Conservation, Ecosystem Services, and Sustainability:
An Emerging Perspective
Barry D. Gold,
Program Director, Marine Conservation Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
ACES Conference: December 11, 2012
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“The first and fundamental fact about foundations is that they do not start with a concept or an organization chart or a strategic plan. A foundation starts with a person, the donor.” - Waldemar A. Nielsen. “Inside American Philanthropy”
Disclaimers
“Once you know one foundation, you know one foundation.” - An experienced foundation program officer.
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• Dealing with complex socio-ecological systems
• People are part of the problem and the solution
• From “Fortress conservation” to sustainability
• Demand is growing for ES, and so are the examples
• Climate change and scarcity are drivers
• Invest in the O&M of natural capital
• Opportunities exist
• Problem is URGENT
Main points of my talk
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Ecosystem Services = Benefits to people
Provisioning
Food Fresh water Fuel wood Genetic resources
Regulating
Climate regulation Disease regulation Flood regulation
Cultural
Spiritual Recreational Aesthetic Educational
Supporting
Soil formation Nutrient cycling Primary production
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“Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks
the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier
temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of
man."
“The natural resources must be developed and
preserved for the benefit of the many, and not
merely for the profit of a few.”
From “Fortress conservation” to “Sustainability”
7 Opportunity to link ES + Sustainability
People are beginning to understand the benefits provided by natural capital Examples are
provided at ACES
Need to increase public and private investment in Ecosystem Services (i.e., the restoration, and operation and maintenance of natural capital)
We do this for:
built capital – dams, highways, and factories;
human capital – education, health;
social capital – trust, social groupings;
so why not for natural capital?
8 GBMF 2011 Ecosystem Services Seminar
2011 ECOSYS T EM
SERVIC ES
Seminar Series
Catalyzing a community of practice that integrates
nature’s true value into workable solutions
www.moore.org/ecosystemservicesseminar.html
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Seminar 1: Background and History of Ecosystem Services – Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson, Jr., Stanford University
Seminar 2: Theory of Ecosystem Services – Stephen Polasky, University of Minnesota
Seminar 3: Valuation of Ecosystem Services – James Boyd, Resources for the Future
Seminar 4: Policy & Management Tools for ES – Pavan Sukhdev, UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative
Seminar 5: Market-based ES - From Theory to Practice – Adam Davis, Solano Partners, Inc.; Ricardo Bayon, EKO Asset Management Partners, David Batker, Earth Economics, Ben Guillon, WRA Consultants
Seminar 6: Management Decisions in the Public Sector – From Theory to Practice – Heather Wright, GBMF; Mary Ruckelshaus, Natural Capital Project; Lydia Olander, Duke University; Carl Shapiro, USGS
Seminar 7: Ecosystem Services – Forecasting and Next Steps – Janet Ranganathan, World Resources Institute
GBMF 2011 Ecosystem Services Seminar
Source for this and subsequent slides – Janet Ranganathan, Seminar 7
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Key takeaways:
Regulations & incentives critical to driving markets
Limited understanding of ecosystem production functions
Need to get ES into cost-benefit analyses
Importance of local ES vs. national/globally relevant
Need to measure ES in terms relevant to public – requires value judgment
Transparency is key to an ES approach, because it creates readiness: as transparency increase, externalities will become apparent and unavoidable
There are many challenges to using ES markets
ES give us a way to think holistically
Seminar 1 – Background and History of ES
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Key Takeaways:
Role of taxes vs. subsidies
Need for rapid response tools
Need to expand from a single service focus to multiple services (bundling)
Two main challenges to mainstreaming ES – technical and pilot/demonstration
Need more emphasis on implementation rather than generating more science.
Need better access to full list of services.
Winners and losers in benefit sharing mechanisms.
Seminar 2: Theory of Ecosystem Services
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Key takeaways:
Valuation is useful in green vs. grey decisions and
assessing compensation
Dollar values are limited (“black box”
assumptions)
Economists and ecologists need to work together
Need to recognize the importance of non-
monetary metrics
Move from conservation focus to sustainability
Price does not equal value: most ES valuations
are incomplete
Seminar 3: Valuation of Ecosystem Services
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Key takeaways:
While market solutions are important, they are not the only mechanism for change – markets are not designed to “fix” complex problems.
Uneven impacts of ES services approach – some services may be economically invisible, or may be undervalued because they primarily serve poorer people.
Need for national government and business ES accounting tools and standard disclosure methodologies for reporting on ES.
Expand focus on non-monetized ES.
Move from focus on preservation to focus on sustainability (working land and seascapes and ways to manage risk).
Seminar 4: Policy & Management Tools for ES
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Key takeaways:
ES approach can move the focus of laws beyond stopping bad things to promoting good things.
Move toward requiring Army CoE and FEMA to factor ES in C/B analyses.
Markets cannot exist without verifiable physical changes that can be valued and accounted for.
Natural capital appreciates over time, while built capital depreciates.
Scarcity helps create value – and scarcity can be created through policy (e.g., carbon caps).
Standstill between regulation/policy & markets – neither wants to move without the other.
Seminar 5: Market-based ES - From Theory to Practice
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Key takeaways:
Need to make ES operational – move beyond the conservation community into application.
Investing in ecosystems to achieve development goals.
Need to produce more info that is relevant to and useable by decision makers.
Methods to link science with management decisions need to include risk, resilience, and vulnerability elements.
Regulatory mitigation is just one tool. Approaches should be about avoidance first – minimize second, and mitigate last.
