Volume 16 No 2

Our PlanetThe magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme

NATURE’S CAPITAL AND THE MILLENNIUMDEVELOPMENT GOALS

Elliot MorleyRelative Importance

Henri DjomboProgress, Contradictions &

Dilemmas

Obed Mlaba Municipal (Eco) services

Vitaly ChurkinLife at the Extreme

Partha DasguptaDiscounting Ecosystem Losses

Angela Cropper

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The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP or the editors, nor arethey an official record. The designations employed and the presentation do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or itsauthority, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.The non-copyrighted contents of thismagazine may be reprinted without charge provided that Our Planet and the author or photographerconcerned are credited as the source and the editors are notified in writing and sent a voucher copy.OurPlanet welcomes articles, reviews, illustrations and photos for publication but cannot guarantee that they willbe published. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and artwork will not be returned. Subscriptions: If youwish to receive Our Planet on a regular basis and are not currently on the mailing list, please contact ManiKebede, Circulation Manager, Our Planet, for subscription details, giving your name and address and yourpreferred language (English, French or Spanish). Change of address: Please send your address label togetherwith your new address to: Mani Kebede, Circulation Manager, Our Planet, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi,Kenya.

* All dollar ($) amounts refer to US$ (dollars).

Our Planet, the magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP)PO Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTel: (254 20) 621 234Fax: (254 20) 623 927e-mail: cpiinfo@unep.orgwww.unep.org

ISSN 1013-7394

Director of Publication: Eric FaltEditor: Geoffrey LeanCoordinators: Naomi Poulton, Elisabeth WaechterSpecial Contributor: Nick NuttallCirculation Manager: Manyahleshal KebedeDesign: Sharon ChemaiProduction: UNEP/DCPIPrinted by Progress Press, MaltaFront cover photograph: Richard Devels/StillPictures

24 Use Wetlands WiselyGordana Beltram is Under-Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Slovenia, and Chair of the Standing Committee of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

26 Star Profile: Salma Hayek

27 Books and Products

28 Save Our SeedsFrancisco Reifschneider is Director of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

30 Storehouses and Safety NetsDoris Capistrano is the Director, Forests and Governance Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

32 Extinction is ForeverRitsuya Kishida, Japan

14 Discounting Ecosystem LossesSir Partha Dasgupta FBA, FRS is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, United Kingdom

16 At a Glance: Ecosystem Services

18 Twin TracksAngela Cropper, President of The Cropper Foundation, is co-chairof the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment Panel.

20 Sustain Biodiversity, Eliminate Rural PovertyTewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher is Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency, Ethiopia

22 Everything Connects Achim Steiner is Director General, IUCN – The World Conservation Union

3 EditorialKlaus Toepfer, Executive Director, UNEP

4 Relative ImportanceElliot Morley is Minister of the Environment of the United Kingdom

6 PPrrooggrreessss,, CCoonnttrraaddiiccttiioonnss aanndd DDiilleemmmmaassHenri Djombo is Minister of Forestry Economy and Environment of the Republic of Congo

9 People

10 Munincipal (Eco) ServicesObed Mlaba is mayor of Durban, South Africa

12 Life at the ExtremeAmbassador Vitaly Churkin is Chairman of Senior Arctic Officials, Arctic Council

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TThe 2005 World Summit in NewYork is one of the mostimportant meetings of the early

21st century. It aims to deliver a newand strengthened United Nations inareas from security to human rights. Itwill also take stock of how we arefaring on meeting the 2015 MillenniumDevelopment Goals, which range fromhalving dire poverty and increasing theaccess to safe and sufficient suppliesof drinking water to empoweringwomen and reversing the spread ofinfectious disease.

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Over recent months the environmenthas emerged as a crucial pillar, if not acornerstone, upon which the Goalsmay well stand or fall. A more secureworld: Our shared responsibility, thereport of the Secretary-General's HighLevel Panel on Threats, Challengesand Change, says: " Environmentaldegradation has enhanced thedestructive potential of naturaldisasters and in some cases hastenedtheir occurrence. More than two billionpeople were affected in the lastdecade."

So the environment is not a luxury,affordable only when all other issueshave been resolved, but the oxygenbreathing life into all the Goals. It is the ribbon running round our commonaspirations for a healthier, morestable, secure and just world.

It is also critical to economies.When New York's City Council set outto supply safer drinking water for itsnine million customers, it faced a bill

for water filtration of up to $6 billion.Instead of paying for equipment, itplumped for better management ofriver banks, forests, agriculture andother ecosystems to reduce pollutioninto the Catskill/Delaware riversystem. Working with nature in thisway cost the city only $1 billion toprovide safe drinking water, saving upto $5 billion.

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Such hard economic arguments areunderscored in the recently publishedMillennium Ecosystem Assessmentand its spin off reports. The work of1,300 scientists and experts from 95countries, the Assessment has begunto put numbers on the value ofecosystems and the services theyprovide. It shows that an intactwetland in Canada is worth $6,000 ahectare, compared to $2,000 if it isdrained for intensive agriculture.Similarly, it calculates losses fromdamage by alien invasive species in theCape Floral region of South Africa ataround $2,000 a hectare.

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Intact tropical mangroves - nurseriesfor fish, natural pollution filters andcoastal defenses - are worth around$1,000 a hectare. Cleared for shrimpfarms, their value falls fivefold. TheAssessment estimates that theMuthurajawela Marsh, over 3,000hectares of coastal bog in Sri Lanka, isworth an estimated $5 million a yearthough such services as local flood

control. And the annual recreationalvalue of coral reefs in the six MarineManagement Areas of the Hawaiianislands ranges from $300,000 to tensof millions of dollars a year.

Studies from Algeria, Italy,Portugal, Syria and Tunisia estimatethat the value of timber and fuelwoodfrom a forest is worth less than a thirdof that of the services it provides,ranging from protecting watershedsand providing recreation to absorbingpollutants like greenhouse gases. Theburning of 10 million hectares ofIndonesia's forests in the late 1990scost an estimated $9 billion, includingfrom increased health care costs andlosses in tourism.

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There are also new findings on thelink between the spread of diseaseand environmetal degradation.Studies in the Amazon by researchersat Johns Hopkins University in theUnited States have concluded that forevery one per cent increase indeforestation, there is an eight percent increase in the number ofmalaria-carrying mosquitoes.

So it is our sincere hope that theheads of state meeting in New Yorkput "natural or nature's capital" rightup there with human and financialcapital and recognize that significant,targeted investments in theenvironment – including restoring andrehabilitating damaged and degradedwetlands, forests, mangroves, coraland the like – provide a high rate ofreturn and will go a long way towardsmeeting the eight Goals. Anything lesswill undermine our attempts to defeatpoverty and deliver sustainabledevelopment, short-changing currentand future generations ■

YOUR VIEWSWe would like to receive yourfeedback on the issues raised in thisedition of Our Planet. Please eithere-mail: cpiinfo@unep.orgor write to:Feedback, Our PlanetDivision of Communications andPublic Information, UNEPP O Box 30552, NairobiKENYA

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From the desk of

KLAUSTOEPFERUnited NationsUnder-Secretary-General andExecutive Director,UNEP

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TThe Great Apes – chimpanzees,bonobos, orang-utans and gorillas –are considered to be humankind’s

closest relatives. It is hard not to betouched by them – with their prehensilehands, human-like features, their ability touse tools and make plans, and their socialinteraction – as intrinsically bound withhumans. This is borne out by molecularstudies that have shown that chimpanzeesshare more genetic material with humans,about 99%, than with gorillas.

Ironically, these charismatic specieshave come to the forefront of the world’sattention, and we have increased ourknowledge about them, just as theirnumbers have declined. It is thought theirpopulations may have fallen by as much as90% since the start of the last century, andthey face the real threat of extinctionwithin our lifetimes. This has alreadyoccurred at some local levels, taking us astep closer towards total extinction in the

wild. If we allow this to happen, it will bea tremendous loss not just to the localcommunities, but to the planet.

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Great apes are effective indicator species,helping to inform us about the state ofregional and environmental health. As thelargest tree-climbing animals, they play aunique role in the ecology of the forest,from their feeding, nest-building andbranch-breaking behaviour – thus pruningthe trees and opening up light gaps in theforest canopy – to the dispersal of seeds.The symbiotic relationship between thegreat apes and the forest is vitallyimportant.

When the last of a species dies out, itsgene pool is lost forever. If one speciesbecomes extinct, those that rely on it inone way or another (such as for protectionor for food) will also be affected. In light

of this, we aim through variousgovernment measures to preserve thediversity of species now alive.

All great apes face the significantthreat of habitat destruction. In Africa apesare threatened by such diseases as ebola, aswell as by pressure from over-exploitationby hunting to feed both the localcommunity and the huge numbers ofpeople engaged in logging. We cannotunderestimate the damage that will bedone to the ecosystem if great apes areallowed to vanish, or further declinesignificantly.

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The UK Government has been at theforefront of trying to help range statesimplement programmes that will preserveand enhance great apes’ nativebiodiversity. The UK was one of the firstGovernments to signal support for theGreat Ape Survival Project (GRASP),jointly managed by UNEP and UNESCO.The project – agreed following the 2002World Summit on SustainableDevelopment – aims to bring world-wideattention to the crisis, raise funds forconservation, and develop a globalconservation strategy for all great apepopulations. GRASP’s work is key topromoting collaborative working acrossrange states and amongst partners in thedeveloped world to draw up cohesive plans

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ELLIOT MORLEY describes the urgency of conserving thegreat apes as part of achieving the Millennium DevelopmentGoals

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dealing with the complex issues ofmaintaining great ape populations andhelping to reverse their decline.

The UK Government has so farcommitted £563,000 to GRASP's work.As the largest single country donor, it hasdemonstrated its commitment to helpingGRASP reach its target of raisingsufficient money to fund 100 field projectsby 2010. It is up to other donors to matchthis support.

UNEP and UNESCO are organisingan Intergovernmental Meeting in Kinshasain September to take the project furtherand embed it in the minds of governmentsand other partners. This is an excellentopportunity for donor countries and therange states of great apes to come togetherto discuss an effective work plan to takeforward our commitment under theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs)to reverse the loss of environmentalresources by 2015, and our commitmentunder the Convention on BiologicalDiversity to achieve a significant reductionin the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010.These are challenging targets, but we mustcontinue committing ourselves to ensurethe health of the world’s most importantforests, and protecting great apes is anachievable step that takes us nearer to ouroverall aim.

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The unsustainable trade in bushmeat is onespecific issue being addressed by GRASP.Consuming bushmeat is both a livelihoodopportunity and a cultural tradition forforest peoples. But the growth in marketsand demand in urban areas – coupled withthe ease of accessibility into onceinaccessible areas, through such industriesas logging – has put increasing,unsustainable pressures upon certainspecies, including great apes. Bushmeat isa good example of an issue that we cannotaddress simply from only one angle: to doso would be to oversimplify andessentially ignore either the rights ofindigenous peoples or the aim to maintainand improve the world’s biodiversity.Action across range and donor states isessential.

The increase in illegal logging hasplaced unsustainable pressures on onceplentiful species. The UK was one of 40countries to sign a ministerial declarationon illegal logging at the African Forest

Law Enforcement and Governanceconference in October 2003, so as tocontinue the process of working closelywith range states and address matters attheir root cause. Only through promotingsound forest management and governancecan we start effectively to protectvulnerable species, whilst ensuring thatindigenous people are preserved and theirlivelihoods, where possible, improved.

