinslane_pugetsoundnd, show the problem not far from our shores. We should consider ourselves lucky so far in Metchosin as we have yet to experience the disasters that have happened in Puget Sound.  This link to an Image Gallery shows how bad it could get:

 

Impact of Coastal Erosion in Australia 7 Mar, 2013
Senior Coastal Scientist at Coastalwatch Professor Andrew Short has compiled a comprehensive piece focusing on coastal erosion in Australia.

For the 50% of the Australian coast that is composed of sand and in some places mud, the shoreline is prone to change, building seaward and in some places eroding landward. In most locations this is a natural process with usually no impact on human settlement. Coastal protection of the shoreline is rarely required in Australia, however in a few locations the dynamic shoreline has become a problem, in some cases a major and expensive problem, and in almost all of these cases the problem is related to human interference or encroachment on the shoreline. Coastal protection works, such as breakwaters, groynes, or seawalls, are usually built to guard against erosion. In doing so they harden the coast and reduce its ability to adjust naturally. As a consequence, these defences can exacerbate further erosional problems, with seawalls reflecting and concentrating wave energy and erosion, and groynes starving downdrift the coast of sediment thereby leading to further erosion. There are areas where human have encroached into the dynamic beach environment only to suffer the consequences, and others where they have interfered with coastal processes leading to accelerated coastal erosion.

The Utilization of Seawalls in Response to Shoreline Erosion Consequences, Socio-Economic, Political and Legal Forces, and Alternatives Shawn W. Kelly , Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management University of California, Santa Barbara November 30, 2000

Executive Summary
See the full PDF version: Seawall

seawallWhen coastal buildings or roads are threatened, the typical response is to harden the coast with a seawall. Seawalls run parallel to the beach and can be built of concrete, wood, steel, or boulders. Seawalls are also called bulkheads or revetments; the distinction is mainly a matter of purpose. They are designed to halt shoreline erosion caused primarily by wave action. If seawalls are maintained, they may temporarily hold back the ocean from encroaching on shoreline development. In spite of their ability to hold back the ocean, when waves hit a seawall, the waves are reflected back out to sea, taking beach sand with them and eventually causing the beach to disappear. Moreover, seawalls can cause increased erosion at the ends of the seawall on an adjacent beach that is not walled. Alternatives to seawalls exist, such as beach nourishment and managed retreat. Making coastal land use decisions that ensure a seawall will not be needed in the
future to protect structures, however, is the most prudent coastal management solution. This can be accomplished by establishing setback lines and conducting managed retreat of structures that are threatened by shoreline erosion before the situation worsens, or structures that have the potential for being threatened in the future. Regional case studies are presented to illustrate.
And finally an amusing story about coastal erosion and the origin of the term

“The Streisand effect”

The following excerpt from George Monbiot ( on SLAPP suits) mentions a very interesting case :

In Canto 21 of the Inferno, Dante watches lawyers who made a habit of bringing frivolous or oppressive suits being perpetually submerged in a lake of boiling tar by demons with boathooks. They get off quite lightly, in other words. But perhaps hell of a different kind awaits on earth. It’s called the Streisand Effect. In 2003 Barbra Streisand’s lawyers launched an action to have an aerial photograph of her home in Malibu removed from a collection of 12,000 such shots, whose purpose was to document coastal erosion(11). They demanded $50m in damages. Before they became involved, the photo was downloaded four times. In the month after they launched their stupid suit, it was downloaded 420,000 times(12). “The Streisand Effect,” in other words, is blowback: disastrous unintended consequences of an attempt at censorship.”

 

Natural Capital of Metchosin’s Coastline

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orcamalefemodIn recent years, we have started to acknowledge that “Ecosystem services “ are something to which we must start paying attention as to fail to do so leads to a rapid decline in our quality of life:  Some of the ecosystem services that are part of Natural Capital are defined below, and a link to the Race Rocks website provides a model of how Ecosystem Services may be evaluated in a local ecosystem.

The following materials have been adapted from that resource:
Ecosystem services

‘Ecosystem goods’, such as food, and ‘services’, such as waste assimilation, represent the benefits humans obtain from a properly functioning ecosystem and are usually referred together as ‘ecosystem services’. Unsurprisingly a large number of ecosystem services have been identified, especially for the oceans which cover the majority of the planet and the coastal zone where the majority of humans live.

