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!