When harm to a stream or wetland is offset by restoring another, or habitat is protected in exchange for credits, someone has to measure what was lost and what was gained. Those measurements come from "quantification tools." A U.S. Geological Survey database, updated in 2022, gathers 107 of them in one public place.
What market-based conservation is
Market-based conservation uses economic incentives to encourage actions that avoid, minimize or make up for harm to natural resources. Examples include compensatory mitigation for aquatic resources such as streams, wetlands and estuaries, and biodiversity and habitat markets. Each depends on tools that assess the condition of a site before and after.
Many tools assess the quality and function of streams, estimating how much they are impaired or improved. Credit: Ryan Hagerty, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
What is in the database
The 107 tools together assess at least 34 species and 39 habitat types. Information came from the tool owners' websites and documents — user guides, forms, spreadsheet calculators and methods papers — and from the experts who built or manage each tool, who also checked it for accuracy.
| Category | Attributes recorded |
|---|---|
| General | description, conservation mechanism, market type, intended users, skill level needed, cost, year finalized, documents and websites, contacts, funding sources, developers and owners |
| Technical | whether new or field data are needed, number of inputs, data platform, site assessment time, output type, mapping needs, whether adverse impacts are assessed, update schedule |
| Ecological and geographic | focal habitats and taxa, where it is used, transferability, number of spatial scales, risks to site viability, whether connectivity and species presence or abundance are included |
Declines of the monarch butterfly led to many conservation efforts, including a tool that assesses habitat suitability for the species. Credit: Grayson Smith, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Why it helps
- Transparency. Practitioners can see what each tool is for and how it works — something many assessment methods have lacked — which can help conservation markets spread.
- Finding gaps. Seeing all the tools together shows which species, habitats and regions have none.
- Avoiding duplication. Developers can check whether a tool like the one they are planning already exists.
Wetlands, like streams, are a common focus, with tools estimating wetland quality before or after harm or restoration. Credit: Ryan Hagerty, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bog turtle, the smallest turtle in the United States, depends on spring-fed wetlands and is listed as federally threatened. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Getting the data
The database is free at doi:10.5066/F79G5M3X, as a formatted Excel workbook (the database plus two supporting worksheets) or as three CSV files, with a short guide to reading them.
Sources
Based on "Database of Biodiversity, Habitat, and Aquatic-Resource Quantification Tools Used in Market-Based Conservation — 2022 Update," U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2022–3068, a work of the United States government in the public domain. It cites Chiavacci and Pindilli (2020).
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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