Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project Area Ecosystem Services Valuation Assessment

Pimachiowin Aki Corp. is a non-profit organization working to establish a World Heritage Site within an area of about 40,000 square kilometers of intact boreal forest on the Ontario-Manitoba border. The non-profit group asked IISD to provide an estimate of the economic value of the services provided by Pimachiowin Aki's natural environments to both residents and non-residents.

While some spiritual and cultural benefits could not be easily valued in economic terms, ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, tourism, clean air and water resources do indeed have measureable economic value. The measurements are not exact, and, some benefits cannot be measured in dollar amounts, but using a valuation approach, the overall ecosystem service value provided by the Pimachiowin Aki was estimated to be approximately CDN$121.35 to $130.30 million per year.

A summary of the report (PDF - 2.2 mb) is also available.