Statement from Conservation International on the Global Partnership for Oceans announced by World Bank President Robert Zoellick
Following a presentation from World Bank President Robert Zoellick at The Economist World Ocean Summit in Singapore today, Conservation International announced its enthusiastic support of the Global Partnership for Oceans. The partnership, according to Zoellick, will be coalition of governments, international organizations, civil society groups and private interests, joining together to confront widely documented problems of over-fishing, pollution, habitat loss and climate change.
"The bottom line is our lives depend on oceans, but we need to better understand them. We need to adequately value oceans and the benefits they provide, and act on this knowledge. If we don't do this, we and future generations of people will be hurt," said Conservation International Chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann. "I commend Robert Zoellick and the World Bank on taking a critical step to catalyze the funding required by governments, businesses and civil society to secure ocean health for us and our children."
Conservation Internationalhas already demonstrated a successful ocean conservation model in the field with its Seascape approach, which aims to establish responsible governance and recovering ocean health at a large scale (hundreds of thousands or millions of square kilometers) through collaboration among governments of bordering nations, stakeholder groups and partner organizations.
"This partnership is timely because oceans are under threat and have not been properly managed. Demand for seafood and other benefits from the oceans are growing while marine ecosystems are declining in health," said Sebastian Troëng, Vice President of Marine Conservation at Conservation International. "Conservation International has talented staff and strong partnerships around the globe, but no organization has the ability to singlehandedly resolve the challenges facing the world’s oceans. Working with the World Bank in this Partnership, we bring together governments, businesses, financial institutions and local communities to support healthy and productive oceans in a way we could not have done alone."
Over the past decade, Conservation International has catalyzed the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (a collaboration between Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador); the Papuan Bird's Head Seascape (Indonesia); the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape (Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia); and the Abrolhos Seascape (Brazil).
"When the governance situation changes and countries establish marine protected areas, an average there is a 21 percent increase in the diversity, and a 28 percent increase in the size of the organisms inside the reserves relative to unprotected areas nearby," added Troeng. "Those same reserves have seen the tons of fish per square kilometer increase 446 percent on average. And research has shown that communities using marine protected areas have greater incomes, more diversified livelihoods and greater environmental awareness than nearby communities that do not have marine protected areas."
Conservation International is joined in this partnership by a number of developed and developing countries and country groupings, including island nations; non-government organizations and advocacy bodies like Environmental Defense Fund, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, Oceana, Rare and World Wildlife Fund (WWF); science bodies like the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); industry groups like National Fisheries Institute, and the World Ocean Council whose members rely on sustainable seafood supplies or are dependent on ocean resources; international organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The Global Environment Facility, Global Ocean Forum, GRID Arendal (Norway), the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the World Bank Group.
New joint paper calls on leaders at Rio+20 to change how the wealth of nations is measured, and work with society and private sector to place nature at the core of social and economic development plans.
Prior to the presentation at UNEP from 8 to 10 February, 14 Blue Planet Prize laureates including the first winner Dr. Syukuro Manabe gathered in London to discuss the issues based on contributions each made and completed a joint paper. A press conference was held on the final day and Dr. Watson disclosed the ten key messages and appealed "If we are to solve the problem of climate change, loss of biodiversity and poverty, it is imperative for the world to act now."
Leading international environmental scientists urged today governments to replace gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of wealth, end damaging subsidies, and transform systems of governance to set humanity on a new path to a better future -- or risk climate, biodiversity and poverty crises that will spawn greater problems worldwide.
These are among the messages from a new paper by 20 past winners of the Blue Planet Prize -- often called the Nobel Prize for the environment.
“Governments should recognise the serious limitations of GDP as a measure of economic activitity and complement it with measures of the five forms of capital – built, financial, natural, human and social capital, i.e. a measure of wealth that integrates economic, environmental and social dimensions,” the paper argues. “Green taxes and the elimination of subsidies should ensure that the natural resources needed to directly protect poor people are available rather than via subsidies that often only benefit the better off.”
Bob Watson, the UK’s chief scientific advisor on environmental issues and a winner of the prize in 2010, presented the paper to government ministers from around the world at the UN Environment Programme’s governing council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya on 20 February.
Co-authors include James Hansen of NASA, Emil Salim, former environment minister of Indonesia, Susan Solomon of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, José Goldemberg, who was Brazil’s Secretary of Environment during the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and Dr. Will Turner of Conservation International, which was awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 1997 for “protecting the Earth’s biological diversity through research into ways to conserve ecosystems while improving the lives of local peoples”.
The paper urges governments to:
Replace GDP as a measure of wealth with metrics for natural, built, human and social capital -- and how they intersect.
Eliminate subsidies in sectors such as energy, transport and agriculture that create environmental and social costs, which currently go unpaid.
Tackle overconsumption, and address population pressure by empowering women, improving education and making contraception accessible to all.
Transform decision making processes to empower marginalised groups, and integrate economic, social and environmental policies instead of having them compete.
Conserve and value biodiversity and ecosystem services, and create markets for them that can form the basis of green economies.
Invest in knowledge -- both in creating and in sharing it -- through research and training that will enable governments, business, and society at large to understand and move towards a sustainable future.
"These are unprecedented, daunting challenges we face. But they are also solvable. Our awareness of how climate change, poverty, and security issues arise from environmental degradation has never been greater,” said CI’s Vice President for Conservation Priorities and Outreach, Dr. Will Turner. “Nature is our greatest asset. We will succeed by recognizing the communities and businesses that have already coupled growth or poverty alleviation with nature conservation, and scale these results to the globe through not just top-down governance but people, institutions, and the private sector at all levels."
