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39 U. Queensland L.J. 503 (2020)
A Global Assessment of the Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services

handle is hein.journals/qland39 and id is 521 raw text is: 






A   GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF THE LAW AND

         POLICY OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

                         JB RUHL*  AND  JAMES SALZMAN'


     This article assesses the approaches that different national governments have
     employed to provide and conserve ecosystem services, focusing on policy instruments
     and common-law  court decisions. Applying the lessons learned from this review, we
     address strategies for conservation of mangrove ecosystem services in Australia,
     focusing on the importance of creating a strong political mandate and demonstrating
     a clear connection between mangrove conservation and the benefits provided by
     mangrove services. This requires further research on which beneficiaries would be
     harmed, and by how much, if the mangrove service flows are reduced. Policy uptake
     can be slow. It has taken years in other jurisdictions for policies protecting ecosystem
     services to be adopted, and this will likely be the path in Australia as well.


                               I  INTRODUCTION

Humanity   has always  benefited from  our environment.  Ecosystem   goods -  the
physical items that an ecosystem  provides  -  are obvious. We look to forests for
timber, and coastal marshes  for shellfish. Less visible, though no less important,
our environment also provides services.   These  ecosystem  services provide  the
conditions and processes  that sustain human  life.' If you doubt this, consider how
to grow an apple without  pollination, pest control or soil fertility.
     Once one  realises the importance of ecosystem services, three points quickly
emerge:  (1) landscapes provide a stream  of services ranging from  water quality
and  flood control  to climate  stability, the economic  value  of which  can  be
significant; (2) the vast majority  of these services  are public goods  and  not
exchanged   in markets, and so landowners   have little incentive to provide these
positive externalities; and (3) government   therefore needs  to think creatively
about policies to provide these services.



*    David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, Director, Program on Law and Innovation, and Co-
     Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, vanderbilt Law School.
f    Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law, joint appointment with the University
     of california, Los Angeles, Law School and the Bren School of Environmental Science &
     Management, University of California, Santa Barbara. This Article is based on presentations we
     made at the Workshop on Ecosystem Services and the Law, University of Queensland Law School,
     4 March 2020.
     See, eg, Gretchen C Daily (ed), Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (Island
     Press, 1997) 3.

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