Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Services Workshop

June 16-18, 2010

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Click here to read the workshop proceedings

On June 16-18th, 2010, the first Gulf wide Ecosystem Services Workshop was held  in Bay St. Louis, MS. There were a total of 31 attendees, representing different areas such as ecology, biology, economics, geology, and oceanography. Federal and state agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and academic institutions were represented.

HRI's Endowed Chairs Dr. Paul Montagna and Dr. David Yoskowitz and research specialist Carlota Santos were present. The last two, representing HRI's Socio-Economics group (SEG) were part of the workshop's organizing committee.

The goal of this workshop was to gain consensus on approaches, definition, and identification of ecosystem services in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMX) and the steps to be taken toward initiation of a case study.

Some of the workshop's outcomes were a common definition of ecosystem services (ES) and ES quantification, the identification of coastal ecosystems in the GoMX, and the major services those ecosystems provide in the GoMX.

The next steps will be to present the definitions and/or outcomes from the Workshop to the Alliance Management Team (Gulf of Mexico Alliance) for their consideration and to convene a workshop on ES quantification/valuation approaches. This workshop will focus on existing methods to measure ES monetary and non-monetary value. The approach chosen for assessing ES value is intended to make decision-making more complete and efficient.

Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Services Collaboratory (GOMESC) Workshop

January 14-15, 2010

Pensacola, Florida

The Socio-Economics Group helped organize the first Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Services Collaboratory (GOMESC) workshop at the EPA's Gulf Ecology Division in Gulf Breeze, Florida, held January 14-15.
The participants included HRI's Executive Director Dr. Larry McKinney, Endowed Chairs Dr. Paul Montagna and Dr. David Yoskowitz, and research specialist Carlota Santos.

Socio-Economics Group members attended a GOMA ecosystem workshop in Pensacola, Florida, January 14th-15th

The goals of the GOMESC are to promote the incorporation of ecosystem services (ES) and their values in resource management decisions affecting the Gulf of Mexico, and to be a catalyst for collaboration among state, federal, academic, non-profit, and business organizations.
The main purpose of the workshop was to explore approaches for implementing the Ecosystem Services Valuation Action from the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Action Plan II (pdf) . The Alliance valuation action plan is to determine socioeconomic values of critical coastal ecosystem services in the Gulf region. The steps include:

• Inventory the range of ecological services provided by coastal resources in the Gulf region.

• Determine the socioeconomic benefits these ecosystem services provide through pilot studies throughout the Gulf region.

• Develop procedures and tools for resource managers to use the benefit valuation in their decision-making processes.

So why is the valuation of ecosystem services important? The true value of ecosystem services is often not considered in coastal management decisions because the socioeconomic values of those services are unknown. Since a sustainable economy and high quality of life are dependent on healthy coastal ecosystems, a better understanding of the socioeconomic value of natural systems can lead to improved and more responsible societal decisions.

The workshop participants were representing both a wide range of expertise and the geographic and institutional diversity of the Gulf of Mexico. They worked collegially over a day and a half to produce a list of recommendations for incorporating Ecosystem Services (ES) values into decision-making for the Gulf coast. The recommendations were:

• Identify a specific policy case that would have relevance across the Gulf region, for example, wetland loss in coastal Louisiana.

• Convene a workshop to gain consensus on approaches, definition and identification of ES, and steps to be taken toward implementation and application of the test case.

• Identify the tools and develop the products necessary for application of ES values to the policy test case.

Some of the recommendations were already initiated and the following workshop is expected to take place in the beginning of June 2010 in Mississippi.