Systems/processes are not perfect; need better performance measures. Processes should be simple, replicable, transparent, and communicable.
Replacement should be last line of defense – move toward policies that avoid damages and enhance services.
Seminar 6: Key Management Decisions in the Public Sector – From Theory to Practice
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Growing body of national and international Ecosystem Services academics and practitioners Substantial progress in developing and implementing the tools for modeling & measuring ES Financial crisis provides the potential for a fundamental re-evaluation of the relationship between the economy and the environment Increasing set of case studies demonstrating the value of understanding ecosystem services Attention from multiple sectors – governments, business, multi-lateral development banks, academics, NGOs, etc. Lots of challenges
Time for Action
18 McKinsey Resource Revolution Report
• Increasing global demand for energy, fiber, food, minerals, and water
• Increasing affluence
• Increasing greenhouse gas emissions
• An increasingly globalized trade system driving local practices
• The failure of markets and policy to value ecosystem services
The continued loss and degradation of the productive capacity of the earth’s ecosystems
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Commodity prices increased, erasing declines of 20th century
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
220
240
260
20112 1980 1970 1960 1950 1940 1930 1920 1910 1900 1990 2000
World War I
Post-war Depression
Great Depression
World War II
1970’s oil shock
McKinsey Commodity Price Index (years 1999–2001 = 100)1
1 Based on arithmetic average of 4 commodity sub-indices of food, non-food agricultural items, metals and energy. 2 2011 prices based on average of first eight months of 2011.
SOURCE: Grilli and Yang; Pfaffenzeller; World Bank; International Monetary Fund; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development statistics;
UN Food and Agriculture Organization; UN Comtrade
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3 billion middle-class consumers will fuel future demand
Global middle class1 Billions of people
0.34
0.18 0.11 0.03
0.31
0.70
3.23
0.11 0.23
Central and South America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Middle East and North Africa
North America
0.32
Europe
2030
Asia-Pacific
4.88
3 billion
2020
3.25
1.74
0.33 0.25
0.68 0.17 0.06
2009
1.85
0.53
0.66
SOURCE: OECD
1 Based on daily consumption per capita ranging from $10 to $100 (in purchasing power parity terms)
21 Sustainability Key assumptions
• Sustainability of natural resources and ecosystems results from
Changing and enforcing behavior w/in current values system
Changing how decisions about resource use are made at local and global scales
• Incorporating the value of ecosystem services into decision-making
driving global resource-demand can help halt ecosystem decline
• Market-oriented levers create incentives and conditions for change
Supply-side economic levers (i.e., property rights)
Demand-side economic levers (i.e., certification)
• Durable solutions result from feedback between market reforms and
good governance
• Globalization reshapes the nature of the threat and the opportunity
Makes it both harder and easier
22 Possible Tipping Point Conditions
Now is the time for a new approach because: • The age of cheap and stable resource prices has gone—the last decade
has undone the effects of the previous 100-year decline in resource prices
• Constrained supply of resources is driving up the cost of inputs and
creating the business case for alternative approaches
• There is a growing prevalence of corporate sustainability as business strategy—not just corporate philanthropy
• Environmental risks are being factored into finance and insurance
• Increasingly globalized trade system is driving local practices
• Consolidation of key value chain players in global commodities
25 Limitations of protected areas
Creating PAs can be like squeezing
a balloon . . .
Securing PAs large enough to preserve ecosystem functions
can be a challenge . . .
. . . you can eliminate the problem in one place only to have it pop back up in another location of comparable sensitivity for biodiversity/ ecosystem health
. . . with practitioners increasingly finding that delivering protection at sufficient scale protection requires combining PAs with mixed/managed use regimes
PA “walls” not high enough to keep out
destructive forces . . .
. . . whether from changes in biophysical conditions (e.g. climate) or socioeconomic/ political conditions (e.g. local development patterns)
26 Generic Conservation Process
A series of Conservation Solutions must be developed and demonstrated in a place in order for
key actors to change their behaviors (Behavioral Outcomes),
and only when key actors implement conservation solutions will the desired Conservation Outcomes be realized.
Completion of necessary products, tools, services, changes in incentives, regulations, plans, knowledge, and capacity to allow for conservation actions to occur.
Change in behavior/performance of key actors as a result of conservation solutions being implemented.
Leading indicators of the change in ecosystem state desired by Initiative.
Conservation Solutions
Behavioral Outcomes
Conservation Outcomes
Creating the Conditions for Change
27 A Generalized Theory of Social Change
Desired Conservation Outcome
Key Influenc
er
Science/ Information
Government Actor
Private Actor
1
2 3
4
5
ENGO Capacity 6
Foundation Resources
($$$ and people/strategy)
Purchase the result
(e.g. land deal,
acquisition of
property rights)
Educate decision
makers (e.g.
advocacy, litigation,
collaboration)
Create incentives
to act (e.g. market
campaigns)
Educate targeted
groups (e.g.
grassroots
organizing,
educating
consumers or
customers)
Develop key
inputs for
decision making
(e.g. economic or
scientific study)
Build Capacity
28 GBMF “Pragmatic Environmentalism”
Oriented towards causes and threats
Driven by urgency of the problem
Defined idealistically and expansively
Preference for sweeping solutions that overhaul social values and systems
Oriented towards solutions and end-points
Driven by achievability of the solution
Defined practically and more narrowly
Preference for solutions that are achievable within existing frameworks
“Mainstream” Environmentalism
GBMF “Pragmatic” Environmentalism