Assessment objectives

The outcome for the pilot was established as the following: “the development and operationalization of an ES Approach to provide a tool to enhance decision making”. The ES Approach developed for the Alberta context provides a framework to help identify and quantify - qualitatively, quantitatively and monetarily - the benefits provided by wetland ecosystems. In addition to the outcome, two objectives were established by the project steering committee, with a third captured from the ES pilot project charter:
• Test and demonstrate how an ES Approach can be used to support decision making by explicitly demonstrating the tradeoffs between development and ES benefits provided by wetlands; • Support wetland management in the province by providing additional information to support potential compensation decisions related to land-use development; and • Identify information and capacity gaps for ES assessment to support future ES work.

Mandate for the assessment

The Ecosystem Services (ES) program within Alberta Environment and Water (AEW) has been advancing the use of an ES approach within the Department and Government of Alberta since 2007. The Ecosystem Services approach Pilot on Wetlands (ES pilot) is part of the department’s 10-year ES road map; its completion and results are considered a progression in understanding and applying an ES approach to support decision making.

Conceptual framework and/or methodology used for the assessment

Other (please specify)

1) Ash, N., Blanco, H., Brown, C., Garcia, K., Henrichs, T., Lucas, N., Raudsepp-Hearne, C., Simpson, R.D., Scholes, R., Tomich, T.P., Vira, B., and Zurek, M. 2010. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: a Manual for Assessment Practitioners. Island Press. and 2) Ranganathan, J., Bennett, K., Raudsepp-Hearne, C., Lucas, N., Irwin, F., Zurek, F., Ash, N. and West, P. 2008. Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision makers. World Resources Institute. Accessed online: http://www.wri.org/publication/ecosystem-services-a-guide-for-decision makers

URL or copy of conceptual framework developed or adapted

We further developed our own conceptual framework for ES assessments. It is available on page 9 of this ES pilot report on Operationalizing an ES Approach within the Government of Alberta found at: http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/posting.asp?assetid=8683&searchtype=asset&txtsearch=ecosystem services

Our Ecosystem Services Cascade Diagram
MasterEcosystemCascadesDiagram_1.5_20110705.pdf

System(s) assessed

• Inland water
• wetlands

Species groups assessed

wetlands and wetland complexes

Provisioning

• Water

Regulating

• Climate regulation
• Regulation of water flows
• Regulation of water quality
• Waste treatment
• Pollination

Supporting Services/Functions

Cultural Services

• Recreation and tourism

Drivers of change in systems and services

Yes

Impacts of change in services on human well-being

Yes

Options for responding/interventions to the trends observed

No

Explicit consideration of the role of biodiversity in the systems and services covered by the assessment

No

Year assessment started

2010

Year assessment finished

2011

If ongoing, year assessment is anticipated to finish

Periodicity of assessment

One off

Website(s)

Please find a link to the 9 related ES reports for this pilot (local scale) and 4 previous ES reports for the southern region of Alberta (regional scale): http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/listing.asp?page=1&searchtype=asset&txtsearch=ecosystem services

Report(s)

Overall Integrated Assessment Report
20120110_ES_Results_Report_FINAL.pdf

Communication materials (e.g. brochure, presentations, posters, audio-visual media)

2 page brief on Alberta ES pilot on wetlands
20110421_ES_Pilot_Two-Pager_FINAL.pdf

Journal publications

do not have any

Training materials

The Master Cascade Diagram for ES pilot
MasterEcosystemCascadesDiagram_1.5_20110705.pdf

Other documents/outputs

Tools and approaches used in the assessment

• Modelling
• Trade-off analysis
• Geospatial analysis
• Indicators
• Economic valuation
• Social (non-monetary) valuation
• stakeholder workshop
• quarterly interviews with key decision-makers

Process used for stakeholder engagement in the assessment process and which component

As this pilot was focused on filling gaps within the current wetland approvals process we focused largely on the decision-makers responsible for the wetland approvals process.

Key stakeholder groups engaged

We held a stakeholder workshop in summer 2011 with a focus on understanding their perspectives on ES and wetlands generally and cultural services specifically.

We engaged: academics, developers, ENGO groups, municipal and provincial government staff, wetland groups like DUC, landowners, agriculture. We attempted to engage first nations but they were unavailable.

