1 / 14

Biodiversity and socio-economic impacts of trade-oriented agro-commodity production systems

www.aidenvironment.org. Biodiversity and socio-economic impacts of trade-oriented agro-commodity production systems. UNEP 28 November 2007 Jan Joost Kessler AIDEnvironment kessler@aidenvironment.org. Objectives of the study.

randellp
Download Presentation

Biodiversity and socio-economic impacts of trade-oriented agro-commodity production systems

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. www.aidenvironment.org Biodiversity and socio-economic impacts of trade-oriented agro-commodity production systems UNEP 28 November 2007 Jan Joost Kessler AIDEnvironment kessler@aidenvironment.org

  2. Objectives of the study • To assess the biodiversity and socio-economic impacts of the Dutch / EU trade and consumption of certain agro-commodities • To develop a suitable methodology to do so • Focus at agro-commodities for which NL is important consumer and the most important producer countries: • soy (in Argentina and Brazil) • palm oil (in Indonesia and Malaysia) • beef (in Argentina and Brazil) • coffee (in Honduras and Vietnam)

  3. Assessment of biodiversity impacts • Selection of administrative units in countries where production is concentrated • Insight in production systems • Data on land-use dynamics / expansion for agro-commodities in recent 5-8 years (= study period) • Calculation of 5 indicators based on concept of Natural Capital Index

  4. Natural Capital Index = quantity x quality

  5. pristine forest 100% selective logging secondary vegetation 50% plantation degraded 0% The decline of NCI as land-use intensifies Biodiversity ( NCI) • Literature review • Tropical & temperate regions • Plants, insects, birds, other vertebrates

  6. Reference data on NCI decline for land-use

  7. Biodiversity indicators used in study

  8. Example of results for soy in Brazil

  9. Biodiversity loss from soy in Brazil and Argentina before 1995 (yellow) and between 1995-2004 (red)

  10. Some conclusions • B0: Expansion of selected commodities in selected production areas during study period was 28 m ha, and about 67 m ha in the countries. • B1: Soy showed the highest growth factors (80-90%). Low growth factors occur in established region. Growth factors are highest in frontier regions. • B2: In expansion and frontier areas NCI is often higher than the national average. • B3: NCI loss by commodity is generally not high (1-5%), because areas are large. • B4: The contribution from commodity production during the study period to overall biodiversity loss by land-use may be more than 10%. • B5: reflects the ecological impacts in terms of area with 100% NCI loss, which may be quite high. Corrected for multiplier effects. • Total biodiversity loss caused by the commodities in selected areas in the study period corresponds to 154,000 km² (= four times the Netherlands). • Multiplier effects are macro-level changes due to the agro-commodity, e.g. displacement of people or expansion as a result of food competition.

  11. Assessment of socio-economic impacts

  12. Assessment of socio-economic impacts

  13. Main conclusions • Considerable loss of NCI by agro-commodities, mainly in expansion and frontier areas, can be roughly quantified by using NCI and reference data • Loss of NCI by production and trade of agro-commodities is not, or not sufficiently compensated by improvement of socio-economic well-being, especially in frontier areas • The methodology allows one to assess these changes at sub-national level, especially for selected areas where statistics are available – assessments at national level would not be useful • Major risks now with expansion of biofuels (e.g. palmoil) • Doubts about theory of export-oriented growth?

  14. Thank you

More Related