The items below might have a relevance for Metchosin’s coastal areas.

These include: gas regulation (e.g. maintaining a balanced chemical composition in the atmosphere), climate regulation (e.g. control of global temperature, precipitation, greenhouse gas regulation, cloud formation)
disturbance regulation (e.g. storm protection, flood control, drought recovery),
water regulation (e.g. regulation of global, regional and local scale hydrology through currents and tides),
water supply (e.g. storage of water returned to land as precipitation),
erosion and sediment transport/deposition (e.g. moving sediments from source areas and replenishing depositional areas),
nutrient cycling e.g. the storage, internal cycling, processing and acquisition of nutrients, nitrogen fixation, phosphorus cycles),
waste treatment (e.g. the breakdown of excess xenic and toxic compounds),
biological control (e.g. the trophic-dynamic regulation of populations),
refugia (e.g. feeding and nursery habitats for resident and transient populations of harvested species),
food production (e.g. the portion of gross primary production which is extracted as food for humans),
raw materials (e.g. the portion of gross primary production which is extracted as fuel or building material),
genetic resources(e.g. sources of unique biological materials for medicines),
recreation (e.g. opportunities for tourism, sport and other outdoor pastimes) and cultural (e.g. opportunities for aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual activities).

The value (the theoretical cost of artificially replacing the services were they not to be provided by nature) to humanity of these ecosystem services has been estimated at $8400 billion per year for the open oceans and 1.5 times this for coastal ecosystems. Consumptive use (production of food and raw materials) is a minor (<5%) component and therefore the true value of marine ecosystems is in non- consumptive use. However quantifying such use is notoriously hard.

Adapted from the reference:
The structure and function of ecological systems in relation to property right regimes. In: Hanna, S., Folke, C., Maler, K.G. (Eds.), Rights to Nature. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp. 13 34. Authority. Research Publication No. 35, Townsville, Australia, pp. 83.   ( DOCUMENT ) Author(s) / Editor(s) Costanza, R., Folke, C., 1997.

You can have a look at the model proposed for a project at Race Rocks in this link:  DEFINING THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES of RACE ROCKS.
It is our hope that while you are helping us to assemble the values of these Ecosystem services for Metchosin’s  you may be motivated to look in your own back yard and start placing a more realistic value on your own Ecosystems’ Services. ” Even today’s technology and knowledge can reduce considerably the human impact on ecosystems. They are unlikely to be deployed fully, however, until ecosystem services cease to be perceived as free and limitless, and their full value is taken into account.”

OTHER REFERENCES ON THIS TOPIC:

Patterns of a Conservation Economy: True Cost Pricing
http://www.conservationeconomy.net/natural_capital.html

Ecosystem Services:
http://www.conservationeconomy.net/ecosystem_services.html

Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

Millennium Ecosystem Assessments of the World Health organization
http://www.millenniumassessment.org//en/index.aspx

How ecosystem services relate to one another
http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/html/publications/docs/nair/chap7.pdf

Ethical Considerations in On-Ground Applications of the Ecosystem Services Concept, www.biosciencemag.org  1020 BioScience • December 2012 / Vol. 62 No. 12

http://ires.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2012/12/Luck-et-al-2012-BioSci-ethical-considerns-of-on-ground-ES-applicns.pdf

Ecosystem Services – Case studies from Australia
http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/index.htm

Securing Canada’s Natural Capital:
http://www.nrtee-trnee.ca/eng/publications/securing-canadas-natural-capital/securing-canadas-natural-capital-eng.pdf

Natural Capital:

http://www.conservationeconomy.net/content.cfm?PatternID=17

RESULTS OF NATIONAL SURVEY ON ECOLOGICAL GOODS AND SERVICES
http://www.maweb.org/documents/document.300.aspx.pdf

References specializing in Marine Ecosystem Services:

Aquatic ecosystems provide many services contributing to human well-being . Maintenance of the integrity and
the restoration of these ecosystems are vital for services such as water replenishment and purification, flood and drought control.

