From Alliance to Action

Market mechanisms and putting a dollar value on nature: that’s what folks new to the ecosystem services field often assume it’s all about. But to my mind, market and valuation tools, while important additions to the conservation finance toolbox, do not tell the whole story.

The real power of an ecosystem services framework is its ability to bolster the case for conservation action by illuminating the multiple benefits we receive from Mother Nature. Nowhere is this more important than in urban and urbanizing regions.

As a program officer for the Bullitt Foundation, I’ve seen increasing interest in using ecosystem services concepts to strengthen advocacy in support of protecting regional open space resources and natural infrastructure. 

But in many urban regions a broad and encompassing open space agenda can be very difficult to plan and implement. There often is a fundamental misalignment between the need for regional scale, vision, and action, and the sad reality of fragmented governance and poor collaboration.

Things are different here in The Intertwine, where this kind of thinking is practically mainstream. The Intertwine Alliance works regionally across jurisdictions and connects the interests of disparate stakeholders. It has articulated a broad value proposition for protecting urban nature, from supporting biodiversity to managing storm water to improving public health outcomes.

If true regional collaboration is rare, as I have suggested, how has the conservation community across the Portland-Vancouver metro area come together around a common vision for urban green space? 

In my view, the answer is social capital; something that open space advocates here have been creating for more than three decades. The Intertwine Alliance builds on that strong foundation, very effectively diversifying and strengthening the public constituency for protection and stewardship of urban green space. With more than 100 Intertwine Partners now listed on the masthead, progress on this front is unmistakable.

Which brings me to one last word: Synergy. My online Google dictionary defines synergy as: “the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.”

The Intertwine Alliance is unique in its willingness to embrace a large and diverse urban region, and its commitment to safeguarding open space for the wide range of ecosystem service benefits it provides. Perhaps most importantly, it offers our community an opportunity to discover the power of synergy as we craft a common vision and magnify our collective impact.

I believe the most exciting part of our work has just begun. We’ll hear more about this at the Intertwine Spring Summit. I’ll see you there!