New online content illustrates economic benefits of environmental restoration
Did you know that coastal restoration helps not just the environment but also the economy? Restoration activities, like the construction of sediment diversions, coastal dredging and barrier island restoration, directly create jobs through the firms hired to carry out the projects.
Additionally, Louisiana’s coast supports a $34 billion tourism industry, 33 percent of our nation’s seafood harvest, 10 of our 15 largest ports and 90 percent of our offshore crude oil and natural gas production.1 Coastal restoration protects these industries by keeping ecosystems intact and protecting and restoring the natural barriers against storm surge and other natural disasters.
Here at the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign, we are committed to highlighting how restoring the Gulf Coast will not only rejuvenate an ailing ecosystem but also create new jobs and revitalize the gulf’s economy – an environmental and economic win-win.
Recently, economists with Environmental Defense Fund and Duke University have identified how coastal restoration provides quadruple economic returns by supporting jobs in multiple sectors. To better break this down, we have built a suite of Web pages called “Building a Restoration Economy” to show the different areas where jobs can be created:
- Tourism and fishing jobs
- Infrastructure-related jobs
- Restoration jobs
- Export industry jobs in restoration technology
A healthy coastal ecosystem is vital for the gulf’s economy and has the potential to create thousands of jobs in new, high-paying sectors, and with the recent passage of both the Louisiana 2012 Coastal Master Plan and the RESTORE Act, large-scale restoration will come sooner rather than later. For an ailing economy and wounded ecosystem, this is great news.
To learn more about our how coastal restoration provides quadruple economic returns, visit “Building a Restoration Economy.”
Map: Relevant U.S. employee locations of firms linked to Gulf Coast restoration projects