1. Other reference Ecosystem Services: The Role of Natural Capital
A piece that defines the ecosystem services of Race Rocks

2. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

3. The encyclopedia of Earth: Marine ecosystem services:
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

4. Assessing the Non-Market Values of Ecosystem Services provided by Coastal and Marine Systems http://www.ecotrust.org/katoomba/presentations/Marine_Coastal_Presentations
/NonMarket_Values_Coastal_Marine_Ecosystems_Matthew_Wilson_Shuang_Liu.pdf

5. Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services
http://judylumb.com/eco-services.html

  • “It is most important to raise consciousness of the general public and of public officials and managers of the value of ecosystem services. Here are some ways that individual friends might choose.
    1)    Educate ourselves about ecosystem services.
    2)    Monitor local news for issues that impact ecosystem services to point out areas of public concern when ecosystem services are destroyed or disregarded.
    3)    Speak truth to power — communicate with local officials and congressional representatives about the implications of their decisions on ecosystem services.
    4)    Hold agencies to the environmental and public input requirements of the laws.
    5)    Make certain that preservation of ecosystem services is among the options presented.
    6)    Write letters to the editor to educate the public about ecosystem services”

6: Millennium Ecosystem assessment panel: Ecosystems and Human Well: being wetlands and water.
http://www.maweb.org/documents/document.358.aspx.pdf

7.The Ecosystem Services Project http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/

8. Global Warming — Blue Carbon.. A Sierra Club resouce on the value of seagrasses and salt marshes as 50 times more efficient Carbon fixers than forests.

Climate Change, Coastal Erosion and Seawalls

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These links to external sources on this post are focused on the interactions with Humans in Coastal Areas.

waterfront_cottage CRD– Limit the Impacts of Shoreline and Streamside Development
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA CRD–Protecting Shorelines and Streamsides
rockyshores CRD –Rocky Shorelines
structures Shoreline Structures Environmental Design ( pdf file) –
A Guide for Structures along Estuaries and Large Rivers
greenshore From Green Shores–The Green Shores program promotes sustainable use of coastal ecosystems through planning and design that recognizes the ecological features and functions of coastal systems.
coastalsediment Coastal Sediment Processes
climchange Climate Change and Coastal Shores In British Columbia
CoastErosionTH Center for Ocean Solutions:
Coastal Erosion and Climate Change
olympia Climate Change : Pacific NW of USA
Impacts on Coastal Areas
seawallclimchange

3.3 Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital

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BACKGROUND: A highlight of the sustainability theme is the potential to transmit to an audience a new way to look on and value the physical and living parts of a marine ecosystem which supplies a benefit directly or indirectly to humans. This is one area which provides potential for take away materials and ideas as well as action items.

Services Comments and Examples

  • Provisioning
    Food : production of fish,crustaceans, shellfish, edible marine algae, seabirds and seabird eggs,
    Salt water: a storage and retention of water for industrial use
    Oxygen production
    Biomass : Macroalgae for energy conversion .
    Biochemical: extraction of medicines and other materials from biota
    Industrial products such as marine algal products.
    Aggregate mining.
  • Regulating 
    Climate regulation sink for greenhouse gases; influence local and regional temperature,
    precipitation, and other climatic processes
    Habitat for local and migratory birds.
    Water regulation (hydrological flows)provides precipitation for groundwater recharge/
    Water purification and waste treatment retention, recovery, and removal of excess nutrients and other pollutants
    Retention of soils and sediments
    Natural hazard regulation flood control, storm protection.
  • Cultural
    Vibrant Coastal Communities
    Spiritual and inspirational source of inspiration; First Nations Cultures of the Pacific were nourished by the sea.
    Recreational opportunities for tourism and recreational activities
    Aesthetic many people find beauty or aesthetic value in aspects of marine ecosystems
    Educational and research opportunities for formal and informal education and training
  • Supporting 
    Sediment transfer, beach building.
    Nutrient cycling storage, recycling, processing, and acquisition of nutrients
    Transport of goods and services
    Waste treatment and detoxification,.
    Ocean Energy from Currents and Waves.

