Environmental services markets : farm bill proposals

The Resource Environmental services markets : farm bill proposals

Label

Environmental services markets : farm bill proposals

Title remainder

farm bill proposals

Statement of responsibility

Renée Johnson

Language

eng

Summary

Environmental goods and services are the benefits society obtains from the environment and ecosystems, both natural and managed, such as water filtration, flood control, provision of habitat, carbon storage, and many others. Farmer participation in providing these types of goods and services began in earnest in the 1990s with the development of watershed approaches incorporating nutrient credit trading and wetlands mitigation banking, as well as the more recent development of voluntary carbon credit markets. These efforts have triggered further interest in the possibility of developing market and trading opportunities for farmers and landowners as a source of environmental offsets. These services would be in addition to the food and fiber services traditionally supplied by the agriculture and forestry sectors. Congress is expressing growing interest in developing such market- based approaches to complement existing federally supported programs that promote conservation in the farm and forestry sectors, as well as to complement existing and/or emerging environmental regulations or natural resource requirements that may affect the agriculture and forestry sectors. In May 2007, the House Agriculture Committee released its proposal for the conservation title for the 2007 farm bill, which included draft language on market- based approaches to conservation. The Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research held a markup on these and other provisions on May 22, 2007. The committees proposal would establish an Environmental Services Standards Board, chaired by USDA with the participation of other identified federal partners. This proposal would provide contracts, cooperative agreements, and grants to develop consistent standards and processes for quantifying environmental benefits from the farm and forestry sectors, thus facilitating the further development of private sector markets for environmental services from farmers and landowners. This proposal follows a similar recommendation by the Bush Administration included in its broader 2007 farm bill proposal, which would also establish a Standards Board and develop uniform standards for agriculture- and forestry-based environmental services. This provision is one of the main components of the Administrations overall recommendations for the conservation title of the 2007 farm bill, along with other proposals that seek to enhance conservation programs in the farm bill. Among the possible questions that may emerge as this proposal becomes part of the 2007 farm bill debate are: Can agricultural interests effectively provide environmental services along with traditional food and forestry services? What is the role of the federal Standards Board and the role of the lead federal agency? How would collaboration work between various participating federal agencies? How would the agreed-upon decisions and standards set by the board work within existing regulatory authorities? Would uniform standards be national, regional, local, or site- specific in scope? How would uniform standards address differences within different production areas, types of resources, and ecosystems? Given the wide range in the types of environmental services, how would outcomes or benefits be measured and expressed as standards? What role should federal agencies play in establishing environmental services markets?

Cataloging source

EJB

Government publication

federal national government publication

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

CRS report for Congress

Series volume

RL34042

Context

Context of Environmental services markets : farm bill proposals

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Context

Work of