July 22, 2011

The federal government should launch a series of efforts to assess thoroughly the condition of U.S. ecosystems and the social and economic value of the services those ecosystems provide, according to a new report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

"It is common wisdom in business that economic growth depends on regular inventories of capital and assets, along with assessments of risks. Given that so much of our Nation's economy is underpinned by our ecosystems, it is only sensible to periodically take an accounting of our environmental capital and assess the risks to it,"  said SNRE Dean Rosina M. Bierbaum, PCAST member and co-chair of the working group that led the study. "Such assessments will greatly inform public policy concerning these assets."

The report recommends that the nation apply modern informatics technologies to the vast stores of biodiversity data already collected by various federal agencies in order to increase the usefulness of those data for decision- and policy-making.

"Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy" notes that a tremendous amount of economic activity is underpinned by the nation's ecosystems and the biodiversity they contain, and that the federal government—as part of its larger responsibility to strengthen the economy and improve Americans' quality of life—has an important role to play in the stewardship of this environmental capital.

It also concludes, however, that the Nation lacks a careful accounting of the services provided by ecosystems and the condition of many environments that support these ecosystems. As a result, PCAST recommends that the Federal government institute and fund a Quadrennial Ecosystems Services Trends (QuEST) Assessment, which would draw upon ongoing monitoring programs as well as newly recommended activities to identify trends related to ecosystem sustainability and possible policy responses.

Read the full release (with links to full report)