August 28, 2007

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The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment—a four-year international scientific appraisal of the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being—concluded that the majority of the planet's "ecosystem services" have declined over the past 50 years and that this degradation would grow significantly worse over the first half of this century. "Ecosystem services" are the benefits people obtain from ecological systems such as wild food, fresh water, timber, genetic resources, water flow regulation, pollination, recreation, and protection from natural hazards.

Underlying these trends is the fact that humanity too often takes nature's services for granted, in large part because decision-makers lack sufficient information, incentives, rights, management processes, and accountability for sustainably managing ecosystems. To help address this challenge, WRI is launching the Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services Objective which seeks to reduce ecosystem degradation by advancing ecosystem service-based strategies, policies, and markets. Through this objective, WRI will play a leading role in developing and disseminating information about ecosystem services and helping government, business, and multilateral institution decision-makers use this information to achieve their development goals. WRI also will help align regulatory and economic incentives with ecosystem stewardship through establishing markets for ecosystem services and other price signals. Below is a summary of current activities:

Advancing an action agenda to address ecosystem service degradation

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment stopped short of making policy recommendations. To help fill this vacuum, WRI commissioned papers from 17 policy experts from around the globe on what they believed were the key policy, institutional and governance implications of the MA findings. Drawing on these papers and other work, WRI has drafted a broad action agenda which was published this May 2007, Restoring Nature's Capital: An Action Agenda to Sustain Ecosystem Services. WRI is actively disseminating the action agenda results to business, civil society and policy makers through targeted workshops, briefings and timely op-eds.

 

Developing an ecosystem service guide for public sector decision makers

One need that we repeatedly hear from policymakers and development specialists is that they need help making the linkages between their goals/decisions and ecosystem services. They also need compelling examples to make their case internally as to why framing decisions more broadly results in better decisions for both the environment and the attainment of socioeconomic goals. The guide is being developed through a collaboration of several organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, FAO, UNDP, UNEP-WCMC, World Bank Institute and the Inter-American Development Bank. It will compliment an initiative led by UNEP-WCMC that will provide more technical guidance on ecosystem service assessment methodologies.

 

 

Pilot testing a coral reef ecosystem services valuation tool in the Caribbean

Rapid and unsustainable development in the Caribbean has increased risks and damage to coral reefs, reducing their capacity to provide ecosystem services such as fisheries, storm protection and tourism, which in turn leads to economic impacts at the national and local levels. This problem is consistent with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment finding that decision-makers frequently fail to consider the value of ecosystem services when advancing policy priorities. Strong and tangible economic incentives are required to initiate and sustain successful reef stewardship efforts. To this end, WRI is working with governments of three countries in the Caribbean (Trinidad/Tobago, St Lucia and Belize) to develop and pilot-test a tool to quantify the value of healthy reefs for recreation, fishing, and tourism. The tool will be designed to help governments make better coastal management decisions and bolster the incentives for improved coastal resource management by illustrating the economic losses resulting from poor management. The information will be gathered at a national level, but standardized to encourage broader, regional level thinking and action on the value of coral reef goods and services.

 

Developing a poverty and ecosystem service mapping tool in Kenya & Uganda

Reducing poverty, improving water management for agriculture and maintaining other freshwater services require a better understanding of the links between ecosystem services, up- and down-stream users, and poverty. Working closely with on the ground partners, WRI is mapping poverty and ecosystem services at the watershed level in Kenya and Uganda. Maps have already been created for the Upper Tanu River basin in Kenya and highlight the spatial linkages between poverty and ecosystem services. The resulting information was recently published in an atlas, Restoring Nature's Capital: An Action Agenda to Sustain Ecosystem Services, which raises awareness among decision-makers and resource managers of the food and fiber and other services provided by each unit of land and can illustrate tradeoffs among ecosystem services, up- and downstream impacts, and market and non-market services. WRI is engaging national and international decision makers in the initiative to ensure that the results inform the implementation of national/regional development strategies.

 

Developing an ecosystem service review methodology for business

WRI, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Meridian Institute are convening a business leadership group on ecosystem services. The ultimate goal is to secure and advance corporate commitments to take measurable action to reduce their impacts on ecosystems and promote more sustainable use of ecosystem services. The work is based on the premise that companies that recognize the risks and opportunities associated with ecosystem change are more likely to take progressive steps to reverse degradation and to engage lawmakers in creating policy reforms that provide incentives for investing in sustaining ecosystem services. However, most businesses fail to make the connection between healthy ecosystems and their economic goals. In particular, they lack a systematic approach for identifying their dependence and impact on ecosystem services and the corresponding business risks and opportunities. WRI will address this gap by developing, road testing and publishing a corporate ecosystem services review methodology. This will enable businesses to systematically evaluate their dependence and impact on ecosystem services, exposure to ecosystem service degradation and identify the resulting business risks and opportunities.

 

Reducing nutrient loading through the advancement of water quality trading schemes

Nutrient pollution is a leading cause of water quality impairment globally. A visible symptom of nutrient overload is the emergence of oxygen depleted waters (hypoxic areas) in estuaries and coastal waters, the most dramatic example being the recurrent "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. While point sources (e.g. industry) are the only regulated sources of nutrient pollution, agriculture, an un-regulated non-point source, is the leading contributor to nutrient pollution. Water quality trading provides a cost-effective solution to reducing nutrient loads in impaired watersheds that can engage both point and non-point sources. To date their implementation has been difficult and many programs have failed to advance beyond the pilot stage. To address this, WRI has developed NutrientNet, a nutrient trading tool that provides a user-friendly e-marketplace to estimate and trade nutrient reduction credits on-line. NutrientNet provides a market floor for buyers and sellers to locate each other. It also allows industrial facilities and farmers to estimate the cost and amount of nutrient reduction credits they are able to achieve using standardized estimation tools. NutrientNet has been used to support Pennsylvania's water quality trading program and Michigan's Kalamazoo watershed pilot trading program. WRI has also been approached by Virginia, West Virginia and EPA Region III about the possibility of using NutrientNet as a platform for implementing water quality trading programs in their jurisdictions.

 

Mainstreaming ecosystem services in the multilateral development banks

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment indicates that environmental sustainability is not only compatible with the multilateral development banks (MDBs) objectives, but essential for their achievement. MDB investments, especially in natural resource-rich developing countries present both risk and opportunities for ecosystems. If the MDBs' client countries are to successfully achieve economic and development goals, the MDBs need to step up to the challenge of reversing ecosystem degradation and support developing country governments to protect their ecosystems and manage trade-off costs between different kinds of ecosystem services. WRI is developing an issue brief discussing these linkages and building the case for why the MDBs should mainstream the ecosystem services into their operations.

 

Developing ecosystem service indicators

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment used a wide range of indicators to assess the health of ecosystems. This portfolio was constrained by data availability and was not formally assessed for gaps and holes that need to be filled. A formal system of ecosystem service indicators that allows scientists to improve monitoring of ecosystem services and to convey that information to policy-makers is needed to ensure that the framework of ecosystem services becomes more understood, integrated into national and corporate systems of data gathering and assessment, and applied. WRI is exploring a joint project to build on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment by formalizing a set of ecosystem service indicators for selected ecosystems and services.

 

For more information please contact Janet Ranganathan.