ecosystems services: the essential capital for the poorest (undp presentation)
TRANSCRIPT
Ecosystems services:
the essential capital for the poorest
Adriana Dinu, UNDP Environment and Energy Practice Leader, Europe and CIS
Medicine from Nature:
80% of people in Africa has traditional medicine - main source of health care
Cone snails might contain the largest number of human medicine of any genus
1 billion people depend of drugs derived from forest plants
Forestry:
60 million indigenous people totally dependent on forests
1.5 billion dependent on agro-forestry
Annual rate of deforestation: 13 million ha
Annual loses from deforestation and degradation: 2 – 4.5 trillion (TEEB)
Fisheries:
Over one billion people rely on fishery as the major source of food
200 Million people are employed in fishery - US$ 100 billion income
80% of the world fisheries are fully or over-exploited
Pollination:
US$ 153 billion/year (2005) = 9.5% of the value of the world agricultural production
Bees are in decline – affecting 35% of global food production
20-25 people to pollinate 100 apple trees in one day vs. two colonies of honeybees
Ecosystem services contribute significantly to human well being:natural capital represents a quarter of total wealth in developing countries
Okavango Wetlands generate 32 million/year to local communities;
US$1,500/household /year: from the harvest of fish, thatch for construction or
for basket weaving, employment in the nature tourism, and grazing of cattle
Biodiversity loss undermines efforts to reduce poverty
• 75% percent of the world‟s poorest people live in rural
areas, and depend on ecosystem goods and services
for their livelihoods and subsistence.
• India: ecosystem services contribute up to 57% of the
GDP of the poor (TEEB).
• Though human well being is dependent on the
continued provision of ecosystem services, these
contributions are neither fully recognized nor valued in
markets.
• The poor are unable to replace ecosystem services with
built infrastructure - this will make poor communities
more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with
enormous social costs.
Poverty leads to biodiversity loss
Temporal mismatch between the incidence of the costs and
benefits of ecosystem management
- Benefits provided by „intact‟ ecosystems tend to be shared and occur
over the long term;
- Costs of managing ecosystems and opportunity costs of foregoing
resource use must be borne immediately.
The poor receive only a fraction of the benefits derived from the
extraction of natural resources
Harvest natural resources beyond their sustainable use thresholds to
meet their target incomes
The distribution of land and natural resources
The landless poor may not have alternative means but to encroach on
natural ecosystems.
Biodiversity loss may foreclose future development options in
poor countries with limited development opportunities.
Without such opportunities, these countries may not be able to lift the
poor out of poverty.
The poor are unable to forego uses of natural resources if there are no alternatives available.
The poor are unlikely to change land/resource use practices if the immediate risks and costs are high.
Biodiversity and MDG 1 (eradicate poverty and hunger)
Attenuating biodiversity loss is a critical strategy for mitigating poverty and achieving
the MDG Agenda: ultimately, the only real solution for eradicating poverty.
Targets Why is Biodiversity Critical Policies, Investments and Actions
Halve, between
1990 – 2015 the
proportion of
people whose
income is less
than US$ 1/day
The poor dependent on biodiversity for
90% of their livelihood needs;
The poorest regions are also
experiencing ecosystem degradation
Role in CC Adaptation aimed at
protecting the poor – the most vulnerable
to CC
Investments in ecosystem services
Governance reform to ensure access to resources
and land tenure;
Decentralized responsibilities for managing natural
resources.
Convergence of NBSAP with PRSPs.
Full and productive
employment and
decent work for all
Agriculture, forest and wildlife
management – secure job creation
Develop policies that maximize the number of
employed (Working for Water, Fire, Wetlands SA)
Halve, between
1990 – 2015 the
proportion of
people who suffer
from hunger
BD is a source of all food production and
critical to the 800 million people suffering
from hunger.
Ecosystem degradation in agriculture
leads to lower yields, higher food prices
Genetic diversity allows adaptation to CC
Reduce subsidies leading to unsustainable
agriculture
Markets for bd friendly agricultural goods
Integrate ecosystem considerations in agricultural
policies.
