MEDIA ADVISORY: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Presents First Report

What

Release of the first report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Framework for Assessment.

The report, the first in a series of 11 landmark reports to be released over the next two years, sets the basis for the work of over 500 scientists from 70 countries who are assessing the current and future capacity of ecosystems to provide services to humankind.

When

Wednesday, September 24, 2003
9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Where

The World Bank (MC Building),
(H Building) H Auditorium
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC, USA

Who

Dr. Harold Mooney, Co-chair, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Panel
Dr. Robert Watson, Co-chair, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board
Timothy E. Wirth, president, United Nations Foundation
Jonathan Lash, president, World Resources Institute

Why

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), the first global scientific research of its kind, is a four-year $21 million project launched in 2001 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. It will provide governments, the private sector, and local organizations with better information on how to restore, maintain, or enhance the productivity of the ecosystems that support life on Earth.

Human well-being and progress toward sustainable development are vitally dependent upon improving the management of the Earth's ecosystems to ensure their conservation and sustainable use. But while demands for ecosystems services such as food and clean water are growing, human actions are at the same time diminishing the capability of many ecosystems to meet these demands.

Ecosystems and Human Well-beingprovides the approaches, processes, and parameters scientists are using to study the world's ecosystems through the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). It is published by Island Press and all the MA's findings will be available through the website, http://www.millenniumassessment.org/.

This event is organized by the United Nations Foundation and The World Bank, two of the major sponsors of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, with the assistance of The World Resources Institute and Island Press.

Alternate contacts:

Amelia Durand, director of communications, Island Press, tel: 202-232-7933 x 18, adurand@islandpress.org. For security purposes, all attendees must respond by 12:00 noon on Tuesday September 23, 2003.
Adlai J. Amor, WRI media director, tel: +1(202) 415 2188, aamor@wri.org