OMB has told agencies to promote consideration of ecosystem services—which it defined as benefits that accrue from nature such as the production of food and timber, life-support processes such as water purification, and life-fulfilling benefits such as recreation—in their planning, investments and regulations.
OMB memo 16-01 says this can be accomplished “through a range of qualitative and quantitative methods to identify and characterize ecosystem services, affected communities’ needs for those services, metrics for changes to those services and, where appropriate, monetary or nonmonetary values for those services.”
“An ecosystem-services approach can: (1) more completely inform planning and decisions, (2) preserve and enhance the benefits provided by ecosystems to society, (3) reduce the likelihood of unintended consequences, and, (4) where monetization is appropriate and feasible, promote cost efficiencies and increase returns on investment,” it says.
The memo provides direction for program and planning activities including those such as natural-resource management and land-use planning, climate-adaptation planning and risk-reduction efforts, and analyses of federal and federally-assisted programs. For example, it said, “should an agency’s analysis require consideration of costs, the agency should consider ecosystem-services assessment methods, where appropriate and feasible.”
