WRI Stories Feed: People & Ecosystems

Re-introducing the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review, Version 2.0

Suzanne Ozment — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:38:07 -0500

The World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) are pleased to announce the release of the Corporate Ecosystem Services…

RELEASE: New Assessment Finds Management Efforts are Insufficient to Protect Mesoamerican Reef

Michael Oko — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:40:11 -0500

First-ever Eco-Audit of the Mesoamerican Reef Countries

Editor’s note: Online resources, including verification documentation, a description of the Eco-Audit indicators, summary results and more, are available at: www.wri.org/reefs and www.healthyreefs.org

The first-ever Eco-Audit of the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) countries finds that despite some positive management efforts, more needs to be done to protect the region’s coral reefs. The evaluation, entitled “2011 Eco-Audit of the Mesoamerican Reef Countries,” was carried out by the Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI), in collaboration with the World Resources Institute (WRI), and nearly 40 local organizations, government agencies and companies. The results are being launched simultaneously in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

The evaluation scored overall reef management as Fair (2.7 out of 5) across the region and for all thematic areas. This score indicates that, in general, the MAR ecosystem is not being adequately managed. The scores by country are: Belize 3.3, Honduras 2.7, Mexico 2.7 and Guatemala 2.2.

“Our evaluation has documented some positive steps in protecting reefs throughout the Mesoamerican region. However, there are many actions needed to protect the reefs that have been under discussion for decades. It’s time to complete and implement these actions,” said Dr. Melanie McField, director of the Healthy Reefs Initiative. “Reefs are a vital part of this region, providing both economic and cultural value to people in this area. We hope that this information will help to ensure that reefs can thrive for generations to come.”

The Mesoamerica Reef extends over 1,000 kilometers (over 600 miles), from Mexico to Honduras, and includes the Western Hemisphere’s longest barrier reef, located in Belize. Economies in the region are highly dependent on marine resources, especially from tourism and fishing industries. In Belize alone, the reef is estimated to contribute approximately $395 to $559 million (U.S.) in goods and services each year.

The Eco-Audit was developed and implemented using twenty-two standardized management indicators across seven thematic areas. This includes: Research, Education and Awareness, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Global Issues, Coastal Zone Management, Sustainability in the Private Sector, Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management, and Sanitation and Sewage Treatment. Over 300 supporting documents were provided as verification of the results.

“Through this highly collaborative process, involving diverse stakeholders, we have developed a collective understanding of reef management efforts supported by robust data,” said Benjamin Kushner, research analyst, World Resources Institute. “We hope that our transparently verified and publicly available results help coastal and fisheries managers, tourism operators, and others make smart decisions to create a healthy environment for reefs.”

“Stakeholders are now demanding unprecedented levels of transparency from organizations and governments, since our current economic and social conditions have been affected by unethical practices and a lack of transparency,” said Antonio Grijalba of PricewaterhouseCoopers Costa Rica. “This initiative has been a challenging process for HRI, but is a very important step to improve the transparency and accountability of the MAR region, align efforts to address the most critical issues, and share best practices to improve performance.”

To ensure the quality of the results, the financial and management auditing firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers Costa Rica reviewed the methodology and provided feedback on the processes and indicators, and the quality of the verification documentation.

The analysis revealed several key successes, including:

The extent of territorial sea included in MPAs is relatively high across the region;
Harmonization of regulations for the lobster fishery was a major regional success; and
There have been long-standing efforts to monitor reef health across the region, complemented by good availability of information on reef condition and threats.

However, it also showed key shortcomings, including:

A number of MPAs have been created, but their management is mostly inadequate;
Wastewater is not being treated at standards necessary to protect coral reefs; and
There is a lack of comprehensive coastal zone planning that has resulted in poorly planned and sited coastal developments.

This first Eco-Audit provides the foundation for subsequent Eco-Audits, which will be implemented every two years, assuring a routine accounting of efforts to improve the health of the MAR.

