Empirical Evidence of the Contributions of Park and Conservation Lands to Environmental Sustainability: The Key to Repositioning the Parks Field

Relatively concise executive summaries are provided for the scientific evidence supporting the parks field’s contribution to five elements of environmental sustainability: protecting drinking water, controlling flooding, cleaning air, reducing energy costs, and preserving biological diversity. Given the importance of economics in government resource allocation decisions, the discussion stresses the potential economic returns from investments in parks that enhance environmental sustainability. By aligning with these five issues which are increasingly prominent on political agendas, it is suggested that parks can be repositioned from being relatively discretionary services to being a central element in the strategies used by government entities to address these issues of concern.