The UK Government also works withother countries to promote theconservation of the world's wildlife, andhelp stop the decline in populations ofmonkeys and great apes, through ourmembership of agreements such as theConvention on International Trade inEndangered Species (CITES). TheConvention monitors, regulates andrestricts trade in around 5,000 species ofanimals, including all the great apes: morethan 167 nations have signed up toimplementing it. International trade inanimals listed on CITES, includingbushmeat derived from those species, iseither banned completely or controlled bymeans of a system of permits.

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In October 2004, the UK was instrumentalin drafting and proposing an importantEuropean Union (EU) resolution on greatapes to the 13th Conference of the Partiesto CITES. The proposal – which includedcalls to work closely with GRASP – wasadopted, as was an EU proposal invitingthe UN’s Food and AgricultureOrganisation to convene an internationalworkshop to examine the bushmeat issue.The UK pledged £20,000 to set up a pilotproject to help combat the smuggling ofgreat apes in central Africa, to be jointlymanaged by GRASP and CITES.

The plain fact is that many of theissues faced by the Africa are intrinsicallylinked to poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa isthe only region of the world to havebecome poorer in the last 25 years. Thecontinent's share of world trade halvedfrom 1980 to 2002, and it is home to 28%of the world’s poorest people.

Good work has been done on meetingthe UN Millennium Development Goals,but there is still a lot to do. This is why theUK Government has noted Africa as amain theme of its Presidency of the G8.Only by working together can we hope toachieve the eight Millennium

Development Goals and I welcome thesignificant agreement on aid and debt thatwas reached at Gleneagles in July.

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My colleague, the Biodiversity MinisterJim Knight, now has these issues withinhis portfolio. Indeed this is the first timethat biodiversity has appeared within theMinisterial portfolio title. This is noaccident, but an acknowledgment of thesignificance of biodiversity across UKGovernment policy, both nationally andinternationally. I know Jim will takeforward these issues with great energy andcommitment, reinforced by the support wewill give him to sustain and grow the workof UNEP and GRASP.

Biodiversity is the yardstick by whichwe judge the success of our Department–and our success as a planet. As adeveloped country, we recognise that wehave a responsibility to work with UNEPand others to address the very real threat tobiodiversity generally, and to the greatapes in particular ■

Elliot Morley is Minister of theEnvironment of the United Kingdom

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TThe importance of biodiversity for our planet isundisputed, as demonstrated by the sheer number ofinternational treaties on it. Between 1958 and 1992 (the

dates of the signatures of the Geneva Convention on the HighSeas and the Biodiversity Convention) there have been nofewer than 13 conventions or international accords on thisall-important subject. Natural resources are the trump cardto be played by countries that have so far been able to protecttheir biodiversity in ecologically and economically difficultcircumstances (including deforestation, poaching, the heavyburden of debt, and climate fluctuations) so as to put intoplace the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Conservingbiodiversity is an essential factor in fighting poverty andmanaging the environment sustainably.

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The Congo Basin Forest Project, for example, is a uniqueexperience that has been welcomed and embraced by theinternational community – a success story in conservingbiodiversity.

The Congo Basin forests cover an immense area – 228million hectares, incorporating more than 11 countries.Comprising 18 % of the world's tropical forest, it is thesecond largest such forest in the world, after the Amazon,and thus one of the planet's vital "green lungs". Preserving

Progress,Contradictionsand Dilemmas

HENRI DJOMBO describes an important initiative to conserve biodiversity and calls for better partnership to realise it

the "common human heritage” concerns us all. The UnitedNations General Assembly resolution 54/214 on theconservation and sustainable development of CentralAfrican forest ecosystems reflects the global consensus onthe need to protect them.

These forests play a vital role for the entire planet inregulating climate and protecting biodiversity. They boast anexceptional range of biodiversity: more than 11,000 plantspecies, 409 species of mammals, 1,086 bird species, 152species of snakes and 1,069 of fish.

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The Central African Heads of States are aware of how highthe stakes are and of their responsibility towards humanity.In a spirit of solidarity and of safeguarding common interests– and in view of protecting the future of coming generations– they solemnly declared at Yaoundé in 1999 and again in2005 at Brazzaville their "adherence to the principle ofpreserving biodiversity and of sustainable development offorest ecosystems". Their ambitious Convergence Plancombines the demands of sustainable development and themanagement of natural resources. Adopted in February ▲

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2005, it is a long-term subregionalstrategic plan to ensure theconservation and sustainabledevelopment of forest ecosystems inCentral Africa.

Its principal objective is “to managethe forest resources of the subregion ina sustainable and concentrated wayand to establish protected areas thatare representative of biologicaldiversity and different ecosystems, forthe good of the people and the balanceof the planet.” It amounts to a commonvision of Central African states forrealising the Millenium DevelopmentGoals and better preservingbiodiversity.

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This important initiative was conceivedalong several strategic vectors whichslot perfectly into the Goals,specifically the fight against povertyand hunger. It also reflects the eighthGoal – to develop a global partnershipfor development – in that 11 countriesof the Central African region havejoined together to form the CongoBasin Forest Partnership. This waslaunched in Johannesburg at the 2002World Summit on SustainableDevelopment to promote thesustainable development of theCentral African forest ecosystems.

Several recent reports, such as theMillennium Ecosystem Assessment

published in April 2005, are very clearon the state of global biodiversity andalso put forth the very plausible theorythat the MDGs in this area – and onenvironmental protection moregenerally – are unlikely to be met. TheAssessment unambiguously statesthat we must brace ourselves for amajor deterioration in biodiversity, andit underlines the economicimplications of this, especially for thefight against poverty. It is clear that ifwe do not succeed in reversing currenttrends, our efforts to halve poverty bythe year 2015 will be in vain. It is thusimperative that a functionalpartnership be established.

Despite certain encouraging effortsby the North in this direction – such asthe recent British initiative in theframework of the G8 – the general toneis dominated by a lack of solidarity anda blatant disregard for previously made

commitments. Goal 8 should be thedriving force behind all the otherMDGs. Northern countries must faceup to their obligations, to enable us allto reach our aim of achievingsustainable development together.

The future of this common humanheritage of the forests of the CongoBasin is being decided right now. Whyis it, then, that the countries of CentralAfrica have undertaken to provide 40%of the 2 billion US dollars needed to putin place the Convergence Plan, whileNorthern countries display extremereluctance in coming up with theremaining 60% to save this worldheritage.

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How do 2 billion US dollars over 10years compare to the 300 billion USdollars annually doled out by OECDcountries in agricultural subsidies?This modest 2 billion dollar sum,desparately needed to save theplanet's biodiversity, is equal to thecost of purchasing eight F16 fighterjets. We consider the financing of theConvergence Plan not just a moralobligation, but the responsibility of theNorthern countries, for is it not theywho are the greatest polluters, thepredators and destroyers of thetropical forest? Where does the capitalthat is used to exploit the forests of theSouth come from? Or the companies?Which are the countries who refuse toput into place a system of eco-certification of tropical woods, tocounteract illegal logging and thepillaging of tropical forests? Whoorganises the poaching, and whopurchases and uses the products ofthis illegal activity, such as elephanttusks and rhinoceros horns? Are theynot extremely valuable and soughtafter in the West and in Asia?

Who conducts biologicalexperiments and exploits localpopulations, while at the same timeusing their local knowledge for free?Do the results of this research benefitthe South – or improve the knowledgebase of laboratories in the North? It isthe biodiversity of our forests thatmakes these experiments possible –yet we do not benefit from them at all.Only the Northern laboratories benefit,

Its principal objective is “tomanage the forest resourcesof the subregion in asustainable and concentratedway and to establishprotected areas that arerepresentative of biologicaldiversity and differentecosystems, for the good ofthe people and the balance ofthe planet”

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not just in terms of knowledge, butfinancially.

In an attempt to protect ourbiodiversity, we have created nationalparks and protected areas. But, as itturns out – in line with structuraladjustments imposed by the BrettonWoods institutions – most of ourstates stopped recruiting as long as 15years ago. How, then, are we meant toprotect our national parks, thosesanctuaries and immense reserves ofbiodiversity, against the commercialagression of the wealthy?

It is even more ironic when these“predators” – through their NGOs andother government structures – try toteach us how to protect ourbiodiversity and our ecosystems. Whatwe expect from them is moresolidarity, and an adherence to theircommitments. Some of our partners,such as Italy, have shown the way bycancelling the debts of the countries inthe region, against the financing of theConvergence Plan.

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We look forward to the establishmentof innovative financing mechanismsfor environmental projects to replacetraditional forms of aid – which seemto be aimed primarily at employingNorthern experts and financingprojects chosen by the North, withoutfirst consulting with the localauthorities. Furthermore, the systemis characterised by a staggering lackof financial transparency, whichfacilitates corruption.

Taking into account theseinjustices, and this hesitation, it isclear that we desperately need a realpartnership. This is what it will take toput into practice the dream that worldleaders had, one day in September2000 at the Millennium Summit ■

Henri Djombo is Minister of ForestryEconomy and Environment of theRepublic of Congo

In an attempt to protect ourbiodiversity, we have creatednational parks and protectedareas

These images, taken from One Planet, Many People: Atlas of OurChanging Environment (UNEP, 2005), show the dramatic changes thathave occured over the past three decades in forest regions all overAfrica.

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Corneille Ewango stayed in the vital Okapi Reserve in the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo to protect it during the recent civil war, when most of its senior staff fled.He hid the Reserve's herbarium collection, computers, research and data in the forest- and sometimes had to hide himself to save his life – but he also directly confrontedmilitary commanders to stop their soldiers poaching its wildlife. With the support ofsome 1,500 local people, he managed to preserve the Reserve, a crucial part of theIturi Forest, which is home to many rare species and the Mbuti people, commonlyknown as pygmies. His brave persistence won him the 2005 Goldman EnvironmentalPrize for Africa.The prizes – founded by Richard N. Goldman and his late wife Rhoda H. Goldmanin 1990 – are the world's foremost honours for grassroots environmental activists, sixof whom annually receive $125,000, the largest awards of their kind. Others of thisyear's prizes were also awarded for protecting biodiversity. Isidro Baldenegro López,of Chihuahua Mexico – a subsistence farmer and community leader of the indigenousTarahumara people – has spent much of his life defending its priceless forests fromlogging despite, as a boy, witnessing the assassination of his own father for taking asimilar stand. In 2003 he was arrested on trumped-up charges and spent 15 months injail, but his work has led to logging bans throughout the Sierra Madre region of thecountry.Father José Andrés Tamayo Cortes, a charismatic priest, directs a coalition that hasfought uncontrolled commercial logging in Honduras and exerted pressure on itsgovernment to reform its national forest policy. And Chavannes Jean-Baptiste hasreached more than 200,000 people across Haiti, teaching the principles of sustainableagriculture and techniques to combat erosion in the heavily deforested country.The two other prizes were won by Kaisha Atakhanova, who led a successfulcampaign to prevent nuclear waste being imported into the Republic of Kazakhstan,and Stephanie Roth, who has been the driving force behind an internationalcampaign to stop the construction of Europe's largest open-cast gold mine in Romania.Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader in the US House of Representatives, said: “theleadership and commitment of the winners will protect our environment for futuregenerations.”

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Ahmed Djoghlaf of Algeria has beenappointed Executive Secretary of theConvention OnBiological Diversity(CBD). He succeedsHamdallah Zedan ofEgypt as head of theConvention's secretariat,based in Montreal. MrDjoghlaf has beenDirector of the United NationsEnvironment Programme/ GlobalEnvironment Facility in Nairobi since1996. Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's ExecutiveDirector, said: “He has truly transformedour role within the Global EnvironmentFacility and will be sorely missed. But ourloss is the CBD's gain. Mr Djoghlaf has theskills, the intellect and experience to takethis important convention forward into the21st century.”