The paper comes ahead of the Rio+20 conference in June this year – when world leaders have an opportunity to set human development on a new, more sustainable path.
CI’s lead for Rio+20 and Vice President of International Policy, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, said: “Rio+20 will be an unique opportunity for governments and civil society to limit unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, which are destroying the environment. Nature is the foundation of human well-being, particularly in developing countries, so world leaders must commit to long-term actions that will place nature at the center of development plans."
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The paper by the Blue Planet laureates will challenge governments and society as a whole to act to limit human-induced climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in order to ensure food, water energy and human security. I would like to thank Professor Watson and colleagues for eloquently articulating their vision on how key development challenges can be addressed, emphasizing solutions; the policies, technologies and behaviour changes required to grow green economies, generate jobs and lift people out of poverty without pushing the world through planetary boundaries.”
The Blue Planet Prize laureates who contributed to the paper are:
Professor Sir Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Lord (Robert) May of Oxford, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and President of Royal Society of London
Professor Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University
Professor Harold Mooney, Stanford University
Dr Gordon Hisashi Sato, President, Manzanar Project Corporation
Professor José Goldemberg, secretary for the environment of the State of São Paulo, Brazil and Brazil’s interim Secretary of Environment during the Rio Earth Summit in 1992
Dr Emil Salim, former Environment Minister of the Republic of Indonesia
Dr Camilla Toulmin, Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development
Mr Bunker Roy, Founder of Barefoot College
Dr Syukuro Manabe, Senior Scientist, Princeton University
Dr Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director-General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Dr Simon Stuart, Chair of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Professor Karl-Henrik Robèrt, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Founder of The Natural Step
Dr James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Lord (Nicholas) Stern of Brentford, Professor, The London of Economics
Dr Amory Lovins, Chair and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute
Dr Gene Likens, Director of the Carey Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and Director-General of the World Health Organization, now Special Envoy on Climate Change for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Dr James Lovelock, independent scientist and proponent of the Gaia Hypothesis
Dr Will Turner, Vice President of Conservation Priorities and Outreach, Conservation International
The Blue Planet Prize - In 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, the Asahi Glass Foundation established the Blue Planet Prize, an award presented to individuals or organizations worldwide in recognition of outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application that have helped provide solutions to global environmental problems.
The Prize is offered in the hopes of encouraging efforts to bring about the healing of the Earth’s fragile environment. A full list of its past winners is online here.
The award’s name was inspired by the remark "the Earth was blue," uttered by the first human in space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, upon viewing our planet. The Blue Planet Prize was so named in the hopes that our blue planet will be a shared asset capable of sustaining human life far into the future. 2012 is the 20th anniversary of the Blue Planet Prize. The Asahi Glass Foundation wishes to mark this anniversary with a fresh start in its efforts to help build an environmentally friendly society.
Conservation International (CI) - Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the long term well-being of people. Founded in 1987 and marking its 25th anniversary in 2012, CI has headquarters in the Washington DC area, and 900 employees working in nearly 30 countries on four continents, plus 1,000+ partners around the world.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Blue Planet Prize and inject fresh impetus to global environmental action, IUCN’s Director General is part of a team of Blue Planet laureates working on a report ‘Environment and Development Challenges: the Imperative to Act’. This will be presented to the Rio+20 conference and other key international meetings, including the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September.
The Blue Planet Prize was established in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, by the Asahi Glass Foundation. It is presented to individuals or organizations worldwide in recognition of outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application in finding solutions to global environmental problems.
The award’s name was inspired by the remark "the Earth is blue," spoken by the first human in space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The Blue Planet Prize was named in the hope that our blue planet will be a shared asset capable of sustaining human life far into the future.
The Asahi Glass Foundation wishes to mark the 20th anniversary of the Prize with a fresh start in its efforts to help build an environmentally-friendly society.
IUCN was awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 1993. Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre was joined at the recent meeting of Blue Prize Laureates by Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.
After many years of decline, the bittern (Botaurus stellaris) is re-establishing itself in British wetlands. While its subtle brown plumage make it difficult to spot among reeds, its distinctive foghorn-like call or ‘boom’ is being heard again in Britain thanks to conservation efforts initiated by LIFE. In 1997, the population of bitterns had fallen to 11, and the project, ‘Bittern - Urgent action for the Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) in the UK’ (LIFE96 NAT/UK/003057) was launched to arrest the decline of this bird species, which before the Middle Ages was common in the UK. Its numbers fell first as a result of its desirability as a delicacy, then its interest to taxidermists, and finally the drainage of wetlands. By the end of the project, the beneficiary, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), reported that numbers had recovered to 30.
A follow-up project, ‘Bittern - Developing a strategic network of SPA reedbeds for Botaurus stellaris’ (LIFE02 NAT/UK/008527) was carried out to expand the range of breeding sites and increase the number of areas suitable for dispersing young and over-wintering birds, The RSPB says that conservation of the bittern has been a “phenomenal success”. According to its monitoring report for 2011, there are now 104 booming male bitterns in Britain and a large increase in the number of nesting sites occurred in the past year (from 41 to 63).
But experts at the RSPB remain concerned about the negative impact of climate change. Rising sea levels could result in tides flooding key freshwater habitats, such as the RSPB site at Minsmere in Suffolk, thus making them unsuitable for the bittern. Droughts are another habitat threat. However, Grahame Madge of the RSPB, told The Guardian that the continued upturn in bittern numbers is “a very encouraging trend”.
