A Report on Ecosystem Services for the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust:

A Report on Ecosystem Services for the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust:

Nicholas Weissflog

Haliburton Highlands Land Trust

Tom Whillans, Environmental Science & Studies

TP-666

2013

Haliburton County

Environmental Science/Studies
Ecological Restoration

This paper has been put together for the purpose of providing an understanding of the concept of ecosystem services, how ecosystems within Haliburton provide ecosystem services, and methods for the valuation of ecosystem services as well as the implications of applying current valuation methods. Ecosystem services can be a powerful tool for integrating environmental values into a language more compatible with that spoken by policy makers. However, a certain amount of caution should be used when viewing the numbers which come out of the valuation process as often the value of ecological functions is underestimated. Challenges to applying ecosystem service within Haliburton include: the lack of research on the ecosystem services within Haliburton County, and the poor transferability of service values from studies in other regions. If the Land Trust were to move forward with assessing ecosystem services or with facilitating their assessment with local government, a framework would need to be created in order to make the move effective.