Svein Tveitdal has been appointed SpecialAdvisor to the Executive Director ofUNEP on Polar/Nordicissues in response to theincreased importance ofthe polar ecosystems ina global environmentalcontext. Director ofUNEP’s Divisions forPolicy Implementationand Environmental Conventions from June2003 to June 2005, he will be co-located atits Polar Centre GRID-Arendal in Norway,where he was Managing Director between1992 and 2003. He has had longstandingpersonal and professional interests in theArctic, whose ecosystems are nowthreatened by climate change,contamination and wilderness frag-mentation, and have become importantbarometers of global environmentalchange.

James Leape, who has directed theconservation and science initiatives of theDavid and Lucille Packard Foundationsince 2001, has been appointed DirectorGeneral of WWF International, succeedingDr. Claude Martin, who retires after 12years at the helm of the organisation inDecember.

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Corneille Ewango Isidro BaldenegroLópez

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MMuunniicciippaall(Eco)servicesObed Mlaba describes the importance ofecosystem services to cities and shows howlocal action can ensure millennial change

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IIt is a matter of concern that the role of local governmentin meeting the Millennium Development Goals has notbeen more broadly acknowledged. Local government

directly provides many of the basic services that are thefocus of the Goals, such as water, sanitation, public health,energy, and housing. Its planning and regulatory functionsalso accord it an increasing role in protecting the naturalresource base, on which many of the global poor still directlydepend for survival. So equitable and sustainable access tothese basic needs and to the natural resource base – both

key to achieving the MDGs – can only be realized throughstrong, decentralized local government and an informed,supportive citizenry.

Local government's pivotal role in implementingsustainable development was profiled at the World Summiton Sustainable Development (WSSD) at a session entitledLocal Action Moves the World. There, 900 participants from69 countries inaugurated Local Action 21 – the new action-oriented phase of Local Agenda 21, – as a motto, mandate,and movement for advancing sustainability at the local level.Similarly, the Local Government Declaration delivered to theSummit concluded: “We live in an increasingly interconnected, interdependentworld. The local and global are intertwined....Ten years afterRio, it is time for action by all spheres of government, allpartners. And local action, undertaken in solidarity, canmove the world."

Sustainable development is being achieved in Durbanthrough implementing the eThekwini Municipality’sIntegrated Development Plan (IDP) – a legally mandated andCouncil – adopted manifesto for city change which hasensured that sustainable development has become “afundamental driver of the City Strategy.” While it prioritisesservice provision and economic development, Durban’s IDPis different to many others in clearly profiling the importanceof the natural resource base in ensuring long-term urbansustainability.

This approach is directly in line with Goal 7 of the MDGs,which highlights the environment's central role in providingthe goods and services that sustain human development.Managing and protecting the environment is also a keyfactor in ensuring that the targets set in the otherMillennium Development Goals are achieved. Better naturalresource management, for example, increases the incomeand nutrition of poor people, while improved water andsanitation management reduces child mortality, exposure todiseases such as malaria, and the risk of disaster fromfloods.

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Durban's IDP outlines the interdependence of developmentand environment in a chapter entitled “Sustaining thenatural and built environment”. This acknowledges that “alldevelopment must function in harmony with the naturalresources and processes upon which human health and theeconomy so often depend”. A key tool in achieving thisintegrated vision is the eThekwini Environmental ServicesManagement Plan (EESMP), the Council-approved plan toprotect the city's natural resource base of the city.

City residents benefit from a range of environmentalgoods and services provided by its natural ecosystems –including fuel and food, flood prevention, water provision,breakdown of waste, and recreational areas. Unspoiltlandscapes also give people a sense of place and a feeling ofwell-being. Different types of open space supply differentbenefits e.g. grasslands supply grazing, while rivers supplywater. People use ecosystem benefits on a daily basis – e.g.soil for agriculture and rivers for fishing and recreation – but

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their supply and demand must bebalanced to ensure that they remainavailable for both current and futuregenerations.

To illustrate the importance of thisresource, the total annual value of theenvironmental goods and servicessupplied by the natural resource base(as delineated in the EESMP) –excluding tourism - has beenestimated at US $453 million, about aquarter of the city's municipal budget.

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Given the importance of the naturalresource base to Durban’ssustainability, much attention is beingpaid to ensuring the EESMP'ssuccessful implementation. One of themost difficult challenges is that mostof the environmentally sensitive land inthe city is privately owned. Tools havebeen developed – or are underdevelopment - to secure the benefitsfrom the city’s natural assets, whilefacilitating much needed development.Over the past three financial years, forexample, limited funds have beenallocated to acquire land incircumstances where regulatingdevelopment would mean an almosttotal loss of economic return. This isnot the preferred approach (because ofthe cost of land and subsequentmanagement responsibilities) and isonly used in threatened priority areas,and where there are no other optionsfor protecting the land.

Another tool that has beenemployed successfully is usingconservation servitudes registered infavour of the municipality to protectthe environmentally sensitive parts ofa property. These remain in theownership of the titleholder, but areprotected, and may only be used forconservation or passive recreationpurposes. Property taxes can also beused as an incentive to encouragedevelopment in appropriate places.At present, vacant city land attractsthe highest taxes, providing anincentive to develop it regardless ofits qualities, at times leading toenvironmentally unacceptable deve-lopment. Investigations are welladvanced into mechanisms foroffering meaningful and binding taxincentives to landowners to retainand manage land of the highestenvironmental quality - while havinglittle impact on the City’s rates base.

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Work is also under way on using thesocio-economic benefits that flowfrom sustainably protecting andmanaging the natural resource base.Durban's municipal area includeslarge tracts of rural land: itscommunities are almost completelydependent on the goods and servicesprovided by the natural environmentfor products such as fuelwood, water,building materials, productivegrazing and agricultural land and

craft materials. These areas offer arange of opportunities including:■ Providing goods and servicesimportant for the sustainablelivelihoods and the well-being of localresidents;■ Local economic developmentopportunities associated with thesupply of unique natural products andservices, such as water and land–based eco-tourism and craftwork;■ Providing services that benefit amuch wider population, such as waterresource protection – which benefitsmost of the people of the eThekwiniMunicipality.

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A coordinated management system isbeing developed to ensure that theseopportunities are protected and usedsustainably; through it, job creation forpoor and disadvantaged communitiesand environmental management willproceed hand-in-hand. This willensure that present benefits to peopleand the economy are secured, andmaximised for both current and futurebeneficiaries.

By adopting this kind of proactiveapproach, eThekwini Municipality hasestablished itself as a global leader innatural resource management,providing clear evidence that localaction is essential to responding to thechallenges of the MDGs ■

Obed Mlaba is mayor of Durban

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Life at the ExtremeVITALY CHURKIN describes the fragility of biodiversity in theArctic and says that conserving it is a global challenge andresponsibility

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LLife in the Arctic has adapted toextreme conditions of seasonaldarkness and cold, followed by a

brief intense burst of growth during ashort summer season when foodbecomes plentiful. Arctic animalsmust therefore survive long periodswhen food is limited or unavailable, ormigrate to more southerly latitudes.When sunlight reaches the oceans inthe spring, plankton rapidly bloom,creating a burst of growth in Arcticmarine ecosystems. Similarly, thegrowth of plants on land begins asummer feast for terrestrial animals,allowing the breeding and raising ofyoung, and enabling storage for thecoming winter.

Arctic biodiversity generally boastsrelatively few species compared tolower latitudes – although they oftenhave large populations – reflecting high

genetic, morphological and behaviouraldiversity. Highly specialised phyto-plankton and sea ice algae species formthe foundation of the marine food webs:they are specially adapted to extremes ofdarkness and cold, and to thefreshwater–brine conditions of the sea ice– ocean interface. Mosses and lichens,similarly specially adapted to the Arctic,are the foundation for many terrestrialfood webs.

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Terrestrial, freshwater and marineArctic biodiversity are intricately linkedthrough the interplay betweenterrestrial and marine species,habitats and ecosystems. Seabirdsnest on land but may feed on fish andinvertebrates in the ocean, lakes andrivers. Salmon, arctic char and several

other fish species cross from themarine to the freshwater ecosystem tobreed. Polar bears den on land in snowbanks, but only survive by hunting,almost exclusively out on the sea ice.Seals make dens on sea ice and hunt inthe ocean. Indigenous peoples –relying heavily on the integrity ofecosystem services – use livingresources across all the Arctic’smarine, terrestrial and freshwaterecosystems and habitats: thesustainability of their culturestherefore directly depends onsustaining its biological resources.Ecosystem functioning and integritystrongly depend on the diversity andactivity of the soil, flora, fauna, andmicrobes. But little is known about thisdiversity, how it will change and whatthe consequences will be in a changingenvironment.

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Arctic biodiversity is experiencingincreasing stress from sourcesincluding climatic warming andassociated melting of sea ice, pollutionand the transport of contaminants,habitat fragmentation fromdevelopment, over-harvesting ofwildlife, and invasive species. Speciesadapt to some degree to thesestresses, but their relatively smallnumber in the Arctic means that theecological balance may criticallydepend on only one or two of them,rather than on several withoverlapping ecological roles, as inlower latitudes. Losing one or twospecies can therefore lead to thecollapse of an entire food web, andunbalance an entire ecosystem.

Warming trends, and resultingfluctuations in snow cover andlake/river ice, are impactingecosystems from the base of the foodwebs upwards. Changes in theabundance of mosses and lichens willprobably lead to changes in themigratory patterns of reindeer and

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Losing one or two speciescan therefore lead to thecollapse of an entire foodweb, and unbalance an entireecosystem

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caribou, their breeding behaviour andpopulation dynamics. Reindeerherding and caribou hunting is vital tothe economic and culturalsustainability of many indigenouscommunities. Lemmings and voles,relying on mosses and lichens forfood, are also affected by change –which in turn impacts raptors like thesnowy owl and carnivores like theArctic fox. Polar bears and seals areunder threat from the reduction of seaice, and the indigenous communitiesthat hunt them are finding that theirnumbers are declining.

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More southerly flora and fauna areshifting northwards as the climatewarms, moving into niches occupiedby Arctic species – as are bacteria andviruses to which northern specieshave never been exposed, and againstwhich they have no immunity. TheArctic Ocean prevents terrestrialspecies already living at thenorthernmost coastal boundaries oftheir habitats moving further north, sothose along the northern Arctic coastsare now among the most threatenedin the world by invasive species,declining food resources and loss ofhabitat.

One of the greatest changes of allis expected to occur when scrubs andtrees invade the tundra, displacing itshabitats and species. In some places,where the forest is near the ArcticOcean coast, this displacement will becomplete, as the invading vegetationbrings a new flora and fauna. Thismajor change in biodiversity will, inturn, lead to increased warming sinceforests absorb and retain more heatthan reflective snow and tundravegetation.

More than 80% of theapproximately 370 indigenoussettlements in the Arctic tundraregions are on the coasts. Earlymelting of sea ice and late freezing oflake and river ice are disruptingmigration and hunting patterns, whileincreasing diseases of fish and plantsare endangering the quality of food.