The Science Coalition supports President Obama's commitment to scientific research and innovation as outlined in his FY 2013 budget submitted to Congress today. The President's budget request, coupled with strong funding of science agencies in the FY 2012 appropriations process, underscores the bipartisan recognition that basic scientific research is an essential part of the nation's infrastructure and economy.
Federal funding of scientific research is integral to the discoveries that will lead to the new technologies, new companies and new industries of the future. "The role of research universities has grown increasingly important to the nation's economic health and status as a global leader in innovation and emerging technology," said Patrick O'Shea, Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland. "Companies like Google and Genentech were born on college campuses. Continued support from the federal government will enable university researchers to solve global challenges, transform cutting edge research into commercialized technologies, educate student entrepreneurs, and start new businesses that create jobs."
Despite continued bipartisan support of scientific research, a very real threat to the country's future exists in the form of potential automatic spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act enacted last August. The law, which has resulted in savings of $1 billion in discretionary spending, has already affected the funding available for scientific research. The Science Coalition is fully supportive of policymakers' efforts to get our nation on sound fiscal footing, but across-the-board cuts will put America at an even greater competitive disadvantage compared to other countries that are heavily investing in scientific research.
Data recently released by the National Science Board show that research and development expenditures in China and nine other Asian countries has risen to match that of the United States and while the U.S. continues to maintain a position of leadership, "it has experienced a gradual erosion of its position in many specific areas." One outcome of this shift has been the loss of more than one-quarter of the high-tech manufacturing jobs in the U.S. over the last decade as U.S.-based multinationals have opted to place more of their R&D operations overseas. Indeed the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology noted in a 2011 report that America's ability to innovate and compete in a global economy is greatly enhanced when R&D and manufacturing are co-located in the United States.
"Now more than ever, the United States must focus its spending on the things that fuel our economy and contribute to job creation," said David Williams, Dean for Research in Arts, Sciences and Engineering at the University of Rochester. "University-based scientific research fuels economic growth: More than half of U.S. economic growth in since World War II can be traced to science-driven technological innovation."
Research creates jobs directly – for the principal investigators, research teams, lab technicians, materials and equipment manufacturers and others who help support the work. Research also leads to indirect job creation: Thousands of American companies and products can trace their founding to federally funded research at universities. A Science Coalition report, "Sparking Economic Growth: How federally funded university research creates innovation, new companies and jobs," lists more than 100 such success stories.
"The Science Coalition appreciates the support for basic scientific research shown by the Administration and Members of Congress," said Mel Bernstein, Senior Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education at Northeastern University. "We thank our nation's leaders for recognizing the critical role research plays in driving competitive innovation and urge them to act to prevent damaging automatic spending cuts as called for in the Budget Control Act."
The Science Coalition is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization of the nation's leading public and private research universities, including Northeastern University, the University of Maryland and the University of Rochester. It is dedicated to maintaining strong federal funding of basic scientific research as a means to stimulate the economy, drive innovation and secure America's global competitiveness.
Top scientists and business leaders at the annual WEF meeting discuss how to reconcile healthy oceans with growth and development in the 21st century.
Last week Dr. Greg Stone, the senior vice president and chief scientist for Oceans at Conservation International served as a panelist at an open-session plenary meeting at the 42nd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) where over 1,600 business leaders, 40 heads of state and hundreds of leaders from academia, the media and non-profit organizations met to discuss the current state of the global economy and address and meet future economic challenges.
Stone, who works to advance the agenda of the WEF Ocean Governance Council, spoke at the interactive plenary session titled, ‘The Ocean Solution,’ which included featured speakers Robert B. Zoellick, President, The World Bank Group, Clarence Otis Jr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Darden Restaurants, Koji Sekimizu, Secretary-General, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and moderator John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist, United Kingdom.
“The vast wealth our oceans can provide has the potential to solve the looming global problems of the 21st century,” Stone said. “Before they can feed and provide livelihoods for our growing population, we must first be able to understand what their limits are and how we can restore their abundance and health to an optimal level.”
The oceans act as the Earth’s primary life support system. They are responsible for providing a whole host of ecosystem services which include the provision of seafood, biodiversity, clean water, and oxygen of which they supply over 50% to the air we breathe. It is these services and others that make the planet a livable and prosperous place for people and societies. As the demands on the oceans increase, however, so too do the impacts on their overall health and ability to provide these critical services. In particular, through overfishing – FAO data shows that 53% of marine fishery stocks are fully exploited with no room for further expansion; 28% are overexploited; 3% are depleted; and 1% are recovering from depletion and require plans for rebuilding.
Currently, 1 billion people depend on fish for essential nutrition. In 1997, is was estimated, using the entire World’s GDP, that the ocean provides over $21 trillion (Costanza et al) of unaccounted value to the world economy – these are goods and services that are supplied to mankind for free; today this value would be much higher. A 2010 UN study has estimated that by the year 2050 the global population will reach 9 billion people and will include 3 billion new people in a middle class that will total 5 billion.
“Participating in this discussion at the World Economic Forum is a sign that the health of our oceans is finally on the global agenda,” Stone said. “With our population growing and becoming more prosperous, how the health of mankind is closely linked to the health of oceans is an issue we can no longer afford to put off.”
The Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarships 2012 are now open for applications! The award provides three young European conservationists with €3000 to undertake a study visit to one or more protected areas in European countries other than their own. They are awarded by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the EUROPARC Federation. The deadline for applications is Friday May 11th 2012.
