One key recommendation for policy makers is to reform environmentally harmful subsidies: reforming subsidies that are inefficient, outdated or harmful makes double sense during a time of economic and ecological crisis. Photo: André Künzelmann/UFZTEEB report released on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity for policy makersPolicy makers who factor the planet's multi-trillion dollar ecosystem services into their national and international investment strategies are likely to see far higher rates of return and stronger economic growth in the 21st century, a new report issued recently says.
Some countries have already made the link to a limited extent and are glimpsing benefits in terms of jobs, livelihoods and economic returns that outstrip those wedded to older economic models of the previous century.
•In Venezuela, investment in the national protected area system is preventing sedimentation that otherwise could reduce farm earnings by around USD3.5 million a year (Pabon-Zamora et al. 2008).
•Planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs just over USD1 million but saved annual expenditures on dyke maintenance of well over USD7 million (Tallis et al. 2008).
•One in 40 jobs in Europe are now linked with the environment and ecosystem services ranging from clean tech 'eco-industries' to organic agriculture, sustainable forestry and eco-tourism.
•Investment in the protection of Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve is generating an annual of income of close to USD50 million a year, has generated 7,000 jobs and boosted local family incomes (CBD 2008).
The new report, prepared by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative hosted by the UN Environment Programme, calls on policy-makers to accelerate, scale-up and embed investments in the management and restoration of ecosystems.
It also calls for more sophisticated cost benefit analysis before policy decisions are made. The report cites a study on mangroves in south Thailand on the conversion of mangroves into shrimp farms.
Subsidised commercial shrimp farms can generate returns of around USD1,220 per hectare by clearing mangrove forests. But this does not take into account the losses to local communities totalling over USD12,000 a hectare linked with wood and non-wood forest products, fisheries and coastal protection services (Barbier 2007).
Nor does the profit to the commercial operators take into account the costs of rehabilitating the abandoned sites after five years of exploitation – estimated at over USD9,000 a hectare.
