NESP Digest: July 2020
As leaders of the National Ecosystem Services Partnership, we want to express our support for the widespread movements against systemic and institutionalized racism that have swept the world. Work in the ecosystem services space is intimately connected with issues of racial and social justice and as scholars and practitioners in this space, we must recognize that more often than not, delivery of ecosystem services is not equitable. This is not a new conversation—urban revitalization strategist Majora Carter discussed this very issue and the links between social, economic, and environmental degradation in a
TED talk
from 2006, and the environmental justice movement began in the 1980s with controversies around the country regarding the siting of landfills near communities of color. One of the more controversial of these sitings was in Warren County, NC—just three counties over from where we sit at Duke University. We commit to doing better to amplify these issues in the ecosystem services space and to better link with environmental justice spaces through this newsletter. We also pledge to bring the issues of racial justice more consciously and deliberately into our work and our reflections on the biases embedded in our institutions.
A recent
social media post
by environmentalist Leah Thomas provides a definition of intersectional environmentalism that is particularly poignant for NESP: “This is an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of people and the planet. It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality. Intersectional environmentalisms advocates for justice for people + the planet.” (Read a
commentary
by Thomas with more details.)
For those of us in the ecosystem services space, advocating for "people and the planet" sounds pretty familiar. But we need to make sure that includes the voices, concerns, and input of all people, not just a select, privileged few.
If you have items that you’d like to include in the next edition of the NESP Digest, please
send them to us
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Stay tuned for an upcoming NESP webinar panel on ecosystem services and equity
being planned for fall 2020.
NESP Resource: Online Toolkit for Natural Resource Managers
This new
online resource
provides an ecosystem services framework that is flexible while being standardized, intuitive, and credible. The toolkit is centered on a set of Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models (ESCMs) that offer an entry point for incorporating a suite of ecosystem services considerations into a program or project.
Watch a recording
of our June webinar that gave a tour of the toolkit and walked through examples of its use in forest and coastal ecosystems through joint projects with the U.S. Forest Service, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, and the Gulf Research Program.
NESP Webinar: Piloting Ecosystem Service Accounts for the Southeast U.S.
Watch a recording
of our May webinar that described the first effort to develop Ecosystem Accounts for the U.S. at a broad scale.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
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GRANTS AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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Job Opportunities:
Internship
. Geospatial Eco-Health Research. Environmental Protection Agency. Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
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NESP also maintains a listserv to help foster communication in the ecosystem services community. The address for this list is
nesp-community@duke.edu
. Please feel free to use this list to discuss ecosystem services issues or to exchange information about new papers, jobs, or grant opportunities.
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