The €3000, donated by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation (DE), gives successful scholars the chance to gather experience and strengthen their networks. Applicants must be under 35, of European nationality and themes for applications must be connected to the management of natural areas. Some guidelines to what these should be are provided. Applications can be filled in online and submitted by Friday 11th May 2012. All organisational aspects, such as the selection of candidates, are carried out by the EUROPARC Federation.
The Scholarships enhance international cooperation and advance the quality, innovation and European dimension of the management of natural areas, such as national parks. At the end of their study visit the scholars should produce a report on their findings which will be shared with practitioners in charge of managing Europe’s natural heritage. They are awarded at the annual EUROPARC Conference, which will be held in Genk, Belgium from 22nd – 25th October 2012.
In 2011 the scholarships were awarded to three individuals from Hungary, Scotland and Belgium. The topics the scholars are currently researching are: management techniques in protected areas, the creation of European partnerships and information sharing in the field of grazing management and improvement of communication between World Heritage marine sites in the Mediterranean Sea.
The EUROPARC Federation is committed to the protection and promotion of Europe’s protected areas and all they offer. We are the foremost and largest NGO representing European protected areas, uniting national parks, regional parks, nature parks and biosphere reserves in 39 countries, with the common aim of conserving Europe's unique variety of wildlife, habitats and landscapes.
The Alfred Toepfer Foundation is a charitable association with activities across Europe in the fields of culture, science, education and nature conservation. A particular focus of the Foundation is promoting European understanding whilst conserving cultural diversity. More information about the Alfred Toepfer Scholarships and the application form can be found online.
From humble beginnings, organization celebrates silver anniversary with gratitude, focus on new mission, and renewed commitment to safeguard nature for future generations.
Founded with a mission to safeguard biodiversity and the provisions of ecosystem services for the well-being of people, Conservation International (CI) is proud to mark 25 years since its establishment in 1987 and reflects today on the groundbreaking accomplishments of its first quarter century, as well as the major challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in its next.
The organization, which brings together approximately 900 diverse and passionate conservation professionals in nearly 30 countries, is headquartered in the Washington DC area, not far from where it was founded late one January evening in the Tabard Inn by conservationists Peter Seligmann and Spencer Beebe.
“It was a different era. Conservation of nature wasn’t top-of-mind at that time. Companies didn’t think about it, governments didn’t prioritize it, schools didn’t teach it. So we felt it was vital to show that nature and humanity are fundamentally linked and demonstrate the connections between conservation and economic well-being,” said Seligmann, CI’s Chairman and CEO.
In the organization’s first year, CI particularly focused its international efforts on engaging local communities in the three countries where Seligmann and Beebe had previously worked: Bolivia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Thirty-five colleagues joined the founders that first year, taking a leap of faith that their vision would one day help to revolutionize how people, governments, and businesses value and manage our planet’s natural capital.
“We believed tat in order to be successful in conservation, we had to involve local people and build local capacity, giving them ownership and control of conservation in their own countries,” said Seligmann, a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “We also felt strongly that, in order for our conservation efforts to have meaningful and positive impacts on people, we had to engage not only natural scientists and conservationists but social scientists and economists as well.”
The founding members of CI made personal sacrifices to lay its foundation, borrowing money and working out of their homes to help to turn their dreams into reality.
Looking back, they agree that the struggle was worth it. Today, CI is a top-rated charity with an operating budget of approximately $150 million USD annually and more than 1,000 partners and conservation investments in more than 40 countries. It has led or contributed to the protection of 106 million hectares (262 million acres) of land and sea around the world (terrestrial: 51 million hectares; marine: 55 million hectares); established innovative financing mechanisms to support long-term local efforts in priority regions; facilitated groundbreaking debt-for-nature swaps that led to the creation of parks and reserves; discovered and documented hundreds of new or endemic species in priority high-biodiversity countries to help inform conservation priorities; partnered with indigenous and traditional peoples from around the world to support their essential role as stewards of biodiversity; and impacted policy and corporate decisions that support sustainable development.
“Our approach is broad but strategic, focusing on the places that science tells us are the highest priorities for biodiversity and human well-being. It is also two-pronged: placing high value on engagement and partnership,” said Seligmann. “With our feet in the mud and our heads metaphorically in the sky, we believe that the most effective way to achieve behavior change and sustainable development is to bring key influencers to the table, offer our expertise and together achieve positive impacts from the inside out.”
Dr. Russell Mittermeier, a globally renowned primatologist and field biologist who speaks six languages fluently, has authored or co-authored 25 books and 655 scientific papers, and spends up to 200 days a year visiting conservation projects and leaders around the world, joined the organization as President in 1989 and still today leads Conservation International with Seligmann.
“Our geographic priorities and our investments have always been based on the best available science, and it is from that foundation that we are able to advise and support sound decision-making,” said Mittermeier. “But our approach to conservation has evolved over the past twenty-five years.
“In our early years, we focused on creating protected areas in the biodiversity hotspots, believing that we could stem the loss of species and ecosystems by creating safe havens for biodiversity. Protected areas of many different kinds continue to be among our most important tools in achieving conservation objectives and are also fundamentally important to human communities around the world. However, today we have come to the realization that they themselves aren’t enough. Species are still disappearing, many of the habitats that support life, including our own, continue to be degraded, and a large portion of the human population is still living under the poverty level. Clearly, we needed to take on a much broader agenda and think bigger, demonstrating that nature is not just worthy of conservation in its own right, it is also the most essential underpinning of long-term human well-being."
With that in mind, in 2010 CI redefined its institutional mission to expand the scope and scale of its work across the planet in order to tackle the greatest environmental challenges of our time, focusing more broadly on the direct connections between healthy ecosystems and the essential flows of goods and services they deliver to a growing human population, such as food, water, health, biodiversity, cultural heritage and climate security. The organization also forged new partnerships with international banks, civil society, and foundations to team global conservation initiatives with those investing in human development.
“Whereas we used to focus on creating parks and protecting natural areas for the sake of preserving our natural heritage, over time, we came to realize that we needed to reshape our approach to conservation, and tap into existing forces in order to address the scale of challenges facing governments and business, such as global poverty, food insecurity, water scarcity, economic development and supply chain flows,” said Seligmann. “In our next 25 years, we have to constantly be creating new alliances and bringing more and more people into our conservation efforts so that together, we can tackle these shared concerns with our pooled passion and resources.”
“To achieve this, we are demonstrating proof of concept at the local level, sharing and scaling these solutions up to larger and larger landscapes or regions, and helping communities, businesses, banks and governments see that it is in their enlightened self-interest to conserve, sustainably manage and properly value our natural wealth,” added Seligmann. “We believe that with this bottom-up and top-down approach, we now have the best chance of gaining broad game-changing support for conservation.”
Over the course of its 25 years, CI has worked with partners in five continents. It’s used three different logos, the most recent of which was introduced in 2010 when the organization refined its mission. It has successfully attracted the dedicated support of diverse, global visionaries in business, science, entertainment and philanthropy, as well as indigenous leaders from Brazil and Philippines, to its Board of Directors, Chairman’s Council and Business & Sustainability Council. And it has adapted to new challenges.
On the occasion of the anniversary, co-founder Spencer Beebe, who subsequently moved on from CI to found and lead Ecotrust in Portland Washington sent congratulations to the board, staff and “courageous team of individuals at CI who together put their faith in a more natural model of development, one that emerges bottom up from the very particular and distinctive qualities of people and place”.
Conservation International Board Member and Trustee William Wrigley, Jr. said, “CI is a unique organization with an incredible ability to take science and practical thinking and rapidly turn it into demonstrable action that truly has a positive impact on humanity and our environment. The last twenty-five years of CI’s accomplishments have been nothing short of extraordinary and the pace of meaningful change facilitated by CI is increasing every year.”
Seligmann said, “Twenty-five years ago we took a leap of faith. We jumped out on our own and built something against all odds. We’re making the same leap of faith today. The next four decades are going to be a serious challenge as our population soars to more than nine billion in forty years and ten billion by the end of this century. Demand for energy, food and water is going to double in the next four decades and we only have one planet to resource this increasing demand. Conservation is not a luxury anymore. It’s a necessity. So we can’t slow down. We have to really intensify.”
1987-2012: A SELECTION OF CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL’S KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
Debt for Nature swaps: CI’s innovative leadership in debt-for-nature swaps dates back to its founding year, 1987, when it purchased a portion of Bolivia’s foreign debt owed to a commercial creditor. In return, the Bolivian government redirected the funds to support protection of 3.7 million acres in and around the Beni Biosphere Reserve. Since then CI and its partners have played a key role in a number of debt-for-nature deals, including: 2004: the United States and Colombia reached an agreement on a debt-for-nature swap that resulted in forgiveness of $10 million of Colombia’s debt to the United States. As part of the deal, Colombia agreed to invest at least this amount over 12 years to protect nearly 11 million acres of its tropical forests. GCF, The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund contributed $1.4 million toward the deal; 2006: CI played a key role in a 2006 deal between the United States and Guatemala that cancelled $24 million of Guatemala’s debt to the United States and channeled that money into a local fund for conservation grants to be distributed over the next 15 years. CI contributed $1 million to the swap, including $700,000 from the Global Conservation Fund (GCF) and $300,000 from CEPF. The Nature Conservancy was also a partner in the deal; 2007: An agreement with the United States forgave $26 million of Costa Rica’s debt in return for a commitment from Costa Rica to redirect that amount toward tropical forest conservation activities in six of the most important natural areas over the next 16 years. Both CI and The Nature Conservancy contributed to the purchase of the debt.
Biodiversity Hotspots - In 1989 Conservation International adopted a seminal concept of biodiversity hotspots, created by British ecologist Norman Myers. Myers’ hotspots served as CI’s institutional blueprint, and in 1999, CI conducted a global review, which introduced quantitative thresholds for the designation of biodiversity hotspots. The 1999 analysis identified 25 biodiversity hotspots and emerged as the dominant paradigm for global conservation strategy. Hotspots hold especially high numbers of endemic species, yet their combined area of remaining habitat covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Each hotspot faces extreme threats and has already lost at least 70 percent of its original natural vegetation. As of 2011, 35 biodiversity hotspots have been identified.
CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) – Launched in 1990, the idea behind the creation of CI's Rapid Assessment Program was to build a team of the best field biologists from different disciplines, and create a type of ecological SWAT team that could accurately assess the health of an ecosystem in a fraction of the time it would normally take. The flagship program has conducted 80 scientific field surveys in 27 countries, contributing to the creation or improvement of nearly 21 million hectares of protected areas worldwide (~81,000 square miles) and the discovery of 1,300 species new to science. RAP surveys have also contributed a financial investment of more than $5.3 million into local communities and national economies through funding that is primarily spent in-country and they have trained more than 400 students and scientists in developing countries. Notable "RAP Stars" discovered through the years include species that have been nicknamed the "walking shark", the “Yoda bat” and the “ET salamander”.