References:

1. From Marine Ecosystem Services :
From http://www.compassonline.org/” : Humans derive benefits (or ecosystem services) from ecological systems. These services are produced by plants, animals, microbes and people interacting with one another and the physical environment. Scientists recognize four categories of ecosystem services: provisioning services such as food, fuelwood, fiber, and water; regulating services such as the regulation of climate, floods, coastal erosion, drought and disease; cultural services including recreational, spiritual, religious and other nonmaterial benefits; and supporting services such as nutrient cycling and photosynthesis. Some key benefits provided by the ecosystem services of functioning marine systems include healthy seafood, clean beaches, stable fisheries, abundant wildlife, and vibrant coastal communities.

Value of biodiversity and ecosystem services

The supply of ecosystem services depends on many attributes of biodiversity. The variety, quantity, quality, dynamics and distribution of biodiversity that is required to enable ecosystems to function, and the supplying benefits to people, vary between services. The roles of biodiversity in the supply of ecosystem services can be categorized as provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting, and biodiversity may play multiple roles in the supply of these types of services.

  • For example, in agriculture, biodiversity is the basis for a provisioning service (food, fuel or fibre is the end product),
  • a supporting service (such as micro-organisms cycling nutrients and soil formation),
  • a regulatory service (such as through pollination), and potentially,
  • a cultural service in terms of spiritual or aesthetic benefits, or cultural identity.

The contributions of biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services to national economies are substantial. The science of valuation of ecosystem services is new, and still developing basic conceptual and methodological rigour and agreement, but it has already been very instructive, since the value of such services is generally ignored or underestimated at decision and policy making levels. Identifying economic values of ecosystem services, together with the notions of intrinsic value and other factors, will assist significantly in future decisions relating to trade-offs in ecosystem management.

  • Value of: Annual world fish catch – US$58 billion (provisioning service).
  • Anti-cancer agents from marine organisms – up to US$1 billion/year (provisioning service).
  • Global herbal medicine market – roughly US$43 billion in 2001 (provisioning service).
  • Honeybees as pollinators for agriculture crops – US$2–8 billion/year (regulating service).
  • Coral reefs for fisheries and tourism – US$30 billion/year (see Box 5.5) (cultural service).
  • Cost of: Mangrove degradation in Pakistan – US$20 million in fishing losses, US$500 000 in timber losses, US$1.5 million in feed and pasture losses (regulating provisioning services). Newfoundland cod fishery collapse – US$2 billion and tens of thousands of jobs (provisioning service).

Of those ecosystem services that have been assessed, about 60 per cent are degraded or used unsustainably, including fisheries, waste treatment and detoxification, water purification, natural hazard protection, regulation of air quality, regulation of regional and local climate, and erosion control Most have been directly affected by an increase in demand for specific provisioning services, such as fisheries, wildmeat, water, timber, fibre and fuel. “

Aquatic ecosystems provide many services contributing to human well-being .Maintenance of the integrity and the restoration of these ecosystems are vital for services such as water replenishment and purification, flood and drought control.

1. Ecosystem Services : Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems
http://www.ecosystemservices.org.uk/

2. Assessing the Non-Market Values of Ecosystem Services provided by Coastal and Marine Systems; http://www.eartheconomics.org/FileLibrary/file/Reports/Assessing_NonMarket_Values.pdf

3. Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services
http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/1-02.htm

  • “It is most important to raise consciousness of the general public and of public officials and managers of the value of ecosystem services. Here are some ways that individual friends might choose.
    1)    Educate ourselves about ecosystem services.
    2)    Monitor local news for issues that impact ecosystem services to point out areas of public concern when ecosystem services are destroyed or disregarded.
    3)    Speak truth to power — communicate with local officials and congressional representatives about the implications of their decisions on ecosystem services.
    4)      Hold agencies to the environmental and public input requirements of the laws.
    5)       Make certain that preservation of ecosystem services is among the options presented.
    6)    Write letters to the editor to educate the public about ecosystem services”

4: Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing
http://www.who.int/globalchange/ecosystems/ecosys.pdf

5. Amory Lovins lecturing on Natural Capital in a lecture at Berkley8. 

6.   Ecosystem Services: The Role of Natural Capital

A assignment that defines the ecosystem services of Race Rocks
This page with curricular ideas is based on the original found at:
http://www.racerocks.ca/ecology/ecosystemservices/
Although it is targeted as an exercise for Race Rocks, It could be used similarly in any other ecosystem.

