We always knew that we get clean air from trees, biodiversity from bees, and power from the sun. But who knew we were getting a free ride?

This week, the David Suzuki Foundation in association with the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, unveiled an innovative report that puts a value on the ecoservices provided by Ontario’s Greenbelt. According to the report, the 1.8 million acre Greenbelt contributes $2.6 billion worth of ecoservices to the province each year. The Greenbelt was established to safeguard key environmentally sensitive land, watersheds, and farmlands that provide essential ecosystem services and quality of life for this densely populated area of Canada.

That’s $2.6 billion worth of ecoservices that the province is getting for free, and that puts a whole new perspective on what we are doing to the environment. What nature does for us can no longer be on the periphery. Assigning values to ecoservices like climate control, water filtration and flood protection can help us and our governments, city planners and developers understand how nature sustains us as well as our impact on the environment. Download Ontario's Wealth, Canada's Future here.

Typically, we undervalue our environment and the services it provides. I think it’s really important to look at different systems such as the Greenbelt and identify the services they provide to see what kind of value we get from our environment. It’s something people can relate to in terms of their daily lives.

With the upcoming elections, many people are wondering where the environment fits in. How does natural capital value help understand some election issues?

One of the major issues in the upcoming election is climate change and how we’re going to deal with it. The parties are quite different in their platforms on that issue. One of the key messages of the report is that if we don’t identify a natural environment and take care of those ecoservices, then things like our health and our local food production will deteriorate. That’s the problem that occurred with climate change. We weren’t paying attention with what was going on with the environment, and we didn’t take action early enough. And now we’re having to take more drastic steps to stabilize the climate. This type of research is saying we really need to start identifying ecoservices and their values and monitoring them, making a record of what services are provided, what is needed to sustain livelihood and the ecosystems, and we need to sustain those ourselves.

What was the most surprising finding to you?

The most surprising to me was the values of pollinators, because it wasn’t something that I’d really dealt with or come across before. The Greenbelt is a unique mosaic of nature and farmland. Pollinators play a large role in maintaining biodiversity and in supporting local food productions. That was an interesting aspect because it really connected the natural areas and the farmland in terms of the ecoservices that were provided by each land use.

What is your ‘favourite’ ecosystem service?    

I’d have to go back to pollinators! Without pollinators, there would be no food production, no biodiversity. They’re so small, they’re something we don’t really think about in our everyday life, but they practically support all life on the planet.

(Photo: Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation)