IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0285139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the size and growth of the US wetland and stream compensatory mitigation industry

Author

Listed:
  • Todd K BenDor
  • Joungwon Kwon
  • T William Lester

Abstract

Interest has focused on quantifying the size and scope of environmental markets, particularly those that offset ecosystem impacts or restore natural infrastructure to improve habitat or promote clean air and water. In this paper, we focus on the US wetland and stream compensatory mitigation market, asking: what types of firms make up the mitigation “industry”? What are the economic impacts–i.e., the “size”–of the mitigation industry? How has this industry changed over time? We present the results of a national survey of mitigation firms and construct an input-output model of the industry’s economic impacts and employment. We also develop a comparative, 2014 model of the industry using data from a previous study of the broader, ecological restoration economy. Our findings suggest that the (2019, pre-COVID) mitigation industry collects annual revenues (direct economic impacts) in excess of $3.5 billion, which, along with additional indirect (supply chain) and induced (spillover) economic impacts, combine to over $9.6 billion in total output and support over 53,000 total jobs. We estimate 2014–2019 growth of ~35.2 percent in revenues, ~32.6 percent in total economic impacts, and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.25%. This places the mitigation industry within the range of other, well-established industries within the technical services sector. We suggest establishing North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes specifically for ecological restoration and mitigation firms, an essential step in generating accurate and consistent employment estimates in the future, particularly at sub-national geographic scales.

Suggested Citation

  • Todd K BenDor & Joungwon Kwon & T William Lester, 2023. "Assessing the size and growth of the US wetland and stream compensatory mitigation industry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(9), pages 1-20, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0285139
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285139
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285139
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285139&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0285139?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Watson, Philip & Wilson, Joshua & Thilmany, Dawn D. & Winter, Susan, 2007. "Determining Economic Contributions and Impacts: What is the difference and why do we care?," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 37(2), pages 1-7.
    2. Noel Roy & Ragnar Arnason & William E. Schrank, 2009. "The Identification of Economic Base Industries, with an Application to the Newfoundland Fishing Industry," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(4), pages 675-691.
    3. Charles A. Taylor & Hannah Druckenmiller, 2022. "Wetlands, Flooding, and the Clean Water Act," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1334-1363, April.
    4. Joseph William Bull & Niels Strange, 2018. "The global extent of biodiversity offset implementation under no net loss policies," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(12), pages 790-798, December.
    5. Todd K. BenDor & Sierra Woodruff, 2014. "Moving Targets and Biodiversity Offsets for Endangered Species Habitat: Is Lesser Prairie Chicken Habitat a Stock or Flow?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-10, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philippe Le Coent & Coralie Calvet, 2016. "Challenges of achieving biodiversity offsetting through agri-environmental schemes: evidence from an empirical study," Working Papers 16-10, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier.
    2. Calvet, Coralie & Le Coent, Philippe & Napoleone, Claude & Quétier, Fabien, 2019. "Challenges of achieving biodiversity offset outcomes through agri-environmental schemes: Evidence from an empirical study in Southern France," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 113-125.
    3. Sebastian Theis & Mark Poesch, 2024. "Mitigation bank applications for freshwater systems: Control mechanisms, project complexity, and caveats," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(2), pages 1-22, February.
    4. Nadreau, Timothy P. & Fortenbery, T. Randall, 2020. "Odessa Sub-area Potato Production & Processing Impacts Under an Irrigation-Water Shortage," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 18(2), December.
    5. Mutlu, Asli & Roy, Debraj & Filatova, Tatiana, 2023. "Capitalized value of evolving flood risks discount and nature-based solution premiums on property prices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    6. Watson, Philip & Cooke, Stephen & Kay, David & Alward, Greg & Morales, Alfonso, 2017. "A Method for Evaluating the Economic Contribution of a Local Food System," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 42(2), May.
    7. Lin, Yatang & McDermott, Thomas K.J. & Michaels, Guy, 2024. "Cities and the sea level," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Susana Ferreira, 2024. "Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change: Economic Impacts and Adaptation Policies," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 207-231, October.
    9. Reynaert, Mathias & Souza-Rodrigues, Eduardo & van Benthem, Arthur A., 2024. "The environmental impacts of protected area policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Sponagel, Christian & Bendel, Daniela & Angenendt, Elisabeth & Weber, Tobias Karl David & Gayler, Sebastian & Streck, Thilo & Bahrs, Enno, 2022. "Integrated assessment of regional approaches for biodiversity offsetting in urban-rural areas – A future based case study from Germany using arable land as an example," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    11. Drechsler, Martin, 2021. "On the cost-effective temporal allocation of credits in conservation offsets when habitat restoration takes takes time and is uncertain," MPRA Paper 108209, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Marcus Roller, 2023. "Estimation of direct net effects of events," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(6), pages 1577-1597, September.
    13. Elena G. Irwin & Andrew M. Isserman & Maureen Kilkenny & Mark D. Partridge, 2010. "A Century of Research on Rural Development and Regional Issues," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(2), pages 522-553.
    14. English, Leah & Popp, Jennie & Miller, Wayne, "undated". "Do Contribution of Agriculture Procedures Differ Across States? A Survey of Methodological Approaches Used by Economists," Staff Papers 330473, University of Arkansas, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.
    15. Charles A. Taylor & Geoffrey Heal, 2021. "Fertilizer and Algal Blooms: A Satellite Approach to Assessing Water Quality," NBER Chapters, in: Risks in Agricultural Supply Chains, pages 83-105, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Gore, Madison & Joshi, Omkar & Chapagain, Binod & Poudyal, Neelam C. & York, Betsey, 2023. "An analysis of economic benefits from wildlife management areas in Oklahoma," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    17. repec:osf:socarx:gjps6_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Katie Devenish & Sébastien Desbureaux & Simon Willcock & Julia P. G. Jones, 2022. "On track to achieve no net loss of forest at Madagascar’s biggest mine," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(6), pages 498-508, June.
    19. John M. McGrath & David Primm & William Lafe, 2017. "Heritage tourism’s economic contribution," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(5), pages 1131-1137, August.
    20. Johanna Kangas & Markku Ollikainen, 2023. "Behavioural and Welfare Analysis of an Intermediary in Biodiversity Offset Markets," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(4), pages 1127-1154, April.
    21. Ren, Qianping & West, Jeremy, 2023. "Cleaner waters and urbanization," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0285139. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.