Sustainable development in theArctic is one of the primary goals ofthe Arctic Council – a high-level

intergovernmental forum comprised ofthe eight Arctic countries (Canada,Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway,Russia, Sweden, and the USA), sixindigenous peoples’ organisations(Aleut International Association, ArcticAthabaskan Council, Gwich’in CouncilInternational, Inuit CircumpolarConference, Russian Association ofIndigenous Peoples of the North(RAIPON) and Saami Council) andofficial observers (including France,Germany, the Netherlands, Poland,the United Kingdom, IGOs, NGOs, andother international bodies).

The Arctic Climate ImpactAssessment (ACIA), recently com-pleted under the Council’s aegis,thoroughly assessed the current andpotential future impacts of climatechange and UV-B radiation onbiodiversity. The Council’s Conser-vation of Arctic Flora and FaunaWorking Group (CAFF) is mandated toprotect Arctic biodiversity andestablish marine and terrestrialprotected areas. Working closely withindigenous communities – whoseactive participation is crucial toachieving sustainable development – itis launching the CircumpolarBiodiversity Monitoring Programme(CBMP).

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The purpose of the CBMP – which wasfully endorsed by the Arctic Councilministers in November 2004 – isconserving Arctic biological diversitythrough an international network ofcoordinated efforts to halt orsignificantly reduce Arctic biodiversityloss, and providing information for thesustainable use of the Arctic’s livingresources for the indigenous peoplesof the Arctic and other Arctic residents,as well as stakeholders inside andoutside the region. One of the primaryways CAFF will collect status and trend

information on Arctic biodiversity isthrough cooperating with indigenouscommunities and launching circum-Arctic community-based monitoringinitiatives.

Monitoring natural and anthro-pogenic impacts to the food webs andecological functions of the Arcticenvironment and ecosystems, providescritical information about the statusand trends of species and the integrityof the food webs on which they dependfor survival. This directly relates to thesocio-economic and cultural stabilityof Arctic resident societies.

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Preserving the Arctic’s biodiversitycannot be achieved by the Arcticcountries alone. The migration of birdsand marine mammals link the integrityof its biodiversity and ecosystems to allother regions of the globe. 279 of theapproximately 450 species of birdswhich have bred in the Arctic regionseasonally migrate to other parts ofthe globe, reaching everywhere exceptthe Antarctic interior. Thirty reachsouthern Africa, 26 reach Australia andNew Zealand, and 22 reach southernSouth America, while several pelagicspecies reach the southern oceans.Virtually all the world’s majorecosystems support Arctic breedingbirds: they occupy every major habitatin every major region.

The CBMP will help signatorycountries meet the MillenniumDevelopment Goals – particularly Goal7, ensuring environmental sustain-ability and the target of significantlyreducing the rate of biodiversity loss by2010. Conserving Arctic biodiversity isa global challenge, touching virtuallyall the world’s major terrestrial andmarine ecosystems, and requiring ahigh level of international cooperation.Balanced ecosystem functioning andservices are inextricably linked tosustainable development. Thisfundamental principle is thefoundation for long-term conservationand sustainable use of Arcticbiodiversity, and for the sustainabledevelopment of Arctic communities ■

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin is Chairmanof Senior Arctic Officials, Arctic Council

Early melting of sea ice andlate freezing of lake andriver ice are disruptingmigration and huntingpatterns, while increasingdiseases of fish and plantsare endangering the qualityof food

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PARTHA DASGUPTA explains why economistsand environmentalists should unite in insistingthat the declines in biodiversity and ecosystemservices must be tackled immediately

OOf all global environmental problems, the ones relating to adecline in biodiversity and ecosystem services are the mostneglected. International discussions on climate change, for

example, may remain tense, but the issues are at least on the table.But these two related declines remain on the back burner thanks tothe widespread belief that ecosystem losses are someone else'sproblem. The urban citizen in the West can at least imagineclimate change for the worse, but the role played by ecosystems inour lives is elusive. How many people know or care about micro-organisms in the soil and water, or the nitrogen overload in today'senvironment? Acknowledging that millions and millions ofnatural processes enable humanity not only to live, but to runmodern economies, would require that we study the findings ofecologists – and, more generally, of environmental scientists. Buthow many of us are prepared to do that?

Ecosystems – which range in size from whole biomes to smallponds – are capital assets. They maintain a genetic library, preserveand regenerate soil, fix nitrogen and carbon, recycle nutrients,control floods, filter pollutants, assimilate waste, pollinate crops,operate the hydrological cycle, and maintain the gaseouscomposition of the atmosphere. Their degradation is like thedepreciation of roads, buildings, and machinery – but with two bigdifferences. Firstly, the damage is frequently irreversible: at bestthe systems take a long time to recover. And, secondly, ecologicalprocesses are overwhelmingly non-linear, meaning that anecosystem can collapse abruptly, without much prior warning.Imagine what would happen to a city's inhabitants if theinfrastructure connecting it to the outside world were to breakdown without notice. Vanishing water holes, deteriorating grazingfields, barren slopes, and wasting mangroves are spatially confinedinstances of such breakdowns.

So, one prominent message of the Millennium EcosystemAssessment is that the services ecosystems offer humanity are notjust luxuries – like landscapes of aesthetic beauty – but economicnecessities. Another is that declines in these services are felt mostlyby the world's poorest, most of whom rely on them directly fortheir livelihoods. Thus, when wetlands, inland and coastalfisheries, woodlands, forests, ponds and lakes, and grazing fieldsare damaged – owing, say, to agricultural encroachment, nitrogenoverload, urban extensions, the construction of large dams,organisational failure at the village level, or resource usurpation bygovernment – it is the traditional dwellers who suffer. They oftenhave no alternative source of livelihood, and migration is usuallynot an option. By contrast, rich eco-tourists or importers of primaryproducts have alternatives – there is always something else, oftensomewhere else. So the question of whether there are substitutesfor natural capital is not just one of technology and consumerpreferences; the poor suffer from a lack of substitution possibilitiesin ways that the rich do not. Ignoring the ecological basis of theMillennium Development Goals, therefore, would be a move ofconscientious stupidity.

I believe, however, that even if the degradation of ecosystemswere taken seriously, it would remain on the back burner. As withclimate change, powerful voices would claim that the decline inecosystem services is not today's problem, but one for the future.They would say that because big losses would occur only then, thecosts of doing something now to stem the decline are too large incomparison.

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How does that argument work? It works by a practice economistsand accountants have made popular, of discounting future costsand benefits at a positive rate. To see what discounting means,suppose commercial banks are offering you an annual interest rateof 5 %. A thousand dollars deposited with them now would growto a thousand and fifty dollars next year. So, a promise of athousand and fifty dollars next year would be equivalent to a

Ignoring the ecological basis of theMillennium Development Goals, therefore,would be a move of conscientious stupidity

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thousand dollars now: you would use a 5% discount rate to make that futurethousand and fifty dollars equal to athousand dollars today. Economists usethis line of reasoning to justify the use of apositive discount rate for comparing futurebenefits with current costs. Reducingecosystem declines (just as reducing globalcarbon emissions) would involve largecosts now, but the benefits from avertingpossible economic disruptions would beenjoyed only in the somewhat distantfuture. Prominent economic models ofclimate change, for example, show that thecosts are greater than the sum of thediscounted benefits. Doing somethingnow, they imply, would be to throw moneyaway on a comparatively bad project – andthat self-same argument could be used forecosystem protection.

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Environmental scientists, however,frequently ask why the global communityshould discount future costs and benefits atall when making collective investmentdecisions. Why not simply subtract thesum of all costs from the sum of allbenefits?

There are two reasons why a societycould wish to value present and futurecosts and benefits differently. First, a futurebenefit would be of less value than thatsame benefit today, if society is impatientto enjoy the benefit now. So, impatience isone reason for discounting future costs andbenefits at a positive rate. Secondly, ifpeople expect to grow richer over time,their collective need for further increasesin consumption would be less in the futurethan it is today, other things being thesame. Rising consumption levels thereforeprovide a second justification fordiscounting future costs and benefits at apositive rate. (I am neglecting uncertaintyin future consumption, which wouldmerely reinforce the argument developedbelow.)

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Philosophers argue that societal impatienceis ethically indefensible, because it favourspolicies that discriminate against futuregenerations merely on the grounds thatthey are not here now. Once we accepttheir argument, we are left with only thesecond reason for discounting future costs

and benefits. But if rising consumptionsprovide a society with a reason fordiscounting future benefits at a positiverate, declining consumptions wouldprovide that same society with a reason fordiscounting future benefits at a negativerate. Empirical evidence from societal andpersonal choices suggests that the rate asociety ought to use for discounting futurebenefits is something like three times the%age rate of change of averageconsumption. (This means that if per capitaconsumption is expected to grow at 2 %per year, society ought to discount futurebenefits at 6 % per year. On the other hand,if per capita consumption is expected todecline at 2 % per year, future benefitsought to be discounted at minus 6 % peryear. Notice, though, that applying anegative discount rate amplifies costs andbenefits in the distant future when viewedfrom the present - they are not attenuated,as they would be if positive rates were usedinstead to discount them. (If decliningconsumptions appear to be an unfamiliarphenomenon, recall that sub-SaharanAfrica has experienced them for over threedecades.)

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Admittedly, private investors would, in alllikelihood, be using a positive rate todiscount their personal future earningseven in a declining economy. They woulddo so because the interest rate offered bycommercial banks on deposits would mostlikely remain positive. But there is nocontradiction here: in the presence ofeconomic distortions, we should expect a

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wedge between the rates private investorsuse to discount their own future earningsand the rates the world community oughtto use to discount collective costs andbenefits in the future.

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Consider now those scientific experts whoare persuaded that if nothing substantial isdone today to curb biodiversity losses andecosystem degradation (or, for that matter,emissions of greenhouse gases), there is anon-negligible chance that world output ofgoods and services, suitably weightedacross regions and income groups, willdecline. To them neglecting biodiversityand ecosystems in proposals for attainingthe Millennium Development Goals wouldappear intuitively wrong. And they wouldbe right. Biodiversity loss, ecosystemdegradation, and climate change, takentogether, are an example of a global"tragedy of the commons", meaning thatthe rates that should be used for evaluatingthe collective costs and benefits ofstemming the tide do not bear any obviousrelationship to market rates of interest. Ifdeclining economic output is a seriouspossibility in the future, the discount ratesthat should be used should be negative.There is no necessary conflict betweenenvironmental scientists' intuitions andeconomists' reasoning ■

Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS is theFrank Ramsey Professor of Economics atthe University of Cambridge and Fellow ofSt. John's College, Cambridge

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At a glance:Ecosystem Services

TThree major problems associated with our management ofthe world’s ecosystems are already causing significantharm to some people, particularly the poor, and unless

addressed will substantially diminish the long-term benefits weobtain from ecosystems:

■ First, approximately 60% (15 out of 24) of the ecosystemservices examined during the Millennium EcosystemAssessment are being degraded or used unsustainably,including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and waterpurification, and the regulation of regional and local climate,natural hazards, and pests. The full costs of the loss anddegradation of these ecosystem services are difficult tomeasure, but the available evidence demonstrates that they aresubstantial and growing. Many ecosystem services have beendegraded as a consequence of actions taken to increase thesupply of other services, such as food. These trade-offs oftenshift the costs of degradation from one group to another or defercosts to future generations.

■ Second, there is established but incomplete evidence thatchanges being made in ecosystems are increasing the likelihoodof nonlinear changes in ecosystems (including accelerating,

abrupt, and potentially irreversible changes) that have importantconsequences for human well-being. Examples of such changesinclude disease emergence, abrupt alternations in water quality,the creation of “dead zones” in coastal waters, the collapse offisheries, and shifts in regional climate.