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) – A financing mechanism established under the leadership of CI in 2000, CEPF pools global funding resources to build the capacity of civil society organizations to meet local needs in critical conservation hotspots. An impressive collaboration among Conservation International, l'Agence Française de Développement, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank, CEPF’s Secretariat is based at CI's Arlington headquarters. Since its inception, the fund has committed more than $137 million and leveraged an additional $320 million to help more than 1,600 civil society organizations implement diverse projects to safeguard biodiversity hotspots in 53 countries. The result has been strengthened civil society, 12 million hectares of new or expanded protected areas and improved management of an additional 21 million hectares of globally important lands.
CI’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF) finances the creation, expansion, and long-term management of protected areas, supporting partners in biodiversity hotspots to help places in peril reverse course. Created in 2001, the GCF launched with a $100-million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The fund has done more than any other instrument of its kind to support the creation of new protected areas in the biodiversity hotspots and high-biodiversity wilderness areas, supporting the creation and expansion of more than 79 million hectares of terrestrial and marine protected areas. GCF has given grants to CI’s regional programs and more than 40 incredible partners – from The Nature Conservancy to Association FANAMBY in Madagascar to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund.
Indigenous and Traditional Peoples’ Program - In 2003, CI consolidated its many years of work with indigenous and traditional peoples into the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples Program, a global program that works to strengthen the capacities of Indigenous and traditional peoples and conservationists to work through policy, practice and partnership toward mutual goals. The program is guided by CI's institutional policy, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation International: Principles for Partnership, which focus on transparency, participation, consent, self-determination and cultural identity, traditional knowledge, tenure systems and conflict resolution. Some of CI’s most important projects over the past two decades include partnerships with the Kayapó Indians of the Brazilian Amazon, the Trio people of southern Suriname and the Wai-Wai of Guyana. Today, CI works with more than 50 indigenous groups around the world and counts among its board of directors leaders from Brazil’s Kayapó and the Philippines’ Igorot peoples. This collaborative approach has led to a string of successes—helping the Wai-Wai receive absolute title to their lands, creating a long-term trust fund to support the Kayapó and establishing Ecuador’s Socio Bosque program, which pays indigenous communities for reducing carbon emissions by protecting standing forest. In 2011, the work of the ITPP became the foundation for a new Social Policy and Practice Department that focuses on the intersection of conservation and human wellbeing in support of CI’s new mission
Center for Environmental Leadership in Business - For more than 20 years, CI has actively engaged with corporations for the purpose of improving environmental practices and conserving nature. Through its Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, founded in 2000, CI challenges and collaborates with companies to minimize environmental impacts and to harness private sector ingenuity on behalf of healthy ecosystems and human well-being. Engaging with multinational corporations such as Walmart, Starbucks, Marriott, and others, CI helps to ensure that effective safeguards for biodiversity and ecosystem services are incorporated fully into business operations and supply chains.
Seascapes & Pacific Oceanscape - in recent years, CI has focused in supporting the sustainable management of priority marine conservation regions where strategic actions can literally make a world of difference. These critical "Seascapes" in waters off Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador extend beyond country boundaries, creating opportunities for governments, multinational corporations, and others to work together to conserve the seas and the diverse marine life that is the lifeline for people living near their shores. CI is also supporting the implementation of a bold new framework for ocean management in the globally important Pacific Islands region, where island leaders have come together to create a Pacific Oceanscape, the largest government-endorsed marine managed initiative on Earth at 38.5 million square kilometers (nearly 24 million square miles). This area is collectively larger than the land territories of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined, and will help vulnerable island populations in the region build resilience in ocean ecosystems so that marine life, and people, have the best chance of adapting to the impacts climate change.
The Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network – Conceived in 2001, this ambitious program monitors long-term trends in biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate using standardized methods of data collection so that scientists anywhere on Earth can quantify how climate change is affecting tropical ecosystems. Akin to an early warning system for nature, TEAM delivers multi-scale, real-time understanding of how key elements of Earth’s operating system — climate, carbon stocks, biodiversity — are changing and what this means for people. Created by Conservation International, the TEAM Network is now a partnership of more than 80 organizations in 17 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, including: CI, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The TEAM Network’s research and systems have directly contributed to: the production of 350,000 terrestrial vertebrate images from camera traps; population-level information on over 300 species for the IUCN Species Survival Commission; data to calibrate remote sensing measurements of forest carbon at large spatial scales by Scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and a network of World Meteorological Organization compliant climate stations in natural areas where there may not be any other climate stations for hundreds of miles.
Conservation International (CI) - Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the long term well-being of people. Founded in 1987 and marking its 25th anniversary in 2012, CI has headquarters in the Washington DC area, and 900 employees working in nearly 30 countries on four continents, plus 1,000+ partners around the world.
A new European Fund for the EU's Maritime and Fisheries Policies.
The European Commission has proposed a new fund for the EU's maritime and fisheries policies for the period 2014-2020: the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). The Fund will help deliver the ambitious objectives of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and will help fishermen in the transition towards sustainable fishing, as well as coastal communities in the diversification of their economies. The fund will finance projects that create new jobs and improve quality of life along European coasts. Red tape will be cut so that beneficiaries have easy access to financing.
Maria Damanaki, Commissioner in charge of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said: “This new fund will increase economic growth and create jobs in the sector. No more money will be spent to build big vessels. Small scale fisheries and aquaculture will benefit of this budgetary greening of the Common Fisheries Policy."
