Ecosystem Services: a breakthrough for ESD?

1. Ecosystem Services: a breakthrough for ESD? SEED policy forum , Jan 2010 Jenneth Parker, University of Bristol & London South Bank

2. Convention on Biodiversity and the Millennium Development Goals • CBD a key outcome of 1992 Earth Summit, importantly included equity statements regarding use of the benefits of biodiversity • MDGs set of measurable goals agreed to by global governments include ‘Environmental Sustainability’ • The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) has had to work on clarifying some key concepts as a basis for monitoring environmental sustainability globally • The concept of ‘ecosystem services’ has been developed in order to begin to describe the ways in which humans gain from healthy ecosystems.

3. Ecosystems, Services and Biodiversity (MEA, 2003) • ‘An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit. Humans are an integral part of ecosystems.’ • ‘Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms. It includes diversity within and among species and diversity within and among ecosystems. Biodiversity is the source of many ecosystem goods, such as food and genetic resources, and changes in biodiversity can influence the supply of ecosystem services.’

4. Economic size of • losses (“COPI”study) A : 50-year impact of inaction or ‘business as usual’ B : Natural Capital Loss every year Source: Braat & ten Brink (Eds., 2008): Cost of Policy Inaction Natural Capital Lost : Annually EUR 1.35 x 1012 to 3.10 x 1012 (@ 4% (@ 1% Discount Rate) Discount Rate) Welfare losses equivalent to 7 % of GDP, horizon 2050

5. (2) Deep Links with Poverty “GDP of the Poor” most seriously impacted by ecosystem losses… India Example: 480 Million people in small farming, animal husbandry, informal forestry, fisheries … Ecosystem services to classical GDP 7.3 % Ecosystem services to “GDP of the Poor” 57 % Source: GIST’s Green Accounting for Indian States Project, 2002-03 data

6. Ecosystem Losses & Links to MDG’s Haiti Example : MDG # 1, 4, 5, 8… HAITI DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

7. (3) Ethics of discounting Three hidden stories Most of the 29 valuation studies in our meta-study of forest valuations use discount rates between 3%-5% Declining Growth Paths in the per-capita flow of nature’s services …imply that discount rates should be negative ! Marginal Utility of $1 to the Rich vs Poor …is too different to merit the same discounting treatment Inter-generational Equity … following ‘market practise’ meansvaluing nature’s utility to your grandchild at one-seventh of your own !

8. Ecosystem services can help to explain issues in terms with which people are familiar. Consider this quote from Kevin Conrad, Executive Director of the Alliance of Rainforest Nations: ‘Deforestation is complex, but, put simply, it is driven by the fact that the world values forests more dead than alive. Tropical rainforests are being cut down because we do not pay for their many valuable and diverse ecosystem services – such as climate stabilisation, rainfall generation, crop pollination, soil fertility, food security, waste disposal, water purification, flood control, pest control and recreational services. Traditional economic theory, which considers ecosystem services a ‘common good’ and thus free to all, is primarily responsible…… We must empower rural communities for the first time, to develop without deforesting. Global leaders must reinvent markets for a sustainable future. These will not simply spring up overnight, particularly when society has been accustomed to receiving ecosystem services free.’ (Conrad, 2008, p8-9)

9. Ecosystem Services – a powerful tool for mainstreaming ESD • Attempts in ESD to identify ‘sustainabiity literacy’ – including minimal understanding of key nutrient cycles, biodiversity and systemic unity of the planet • Clearly much more work required to develop full understanding of ways in which BD contributes to ES • However, we are in a position to provide indicative estimates of the relative value to human populations of many key ecosystems • Eg in South Africa Ecosystem Services being used to ‘mainstream’ ESD

10. Ecosystem services: a research programme • Thus ecosystem services has enormous potential for helping understanding of the key messages of sustainability for current and future generations • Ways to explain the role and importance of biodiversity for ecosystem health must be developed further • We can now demonstrate the human consequences in loss of livelihood of the degradation and loss of ecosystem services in terms that everyone can understand- money • This is dynamite in terms of demonstrating the gross ecological inefficiency of our current development model

11. Conclusion: Ecosystem Services powerful transitional concept • we do not need to accept that the ‘being’ of nature or life can be adequately expressed in monetary terms in order to present ecosystem valuations as both a critique and as an aid to decision-making. • In bringing to light the radical ecological inefficiency of our dominant development model, it also has the potential to help found a new more rational model for an ecologically informed age. • ESD should use the tools for understanding that ESS provides whilst opening up more questions that can drive this research programme further