Background

Tāne’s Tree Trust is part of a collaborative, inter-agency project valuing ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems on private land. The overall goal is to develop valuation frameworks specific to New Zealand - for assessing ecosystem quality and ecosystem services, particularly the economic benefits of improving the condition of ecosystems harbouring indigenous biodiversity. Ultimately, this will provide land managers with both the means and incentives to quantify economic values associated with sustaining and improving the condition of natural ecosystems on private land.

The project was initiated largely due to increased interest in green financing, voluntary biodiversity credit markets and other financial incentives for landowners to conserve, protect and restore natural biodiversity on private land – and the need for robust assessment systems.

This project is funded by a MPI SFFF grant, Pāmu (Landcorp), and The Tindall Foundation.

The project aims to:

1. Develop a framework and methodology to assess the relative quality of selected ecosystems – starting with wetlands, indigenous forest, and streams.
2. Develop methodology to quantify the monetary value provided by ecosystem services in a pilot study across several Pāmu Landcorp farm units in Northland.
3. Identify and implement activities that improve the condition and quality (natural capital) of selected ecosystems - and quantify the benefits provided by these activities in a pilot study on Pāmu Landcorp farm units in Northland.
4. Develop robust, but readily usable, web-based tools for assessment of ecosystems before and after intervention. This will allow land managers (or outside agents) to assess sites and translate environmental data into tangible, on-farm actions for improving ecological integrity – to satisfy financial lending organisations and voluntary biodiversity credit markets.

Progress to date and next steps

Rapid Assessment Forms (RAFs) have been developed and tested for wetlands, indigenous forest, and streams. These RAFs are designed to help land managers (or those helping them) assess ecological quality of ecosystems, and provide a ‘benchmark’ to gauge progress over time. Nearby reference sites (with as close to pristine ecosystems as could be found locally) were identified and assessed as benchmarks.

The RAFs have been tested to see how well they correlate with more rigorous, standardised ecological assessments. Management activities (fencing, pest and weed control, etc) have been, or are being, implemented to improve the condition of selected ecosystems. The degree to which these activities enhance ecosystem services is being quantified in economic terms.

The next step is the development of a prototype tool for land managers (and those assisting them) for assessments of ecosystem quality before and after improvements. It will be a fine line between developing an assessment tool that is robust enough to correlate well with the more rigorous, standardised ecological assessments developed by ecologists, and having a tool that is readily usable by land managers (or those helping them) on the ground.

Robin Sallis is now working on a prototype web-based tool for native forest assessment, using the RAF that we have developed. This prototype will need to be independently tested. Web-based tools will also be developed for streams and wetland assessments. Robin has a proven track record in development of web-based tools and he has a special interest in working with organisations in the not-for-profit and conservation sectors. Robin was instrumental in the development of TTT’s native forest toolkit - https://toolkit.tanestrees.org.nz/

A substantive paper was provisionally accepted for the Restoration Ecology journal. The lead writer was project leader Dr Clint Cameron. The paper provided evidence to show that the RAF for native forest ecosystems is accurate and robust when measured against standard quantitative metrics. This should help shore up the evidence base needed for sustainable lending.

Other publications are in the pipeline. The wetland and streams RAFs and comparative quantitative analyses will be turned into manuscripts for publication. Note all the RAFs will continue to evolve and be refined.

Also, Rhiannon Warren and her masters supervisor Professor Bruce Burns - who are part of the project team - are working on turning her thesis into a manuscript for submission to the NZ Journal of Ecology. Her MSc thesis was titled ‘Dynamics of woolly nightshade and native plant succession in Northland retired pasture environments’.

This research had surprising results, indicating that Solanum mauritianum (woolly nightshade) has potential as a nurse species in the succession towards native forest. However, some woolly nightshade stands exhibited increased regeneration of other invasive species, indicating the need for management to prevent non-native dominance. And while woolly nightshade can support native regeneration, its persistent seedbank, prolific fruiting, and flammability pose ecological risks. Also, the fine hairs on its leaves and stems can be an irritant and cause respiratory problems, and the berries are moderately toxic to people and livestock.

These findings emphasise the importance of adaptive management that balances the potential benefits of woolly nightshade (as a nurse species) with active control measures to support native forest restoration in New Zealand.

Matt Funaki, a PhD student, is also part of the project team. His PhD work involves valuing ecosystem services of wetlands on farms. This includes direct measures and economic valuation of regulatory ecosystem services - flood mitigation, sediment, nutrient and E.coli attenuation.

For more information contact: Mel Ruffell - [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]