This new fund will replace the existing European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and a number of other instruments. The proposed envelope amounts to € 6.5 billion for the period 2014 to 2020.
Background:
Underpinning the environmental, economic and social principles of the Common Fisheries Policy reform
The EMFF will be a fundamental instrument for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that the Commission proposed in July. The transition to sustainability requires some radical changes in the way we fish – and the fund will give fishermen the incentive they need, so that fishing can be less damaging to marine ecosystems, overexploitation can be stopped and the decline of fish stocks can be reversed.
As we relieve pressure on the stocks and leave them time to recover, the communities depending on fishing will need to find alternative sources of income. The EMFF will help them find innovative ways to add value to their catches and diversify their economy.
But the EMFF is not just a catalyst for the transition to sustainability and good economic performance. It is also a vehicle to deliver the Commission's social agenda. Spouses often play a fundamental role in the family fishing business. Now they will be able to get support for training or other economic activities related to fishing. Producers' Organisations will be helped to plan production to satisfy market demands and to market their products in a way that meets the expectations of an increasingly discerning public.
Smart, green fisheries:
Despite the 1.7 billion EUR spent on scrapping since the 1990s, the EU fleet still suffers from overcapacity, as the decommissioning of vessels was offset by the technological upgrade of the remaining fleet. Therefore, money will not go to scrapping anymore and the money will be deployed towards economically and socially productive activities. Diversification is one of them. Encouraging bottom-up initiatives has so far produced excellent results in areas connected to fishing, such as processing, catering or tourism. The EMFF will reinforce this kind of community-led innovation. As small-scale coastal fleets remain the lifeblood of the economy of many coastal communities, the aid to support them will be intensified.
The new fund will also support innovative projects such as replacing fishing nets with more selective gear in order to reduce discards, or the development of new technologies that could lower the impact of fishing and fish-farming on the environment.
Smart, green aquaculture
Fish farming carries a huge potential to reduce our dependence on imports. It provides high-quality jobs in rural areas and puts healthy food on European dinner tables. The fund will strive to boost this industry in a sustainable manner, rewarding innovation and promoting also new strands of aquaculture, such as non-food aquaculture.
Support the partnership of science and fishermen:
Having the proper data on the state of fish stocks and the marine environment in general plays a key role in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and the EMFF will give sufficient funds for data collection, monitoring and control. As it does not make sense that those working on the sea (the fishermen) and those studying the sea (the scientists) should live in separate worlds, the EMFF will encourage them to work in tandem to find ways to exploit natural resources in a sustainable manner.
A single fund for fisheries and the Integrated Maritime Policy:
The 2007 EU Integrated Maritime Policy interconnects maritime sectors which have historically been compartmentalised and managed in isolation. The EMFF will provide support for projects such as maritime spatial planning, integrated maritime surveillance and marine knowledge. These are examples where integration can help avoid duplications and reduce costs through greater cooperation and coordination across sectors. Including the Maritime Policy into the EMFF will ensure greater coherence and help deliver synergies between the two policy strands.
Simplification:
The rules governing the EMFF will be harmonised with those for other EU funds. This will make life easier for both beneficiaries and national authorities. The EMFF will be part of the new Common Strategic Framework, which will ensure that all the various existing EU funds work consistently with each other, avoiding overlaps or duplications.
How the Fund works:
The new Fund will be used to co-finance projects with Member states. The total budget will be allocated to the Member States based on the importance of the fisheries sector in each country. Then the principles of shared-management between the Commission and the Member States will apply. Each Member State draws up an operational programme for the period, specifying how they intend to spend the money allocated to them. Once the Commission approves this programme, it is up to the Member state to decide the actual projects to be financed. Both the eligibility of the actions to support and the implementation of the programme are monitored by the Member States and the Commission.
As Head of the LIFE Nature Unit, Angelo Salsi has spent much of his last year overseeing progress of these two LIFE + Components and preparing the ground for the next period of LIFE Programme funding from 2014-2020.
Angelo Salsi. Credit: Jon Eldridge
Mr Salsi notes that, “The present LIFE + regulation still has two calls to be implemented before its application process formally closes at end of 2013. This means that potential applicants and interested parties should continue to look at the present regulation for guidance on Programme priorities”.
Reflecting on the overall state of the Programme in its current form Mr Salsi draws attention to the fact that, “The application rounds continue to become more and more competitive. In 2011 for instance we saw that the numbers of applications peaked and 50% more proposals were submitted than before. We had a 100% increase in the numbers of some types of proposals, especially for the LIFE Information and LIFE Environment Components. Stronger competition was also seen for LIFE Nature and LIFE Biodiversity. The biggest increases we found were in proposals coming from the public sector. This was interesting because countries like Greece and Italy were able to submit a useful collection of proposals.”
“Factors affecting the increase in competitiveness are difficult to definitively assess but we must assume that one of the biggest drivers is the financial crisis. As budget cuts get worse we expect that competition will become even fiercer because there are very few areas in the field of environment where you find cash available from instruments like LIFE to make additional investments.”
Mr Salsi points to the quality of LIFE project proposals becoming a vital success ingredient for applicants. “Quality factors remain relatively constant from one year to another,” he says, and continues, “The ambition of the proposal to achieve added value at an EU level, not just nationally or regional, to address a priority environmental issue is crucial.”
“Ambitious projects can involve a lot of quite complicated inter-related issues and actions which can be a challenge to explain concisely in the application form. The quality of the basic project description is therefore more and more important as a determinant for accessing the LIFE co-finance. This is true for all of the Programme’s Components.”