■ Third, the harmful effects of the degradation of ecosystemservices (the persistent decrease in the capacity of an ecosystemto deliver services) are being borne disproportionately by thepoor, are contributing to growing inequities and disparitiesacross groups of people, and are sometimes the principal factorcausing poverty and social conflict. This is not to say thatecosystem changes such as increased food production have notalso helped to lift many people out of poverty or hunger, butthese changes have harmed other individuals and communitiesand their plight has been largely overlooked. In all regions, andparticularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the condition andmanagement of ecosystem services is a dominant factorinfluencing prospects for reducing poverty.

‘Ecosystems and Human Well-Being’, a Synthesis Report of theMillennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005, Summary for Decision-Makers, pp.1-2

Economic Benefits under Alternate Management Practices The Living Planet Index (incorporating data on the abundaterrestrial, marine and freshwater species)

Main Direct Drivers of Change in Biodiversity and Ecosystems (global trends, based on expert opinion)

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ance of 1,145

Ecosystems and some of the Services they Provide

Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

IIt has long been clear that the needs of the poor are not being metas a natural outcome of the 'development process’. Theirsituation is getting relatively worse, the gap between their levels

of well-being and those of others is widening - and consequently aconscious, concerted and determined effort is needed to alleviatetheir condition. So the global governmental community'sresolution at the 2000 Millennium Summit to make a specialcommitment to address the multiple pressing needs of poorsocieties – reflected in the eight Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), and their fifteen targets – was a moment of renewed hopefor poor societies and peoples across the world.

Most of the poorest of the poor, targeted by the Goals, dependdirectly and heavily for subsistence onecosystem services – the benefits tohumans from the use and existence ofecosystems. So it was fortuitous that arelated, but separate process had alreadybegun to explore the feasibility andusefulness of undertaking an assessment ofthem.

What came to be known as the MillenniumEcosystem Assessment (MA) was carriedout from 2001 to 2005. Its findings form asignificant body of information, analysis, and synthesis about theways in which ecosystems are relevant to human well-being andthus to the MDGs.

During those years these two agendas intersected at variouspoints, complementing each other in substance and with overlapamong their participants. A series of task forces comprising theMillennium Project – carried out under the aegis of the Office ofthe United Nations Secretary General – explored what is requiredto move towards achieving the MDG targets. The MA meanwhilewas not just assessing the condition of the Earth's ecosystems andtrends in their performance, but seeking to illuminate and deepenunderstanding of the relationship between the services they

provide, the ways in which human actions affect them, and theconsequences for the well-being of societies. In doing so, it soughtto combine learning from natural and social science, and tointegrate understanding of local communities, includingindigenous ones. Through a scenario-building process, it positedvarious plausible future worlds indicating the kind of outcomesthat could occur for ecosystems and human well-being, givendifferent policy approaches and international orientations. Underone such outcome, degradation of ecosystem services could growsignificantly worse during the first half of this century, becoming abarrier to achieving the MDGs. But three of the four scenariosshow that significant policy changes could partially mitigate the

negative effect of growing pressures onecosystems – though the needed changesare large, and not currently underway.

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The results and implications of theMillennium Project are be considered bythe High Level Plenary of Heads of Stateand Government at the UN GeneralAssembly. This also provides anopportunity for governments to considerthe findings of the MA and the ways inwhich the Earth's ecosystems might eitherconstrain meeting the MDGs underexisting conditions and trends andscenarios, or contribute to their

achievement through appropriate and urgent interventions.The MA finds that there has been considerable progress over

the last 50 years in responding to the human needs encompassed inthe MDGs. The global economy increased six-fold between 1960and 2000, while the world's population doubled from 3 to 6 billion.Food production increased 2 - times; water use doubled; woodharvests for pulp and paper production tripled; timber production

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explains the closeinterrelationship between

tackling poverty andsafeguarding ecosystems and

the services they provide tohumanity.

The global economy increased six-foldbetween 1960 and 2000,

while the world's population doubled from 3 to 6 billion

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Most of the poorest of thepoor, targeted by the Goals, depend directly andheavily for subsistence onecosystem services

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increased by more than half; and installed hydropower capacitydoubled.

But these gains have not been equitably distributed: hence theneed for the special effort represented by the MDGs. They havealso come at the cost of debilitating the capacity of ecosystems tocontinue to contribute the same level of services: hence the needfor special attention to natural resources if the Goals are to beachieved.

The MA assessed 24 ecosystem services, and found that 15 ofthem have been degraded or are being used unsustainably. Itsfindings reveal that, in the past 50 years, human actions havechanged ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in anycomparable period in human history. For example, in the lastdecades: ■ 20% of the world’s coral reefs have been lost,and another 20%degraded;■ 35% of the area of mangroves have been lost;■ there is now 3-6 times as much water in reservoirs as in naturalrivers, while withdrawals from rivers and lakes has doubled; ■ the biological diversity of the planet has been altered: thedistribution of species is becoming more homogeneous; thepopulation size, range (or both) of most species across a number oftaxonomic groups is declining; and 10-30% of mammal, bird, andamphibian species are currently threatened with extinction.

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The MA's Synthesis Report shows that “the harmful effects of thedegradation of ecosystem services …are being bornedisproportionately by the poor, are contributing to growinginequities and disparities across groups of people, and aresometimes the principal factor causing poverty and socialconflict.” This is particularly evident in sub-Saharan Africa,Central Asia, parts of South and Southeast Asia, and some regionsin Latin America, where ecological change is expected severely toconstrain countries' ability to meet the MDGs in time.

The MA makes evident that Earth's ecosystems are vital torealising many of the MDGs. It outlines how the condition andtrends of many of those ecosystems would constrain socio-economic achievements. And it also indicates the possibilities –given appropriate policies, institutions and management – thatecosystems present for livelihoods, income-generation, humanhealth and security, and environmental and socio-economicsustainability. It reveals that the MDGs and their targets are a set ofhighly interdependent objectives that need to be approachedthrough integrated strategies rather than through isolatedinterventions, with particular attention to improved management ofecosystems and their services – and that this is a prerequisite forachieving the targets on poverty, hunger, gender equality, water andsanitation, and health.

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Achieving the MDGs, therefore, calls for as much urgent attentionto the natural resource side of this equation as to the human one,since it is clear that the latter relies upon the capacity of the former.Continuing deterioration will damage the prospects for achievingthe MDGs for poor societies and groups who directly and heavilydepend on the services of the natural world.

The MA can serve governments as a basis for identifying, andresponding to, ecological challenges and opportunities, as itindicates a range of interventions that may help arrest the declinein ecosystems and realise their potential contribution to achievingthe MDGs ■

Angela Cropper, President of The Cropper Foundation, is co-chairof the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment Panel.

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Sustain Biodiversity, Eliminate Rural PovertyTTEWOLDE BERHAN GEBRE EGZIABHER says that globalisationboth deepens poverty and degrades the environment, and callsfor it to be reorientated

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AAchieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals – aimed atimproving the life of the poorest

and permanently reducing thedisadvantage of social groups by ensuringenvironmental sustainability – will have agreater impact on Africa than anywhereelse. For it is now the continent with thehighest %age of poor and disadvantagedpeople.

Most of its poor are rural. They meettheir needs by using the renewable naturalresources – mostly biological ones – thattheir immediate environment can provide.Understandably, therefore, their impact ontheir immediate ecosystems is intense, andtheir knowledge of them intimate.

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Globalization is increasingly intensifyingthis impact by perturbing the demands thatthe rural poor make on their immediateecosystems. It is doing so by changingpopulation dynamics, by superimposingglobal demands upon local ones on the

ecosystem, and even by modifying theenvironmental factors – such as the climate– that had hitherto maintained it. So it isobvious that, if the Goals are to beachieved, biodiversity in the broad sense –i.e. including ecosystems, communities,species, varieties and their subcellularcomponents – must be maintained andsustainably and justly used.

Abject poverty is unbearable whetherin an urban or a rural setting: so the ruralpoor should not attract greater attentionsimply because of where they live.However, their meagre incomes are subjectto greater unpredictability than those oftheir urban counterparts. They all live offwhat their immediate ecosystem produces.Most cultivate crops, with or withoutrearing animals, though some are entirelypastoralists. Their produce is subject toseasonal, annual and periodic vagaries ofthe weather, pests and diseases. On thewhole, they cannot even store foodproduced in good years for use in bad ones:they are technologically handicapped. Norcan they transport food from areas of

surplus production to those scarcity: theyare infrastructurally handicapped. Nor yetcan they buy agricultural produce from themarket when their own agriculture failsthem: they are financially handicapped.Therefore, they are not as well off as theiraverage annual production would suggest– but, rather, as poor as their lowest annualproduction dictates.

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Their urban based governments areusually of little help in removing thesehandicaps. They are usually run by theurban elite, who have little understandingof their problems and merely mimicurban-centred Western governancesystems which they studied at school, andwhich are now lauded and promoted bythe international laws and norms ofglobalization, with its intrinsicindividualistic Western values. Anyinitiative that the rural poor could take,organized as local communities, toovercome their weaknesses as individualsand mobilize initiative is thus undermined:they remain reduced to insignificance eventhough they constitute the overwhelmingmajority in their countries. Consequently,they are forced individually to try to satisfytheir needs at the expense of theecosystem's future ability to meet them.Virtually all the rural poor realize thedeterioration they are causing to theecosystem, but they have no option but tocontinue.

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– such as house construction, furniture,fencing – while grass is overgrazed bydomestic animals. Farms lose their fertilitywith the harvested crops because they arenot compensated through manuring,fallowing or even crop rotation.Biodiversity is decimated. Thus landdegrades. Soil is eroded by water andwind. The hydrological cycle is disrupted.Floods after rains, and desiccation in thedry season, become common.Desertification sets in. The whole processis accelerated by climate change, which is,itself, exacerbated by the process of landdegradation.

When all this inevitably causesfamines to strike the rural poor, the urban-centred, wealthy part of the world usuallypours out money and grain to help savelives. Some lives are indeed saved. But therelief does not go further, to help reversethe process that impoverishes the victimsin the first place. That would takecommitment over an extended period tosolve the root causes of technological,infrastructural and governance handicaps.So the crises of famines and continuingbiodiversity loss keep recurring at evershorter intervals, breeding dependencyamong the rural poor rather than helpingthem help themselves.

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In spite of their worsening condition, theycontinue to be prey to the globalisingindividualistic urban rich, who prescribe"Free Trade" as a panacea for all ills. Tradeindeed improves life when there is enoughproduction to trade with - and when it isamong equals and thus genuinely free.Instead, the disabled agricultural system ofthe rural poor is pitted in against theindustrialized world’s highly subsidizedagriculture. That is why the Agreement onAgriculture of the World TradeOrganization (WTO) is now so contentious– and why the United Kingdom’s call todismantle the European Union’s CommonAgricultural Policy is timely.

Even discontinuing agriculturalsubsidies, though good, would not suffice.The WTO’s Agreement on Trade-relatedAspects of Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPs) is being used to rob thebiodiversity and traditional knowledge ofthe impoverishing communities of the poorrural world. Though these are the

communities’ own innovations, they arebeing patented or protected by breeders'rights by rich companies. Geneticengineering of crops has made thesepatents contagious, so that farmers cannotopt to continue planting their own seed.Cross-pollination introduces patentedgenes from fields of geneticallyengineered crops to those planted withconventional ones. Article 34 of TRIPsthen turns the farmers, whose crops havebeen thus contaminated, into infringers,who must pay royalties to the patentowners. Global partnership is thus poisedto turn the rural poor into new serfsthrough the genes that were taken fromthem in the first place.

