Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services Initiative (MESI)

Ecosystems provide many tangible benefits–or “ecosystem services”–to people around the world. WRI is helping governments, businesses, and multilateral development banks include these ecosystem services in their decision-making, with the ultimate goal of reducing ecosystem degradation around the world.

About MESI

WRI works toward a world in which governments and businesses value and invest in ecosystems — forests, wetlands, coral reefs, etc. — in order to secure economic growth and people’s well being. Leaders take these actions because of the multiple services ecosystems provide, such as supplying and filtering freshwater, storing carbon, preventing erosion, reducing floods, and offering places for recreation. These actions complement traditional biodiversity conservation by restoring nature for people’s sake, not only for nature’s sake.

Our strategy is two-fold:

1. Provide decision-makers with information and assessment tools that link ecosystem health with the attainment of economic and social goals; and

2. Develop new markets, economic incentives, and public policies that restore and sustain ecosystems.

Our Work

We focus our MESI work in the following areas:

Businesses & Ecosystem Services: WRI works to align ecosystem stewardship with the attainment of business goals. Our Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) is a structured methodology that helps businesses manage the risks and opportunities arising from their dependence and impact on ecosystems.

Governments & Ecosystems: We develop tools to help the public sector incorporate ecosystem services into economic and social strategies.

Ecosystem Services for Development: We help developing countries and multilateral development banks (MDBs) understand the interactions between ecosystem services, people, and poverty.

Coral Reefs: We provide comprehensive information on threats to coral reefs to foster effective management. We are pioneering efforts to quantify the risks posed to reefs and the value they provide to people and nature.

Water Quality: We work to reverse the impacts of nutrient pollution and eutrophication by assessing its global extent, identifying its causes, and providing policy strategies and solutions. Our Water Quality Trading team researches and designs payments for ecosystem services that can improve water quality more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Ecosystem Services Tools and Indicators: WRI is developing a rigorous set of frameworks, indicators, and data to help integrate the ecosystem services approach into public- and private-sector policy processes.

Photo credits: Florence Landsberg, Lucy Ivango, Henry Bongyereirwe, Lauretta Burke, Miriam Godfrey (NIWA Science), Wan Hong