For LIFE Nature and LIFE biodiversity, Mr Salsi believes that demand will continue to increase as the implementation of the Habitats Directives moves from planning to active management. “Money is needed to manage the land and waters that support species and habitats in our Natura network. LIFE remains the main dedicated source of co-finance for such actions so we suspect that Member States’ interest in LIFE Nature will increase.”
“During the next funding period after 2013, LIFE’s Natura investments will be joined by EU funds from rural development and cohesion policy, but until then LIFE is still the core financial instrument for Natura.”
Referring to LIFE’s Biodiversity Component, the Head of Unit also expects that it will play a bigger role in the future, now that understanding about its role is becoming more widespread. “The context for LIFE + Biodiversity has been better clarified in 2011 following the adoption of the new EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy.”
“Certain elements are well established like the strategy’s mandate covering nature conservation and species protection. These are perceived in EU terms as being under the wing of Natura 2000, and so LIFE Nature, as key delivery vehicles. Other important strategy areas like how to deal with alien species are also well known and we have cases where LIFE Biodiversity is working here.”
Added values:
EU biodiversity policy promotes harmonised approaches to sustainable development which balance socio-economic and environmental objectives. The emphasis on LIFE Nature contributions to this balance is stressed by Mr Salsi as important for the Programme to add value. Talking about moves towards greater consideration of social impacts and ecosystem services, he is pleased to report that, “We are now starting to see a growing number of positive responses to our push for a full spectrum of added value actions in LIFE. Beneficiaries are able to present project proposals which demonstrate clear social dividends from species protection.”
“I am aware that many of the jobs created by LIFE projects in the field of species conservation often have significant knock-on benefits. This is particularly so in rural areas where employment opportunities are commonly limited. We know that LIFE can help provide important jobs in the countryside and also it can show that looking after our natural resources can be a viable career path for young people in rural areas.”
“Furthermore, social dividends from LIFE actions are being achieved as our projects help to change people’s behaviour patterns and convert the perception of species that were formally considered problematic into symbolic icons of regional identity. For instance, species like the Iberian Imperial Eagle had in the past been considered a menace by land owners in Spain but now people are proud to have nesting Eagles on their farms. Similarly, the Brown Bear in Trentino Italy was once ostracised but it is now used as a marketing tool to attract visitors and its paw prints have even been used as the basis for company branding in the region. These types of economic benefits from nature conservation can be measured and we want to see more of these types of social dividends being integrated in LIFE proposals.”
Ecosystem services are another of the added value elements from LIFE that will contribute to the competitiveness of future project proposals. Strategic approaches to the provision and maintenance of ecosystem services at a territorial level are becoming increasingly significant for LIFE and Mr Salsi explains that, “We have welcomed the applications that were submitted in 2011 for methodologies which we have promoted regarding Prioritised Action Frameworks (PAF). These have their legal basis in Article 8 of the Habitats Directive and this year we have for the first time received proposals to use LIFE for helping to develop PAF approaches. This is extremely encouraging and it shows once again how LIFE can be effective for implementing very specific elements of EU Directives.”
PAF methods are based on the concept of a territorial plan that combines, integrates and coordinates sets of actions and measures which address nature conservation needs from a holistic and ecosystem service approach.
“We are still reviewing the proposals that have been submitted and we know now that beneficiaries are able to organise themselves to prepare such territorial approaches” says Mr Salsi who goes on to describe how, “Territorial planning will help overcome difficulties and inefficiencies in managing Natura sites using piece-meal techniques. LIFE co-finance can be used to set up a territorial plan for nature conservation in the same way that territorial plans exist for waste management, river basins, air quality or climate action. LIFE can help with the work involved to prepare a plan, which is an exception in itself because with other types of LIFE support most of the money needs to target more tangible types of habitat or species work.”
“Our promotion of PAF planning corresponds with our intention to focus a growing proportion of the future LIFE funds into integrated projects, which catalyse and mobilise large scale resources geared towards nature conservation outcomes. We want to see more of both of these types of proposals in the last two rounds of LIFE+. By providing funding in the final stages of LIFE+ for this type of preparatory actions, we are aiming to help pave the way for Member States to be ready, from 2014 onwards, for using LIFE more strategically in managing Natura 2000 as a coherent network.”
“Co-finance could be approved in 2012 for successful front runners in this priority area for LIFE. Beneficiaries might take up to 24 months to prepare their plans and so successful applicants should therefore be in a good position to start implementing PAF type approaches with the funds from the new LIFE regulation when it comes on stream in 2014.”
“We are currently reviewing 10 different territorial applications from seven Member States covering north, south, east, west and central Europe. In 2012 it would be good if this number of applications could double. Expectations and demands are rising and we are very glad that there are authorities out there with the political courage to make the commitment to strategic management of nature resources. The New LIFE regulation will be pushing in this direction and this will complement other efforts for more coordinated territorial developments like those through the Common Strategic Framework guiding the common agricultural policy and cohesion policy.”
“There is no doubt that, while retaining a capacity to accommodate traditional LIFE Nature projects, the future of the Programme post 2014 will increasingly focus more of its funding on integrated approaches. We will start slowly but as we move closer to 2020 the relative share of co-finance provided by ‘LIFE Biodiversity’, as it will be called in the next period, for integrated projects will grow. This is why we have been encouraging regions and countries to make use of the opportunities we have under LIFE+ in the final two calls to get ready to manage their Natura sites on territorial basis after 2013.”