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It would, however, be possible to turnglobalization into a freeing force for therural poor, but this would require agenuine global re-orientation. Article 8 (j)of the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) could be used to start a new globalprocess of letting them benefit from theirinnovations as indigenous and localcommunities. It would require furtherdevelopments in international law torecognize their rights: the African ModelLaw on the Rights of Local Communities,Farmers and Breeders and on Access toBiological Resources is an example of

how it could be done.The ongoing negotiations on access

and benefit-sharing could also be made tohelp, but only if the negotiated systemdoes not entrench the patenting of life bymaking it a trigger for sharing benefits.

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These developments will, of course, haveto be complemented – in fact preceded –by others in the rural poor’s countries.Good governance – which is sensitive tothe needs of the poor, works to promotetheir interests, and fosters their genuineparticipation in their own administrationand ecosystem management – has tobecome the norm. This can only happenwhen it is allowed not just by the states ofthe rural poor, but by those of the urbanrich as well.

Since the rural poor are the mostembedded of humanity in localecosystems, and since they thus know andfeel them the best, their consequentemancipation would reverse the landdegradation syndrome and savebiodiversity and the biosphere. Humanityhas no choice but to do this. Otherwise,the urban rich will themselves degradelike the land – and perhaps erode awaylike the soil ■

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher isDirector General of the Environmental

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HHuman well-being ultimatelydepends on nature to provideecosystem services. These are

the result of complex relationshipsand processes of the components ofbiodiversity – genes, species andecosystems – working together. Theirbenefits come in many forms, fromthe provision of the basic necessitiesof life – such as food, water,medicine, clean air – to the aestheticinspiration for our culture and society.They are the foundation of our dailylives, though most of us use themwithout being conscious of theintricate web of processes involved.Yet we are losing the biologicaldiversity that provides the foundationon which they rely. While only one ofthe Millennium Development Goals –MDG7 on environmental sustain-

of the impaired delivery ofecosystem services, but the recentMillennium Ecosystem Assessment(MA) chillingly concludes that therewill be substantial costs to societyunless we take action to mitigate thedecline in ecosystem services. Ofcourse, the total loss of suchservices would mean the end of lifeon Earth; more realistically, any losswill have an impact on our wellbeing.Unfortunately, we do not yetadequately value those services ineconomic terms or understand thetrade-offs that we are making whenwe allow unbridled economic gainwithout incorporating social andenvironmental concerns.

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The MA reports that 60% of theworld’s ecosystem services aredegraded to the point where they nolonger provide what we need in theway of food, water, clean air, fuel andmany other needs. Humanexploitation of ecosystems hasresulted in the increased productionof a small number of key servicessuch as crops and livestock, but notof the others provided by nature.

The more than 1,300 MA expertsfrom 95 countries warned that – thatthough the evidence is stillincomplete – the continuingdegradation of 15 of the 24ecosystem services they examined isincreasing the likelihood of seriousimpacts on our lives. These mayinclude the emergence of newdiseases, sudden changes in waterquality, shifts in regional climate andthe collapse of such important foodsources as fisheries.

IUCN believes that the necessaryresponses are feasible, but must bebacked up by political will andtargeted financing. Environmental

ability – explicitly targets theenvironment, achieving each of theothers requires the support offunctioning ecosystems. In turn,achieving the goals on poverty,education, health, food security,equality and partnerships willsupport the delivery of MDG 7 (seetable) During the past 12 months theWorld Conservation Union (IUCN)has engaged in a sustained effort toconvince decision makers of theneed to ensure MDG 7 is notforgotten in the global developmenteffort. It has suggested concreteactions to help maintain biodiversityand the ecosystem services whichcontribute directly to theachievement of the other Goals.

It is difficult to measure the-longterm impacts of biodiversity loss and

Everything ConnectsACHIM STEINER describes how achieving all the Millennium Development Goals depends on ecosystem services, and says that investing in them is the only rational response.

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Human exploitation ofecosystems has resulted inthe increased production ofa small number of keyservices such as crops andlivestock, but not of theothers provided by nature

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K e y L i n k s b e t w e e n t h e M i l l e n n i u m D e v e l o p m e n t G o a l s a n d t h e e n v i r o n m e n tM i l l e n n i u m D e v e l o p m e n t G o a l s E x a m p l e s o f l i n k s t o t h e e n v i r o n m e n t

G o a l 1 .Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

● The livelihood strategies and food security of the poor often depend directly on functioning ecosystems and the diversity of services they provide.

● Insecure rights of the poor to environmental resources limit their capacity to protect the environment and improve their livelihoods and well-being, as does inadequate access to environmental information, markets, and decision-making.

G o a l 2 .Achieve universal primary education

● The time that children, especially girls, spend collecting water and fuelwood can reduce the time they spend on study.

● Additional income generated from sustainable management of natural resources is available to be spent on education.

G o a l 3 .Promote gender equality and empower women

● The time that women spend collecting water and fuelwood reduces their opportunities for income-generating work.

● Poor rural women often depend heavily on natural resources, but inequality and lack of secure rights limit their access to decision-making and resources.

G o a l 4 .Reduce child mortality

● Improved management of local watersheds can reduce child mortality related to water-borne disease.

G o a l 5 .Improve maternal health

● Indoor air pollution from burning wood and other biomass and carrying heavy loads, such as fuelwood and water, during late stages of pregnancy, put women’s health at risk before childbirth.

G o a l 6 .Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

● Environmental risk factors account for up to one-fifth of the total burden of disease in developing countries.

● Preventive environmental health measures are as important, and at times more cost-effective, than health treatment.

G o a l 8 .Develop a global partnership for development

● The complex interaction between human wellbeing, ecosystem services and biodiversity requires an integrated approach including partnerships between civil society, the private sector and government.

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conservation alone cannot achievethe MDGs, but it can and does makea major contribution. A sufficientbody of evidence shows thatconserving and using biodiversitysustainably can help reduce povertyand increase human health, equityand security. Conversely, we alsohave clear evidence thatenvironmental mismanagementundermines livelihoods, humansecurity and sustainabledevelopment. Investments inbiodiversity conservation will helpmaintain the flow of ecosystem

services and, in turn, yield bothimmediate and long-term dividendsto human well-being.

We must act now. The focus of aneffective response requiresimproving frameworks for thegovernance of natural resourcemanagement, increasing investmentin sustaining ecosystem services forpeople, and adopting relevanttechnologies, including a shift tolandscape-scale management. Eachof these must be addressed in anintegrated way, since they areinterlinked and not mutually

exclusive. Investing in thesustainability of natural resource useshould not be seen as anenvironmental tax on development:on the contrary, It is a rationalinvestment strategy to ensure long-term economic growth anddevelopment. Politicians andeconomic leaders must embrace thisvision if the MDG targets are to bemore than just statistical dreams ■

Achim Steiner is Director General, IUCN– The World Conservation Union

Sources: taken from UN Millennium Project 2005, DFID et al. 2002; UNDP 2002. * Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

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PPeople perceive wetlands in verydifferent ways, but all understandthat there can be none without

water, even if it is not there all the time.Wetland ecosystem diversity and theprovision of its services depend on thefrequency, quantity and quality of waterflowing into, retained in, or flowing fromthe ecosystems. Wetlands are biodiversity– rich, and important as habitats for speciesthat depend on water and for those whichshare aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

These important roles were recognisedby the global treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran,in 1971 and further elaborated during themore than 30 years in which theConvention on Wetlands has developed.The 2002 World Summit on SustainableDevelopment in Johannesburg emphasisedthe growing scarcity of freshwater. In 2004and 2005, the Commission on SustainableDevelopment devoted sessions to themanagement of water for people andnature, and in March 2005 the UNlaunched the International Decade forAction, "Water for Life". Water andwetlands, therefore, are at the forefront ofinternational thinking. Yet, the capacity ofwetlands to deliver services important bothfor human well-being and for thecontinued functioning of natural systemshas declined.

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The recently released MillenniumEcosystem Assessment (MA) firmlysupports two important, and seeminglycontradictory, situations:– Wetlands contribute to a highbiodiversity and consequently providecritical ecosystem services, but at the sametime, they are – and continue to be – themost threatened ecosystems worldwide.

Population growth and increasingeconomic development have been indirect

Supplying fish and drinking water are twoof the most important provisioningservices of inland waters. The people ofCambodia, for example, largely depend foranimal protein on the fish catch in TonleSap and associated wetlands. There aresimilar examples in Africa and theAmericas; and fishing and harvestingaquatic plants in wetlands is a source ofsubsistence and income for localcommunities on all continents. Meanwhilegroundwater, which is most commonlyrecharged through surface wetlands, is theprinciple supply of renewable fresh waterfor 1.5 to 3 billion people worldwide. Yetthe MA has confirmed that the use of bothof these two critical ecosystem services isnow well beyond levels that can besustained even at current demands, muchless at future ones.

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Among their regulating services, wetlandsplay a major role in treating anddetoxifying a whole variety of wastes inwater. Some, for example, have been foundto reduce the concentration of nitrates bymore than 80%. Many – such as floodplains, lakes and reservoirs – diminish thedestructive power of floods, and losingthem increases risks of inundations. Nearly2 billion people live in areas of high floodrisk, which will be increased with wetland

drivers of the degradation and loss of bothinland and coastal wetlands. Paradoxically,they are destroyed using arguments andstrategies which aim to improve humanwell-being. They are converted to arable orurban areas, over-harvested and over-exploited for their resources, and drainedbecause their water influx is being usedsolely for human needs. Water flows areincreasingly overloaded with nutrients andother pollutants, causing dramatic change– and possible collapse – in wetlandsystems.

The driving forces destroying or degradingwetlands, while aiming at improvinghuman well-being, may vary. But the resultis always destructive for societiesdepending, directly or indirectly, on theecosystem services they provide. Recentstudies prove that the healthier the wetlandecosystem, the better it serves humanneeds.

Many wetlands are the mostproductive and species-rich ecosystems ofall. They are also important formaintaining the water cycle. They are keyplayers in retaining water in a landscape,recharging the aquifers, controlling floods,thus regulating flows in the global watersystem.

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Wetlands deliver many services thatcontribute to human well-being – and thushelp achieve the MDGs. There are fourinterdependent types of them: provisional,regulating, cultural and supporting.

Use WetlandsWiselyGORDANA BELTRAM shows that destroying wetlands, in the name of human well-being, is also destructive to societyand to sustainable development

Wetlands deliver manyservices that contribute tohuman well-being – and thushelp achieve the MDGs

primary focus on wetlands and water mustaddress the indirect and direct drivers ofchange and include actions to eliminateproduction subsidies, sustainably intensifyagriculture, slow climate change andnutrient loading, correct market failures,encourage stakeholder participation andincrease the transparency andresponsibility of government and privatesector decision-making.

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Ensuring the future of wetlands and theirservices requires maintaining the quantityand quality of the natural water regimeson which they depend, and the frequency,amounts and timing of water flows. Thereare methods and tools available to applythis approach at the catchment scale, toassess the “environmental flows” needs ofwetlands and socio-economic develop-ment requirements, to address the trade-offs for water allocation betweenecosystem services and to ensure thatthere is enough water allocated to meet theobjectives agreed by the wider stakeholdercommunity. Intergovernmental environ-mental commitments must be consideredjointly if they are all to be achieved.Although trade-offs may differ in specificlocations, progress towards achievingcommitments – such as the MDGs – isgenerally likely to be less when they areaddressed in isolation, than when they areaddressed jointly.