The number of people directly involved in the assessment process

10-100

Incorporation of scientific and other types of knowledge

• Resource experts (e.g. foresters etc)
• Traditional/local knowledge
• Citizen science
• biological/ ecological and social science
• wetland experts
• Government of Alberta staff working on wetland approvals

Supporting documentation for specific approaches, methodology or criteria developed and/or used to integrate knowledge systems into the assessment

The ES pilot had a Core Team that met weekly and lead the various sub-teams (biophysical, Socio-econ, Socio-cultural, communication/ outreach and evaluation. It was a Core Team task to deal with integration overall including knowledge systems. There was a learn as we go approach; however one thing we spent a lot of time was on the Master Cascade Diagram to ensure the entire team built a common understanding of the the process and intended outputs.

We followed Ash et al, 2010 as a guide for incorporating information and knowledge.

More details on our process can be found within the Ecosystem Services Approach Pilot on Wetlands report on Operationalizing an ES Approach within the Government of Alberta found at: http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/posting.asp?assetid=8683&searchtype=asset&txtsearch=ecosystem services

Ecosystem Services Approach Pilot on Wetlands report on Operationalizing an ES Approach within the Government of Alberta

Assessment reports peer reviewed

Yes

Accessibility of data used in assessment

The amount of data used in this pilot was enormous. Some of the data was obtained through licence agreement and Information Exchange Memorandum and therefore can not be shared widely. However a list of all data inputs can be found on page 62 of this ES pilot report on Operationalizing an ES Approach within the Government of Alberta found at: http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/posting.asp?assetid=8683&searchtype=asset&txtsearch=ecosystem services

Impacts the assessment has had on policy and/or decision making, as evidenced through policy references and actions

Recommendations by the Steering Committee and accepted by our Alberta Environment executive sponsor are to first develop the rapid wetland assessment tool WESPUS (Wetland Ecosystem Services Protocol for the United States) for southern Alberta to be of use to both municipal and provincial government staff responsible for wetland approvals.

Another recommendation was to share our learning's and information with the Alberta Wetland Policy team, charged with developing a new provincial wetland policy to update the 1993 Interim Wetland Policy that was only for the White Zone of the province.

Third the ES team is furthering work to see how the results and processes can be integrated into current wetland approvals work in southern Alberta and eventually to have these discussions across the province if there is interest.

Independent or other review on policy impact of the assessment

Yes

Lessons learnt for future assessments from these reviews

Please refer to the following two documents for lessons learned: 1) Ecosystem Services Approach Pilot on Wetlands report on Operationalizing an ES Approach within the Government of Alberta found at: http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/posting.asp?assetid=8683&searchtype=asset&txtsearch=ecosystem services 2) Page 78-84 of the Ecosystem Services Approach Pilot on Wetlands: Integrated Results Report at http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/posting.asp?assetid=8493&searchtype=asset&txtsearch=ecosystem services

Capacity building needs identified during the assessment

Capacity building was an explicit objective of the pilot and within the ES program. It is a central part of our 10 year Ecosystem Services Roadmap for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Department.

There were many capacity building needs identified. The major observations relevant for future Ecosystem Services (ES) projects are that the field of ES is very new, still evolving and there is limited expertise available in the world as well as within the Government of Alberta. These features mean ES projects will run somewhat less efficiently than similar sized projects in other fields, and that special efforts will be needed to build in-house capacity and maintain communication among participants and stakeholders. ES is a broad approach that includes many tools which can be used for different tasks at different scales. There are many useful ES studies that could be undertaken at a smaller scale than this project. If future ES projects continue at scales similar to this one, evaluation and communication steps could be integrated more directly into project management.

Actions taken by the assessment to build capacity

Network and sharing experiences, Access to funding, Sharing of data/repatriation of data, Workshops, Developing/promoting and providing access to support tools, Formal training, Communication and awareness raising

How have gaps in capacity been communicated to the different stakeholders

The ES pilot team was very open about the pilot nature of this work and the limits of experience and knowledge. We formally had a communication release that noted the learning nature of this work and each report on our website as a disclaimer about the limitations of knowledge, capacity and data. We developed a Lessons Learned report to enable others interested in using an ES approach to learn from our experience.

Gaps in knowledge identified from the assessment

There were many. Each of the reports on our website note the limitations in data, knowledge and capacity for that specific sub-teams work. In addition the Integrated Assessment report and the Lessons Learned report enable others interested in using an ES approach to learn from our experience.

How gaps in knowledge have been communicated to the different stakeholders

The ES pilot team was very open about the pilot nature of this work and the limits of experience and knowledge. We formally had a communication release that noted the learning nature of this work and each report on our website as a disclaimer about the limitations of knowledge, capacity and data.

We developed a Lessons Learned report to enable others interested in using an ES approach to learn from our experience.