Sustainable Cities: The role of civil society Bordeaux, June 2010

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1 Sustainable Cities: The role of civil society Bordeaux, June 2010 TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity For local and regional policy makers ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll Kaitlin Almack Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung, UFZ TEEB Scientific Coordination

2 TEEB is A rapidly evolving multi-donor initiative, , hosted by UNEP, to explore economic perspectives on nature An Open Architecture project over 500 contributors across partner institutions, universities, individuals.. Catalyst of Change within Society: relationship to Nature Economics, Accounting, Philosophy With a focus on policy advice

3 TEEB s genesis and progress Potsdam Initiative Biological Diversity 2010 The economic significance of the global loss of biological diversity TEEB Interim Report CBD COP-9, Bonn, May 2008 TEEB Climate Issues Update Strömstadt September TEEB for Policy Makers Brussels 13 Nov Oct. 2010

4 TEEB s goal: Help recognize the VALUE of nature Sharpen arguments: Show the social and economic costs of biodiversity loss Show the social and economic gains of protecting/restoring nature Synthesize/disseminate knowledge: On the ecosystem services (ES) perspective On the concepts and tools for assessing & valuing ES

5 TEEB Final Report October 2010 TEEB D0: Ecological and Economic Foundations TEEB D1: TEEB for National and International Policy Makers TEEB D2: TEEB for Local and Regional Policy TEEB D3: TEEB for Business TEEB D4: TEEB for Citizens 5

6 TEEB for Local Policy: provides: A source of inspiration for conserving biodiversity by considering ecosystem services: telling examples from around the world. An overview of approaches and instruments for assessing and valuing ecosystem services An aid to orientation on the potential, requirements and caveats of applying assessment and valuation instruments.

7 Chapters of the TEEB for Local Policy Report: 3. Applications Chapter 4. Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Chapter 7: Chapter 8: Chapter 9: Urban Management: municipal service provisioning green public procurement, Ecobudget Natural Resources Management: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water management, disaster mitigation, tourism Spatial planning instruments and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Protected Area Management Market-based instruments for conservation Competitions, certification and labelling 7

8 Cities and Biodiversity -Growing cities and changing lifestyles require an increasing supply of natural resources - Ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources quality of life and human well-being, profile and economic competitiveness

9 Why are ecosystem services important in cities (TEEB for Local Policy)? -Enhance the citizens quality of life (access to parks and recreation) - Reduce public management costs through improving natural capital (water filtration services) - Stimulate economic growth (through natural resources) - Mitigating natural disasters (forested slopes more likely to prevent landslides and absorb rainfall)

10 Provisioning Services Food- urban agriculture Water wells Health mental health, exercise Regulating Services Air quality Climate regulation Waste treatment Pollination helps parks and home gardens Cultural Services Recreation and tourism Educational opportunities Aesthetic Habitat Services Genetic Diversity Landscape linkages From TEEB for Local Policy

11 River Elbe, Germany Damage: >2billion Flood damage (+cost of dams) by far exceed costs of upstream flooding arrangements with land holders the land s value for flood regulation was re-discovered Local authorities start changing spatial planning + seek flooding arrangements

12 Kampala, Uganda Plans to drain the Nakivubo Swamp (>40sqkm) for aproved agri production Waste water treatment capacity of the swamp was assessed (Emerton 2004) Maintaining the wetlands: ~ $ p.a. Running a sewage treatment facility with equivalent capacity: ~ $ p.a. Thus, draining plans were abandoned and Nakivubo Swamps gazetted as protected area

13 The Value of the Greenbelt for the City of Toronto -The Greenbelt around the city offers 2.7 billion worth of non-market ecological services with an average value of $3, 571 per hectare.

14 Elephant Insurance Sri Lanka - Human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka - Willingness to pay for the conservation of Indian elephants exceeded the amount of funding needed -Insurance company adds a premium to car insurance to finance the payments and farmers pay a small fee for ownership into scheme

15 An economic perspective can help to recognize the value of ES: it makes a strong case for better integrating environmental concern into all public management it shows the urgency required for action it shows the social impacts of policies it can help assess policies and trigger policy reform it overcomes the mental separation between development and conservation

16 Economics and biodiversity target setting Economics is mere weaponry, its targets are ethical choices. Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB study leader

17 Contact us at Check Thank you!