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The Ramsar Convention's 'wise use'concept, back in the 1970s, promoted theneed for a cross-sectoral approach andintegrated management of wetlandecosystems. Now, using the MAconceptual framework, it is still theleading concept for maintainingecological character of wetlands in thecontext of sustainable development. It willensure the delivery of ecosystem servicesto support human well-being, and thus theachievement of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals ■

Gordana Beltram is Under-Secretary atthe Ministry of the Environment andSpatial Planning, Slovenia, and Chair ofthe Standing Committee of the RamsarConvention on Wetlands

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loss or degradation. Similarly coastalwetlands and vegetation play an importantrole in reducing the impacts of stormsurges from the sea.

Wetlands are also important inregulating the global climate bysequestering and releasing carbon inpeatlands, estimated to cover 3-4% of theworld’s land area. They are thought to hold540 Gt of carbon, representing about 25-30% of the amount stored in soils andterrestrial vegetation. Inland waters alsocontribute to the regulating of localclimate.

The cultural services provided bywetlands range from aesthetic, educationaland spiritual ones to recreational andtourist opportunities. Wetland biodiversityattracts visitors and water providesrecreational activities, benefiting visitorsand local people alike.

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Human activities caused more than half thewetlands of Europe, North America,Australia and New Zealand to be lost overthe 20th century, and are still doingenormous damage worldwide. They havenow been joined by a new and increasingthreat – the invasion of alien species.Estuarine systems are among the“invaded” ecosystems, with introducedspecies causing major ecological changes.

The ecological consequences includehabitat loss and alteration, altered waterflow and food webs, the creation of noveland unnatural habitats (often subsequentlycolonized by other invasive alien species),abnormally effective filtration of the watercolumn, hybridization with native species,the introduction of highly destructivepredators, and introductions of pathogensand disease. All these impacts affectecosystems, and influence our ability toachieve the MDGs.

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Physical and economic water scarcity, andlimited or reduced access to water, are keyfactors limiting sustainable development ina number of countries. Trade-offs betweendifferent wetland ecosystem services needto be considered to ensure sustainabledevelopment. Cross-sectoral approachesimplemented at the catchment scale (suchas river basin management and integratedcoastal zone management) are critical indesigning actions supporting theMillennium Development Goals. The

Estuarine systems areamong the “invaded”ecosystems , with introducedspecies causing majorecological changes

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Star pro f i l e : Salma HayekOld, Green Soul

GGrowing up in the torrid Gulf Coast port of Coatzacoalcosgave the Mexican actress Salma Hayek her first taste ofenvironmental destruction – and this, in turn, helped to

decide her career. Now 38, the petite beauty is at the heart ofrapidly growing green activism among some of Hollywood’smost sought-after stars.

Coatzacoalcos was, and still is, a petrol refining centre andHayek’s Lebanese-born father worked in the oil business.Chemical spills were routine, and local beaches were oftenclosed because they were polluted by tar – so she and her friendswent to the cinema instead, which nurtured her love of films.It also bred scepticism about political

leadership. “I’m proud to be Mexican,but we’ve been lied to a bit too often byGovernment”, she says.Always a rebel (she was expelled from aCatholic school for stunts like setting allthe nuns’ clocks back), she became asoap-opera superstar in Mexico, but gaveit up to try to make it in Hollywood. Itwas tough at first. She struggled to learnEnglish – a task made harder by herdyslexia – and suffered prejudice.“People would see my name and pictureand want to meet me, and then theywould realise that I was Mexican andwant to send me away”, she recalls.

She finally got her break oppositeAntonio Banderas in the 1995 film,Desperado. More big parts followed and,at the same time, her interest in theenvironment deepened – partly through arelationship with the star and green activist, Edward Norton.They parted in 2003, but her environmental commitmentcontinues.

This commitment and her celebrity climaxed at this year’sOscar ceremonies, where she arrived in an environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius, rather than the traditional gas-guzzlinglimo. Stepping out of the hybrid car, wearing a low-cut Pradadress made her the star of the ceremony, even though she didn’teven have a nomination.“I personally own and drive a hybrid car, and I love it”, she adds.“With global warming threatening us all, driving a fuel-efficientcar like a hybrid is something that everyone can do to protect ourplanet.”

Not long afterwards, on Earth Day (22 April), she joinedJake Gyllenhaal – star of the global warming movie, The Dayafter Tomorrow – at Iqaluit in the Arctic in a protest backed by

Global Green USA, the US affiliate of Green CrossInternational, founded and led by Mikhail Gorbachev.With other US celebrities, businessmen, politicians andenvironmentalists they stood with 700 Inuit on the ice spell outthe words “Arctic Warning” in English, and “Listen” inInuktitut. “The place itself literally illustrates what’s going on”,she says recalling how the ice is melting, threatening the Inuit'sfood supply and culture.“They are facing a problem with suicide, because it’s hard toadjust to that evolution”, she adds. “And I think this is exactlywhat we are doing; we are committing, in our civilisation,

suicide and self-destruction.”Hayek carries her commitment tocombating global warming intosupport for the BP SolarNeighbours Programme, whichaims to get solar photovoltaicpanels into poor homes in LosAngeles. Under the Programme, BPdonates a complete system to a low-income family every time acelebrity buys one for his or herhouse.She has also worked as a volunteerat a sanctuary rehabilitatingbeached dolphins, helped presentthe US Live 8 concert inPhiladelphia and has campaignedagainst smoking and domesticviolence.Scriptwriter Robert Towne, who haswritten the screenplay for her

upcoming film Ask the Dust, says: “She’s a wise person. A veryold soul” and says she is like a “grandmother, though certainlynot physically, of course.” G.L.

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OOur closest living relatives, as the World Atlas of Great Apes and theirConservation shows, are on the very edge of extinction. The Atlas, created inassociation with UNEP’ Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP), provides a

comprehensive overview of what is currently known about all six species of them:chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla andwestern lowland gorilla. Edited by Julian Caldecott and Lera Miles, and published bythe University of California Press, it gives a thorough background on ape behaviourand ecology for each species, including habitat requirements, the ape’s ecological role,and the possible consequences of their decline. It also offers a full description of thethreats, of current conservation efforts and of additional protection needed for eachspecies across its entire range.

BOOKS & PRODUCTS

HHedgerows made of Vetiver grass, a tropical grass foundwidely in Thailand, have been found greatly to reducesoil erosion and to mitigate some of the worst effects of

hurricanes and extreme storms. The fast-growing grass forms adense green hedge, and if this is planted along counter lines, iteffectively traps eroded silt, forming an earth embankment. Italso has a huge, deeply penetrating root mass, which stabilisessoil and slopes. The Vetiver Network, based in Maryland,USA, says that it has proved highly successful in applicationsfrom Madagascar to China.

EEcomom is a new Japanese language quarterlymagazine aimed atwomen, mothers and

families with an interest insaving the planet. Thepublication features tips onrecycling and energy, next torecipes, children’s activites,and information on eco-friendly trips and products.For more information or tosubscribe see the ecomomwebsitehttp://nikkeibp.jp/ecomom

IInfiniti, the first solo album by the Pakistani rock star,Salman Ahmed, aims to break new ground both musicallyand in using music to further peace and sustainable

development. Ahmed, the founder and lead guitarist of Asia'sleading rock band,Junoon – who wasfeatured in Our Planetearlier this year – says thathe chose the namebecause “we are infinitebeings who are here onearth for a short journey.Our imagination isunlimited, and our powerto change ourenvironment is immense.”It includes a song onAIDS called Al-vida (goodbye) which Ahmed, a UN GoodwillAmbassador for UNAIDS, is planning to produce as a videofor World AIDS Day.

TThe first International Media and Environment Summitwill bring together media, government, scientists,campaigners and civil society to debate how the

environment is reported, and to find better ways of serving anaudience hungry for information and inspiration, Organised byNews World Nature, and taking place in Kuching, Sarawakfrom November 30 to December 2 it will also feature a wildlifefilm festival.

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TThe M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation held aspecial international conference in Chennai, India inAugust on the 'human centred sustainable development

paradigm' to celebrate the 80th birthday of its founder, afterwhom it is named. Prof. M.S. Swaminathan – often describedas the primary architect of the Green Revolution of the 1960sand 1970s – has been described by TIME magazine as one ofthe 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century, alongsideonly two others from India: Mahatma Gandhi and the poetRabindranath Tagore. The recipient of 46 honorary doctoratedegrees from universities around the world, he holds theUNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology at the Foundation.

NNGOs are in the best position to prevent the widespreadextinction of species, according to a new book,Building the Next Ark: How NGOs Work to Protect

Biodiversity. Its author, Prof. Michael M. Gunter of RollinsCollege, Florida, aims to offer a detailed prescription for howthey can improve their species protection efforts.

Save our SSEEEEDDSSFFRRAANNCCIISSCCOO RREEIIFFSSCCHHNNEEIIDDEERR describes the importance ofsaving biodiversity in securing the world’s food supplies

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BBiodiversity – the web of life,linking people to ecosystems –provides enormous benefits,

including aesthetic, cultural, eco-logical, economic, educational,environmental, genetic, medical,recreational, scientific, and socialservices.

Humans and plants have had aclose relationship ever since the birthof agriculture over 10,000 years ago.Plants, including food crops, are animportant part of agriculturalbiodiversity, vital for nourishing andsustaining human society. And ourdependence on them is growing.

Less than a dozen crops now feedmost of the world’s six billion people.Three cereals – maize, rice and wheat– alone supply 80 to 90 % of worldcaloric intake. Maize is the backboneof food security for Africa, providing

40 % of food calories in the eastern andsouthern parts of the continent alone.Rice is the principal food source forhalf of the world’s population,including some of the poorest peoplein Asia. Worldwide, demand for wheatis surging: consumption has doubled inthe last 30 years.

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Plants are also a major source ofdrugs vital for human health and well-being. Of the top 20 drugs with anestimated market value of $6 billion,two are derived from naturalresources, eight from syntheticsmodeled on natural compounds, andseven had pharmacological activitydefined from natural products. Plantbiomass also provides fodder forlivestock, building materials, and soil

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conservation practices. Microbialdiversity plays an important role indrug development and themanufacture of processed foods.

Yet biodiversity is being lost atunprecedented rates. One-third ofterrestrial biodiversity is in vulnerable‘hot spots’ accounting for 1.4% of theEarth’s surface and is threatened withcomplete loss from natural disastersor further human encroachment. Suchharmful practices as slash-and-burnagriculture, habitat conversion,massive exploitation of common poolresources, and the introduction of non-native species are major contributorsto biodiversity loss. Conflicts andnatural disasters also exact a heavytoll on biodiversity. Meanwhile, theFood and Agriculture Organisationestimates, budgets for many of the1,470 genebanks worldwide haveeither been cut (as in 28% ofdeveloping countries) or haveremained static (in a further 29%).

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For over 30 years, the ConsultativeGroup on International AgriculturalResearch (CGIAR) and its partnershave recognized the importance ofconserving biodiversity for sustainingthe world’s food supplies, both nowand into the future.

It supports a network of 15international agricultural researchcentres, of which 11 have genebanksthat hold the world’s largest collectionof over 600,000 samples of cropdiversity. These seed samplesrepresent one-tenth of the world’sunique samples of major food crops,with a large concentration oftraditional farmers’ varieties. Thecollections include not only important‘pillar crops’ such as maize, rice andwheat but also ‘orphan crops’ such ascassava, cowpea, pearl millet, potato,sorghum, and yams. These crops arenot attractive for private sector

Of the top 20 drugs with anestimated market value of $6 billion, two are derivedfrom natural resources

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investment but are major sources of income, food, andnutrition for millions of poor farmers.

