Governments globally are struggling to reverse negative trends of decreased ecosystem function. Due to their nature as landscape drainage 'sinks', aquatic ecosystems are particularly in jeopardy. In response to some of the significant impacts on land and aquatic ecosystems, the province of Alberta (Canada) has recently introduced institutional, legislative and policy initiatives explicitly promoting ecosystem services (ES) production through market-based instruments (MBIs). This paper presents a brief account of the current state of aquatic ES knowledge and use in Alberta. Further, the paper explores the critical role that property rights play in MBIs, as a design criterion and applies this to the key legislation and policies in Alberta that currently enable MBIs. With few MBIs currently enabled, this paper evaluates the property rights regime for one MBI, the current water market in southern Alberta. The strengths and weaknesses of the property rights for water transfers provide some lessons for Alberta as it implements new MBIs for ES provision.

Non point source (NPS) contamination in southern Alberta's agricultural belt is a known issue. While point source contamination is clearly regulated and managed the mandate and responsibility for dealing with NPS water quality issues appears unclear and overlapping. Market-based instruments (MBIs) are being promoted in Alberta as a tool to help meet environmental management goals. This paper explores the role legitimacy, accountability and fit of MBIs based on two sets of semi-structured interviews, conducted to provide the background, context and perceptions around MBIs for water quality. One set of interviews focused on experts in the area of developing, implementing or analyzing MBIs for environmental objectives. The second set of interviews focused on local subject matter experts and knowledgeable stakeholders in the case study areas in southern Alberta.Initial results indicate that while MBIs could have an important role in delivering better water quality outcomes, the issues of fit, accountability and legitimacy need to be addressed in the MBI design process. Currently these are not adequately addressed in the Alberta context MBIs are relatively new tools for environmental management. Q methodology will be employed to further expose the values orientations and perspectives.

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Climate change risks to coastal communities may overwhelm current management strategies. The emergence of nature‐based solutions could provide alternative approaches for climate adaptation; however, studies on their public acceptability are limited. This research focuses on the human dimensions of nature‐based coastal adaptation solutions. The research sought to understand the kind of environmental changes participants were experiencing in their coastal communities of Nova Scotia and what management responses they observed being taken, if any. Online focus groups were held with coastal property owners in Nova Scotia to understand how they assess coastal risks and four approaches to nature‐based coastal adaptation: living shorelines, accommodation, retreat, and dyke realignment to make space for wetland restoration. Results revealed ongoing trust in traditional hard‐line approaches, but also interest in knowing more about nature‐based options. There was general support for living shorelines, albeit with scepticism; a concern that accommodation is just a “band‐aid” approach; resistance to retreat, despite general recognition of its future utility; and a lack of understanding of dyke realignment. The successful implementation of nature‐based coastal adaptation approaches will require more evidence of their viability, better options for financing them, and engagement with communities around the best‐fit alternatives for them.

This paper explores the degree to which the ecosystem services (ES) concept and related tools have been integrated and implemented within the Canadian government context at both the provincial/territorial and federal levels. The research goals of the study were to qualitatively assess the extent to which ES assessment is being integrated at different levels of government, consider the barriers to implementation, and draw lessons from the development and use of Canada’s Ecosystem Services Toolkit: Completing and Using Ecosystem Service Assessment for Decision-Making—An Interdisciplinary Toolkit for Managers and Analysts (2017), jointly developed by a federal, provincial, and territorial government task force. Primary data were collected through targeted semi-structured interviews with key informants combined with a content analysis of ES-related documentation from government websites. Results indicate that while the term ES is found in documentation across different levels of government, there appears to be an ES implementation gap. Issues of conceptual understanding, path dependency, a lack of regulatory mandate, lost staff expertise, and competition with overlapping conceptual approaches were identified as barriers to ES uptake. Areas requiring further policy and research attention are identified.