The Nature Conservancy - Mapping, Guidance and Decision Tools

Mapping, Guidance and Decision Tools

Great Rivers Center for Conservation and Learning is developing mapping, guidance and decision tools to encourage others to integrate ecosystem services into conservation and river basin planning.

• In collaboration with University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, ecosystem services for 80 of the world’s great river systems are being analyzed. A computer model assesses five services, including climate regulation, crop yield, flood regulation, water quality and carbon storage. The initial analysis indicates protecting high-quality natural areas within river basins is critical to ensuring people continue to receive benefits that are vital to their livelihoods.

• Through a partnership with IBM, a powerful decision support system is being created to reveal how policy decisions impact a river’s water quality, ecosystem services and diversity of life. The goal is to facilitate and encourage sustainable river management by showing stakeholders how policy decisions result in tradeoffs among food production, water quality, biodiversity, and other common uses of large river basins. The tool will allow land and water managers to simulate and visualize how future decisions may impact the river system. It is being tested first in the Paraguay-Parana river system.

• In partnership with Stanford University and World Wildlife Fund, the Conservancy established the Natural Capital Project to develop and share tools that help others understand the value of ecosystem services and incorporate that value into resource decision-making. The goal is to increase conservation action on the ground.

• To support those working to conserve natural areas, the Conservancy is developing guidance on Assessing Opportunities for Ecosystem Service-based Conservation Strategies. It sets out a framework for evaluating the feasibility of ecosystem service-based approaches, highlighting key assessment steps and issues.

• In partnership with the World Resources Institute, the Conservancy is contributing to a handbook – Guide to Integrating Ecosystem Services into Economic and Development Decisions. The handbook will assist decision-makers in making ecosystem service considerations an integral part of policy and development decisions.

Erosion Gully in Cerrado Brazil near the headwaters of the Araguaia River

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