Key factors determining the success or failure in managing
biodiversity and avoid impoverishing the poor:
• the strength of environmental governance systems
policies, regulations, effective institutions; accountable
decision making systems and property rights
• the ability to address market failure
market failure arises when the many values of
ecosystem goods and services are not accounted for –
or are undervalued – in market transactions. This leads
to the conversion of ecosystems or overharvesting
UNDP’s Ecosystem and Biodiversity Programme
OBJECTIVE:
to maintain and enhance the beneficial services provided by natural ecosystems in order to secure livelihoods, food, water and
health, reduce vulnerability to climate change, store carbon and avoid emissions from land
use change.
PROTECTED AREAS__________________
100.5 million ha
MAINSTREAMING______________________
456 million ha
US$ 1.95 billion: 466 million from the GEF
ECOSYSTEM BASED
MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
Three high priority actions for UNDP in biodiversity:
1. Balancing biodiversity management with development
and poverty reduction:
• Integrate biodiversity into Poverty Reduction Strategies: the
benefits of biodiversity management should be measured in terms of
its contribution to poverty agenda;
• Integrate NBSAPs into national development and economic sector
plans, and considerations relating to climate change adaptation and
mitigation plans;
• Establish property rights regime for common property resources that
give poor communities a utilitarian incentive to manage biodiversity;
• Leverage finance to address governance and market failures, and to
compensate the current costs of foregoing resource-use.
UNDP
Assists developing countries to develop their capacity to manage and sustain the supply of ecosystem goods and services that underpin development (livelihoods, food security, human health)
2. Coping with climate change:
• Sound policy measures and remove policy distortions that lead to
ecosystem loss – and GHG emissions;
• Enforce laws aimed at securing the public interest with regard to the
avoidance of GHG emissions from ecosystem degradation;
• Incentives to sustain ecosystem based adaptation: tax credits, PES
insurance schemes;
• Formalize property rights and responsibilities where open access to natural
resources is causing ecosystem degradation and GHG emissions;
• Comparative costs and benefits of ecosystem-based adaptation versus
other adaptation options;
• Strengthen institutions responsible for planning and executing ecosystem
management;
• Address market failure by facilitating country access to carbon
markets, CDM or its successor, voluntary markets.
UNDP
is helping countries develop climate change strategies as part of their broad development frameworks, which integrate cost-effective, locally appropriate ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation options
3. Environmental Financing for Biodiversity Management
New financing options needed
National Budgetary Appropriations: Making the business case for
investment in biodiversity management covering the economic benefits
from investment, the costs of inaction, and the costs of management;
Donor Funding: Biodiversity as a priority in national development plans,
PRSP, the World Bank CAS, UNDAF, adaptation strategies;
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES): aimed at addressing market
failure rather than leveraging new sources of environmental finance.
International PES (payments for REDD) - new sources of revenue;
Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Economic Development:
Reducing threats to biodiversity at source, and thus reducing the costs
of management;
Leveraging funds, human and management capacity from production
enterprises;
Structure supply chains to improve market returns and create the
necessary incentives for sound biodiversity management.
UNDP:
Is assisting developing countries to identify, access and combine sources of environmental finance to attract and drive much larger investment flows towards climate resilient and ecosystem friendly development
Strengthening cooperation in the UN System to address
the post 2010 biodiversity agenda:
• The Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action - harmonisation of
development cooperation: UN Assistance should respond to the national priorities
• UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF): to integrate biodiversity concerns
and post 2010 targets: guiding “one –UN” work in the country.
• Key Areas of collaboration, as identified by countries:
1. Capacity support and institutional strengthening for national action
2. Tools for M&E, research and assessments
3. Tools for calculating biodiversity value-budgeting assets and trade-offs on the national levels
Environment Management Group
(EMG): coordination body on
environmental issues for UN
Liaison Group on Biodiversity related
Conventions (BLG)
Joint Liaison Group of Rio
Conventions (JLC)
+ member
countriesShould formulate the post 2010
targets
Should mandate joint implementation
of the targets and offer follow-up
support
THANK YOU!