What is the price of preservation?

In reviewing chapter 8 of Agenda 21, I began to wonder what the financial worth of preserving a Garry Oak meadow might be? I've talked on a fair bit about the social and environmental benefits of preserving the space....but what about the financial?

How does this relate to Agenda 21? Well, for those of you who are not familiar, Agenda 21 is a "comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment" (Ling C. Lecture notes. 2008). It was born from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992, and has since been adopted by more than 178 Governments(Ling C. Lecture notes. 2008).

The Agenda has several components or chapters to it, and the one which catalyzed this thought pattern was when we were reviewing Chapter 8 (Integrating Environment And Development In Decision-making) in class, which recommends:

(a) Integrating environment and development at the policy, planning and management levels;
(b) Providing an effective legal and regulatory framework;
(c) Making effective use of economic instruments and market and other incentives;
(d) Establishing systems for integrated environmental and economic accounting.

If a society is to "integrate environment and development at the policy, planning and management levels" as well as "establishing systems for integrated envrironmental and economic accounting" - how would this change the "value" of a park.

I think most people would agree, that a park has value - it provides a pleasant place for people to visit, pretty views for tourists and locals. Some folks even realize that they are kind of important for ecological purposes....but what is the true dollar value on a preserved ecosystem? Is it known? Better yet, is it ever recognized at the policy, planning or management levels? I'm not going to pretend for a moment that I have the financial skills to actually pull this off - at least not tonight!, but I think it is worth exploring some of the areas in which the value of a preserved ecosystem within a community might have an estimate-able dollar figure attached to it; and if a municipal, provincial or federal government where to take this value seriously, it might actually one day arise from the theoretical and in to the practical realm of policy, planning and management decisions.

Here are a few brainstormed areas that may be worth consideration in terms of valuing a park for more than just great pics for Beautiful BC magazine.

Air Quality: Easy one. Keep the trees and plants, clean the air. Also, by having a space that is not a producer of excess greenhouse gases i.e. there are no motorized vehicles in the area, no cattle grazing, industrial activity etc. it is reducing the input. What's this worth? Well, city's around the world are struggling to deal with air pollution, and the costs to health care, lost days of productivity to the workforce, remediation costs, infrastructure band-aids such as proper ventillation etc. are huge.

Water Quality: Clean water is one of the bonuses of preserving a forest. Water is not permitted to runoff to the rivers and oceans like it does when an area is paved. Precipitation is slowed down, filtered and stored. What's this worth? Think of how much municipalities spend on treating, shipping or buying water to supply a region. As water becomes more scarce globally, its worth increases. It's essential to life and it has a price tag. Clean water also equates to good health, and the costs there are enourmous. Without it, our hospitals would be over-run with disease and the costs would be astronomical.

Physical Health: Admittedly, I touched on this in the above two points of air and water. Parks also encourage walking and exercise. Our over-fed/under-exercised society is creating huge costs on the health care system in obesity-related issues alone. What's this worth?Alot. Including more parks into planning, effectively gets more people biking, hiking, walking, running...etc. This equals less cardiac disease, less stress related disease, lowered blood pressure, increased metabolism, better digestion....the list goes on. Huge savings to the health system.

Mental Health: More people in nature means more people talking to one another. You just can't communicate like this in traffic! As well, the calming effects that walking in nature has on the mind tends to make people more peaceful. What's this worth? Well, more peaced-out folks means less fights, violence, anger....essentially a significantly decreased policing bill for a community!

Pest management (birds): More habitat for birds means more birds keeping pest populations in check. this equals decreased costs in pesticides.
Food security: A healthier environment makes growing food easier (cleaner air, water, soil). It also keeps the plants propogated, because of more bees! That's worth something!
Waste water management: See clean water above. Municipalities spend tonnes in waste water treatment...


So anyway, you get the general idea...The aspect of financial sustainability in preserving a natural area has many benefits, however most of them are unrecognized in planning!