CGIAR’s efforts in conserving agricultural biodiversityspan the entire spectrum: collection, characterisation,distribution, and regeneration. Its scientists work withfarmers who traditionally save seeds from one season forplanting in the next. Ex situ conservation involves storingseeds stored in genebanks under controlled environments.In situ conservation is done in farmers’ fields and the wild. Invitro conservation is done in laboratory settings.

The collections are a valuable global public good, and apivotal part of the global conservation effort. Saving seeds iscostly: collectively, the CGIAR Centres spend over US$6million annually. Simply holding a seed sample costs lessthan $1.50 per accession per year for most crops, except formaize, which costs $2.16, while in vitro conservation ofcassava costs $12.

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CGIAR’s actions fully support international and nationalbiodiversity conservation strategies, including theConvention on Biological Diversity. The recently-approvedInternational Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food andAgriculture has acknowledged the importance of itscollections, and commended it for holding them in trust forthe benefit of humanity.

Exchanging germplasm is vital for the agriculturalresearch enterprise. A recent CGIAR study showed that thevast majority (over 80 %) of the more than one millionsamples exchanged over the past 10 years went touniversities and national agricultural research systems indeveloping countries. Agricultural researchers there usethem to develop new crop varieties which have higher andmore stable yields and better nutritional content, use lesswater and are naturally resistant to pests, disease andclimatic stresses such as droughts and floods. The exchangeof germplasm is affected by national legislation and growingawareness and concern about intellectual property rightsand biopiracy.

CGIAR’s global efforts in conserving biodiversity have ledto notable scientific advances that benefit poor people,including:

■ Quality Protein Maize containing twice the amount ofbeneficial amino acids (lysine and tryptophan) is currentlygrown in over 25 countries in Africa and elsewhere.■ New rices for Africa that combine the high productivitytraits of Asian varieties and the ruggedness of African riceare now being planted on 100,000 hectares across Africa,10,000 of them in Uganda alone.■ S-35, a new sorghum variety, is being grown on nearly30 % of the total rainfed area for sorghum in Cameroon andChad. Benefits include higher grain yields, and reducedproduction costs.■ New cassava varieties (Tropical Manioc selection) grownextensively in Sub-Saharan Africa are achieving on-farmyield gains of 40 % even without fertilizer.■ New bush bean varieties resist root rots and produceyields more than double those of commonly grown localvarieties in east Africa. A recent impact study shows one ofthem was being grown by 80 % of farmers in one Kenyandistrict and by 42 % in another.■ CGIAR seed collections were instrumental inrehabilitating local genebanks in conflict-affected countriessuch as Afghanistan, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, and Timor-Leste – efforts critical for restoring growth and helping laythe foundations of durable peace.

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Agriculture contributes an average of 30 % of total grossdomestic product in Sub-Saharan Africa, the only region noton track for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.Agricultural biodiversity has a major role in improving theproductivity, profitability, and sustainability of agriculture indeveloping countries. Supporting science-based efforts inpromoting sustainable agriculture can create the nextgeneration of farming technologies that will increaseagricultural productivity, create wealth, reduce hunger andpromote environmental sustainability. Saving biodiversity isindeed a useful way to benefit poor people ■

Francisco Reifschneider is Director of the Consultative Group onInternational Agricultural Research

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Storehouses andSafety NetsDORIS CAPISTRANO describes how the many servicesprovided by forests are essential to meeting the MillenniumDevelopment Goals and calls for reforms to realise theirpotential

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FForests are a critically importantresource for many of the world’sextremely poor and disempowered

people. Approximately 350 million,including around 60 million indigenouspeople, live in forested areas. Many – andespecially those in fragile, remote orconflict-affected areas – suffer poverty,exclusion and injustice. Forests providesafety nets that keep many people fromfalling further into poverty – especiallyduring times of drought, war and economiccollapse – and their resources provideincomes that allow some to escape it.

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Collecting, processing, using and sellingwild and semi-domesticated plants andanimals from forests provides, on average,20% or more of the household income ofmost extremely poor people. Women andchildren tend to be heavily involved inlivelihood activities which provide food,

fuel, fibre and other products – andseasonal employment when other optionsare not available. Forests yield over 3.3billion cubic meters of wood – including1.8 billion cubic meters of fuelwood andcharcoal – and a variety of non-woodproducts of significant subsistence andcommercial value. Up to 60 million peopleworldwide are employed in the forestryand wood industries. Forests are thus avital resource for realising the MillenniumDevelopment Goal (MDG) of reducingextreme poverty and hunger.

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Forests are also critically important forachieving the MDGs on reducing childmortality, improving maternal health andcombating HIV/AIDS, malaria and otherdiseases. They serve as a valuablestorehouse of knowledge, biodiversity andgenetic resources that are important forhuman health. Forests, particularly in the

tropics, provide habitat for at least half ofthe world’s known plant and animalspecies. Clearing and logging them – andother forms of forest disturbance – canhave positive or negative implications formany vector-borne diseases, includingmalaria.

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Some two billion people, about a third ofthe world’s population, rely on plants andanimals – a large portion of them fromforests and natural environments – as theirprimary source of medicine. Knowledge ofmedicinal plants and animals and their usesis often held and kept alive by women.Securing women’s rights and access toforests resources, giving women duerecognition and a fair share of the benefitsfrom their knowledge, and providing themwith capacity-building support to addvalue to their forest-related livelihoodactivities, can all enhance women’s status,build their assets and help realise the MDGof empowering women.

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Forests are vital to ensuring environmentalsustainability, a goal essential to achievingall the other MDGs. More than three-fourths of the world's freshwater comesfrom forest catchments. With about halfthe world’s terrestrial organic carbonstocks, forests and woodlands play a majorrole in the global carbon cycle – and thusin accelerating or decelerating global

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climate change. Apart from these critical ecological functions,forests provide important cultural services, including a sense ofplace, identity and security for communities in and around them.

Unfortunately, much of the forests' contributions – throughprovisioning, environmental regulation and supplying culturalgoods and services – are ignored or discounted in developmentplanning and day-to-day resource use decisions. Forestry isgenerally accorded a low priority compared to other resourcesectors. Forests continue to decline in many parts of the world,especially the tropics, under pressure from logging, road andinfrastructure-building, agricultural expansion and other forces.Distortions in perceived costs, benefits and trade-offs fromalternative land uses and ineffective cross-sectoral coordinationmechanisms have resulted in over-exploitation and under-investment in forestry.

Forestry and agro-forestry have a vast unrealised potential toserve sustainable development and poverty reduction goals. Yet,many forest-related policies unfairly discriminate against the poorand prevent them from investing in sustainable forest managementand in their own development. The more valuable forests are, themore likely it is that the poor will lose access to them, as better-offand more powerful groups seek to control these resources andinfluence their governance – including forest-related institutions,policies, practices and decision-making processes.

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Forestry in developing countries is typically plagued byinstitutional capacity weaknesses, lack of basic informationnecessary for effective forest management and weak orinconsistent legal and regulatory frameworks. It is also constrainedby serious governance challenges, of which corruption is the mostpernicious and deep-rooted.

Corruption, and its insidious effects on governance, hits thepoor hardest. It undermines efforts to make forest use sustainableand equitable, and renders most regulations and controlmechanisms worthless. Its manifestations in forestry include give-away logging concessions, illegal logging and smugglingoperations, large-scale encroachment on forestlands, and fraud andtax evasion schemes. It is reflected in the lack of accountability ofgovernment agents, corporations and powerful actors who oftenreceive preferences and subsidies at the expense of poor peoplewho depend on forests for their livelihoods. The lost revenue intaxes and royalties due to forest-related corruption totals at least$10 to 15 billion a year, and this does not include associatedecological and social costs. It is a drain of much-needed resourcesthat could have gone to development and poverty alleviation.

Realising forestry’s considerable potential contribution tomeeting the MDGs rests largely on reforming policies andstrengthening overall forest governance. Policy experiments overthe past three decades have shown that when enabling conditionsexist and institutions and property rights are clear and functionwell, forests can be used more sustainably and their benefits sharedmore equitably among stakeholders.

Community forestry and pro-poor forest policies, for example,have resulted in around 25% of the world’s forests being managedand controlled by local communities. Decentralising forestmanagement – though often problematic and conflict-ridden,particularly during its early stages – can encourage laws andregulations that are more responsive to local stakeholders and canhelp communities increase their share of benefits from loggingconcessions. Initiatives that improve poor people’s use and controlof forest resources have been important entry points forgovernance reforms, despite the tendency of powerful groups towant to dominate. Coupled with capacity building, networkingamong the poor and marginalized, and partnerships with alliedgroups and key actors, such initiatives can help level the playingfield and form the basis for more lasting poverty alleviation andsustainable development.

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Yet the forestry sector will need more than incremental innovationsif it is truly to make progress in meeting the MDGs. Indeed, it willrequire a concerted and proactive approach to policy andgovernance reforms, centered on securing poor people’s forestrights, strengthening their capabilities, and opening opportunitiesfor them to compete in the market for forest products and services.Key elements of this reform agenda must include clarifying andenforcing forest tenure and access regimes, reducing regulatoryburdens and hidden taxes on poor people, supporting localenterprises consistent with sustainable forest use, rooting outcorruption, enforcing just laws, and protecting poor people andcommunities from unjust partnerships that harm their interests andtheir forest resources. Only when unnecessary constraints on poorpeople are removed, will they be able to chart their own path outof poverty and towards the sustainable development envisioned inthe Millennium Development Goals ■

Doris Capistrano is the Director, Forests and Governance Centerfor International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

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use and control of forest resources havebeen important entry points for

governance reforms

Extinctionis forever

TT he loss in biodiversity greatly affects everyone's lives, and will goon doing so. We have been brought up with animals, plants andmany other things, around us. We cannot imagine being without

them.

Everything in the environment contributes to its sustainability. If evena little part of it is lost, the environment will become unstable, and therewill be more losses in biodiversity. If, for example, the number of bearsin Japan's forests were to fall, the populations of the animals they huntwould rise, and, in turn, the biodiversity that these prey species live offwould surely lessen.

Japan covers a small landmass, and has over one hundred millionpeople living on it, but three quarters of its area is still abundant withnature. Japan is rich in biodiversity, but it is highly threatened. As landis limited, farmers cannot afford to let harvests fail, and therefore useagricultural chemicals for better growth of crops and so on. This hasaffected many creatures, especially animals that relate with water. Takethe tremendously beautiful Japanese crested ibis. In 1981 only five ofthese birds were reported still to be alive. They were captured and keptin captivity. Many attempts were made to breed them but nonesucceeded. By 1998 only one was left and now it, too, has gone. TheJapanese crested ibis is extinct.

We cannot forget biodiversity when thinking of the future. If cominggenerations blame us for making creatures extinct, we have no excusewe can give them. It isn't fair that they will not be able to see what wehave seen because we failed to take action. We cannot revive species, assome movies have done for dinosaurs – and, even if we could, it wouldnot be wise without knowing their habits. As a contribution to real-worldaction, the eco-club in my area raises salmon eggs in schools everyyear, releasing the young fish when they become big enough.

Biodiversity is very important for achieving the MDGs. An unstablebalance of nature brings famines and crop failures. If the ecosystemgains balance, sustainable development becomes possible. It is not aneasy task, but if we do not take action, nothing will happen. So let us jointogether to make a better future.

by Ritsuya Kishida, 14 years, Japan Junior Board Member, Children’s World Summit for the Environment 2005 B

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