See below for a preview:

In recent years, we have started to acknowledge that “Ecosystem services ” are something to which we must start paying attention as to fail to do so leads to a rapid decline in our quality of life: This file explores that idea further and invites you to contribute to a new project :
DEFINING THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES of RACE ROCKS.
It is our hope that while you are helping us to assemble the values of these Ecosystem services for Race Rocks, you may be motivated to look in your own back yard and start placing a more realistic value on your own Ecosystems’ Services. ” Even today’s technology and knowledge can reduce considerably the human impact on ecosystems. They are unlikely to be deployed fully, however, until ecosystem services cease to be perceived as free and limitless, and their full value is taken into account.”

OBJECTIVES: After doing this assignment,students will beableto:

1. Define what is meant by the terms ecosystem services.

2. Define what is meant by the term Natural Capital.

3. Enumerate the Ecosystem services of Race Rocks.

PROCEDURES:

1. Using the references below, investigate what is meant by Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services. Make a table where you can list the ecosystem services which you think are provided by an area like Race Rocks. In the table make a dollar estimation of the value of that service per year.

2. Using the area where you live, make a list of the ecosysterm services provided by your local ecosystems, and rate which you think are the most important.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • You will observe commercial whale/marine mammal/bird/-watching boats in the area.. how many passengers do they carry and what is the value generated per trip.
  • You may see tankers and others vessels going by which you can also record . Race Rocks has a lighthouse and foghorn.. What is the value to ships of this set of islands for navigation?
  • Research is done at Race Rocks by students of schools, colleges and universities? What is the value of this location for research and education?
  • An Integrated Energy System was developed at Race Rocks. What is the value of this to BC Parks, to the BC government, to Pearson College?
  • A number of viewers around the world use Race Rocks as a location for bird and animal viewing. See the examples from England which are linked to the Daily Log
  • The role of marine protected areas in conservation is a world wide goal. How does the Management Plan for Race Rocks reflect ecosystem services provided by the area. http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/planning/mgmtplns/race_rocks/racerock.html
BACKGROUND REFERENCE: From:
http://www.oceansatlas.org/servlet/CDSServlet?status=ND0xOTAwMS4xO
TAwNiY2PWVuJjMzPWRvY3VtZW50cyYzNz1pbmZvUNEP – WCMC  Ecosystem services‘Ecosystem goods’, such as food, and ‘services’, such as waste assimilation, represent the benefits humans obtain from a properly functioning ecosystem and are usually referred together as ‘ecosystem services’. Unsurprisingly a large number of ecosystem services have been identified, especially for the oceans which cover the majority of the planet and the coastal zone where the majority of humans live.The red high-lighted topics below might have a relevance for RaceRocks:These include: gas regulation (e.g. maintaining a balanced chemical composition in the atmosphere),
climate regulation  (e.g. control of global temperature, precipitation, greenhouse gas regulation, cloud formation)
disturbance regulation (e.g. storm protection, flood control, drought recovery),
water regulation (e.g. regulation of global, regional and local scale hydrology through currents and tides),
water supply (e.g. storage of water returned to land as precipitation),
erosion and sediment transport/deposition (e.g. moving sediments from source areas and replenishing depositional areas),
nutrient cycling e.g. the storage, internal cycling, processing and acquisition of nutrients, nitrogen fixation, phosphorus cycles),
waste treatment (e.g. the breakdown of excess xenic and toxic compounds),
biological control (e.g. the trophic-dynamic regulation of populations),
refugia  (e.g. feeding and nursery habitats for resident and transient populations of harvested species),
food production (e.g. the portion of gross primary production which is extracted as food for humans),
raw materials (e.g. the portion of gross primary production which is extracted as fuel or building material),
genetic resources (e.g. sources of unique biological materials for medicines),
recreation (e.g. opportunities for tourism, sport and other outdoor pastimes) and cultural (e.g. opportunities for aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual activities).The value (the theoretical cost of artificially replacing the services were they not to be provided by nature) to humanity of these ecosystem services has been estimated at $8400 billion per year for the open oceans and 1.5 times this for coastal ecosystems. Consumptive use (production of food and raw materials) is a minor (<5%) component and therefore the true value of marine ecosystems is in non- consumptive use. However quantifying such use is notoriously hard.Adapted from the reference:
The structure and function of ecological systems in relation to property right regimes. In: Hanna, S., Folke, C., Maler, K.G. (Eds.), Rights to Nature. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp. 13 34. Authority. Research Publication No. 35, Townsville, Australia, pp. 83.   ( DOCUMENT ) Author(s) / Editor(s) Costanza, R., Folke, C., 1997.OTHER REFERENCES ON THIS TOPIC:
Patterns of a Conservation Economy: True Cost Pricing
http://www.conservationeconomy.net/natural_capital.htmlEcosystem Services:
http://www.conservationeconomy.net/ecosystem_services.htmlEcosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.htmlMillennium Ecosystem Assessments of the world Health organization
http://www.millenniumassessment.org//en/index.aspxSecuring Canada’s Natural Capital:
http://nrt-trn.ca/biodiversity/securing-canadas-national-capital