Read the analysis and find out more at: www.healthyreefs.org and www.wri.org/reefs

-END-

Contact:

Melanie McField, Director, Healthy Reefs Initiative (Belize City, Belize); email: mcfield@healthyreefs.org; tel: (501) 223-4898; or

Michael Oko, Director, Media Relations, World Resources Institute (Washington, D.C.); email: moko@wri.org; tel. (202) 729-7684

Carbon Canopy Initiative Aims to Sustain Appalachian Forests for Climate and Certified Timber

Logan Yonavjak — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:46:05 -0500

While much has been written from a theoretical perspective about markets for ecosystem services, few on-the-ground projects currently exist. Yet the projects that do exist provide one of the best windows onto what actually works in…

Exploring Threats to Coral Reefs with GIS Data Sets

Katie Reytar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:55:52 -0500

This piece originally appeared in the Winter 2012 edition of Esri’s ArcUser Magazine. The full text, graphics, and GIS datasets are available here.

View the online mapping presentation

Assessing Threats, Raising Awareness

WRI has been using GIS to develop highly detailed maps of the threats to coral reefs worldwide since 1998. Coral reefs are vital to maintaining the diversity and viability of marine ecosystems. They provide livelihoods and food for coastal communities and shelter and protection for shorelines.

The goal of the Reefs at Risk project is to produce globally consistent data, maps, and reports that are hybrids of model results and observational evidence that can be used to raise awareness about the location and severity of specific threats to coral reefs. GIS is used to develop spatial indicators linking human activities and livelihoods to pressures on coral reef ecosystems.

Reefs at Risk in the Present, 2030, and 2050: The top map (A) shows reefs classified by present integrated threats from local activities. In the middle (B) and bottom (C) maps, reefs are classified by integrated local threats and projections of thermal stress and ocean acidification for 2030 and 2050

The project has spawned four publications between 1998 and 2011—a global analysis; two detailed regional analyses; and, most recently, a high-resolution update of the first global analysis.

Reefs at Risk Revisited improves on the 1998 global analysis in several important ways. It uses a global map of coral reefs at 500-meter resolution and benefits from improvements in the many global datasets used to evaluate threats to reefs. Most threat data is at 1-square-kilometer resolution. For the first time, it also includes an assessment of climate-related threats to reefs as well as an assessment of the vulnerability of nations and territories to coral reef degradation, based on their dependence on coral reefs and their capacity to adapt. Finally, it takes advantage of the many advances in online web mapping applications, such as ArcGIS Explorer Online, to reach a broader audience that is web savvy, but not necessarily GIS savvy.

Continue reading the full text of this article >>>

Stories to Watch in 2012: U.S., China, Food, Renewable Energy, Rio+20

Manish Bapna — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:05:29 -0500

What are the top environmental and development issues that will shape 2012? This morning, I presented the World Resources Institute’s 9th annual “Stories to Watch” at the National Press Club. While we can’t predict the future, here’s a rundown of…

Building the Foundation for REDD+: Recommendations for Durban on Forest Monitoring

Loretta Cheung — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:09:51 -0500

Though forests play an essential role in international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the development of systems to monitor deforestation and forest degradation has been slow. This is due to the…

Ecosystem Services and the New IFC Performance Standards

Florence Landsberg — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:53:18 -0500

Today the World Resources Institute released Ecosystem Services Review for Impact Assessment: Introduction and Guide to Scoping, the first of…

Top Ten Counties Losing Forests to Development In The U.S. South

Craig Hanson — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:57:02 -0400

Today, WRI releases a new map that identifies the hotspots where urban and suburban development are putting forests at risk in the southern United States. Areas experiencing the most forest loss to development between 2001 and 2006 (the most…

A New Approach to Feeding the World

Janet Ranganathan — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:55:29 -0400

This piece originally appeared in The Solutions Journal

For centuries, Minqin Oasis, along the Silk Road in northwestern China, provided a…

How Can We Create Jobs, Reduce Food Prices and Boost Economies?

Nigel Sizer — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:23:14 -0400

The fate of heads of state across the globe is tied in large part to their ability to ensure employment, economic growth, and access to cheap food and clean water. Rising food prices have helped topple dictators across the Middle East. Europe,…