
Ecosystem services are the “ecosystem functions that are useful to humans.”1 Agricultural landscapes in Vermont can be managed to enhance ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, climate regulation, biodiversity, and cultural identity. Compensating farmers for providing these additional benefits to society beyond food production via a payment for ecosystem services (PES) program would financially recognize farmers’ contributions to meeting pressing environmental goals such as the Lake Champlain Basin Total Maximum Daily Load plan, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and flood resilience, and also enhance the viability of farms committed to environmental stewardship. However, creating a viable PES program to make transformative change will require policy and regulatory changes and new sources of capital, as well as technological, programmatic, and market developments that do not currently exist.
Due to the initiative of farmer-led Watershed Coalitions and UVM Extension, in 2019 the Vermont Legislature established a Soil Conservation Practices and Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group, which focused on soil health as the foundation to multiple ecosystem services. Designing a PES program which balances the goals and needs of all stakeholders is challenging. Multiple efforts are underway to determine what to measure, how to measure, how to structure payments, and how to balance efficiency with fairness, while allowing farmers the flexibility to innovate and adapt.
Adoption of agricultural best management practices across the state of Vermont could sequester 50,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.