Through the Darwin Plus project Turks and Caicos Islands technical assistance programme for effective coastal-marine management (DPLUS119), JNCC, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR), and the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) are working together to improve the evidence base and build local capacity to support sustainable coastal and marine management approaches in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Work Package 1 is developing an asset register, asset-service matrix, and ecosystem service delivery maps. These are valuable tools for decision makers and communities managing their marine resources.
Background
Nature provides a wealth of essential goods and services which underpin people’s health, economic prosperity, security, and well-being. Therefore, nature is fundamentally valuable for sustaining our livelihoods and society. Natural capital refers to the stock of natural resources, or assets, found in a specific area. Natural assets include species, their habitats, and the natural process which interlink these. They provide provisioning, regulating, and cultural services to society, such as food provision, carbon storage capacity, resources for industry, and space for leisure. The natural capital approach provides the means to understand and include the economic, ecological, and social value of nature into decision-making processes, alongside nature’s inherent value.
Through Work Package 1, this project delivers natural capital-based management tools including a natural capital asset register, asset-service matrix, and ecosystem service delivery maps. These tools form the foundations for future work including the assessment of natural asset condition (e.g. the state of a species or habitat), development of marine indicators, and development of monitoring strategies for the coastal and marine environment of the Turks and Caicos Islands. These tools are valuable to decision makers and communities for managing natural resources.
This work builds upon the Darwin Initiative funded and eftec-led DPLUS108 Caribbean Overseas Territories Regional Natural Capital Accounting Programme.
Outputs
Work Package 1 is developing an asset register, asset-service matrix, and ecosystem service delivery maps.
Habitat Mapping and Asset Register Development
A natural capital asset register is an inventory of the natural assets in an area and constitutes the first step when completing a natural capital assessment. Work Package 1 has developed the first asset register for the shallow marine areas of the Turks and Caicos Islands by building on existing evidence, reviewing the scientific literature, and incorporating seabed habitat mapping. The asset register covers twelve seabed habitat classes, of which sand, sparse seagrass, and dense seagrass, were identified as the dominant habitat types and together account for over 80% of the shallow marine area surrounding the islands. The locations of the twelve habitat classes are shown in the benthic habitat map below.
Further information is available in JNCC Report No. 692: Developing an Asset Register for the Turks and Caicos Coastal-Marine Area.
Habitat map of the shallow waters surrounding the Turks and Caicos Islands and locations of marine protected areas. Created using satellite images and habitat definitions from Schill et al. (2020) and bathymetry data from GEBCO2014 (projection: Web Mercator, datum: World Geodatic System 1984, coordinate system: WGS84).
Asset-Service Matrix
An asset-service matrix demonstrates the links between natural assets, including habitats and species, and the ecosystem services that they provide. From the twelve marine habitat classes identified by the asset register, eight habitat assets were linked to sixteen services, and nine species assets were linked to seven services in the asset-service matrix, using evidence collated from the literature and expert judgement.
JNCC Report No. 692: Developing an Asset Register for the Turks and Caicos Coastal-Marine Area shows the ecosystem services linked to each identified habitat and species asset and the degree to which each asset contributes to this service (see Table 4).
Ecosystem Service Delivery Maps
Ecosystem service delivery maps show where specific services to society are delivered by natural assets and indicate whether it is delivered to a high, moderate, low, or negligible degree. Therefore, ecosystem service delivery maps can indicate the potential value of an area and highlight where many ecosystem services are provided by the same natural asset, such as seagrass beds. This information is useful to communities and decision-makers for coordinating coastal-marine management and maximising the value of management efforts.
By linking the benthic habitat maps and asset-service matrix, Work Package 1 has produced ‘potential’ ecosystem service delivery maps for three types of service in the Turks and Caicos Islands: regulating services, provisioning services, and cultural services. Figures 1–4 below map where two regulating services (carbon storage, and erosion and flood protection); one provisioning service (habitat provision for adult and juvenile groupers); and one cultural service (snorkelling activity), have the potential to be delivered.
The maps currently show the 'potential' for ecosystem service delivery because other factors, such as the condition of the natural assets, are still to be included. An assessment of natural asset condition is being undertaken through Work Package 2 and will contribute to the future development of the ecosystem service delivery maps as a coastal-marine management tool. You can find out more in JNCC Report No. 692: Developing an Asset Register for the Turks and Caicos Coastal-Marine Area (Figures 5–8).
Figures 1–4 (from left to right):
- The carbon storage potential of shallow marine habitats of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
- The erosion and flood protection potential of shallow marine habitats of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
- The habitat provision potential of shallow marine habitats of the Turks and Caicos Islands for juvenile grouper fish (top) and adult grouper fish (bottom).
- The snorkelling activity potential of shallow marine habitats of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Maps created using satellite images and habitat definitions from Schill et al. (2020) and bathymetry data from GEBCO2014 (projection: Web Mercator, datum: World Geodatic System 1984, coordinate system: WGS84).
Reporting
Work Package 1 outputs delivered to date include:
The following outputs will be published when delivered:
- Ecosystem Service Delivery Maps
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