Meet Gretchen Daily - 2019 Pritzlaff Conservation Awardee

Meet Gretchen Daily - 2019 Pritzlaff Conservation Awardee

By Denise Knapp, Director of Conservation & Research

Saving the earth’s biodiversity, and the human health and well-being that rely on that biodiversity, will require all of the tools at our disposal – and Dr. Gretchen Daily is wielding a unique and valuable tool in the toolbox. She is a champion of the “ecosystem services” concept (the benefits supplied to human societies by natural ecosystems), and has worked tirelessly to integrate this concept into the decision-making processes of countries, companies, communities, and organizations across the globe.

As Founder and Faculty Director of the Natural Capital Project, Dr. Daily and her team work with world leaders on diverse projects such as planning development and nature reserves in China, transportation decisions in Latin America, and habitat restoration in Africa. This work builds from Gretchen’s research as an ecologist, including her work to characterize the drivers of biodiversity loss, to understand ecological dynamics in agricultural and pastoral landscapes, and to examine trade-offs between conservation objectives. “A 15- minute walk in nature enhances creativity, mood and pastoral landscapes, emotional well-being,” said Dr. Daily. “My goal is to bring and to examine that understanding to urban planners, who can use nature trade-offs between as a tool to tackle mental health issues.” conservation objectives.

Further, her collaborative research on such topics as water-related services, control of environmentally transmitted diseases, and the physical and mental benefits of nature experiences are informing the models used to guide environmentally sustainable decision-making.

Dr. Daily is the Bing Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, and has been the recipient of many other awards, including the Blue Planet Prize in 2017. Her work has been cited nearly 23,000 times.

About the Natural Capital Project: The Natural Capital Project works to integrate the value nature provides to society into all major decisions. Its ultimate objective is to improve the well-being of all people and nature by motivating greater and more targeted natural capital investments. The Natural Capital Project works to develop and apply scientifically rigorous approaches to incorporate natural capital into decisions; create innovative software tools to model, map, and value nature’s benefits to society; build capacity worldwide to use ecosystem service understanding to inform decisions; and engage influential leaders to advance change in policy and practice.

How does one measure the value of nature? The Natural Capital Project finds ways to portray the value of nature to society in a variety of metrics that matter to people. Most of the time, decision-makers do not request monetary value metrics, but rather are most interested in the supply of an ecosystem service in biophysical metrics, such as tons of carbon stored, or the amount of sediment or nutrient retained in a watershed.

Source: The Natural Capital Project

Seventh Annual Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Conservation Symposium

TRAILBLAZING WOMEN IN CONSERVATION

Saturday, February 2 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.Santa Barbara County Education Office

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:Dr. Gretchen Daily

register at sbbg.org/symposium

Dr. Gretchen Daily

WINTER 2018 Ironwood 3