[Ecolunch] TODAY'S Ecolunch: Kai Chan, UBC

[Mary O'Connor]

Please join us for TODAY'S NCEAS Ecolunch seminar - a rare WEDNESDAY
ecolunch.

Protecting ecosystem services and biodiversity in the world¹s watersheds
Kai Chan
University of British Columbia

WEDNESDAY, August 26th, 12:15 PM

ABSTRACT: Despite unprecedented worldwide biodiversity loss, conservation is
not at the forefront of national or international development programs. The
concept of ecosystem services was intended to help conservationists
demonstrate the benefits of biodiversity for human well-being, but services
are not yet seen to truly address human need with current approaches
focusing mostly on financial gain from service provision. To promote
development strategies that integrate conservation and service protection,
we develop the first prioritization scheme for protecting ecosystem services
in the world's watersheds and compare our results with global conservation
schemes. We ask the following two principal questions: 1. Which watersheds
are high priorities for biodiversity conservation (according to several
prioritization schemes), water provision, flood mitigation, and carbon
storage? 2. What are the relationships between watershed rankings by these
various indices of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services?
 
We show that, by explicitly incorporating human need into prioritization
strategies, service-protection priorities are squarely focussed on the
world's poorest, most densely populated regions. We identify watersheds in
Southeast Asia and East Africa as the most crucial priorities for service
protection and biodiversity conservation, including Irrawaddy - recently
devastated by cyclone Nargis. Emphasising human need is a substantial
improvement over dollar-based, ecosystem-service valuations that undervalue
the requirements of the world's poor, and our approach offers great hope for
reconciling conservation and human development goals.



GENERAL INFORMATION: Ecolunches are Thursdays, at 12:15 pm (brown bag
lunch) National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State
St., Suite 300, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: (805) 892-2500

A schedule of upcoming Ecolunch seminars is available on the web at:
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecolunch

DIRECTIONS FROM UCSB BY BUS: You can get to NCEAS by taking the 11:40 a.m.
bus (#24x) from campus. From the transit center, walk one block east to
State Street and two blocks south to the Balboa Building at 735  State
Street. To return to campus, you can take the 1:30 p.m. bus (#24x) from
the transit station and be back on campus by 1:49 p.m. Or you can take the
2:20 p.m. bus and arrive on campus at 2:39.

BY CAR: take Highway 101 South. Once in Santa Barbara, exit on Carrillo
Street. Turn left onto Carrillo. Drive 5 blocks and turn right on State
Street. NCEAS is located on the right side at 735 State St., Suite 300. To
park: Drive past NCEAS on State Street and make your first right on Ortega
Street. Drive 1 block and turn right on Chapala Street. Park in the
underground Mall parking lot on your right. (First 75 minutes free). Once
you are at the Balboa Building: We are on the third floor in the lounge
area.
-- 
Mary O'Connor
Postdoctoral Associate
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
735 State Street, Suite 300
Santa Barbara, CA 93101-3351

Phone: 805-892-2522
Fax: 805-892-2510
oconnor at nceas.ucsb.edu
www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~oconnor