Seeing PES: Monitoring Payments for Ecosystem Services Compliance using Earth Observations data

This talk will describe research and outreach to develop and implement a functioning Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) program to protect critical linkages in the Florida Wildlife Corridor and align funder priorities with Wildlife Corridor opportunities. PES programs compensate private landowners for provision of ecosystem services on their lands, including habitat connectivity, aquifer recharge, and water quality. The objective was to develop an additional mechanism for maintaining corridor-compatible land uses, while minimizing transaction costs and time, for situations in which conservation easements and land acquisitions cannot happen or cannot happen quickly enough.

Lands enrolled in PES required consistent, regular, accurate monitoring to ensure the continued provision of quality ecosystem services. New and innovative monitoring approaches include development of replicable frameworks for advanced monitoring and conservation prioritization actions through use of NASA Earth Observations. The specific ecosystems currently adopted in the pilot PES include habitat connectivity, water quality, and groundwater/aquifer recharge, all of which are supported through a variety of EO and in situ data. 

Integrating EO data with in situ data provides information to more efficiently evaluate and prioritize candidates for enrollment, and expands the use and effectiveness of landowner incentive programs like PES by reducing transaction costs and time. Improved, consistent initial measurements of habitat type and extent are achieved through the use of EO, supplemented where deemed appropriate with field work.  Ecosystem services changes that result from vegetation changes such as canopy height and structure changes are captured using EO data annually, at a fraction of the cost of in situ inspections. The EO data provides ongoing monitoring data for restoration projects for decision makers, researchers, land managers, and other stakeholders. 

The talk will describe how facilitating the integration of EO data into conservation decision-making has supported the sustainable use of decision-support tools for ecological conservation. We will share findings regarding the challenges and solutions presented by EO data in PES implementation, and ongoing research to expand ES and geographies included in the program.