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For more than a decade, the ß÷ßäÉçÇø government, landowners and producers, and other stakeholders have expressed an interest in using market-based instruments (MBIs) to protect and steward the province’s land, air, and water. MBIs are designed to align financial interests with environmental and social policy objectives.

Recent policy initiatives include a new industrial carbon pricing model to incentivize Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER). Similarly, the ß÷ßäÉçÇø Wetland Policy requires that proponents of activities that would negatively alter a wetland offset the environmental harm by creating a comparable benefit, and the ß÷ßäÉçÇø Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) provides a legislative framework to enable conservation offsets and the trade of development credits.

Despite the clear interest in MBIs, however, they have not been used in ß÷ßäÉçÇø to their full potential, in part due to relative inexperience, legal uncertainty, and lack of sustained political momentum. In particular, ß÷ßäÉçÇø still lacks a working market for credits in ecosystem services, which could be used to promote healthy natural habitats, reclaim abandoned oil wells, protect our watersheds, and more.

The ß÷ßäÉçÇø Land Institute is pleased to release our study, The Application of Property Rights in Ecosystem Service Markets.

This report provides a rigorous examination of the background, the potential and the regulatory limitations to using market-based tools in ß÷ßäÉçÇø. It fills important knowledge gaps and charts a positive course toward the creation of a market in ecosystem service credits. The report covers:

• A current assessment of ecosystem service markets and other MBIs around the world
• Five characteristics of successful ecosystem service credits systems
• A legal and economic characterization of property rights in ecosystem service credits, including opportunities and limitations in ß÷ßäÉçÇø
• A template of a regulatory framework to enable a working market in ecosystem service credits
• Ecosystem service markets hold huge potential for addressing some of ß÷ßäÉçÇø’s most pressing environmental concerns, while remaining attuned to our economic challenges.

Click the link to download the full report, The Application of Property Rights in Ecosystem Service Markets.