Ecosystem Services and Conservation

Stanford researchers are continually expanding our knowledge of the links between human well-being and healthy ecosystems. Woods advances these efforts by supporting interdisciplinary researchers as well as centers and programs like the Natural Capital Project (NatCap). This joint venture of the Stanford Woods Institute, The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment develops new science and open-source software tools for quantifying nature’s values and assessing trade-offs associated with alternative land and water use choices. These tools help integrate conservation and human development into land and water use and investment decisions. NatCap's model engages leaders in key government agencies and corporations in the U.S. and abroad to ensure that information produced is immediately relevant for decisions. The project provides these decision-makers with cutting-edge research, a network of support, and practical approaches and tools to create solutions that benefit people and nature. Read on for highlights from the work researchers with NatCap and other Woods centers and programs are doing to help businesses, governments and other institutions make informed decisions about nature's contributions to a thriving economy and healthy society.

In The News

From Whales to Waste: Costa Rica’s Community Residents Apply Geospatial Technologies to Solve Local Problems

Notes that Stanford's Osa & Golfito Initiative and the Caminos de Liderazgo Project have supported GPS workshops for Costa Rican...
June 3, 2015 - By Amy Work and Anne Haywood, Directions Magazine

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Big Animals are Going the Way of the Mammoth

Rodolfo Dirzo (Biology), a co-author of the study, states that humans will feel social and health consequences as well, in the form of higher...
May 24, 2015 - By Kerry Klein , San Jose Mercury News

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Restoring Threatened Mussels To Freshwater Could Cut E. Coli Contamination

Cites research findings by Senior Woods Fellow Alexandria Boehm (Engineering), Senior Woods Fellow Richard Luthy (Engineering), and Niveen Ismail, a...
January 29, 2015 - By Puneet Kollipara, Chemical & Engineering News

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The Monterey Bay catch is a bit of a mystery. And cheap. And delicious.

Senior Fellow Steve Palumbi, by courtesy, (Biology) discusses how choosing to eat mackerel is both an environmentally friendly and healthy choice.
January 22, 2015 - By Kera Abraham, http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2015/0122/the-monterey-bay-catch-is-a-bit-of-a-mystery/article_d1c6e3aa-a1ce-11e4-a8b4-43f8ef0aee9c.html

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