State of Science Review

Overview

In 2019, the Beaver Hills Biosphere Reserve Association initiated a wetland conservation and stewardship pilot project in the Biosphere to explore alternative approaches to wetland conservation and stewardship in ways that support both traditional and current cultural attributes of the Biosphere. Completed in 2020, the next step (phase two of a “state of” assessment) for the pilot project was to review the state of science as it relates to the assessment and management of wetland function and associated ecosystem services.

Objectives

A key goal of the pilot project, and the focus of phase two, was to provide: a general overview of the ecosystem service assessment process; examples of ecosystem services assessments that have been completed for wetlands in Alberta and elsewhere; recommendations for the types of condition and ecosystem service indicators that could be adopted by the Biosphere; a review of existing spatial data in the context of these recommendations; to support and inform the Wetland Conservation & Stewardship Pilot Project.

Outcomes

Ecosystem service assessments are increasingly being used by a wide range of organizations to inform policy development and implementation, as well as to focus conservation or management planning to improve outcomes. This project focused on summarizing and synthesizing the state of wetland science and ecosystem service assessments in the Biosphere and elsewhere, in addition to providing a summary and critique of the existing spatial data that may be leveraged as part of the Biosphere’s pilot program.