Banking on Nature's Assets: How Multilateral Development Banks Can Strengthen Development by Using Ecosystem Services

Maggie Barron — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:57:27 -0500

Humanity depends on nature for physical and spiritual sustenance, livelihoods, and survival. Ecosystems provide numerous benefits or “ecosystem services” that underpin economic development and support human well-being. They include provisioning services such as food, freshwater, and fuel as well as an array of regulating services such as water purification, pollination, and climate regulation. Healthy ecosystems are a prerequisite to sustaining economic development and mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The UN-led Millennium Ecosystem Assessment audited the health of 24 ecosystem services globally and reported that two-thirds had been degraded over the past half century. This degradation is undermining development progress. However, by accounting for and managing ecosystem service trade-offs, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and partner countries can improve development outcomes, help address climate change, and reduce costs to people and economies. Toward this end, a growing number of tools are emerging to help factor ecosystem services into economic development decisions.

Traditionally, development planners have focused narrowly on provisioning services with a value in the market place while overlooking regulating services. Expansion of aquacultures has increased shrimp production, for example, but at the same time degraded the fish spawning ground and storm protection services provided by mangroves. Construction of dams has increased power and freshwater for irrigation while leading to downstream loss of wetlands and their purification and flood protection services.

MDBs have already begun to experiment with ecosystem service concepts in development planning and practice. This report makes the case for expanding beyond the current focus on single services and “add-on” projects. The authors recommend a more systematic approach, one that would take into account multiple ecosystem services in all development operations from the earliest stages of the planning process. Such an approach will enable MDBs to make the links among climate, environment, and development and identify risks and opportunities associated with development plans. Banking on Nature’s Assets identifies entry points for mainstreaming ecosystem services in MDBs’ core operations of strategic direction setting, advisory services, and investments and describes a portfolio of tools to help. It also presents a range of policy options that MDBs can help country partners implement to sustain critical ecosystem services.

The report concludes with five interrelated recommendations to scale up MDB and partner-country application of ecosystem services:

Incorporate into environment strategies;
Integrate into core operations;
Build capacity to implement an ecosystem services approach;
Empower local authorities, organizations, and communities; and
Strengthen policies and incentives.

Entry Points for Integrating Ecosystems Services into MDB Operations

Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers

Tim Herzog — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:16:28 -0500

En Français

Public sector decision makers, such as mayors, planning commission members, and international development officials, often overlook the connection between healthy ecosystems and the well-being of people. As a result, long term goals may be jeopardized for short term gain. In order to enhance some ecosystem services, other important ecosystem services may be degraded, which can have unintended consequences for the people who depend on the degraded services. For example, building a dam may increase power supply to cities and irrigation to croplands, but reduce the river’s capacity to support fisheries or provide shoreline protection. Costs and benefits of these tradeoffs are often inequitably dispersed. The beneficiaries of the increased power supply may live 50 km away while those living on the river will have to bear the cost of decreased fisheries and increased flooding.

WRI and its partners have produced a guide for the public sector on how to take ecosystem services into account in economic and social strategies. The guide provides examples of how the success of projects, plans and policies can benefit from incorporating ecosystem services. It introduces various methods to link ecosystems and development, including an ecosystem services framework, ecosystem service prioritization, trends analyses, ecosystem service mapping, economic valuation, scenario planning, and a portfolio of policy options targeted at sustaining ecosystem services.

The guide can help answer the following questions:

How can an ecosystem services framework be used to organize a decision-making process?
What ecosystem services are supplied by nature?
Which ecosystem services are most important for a particular development goal?
What is known about the condition and trends of these services?
How can their value be communicated?
What risks and opportunities emerge as a result of changes to ecosystem services?
Which services should a city, county, province, or country invest in restoring or sustaining?
What policies can help sustain ecosystem services?

Résumé en Français

Les décideurs du secteur public, tels que les maires, les membres des commissions de planification et les responsables de programmes de développement international, négligent souvent le fait que l’état de santé des écosystèmes a un impact sur le bien-être de la population. Leurs objectifs à long terme risquent donc d’être remis en question pour quelques avantages à court terme. L’amélioration de certains services d’écosystèmes peut entraîner la dégradation d’autres services d’écosystèmes tout aussi importants, ainsi que des conséquences inattendues pour les populations qui dépendent de ces derniers. Par exemple, la construction d’un barrage peut augmenter l’approvisionnement en énergie des villes et l’irrigation des cultures, mais réduire la capacité de la rivière à soutenir la pêche et à protéger les berges. Les coûts et les avantages de ces enjeux contradictoires sont souvent dispersés de façon inégale. Ceux qui bénéficieront de ce surplus d’énergie peuvent vivre à 50 km du barrage alors que ceux qui vivent sur les berges de la rivière devront supporter les coûts dus à la réduction de la pêche et aux inondations plus fréquentes.

WRI et ses partenaires ont compilé un guide à l’attention des décideurs du secteur public pour leur expliquer comment prendre en compte les services d’écosystèmes dans leurs stratégies économiques et sociales. Ce guide fournit des exemples de projets, de plans et de politiques, où l’intégration des services des écosystèmes, a contribué à leur réussite. Il présente différentes méthodes pour établir les liens entre les écosystèmes et le développement. Il définit notamment un cadre de services d’écosystèmes, comment retenir les services les plus pertinents, analyser leurs tendances, cartographier les services d’écosystèmes, quantifier leur valeur économique, élaborer des scénarios et faire des choix politiques pour soutenir durablement les services d’écosystèmes.

Ce guide peut être utile pour répondre aux questions suivantes:

Comment un cadre de services d’écosystèmes peut-il aider à structurer un processus décisionnel?
Quels services d’écosystèmes sont fournis par la nature?
Quels services d’écosystèmes sont les plus importants pour un objectif de développement donné?
Que sait-on de l’état et des tendances de ces services?
Comment communiquer leur valeur?
Quels sont les risques et les opportunités qui résultent des changements affectant les services d’écosystèmes?
Quels services doivent être la cible des investissements d’une ville, d’une province ou d’un pays en vue de les restaurer ou de les soutenir?
Quelles politiques peuvent contribuer à soutenir durablement les services d’écosystèmes ?

WRI Publications Feed: Ecosystem Services Approach for the Public Sector

Banking on Nature's Assets: How Multilateral Development Banks Can Strengthen Development by Using Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers

Résumé en Français