4.0 The Physical Story

Return to Index

7.0 Environmental Sustainability in Education:

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With the curricula listed below I have included examples which could generate specfic exercises designed for various grade levels.

  • 7.3 UNESCO has produced a very useful website which can help to guide the Educational Curricular materials of the NMC: Unescohttp://www.unesco.org/new/en/
    In this resource, the sections on Teaching and Learning Strategies, Interdisciplinary themes , Sustainable Development across the Curriculum and Curriculum Rationale give insight into how the theme of Sustainable Development can be achieved through an educational program .     Background Rationale :

The World Commission on Environment and Development promoted the concept of ‘sustainable development’ in the late 1980s. ” ..Until then, environment and development tended to be thought of as two distinct actions—the need to promote development on the one hand and the need to protect the environment on the other. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the environmental side of sustainable development emerged as a main focus. Poverty eradication was viewed as important but the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 which were the main documents to emerge from the Earth Summit, laid priority emphasis on the importance of protecting the natural environment. They recommended that there be a global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem.”.
In Paragraph 105 of the Final Declaration endorsed by all countries states the following:

  • Education for a sustainable future should engage a wide spectrum of institutions and sectors, including but not limited to business /industry, international organizations, higher education, government, educators and foundations, to address the concepts and issues of sustainable development, as embodied throughout Agenda 21, and should include the preparation of sustainable development education plans and programmes, as emphasized in the Commission’s work programme on the subject adopted in 1996. A more fully developed paradigm of sustainable development was endorsed at the highest political levels at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, in 2002. The Political Declaration states that “sustainable development is built on three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars”—economic development, social development and environmental protection—which must be established at local, national, regional and global levels.

Recommendations concerning education also appear in each of the action plans of the major United Nations conferences held after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development as well as in the three conventions (on biodiversity, climate change and diversification). For this reason, education can be seen as the cornerstone of sustainable development in all its dimensions.

  • Education for Sustainable Development represents a catalytic process for social change that seeks to foster—through education, training and public awareness—the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future. Thus, sustainable development can be seen not so much as a technical concept but as an educational one—not so much the end goal of a government policy but a process of learning how to think in terms of ‘forever’. This means that ESD involves learning how to make decisions that balance and integrate the long-term future of the economy, the natural environment and the well-being of all communities, near and far, now and in the future.
    Education for Sustainable Development is a visionary approach to education that seeks to help people better understand the world in which they live, and to face the future with hope and confidence, knowing that they can play a role in addressing the complex and interdependent problems that threaten our future such as poverty, wasteful consumption, environmental degradation, urban decay, population growth, gender inequality, health, conflict and the violation of human rights.
    The goals of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is to have this vision of education integrated into education plans at all levels and all sectors of education in all countries.
  • 7.1 B.C.Curricula Prescribed Learning Outcomes and K-12 Objectives
  • 7.2 Pan-Canadian Objectives of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada

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