Gaining Ground: Wetlands, Hurricanes, and the Economy: The Value of Restoring the Mississippi River Delta

Date01 November 2010
AuthorDavid Batker, Isabel de la Torre, Robert Costanza, Paula Swedeen, John Day, Roelof Boumans, and Kenneth Bagstad
40 ELR 11106 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 11-2010
Gaining Ground: Wetlands,
Hurricanes, and the Economy:
The Value of Restoring the
Mississippi River Delta
by David Batker, Isabel de la Torre, Robert Costanza, Paula Swedeen, John Day,
Roelof Boumans, and Kenneth Bagstad
David Batker is co-founder and executive director of Earth Economics. Isabel de la Torre is co-founder of Earth
Economics. Robert Costanza directs the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University. Paula
Swedeen is the director of ecosystem service programs at the Pacic Forest Trust. John Day is a distinguished
professor at Louisiana State University’s School of the Coast and Environment. Roelof Boumans is the director of
AFORDableFutures LLC. Kenneth Bagstad is a post-doctoral associate at the University of Vermont.
Economies need nature. Natural systems provide foun-
dational economic goods a nd services, including oxy-
gen, water, land, food, climate stability, storm and
ood protection, recreation, aesthetic va lue, raw materials,
minerals, and energy. All built capital is made of natural capi-
tal, including cars, buildings, and food. e coa stal economy
of the Mississippi River Delta also requires hurricane protec-
tion, a stable climate, waste assimilation, and other natural
services. No economy can function without nature’s provi-
sion of economic goods and services. is is most apparent
in North America’s largest river delta.
is Article is a brief synthesis of a more extensive report
we carried out to evaluate the va lue of ecosystem ser vices of
the Mississippi Delta.1 at report—the most comprehen-
sive measure of the economic value of Mississippi River Delta
natural systems to date—is available at www.eartheconom-
ics.org.
I. The Economic Value of the Mississippi
River Delta
e Mississippi River Delta ecosystems provide at least $12-
47 billion in benets to people every year. If this natural capi-
tal were treated as an economic asset, the delta’s minimum
asset value would be $330 billion to $1.3 trillion (3.5% dis-
count rate). Marine waters, wetlands, swamps, agricultura l
lands, and forests provide natural goods and services. e
1. D B  ., G G: W, H,  
E: T V  R  M R D (Earth
Economics 2010), available at http://www.eartheconomics.org/FileLibrary/
le/Reports/Louisiana/Earth_Economics_Report_on_the_Mississippi_River_
Delta_compressed.pdf.
goods and ecosystem services va lued in our study include
hurricane and ood protection, water supply, water quality,
recreation, and sheries. e Mississippi River Delta is a vast
natural asset, a basis for national employment and economic
productivity. It was built by literally gaining ground: build-
ing land with sediment, freshwater, and the energy of the
Mississippi River.
Yet, this vast national economic asset is being squandered
at a tremendous cost. While the oil spill in t he Gulf of Mexico
has focused the country’s attention on the value and vulner-
ability of coastal wetlands, decades of wetland loss remains
the greater t hreat to t he long-term ecological and economic
health of the Gulf. e Mississippi Delta lost over 1.2 million
acres of land in the last 80 years. In some areas, the coast-
line has retreated by as much as 30 miles. e lower Missis-
sippi River has been constricted by levees since the 1930s,
resulting in billions of tons of valuable sediment and trillions
of gallons of valuable freshwater being channeled into deep
water o the edge of the continental shelf. e Mississippi’s
energy to move vast amounts of sediment and water could
have built additional land and provided hurricane protection
and other economic benets at no signicant cost.
Without the input of sediment and water, wetla nd systems
collapse. Land is lost to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico
causing tremendous economic and human cost. Wetlands
provide vital protection against hurricanes. When land dis-
appears, so do the economies, homes, and communities that
depend on it. Solving this problem requires an accounting of
and investment in the economic assets of nature—natural
capital—as an integral component of hurricane damage pre-
vention and as a critical foundation for healthy communities
and economies.
Copyright © 2010 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.

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