Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: A Manual for Assessment Practitioners

By Neville Ash, Hernán Blanco, Keisha Garcia and 4 more

Designed by a partnership of UN agencies, international scientific organizations, and development agencies, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is the most extensive study ever of the linkages between the world’s ecosystems and human well-being. The goal of the MA is to establish the scientific basis for actions needed to enhance the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being without undermining their long-term productivity. With contributions by more than 500 scientists from 70 countries, the MA has proven to be one of the most important conservation initiatives ever undertaken, and the ecosystem services paradigm on which it is based provides the standard for practice. This manual supplies the specific tools that practitioners of the paradigm need in order to extend their work into the future.  
 
The manual is a stand-alone “how to” guide to conducting assessments of the impacts on humans of ecosystem changes. In addition, assessment practitioners who are looking for guidance on particular aspects of the assessment process will find individual chapters of this manual to be useful in advancing their understanding of best practices in ecosystem assessment. The manual builds on the experiences and lessons learned from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment global and sub-global assessment initiatives, with chapters written by well-known participants in those initiatives. It also includes insights and experiences gained from a wider range of ecosystem service-focused assessment activities since the completion of the MA in 2005.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Island Press
• Release date: Jun 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781597269056

Book preview

1

Assessing Ecosystems, Ecosystem Services, and Human Well-being

Neville Ash, Karen Bennett, Walter Reid, Frances Irwin, Janet Ranganathan, Robert Scholes, Thomas P. Tomich, Claire Brown, Habiba Gitay, Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, and Marcus Lee

What is this chapter about?

This chapter provides an overview of the process and components of scientific assessments that have as their focus or include within their scope the connections between ecosystems and people. It introduces ecosystem services as the link between ecosystems and human well-being and therefore as the focus of assessing the consequences of ecosystem changes for people. The chapter introduces and highlights the relationship between the various components of assessment. In doing so, it provides an introduction and roadmap to the subsequent chapters of the manual.

1.1 Introduction

Section’s take-home messages

This manual can be used as a whole document, or individual chapters can help assessment practitioners who are looking for guidance on particular aspects of the process.

Assessments are not just about the findings. Getting the process right, from the early stages of design through to the communication of findings, is essential in order to have an impact.

This manual is a stand-alone how-to guide about conducting an assessment of the consequences of ecosystem change for people. However, the manual also relates closely to other recent publications, particularly Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers (WRI 2008), which presents methods for public-sector decision makers to use information on ecosystem services to strengthen economic and social development policies and strategies. This manual can be used as a whole document, or individual chapters can help assessment practitioners who are looking for guidance on particular aspects of the process. The manual builds on the experiences and lessons learned from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) global assessment and from over 30 ongoing or completed sub-global assessment initiatives at a range of scales, including local, national, and regional assessments. (See www.MAweb.org for further details on the MA and the various follow-up activities currently under way.) It also includes insight and experiences gained from a wider range of assessment activities focused on ecosystem services.

The chapter begins with an overview of such assessments—what they are and why they are useful—and then provides a summary of the step-by-step process for conducting an assessment. Drawing on both theory and best practice from the field and on a range of global and sub-global assessments, the chapter highlights the importance not just of the findings of an assessment but also of the process itself. Getting the process right, from the early stages of design through to the communication of findings, is essential in order to have an impact on the intended audience.

This manual has been written to support integrated ecosystem assessment practitioners. However, it is essential that the assessment practitioner also understand the decision-making context in which the study is being conducted and into which the findings may be taken on board. As such, the chapter concludes with a short section on how assessments can be considered in the context of the decision-making process and how the focus and impact of an assessment will depend on what stage an issue is in its policy life cycle.

Subsequent chapters in the manual elaborate on the material presented here and address key aspects of the assessment process: engaging stakeholders; developing and using a conceptual framework; conducting assessments of conditions and trends in ecosystems, their services, and human well-being; developing scenarios of change for ecosystems, their services, and human well-being; and assessing responses or interventions that aim to improve the management of ecosystems for people. Figure 1.1 outlines the main contents and layout of this manual, and shows how key sections of the manual relate.

1.2 How to improve decision making using ecosystem assessments

Section’s take-home messages

An ecosystem services assessment can help build a bridge between the development and environmental communities by providing credible and robust information on the links between ecosystem management and the attainment of economic and social goals.

As improvements are made in describing and valuing the benefits of ecosystem services, decision makers can better understand how their actions might change these services, consider the trade-offs among options, and choose policies that sustain the appropriate mix of services.

Successful assessments share three basic features: they are credible, legitimate, and relevant to decision makers’ needs.

People everywhere depend on ecosystems for their well-being. Ecosystems are the source of obvious necessities such as food and fresh water, but they also provide less obvious services such as flood protection, pollination, and the decomposition of organic waste. The natural world provides spiritual and recreational benefits as well. These and other benefits of the world’s ecosystems have supported the extraordinary growth and progress of human societies. Yet the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that the majority of ecosystem services are in a state of decline and can no longer be taken for granted. Ignoring the links between ecosystems and human well-being in public and private decision making puts at risk our ability to achieve long-term development goals. An assessment of ecosystem services provides the connection between environmental issues and people. Thus, decision makers—including those whose goals and actions are focused on people, society, and economics—can benefit from examining the extent to which achieving their goals depends on ecosystem services (see Table 1.1).

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Figure 1.1. Contents and layout of the manual.

Reconciling economic development and nature is challenging because they have traditionally been viewed in isolation or even in opposition, and the full extent of humanity’s dependence on nature’s benefits, or ecosystem services, is seldom taken into account by development or environmental communities. An ecosystem services assessment can help build a bridge between the development and environmental communities by providing credible and robust information on the links between ecosystem management and the attainment of economic and social goals. This can mean the difference between a successful strategy and one that fails because of an unexamined consequence, for example for a freshwater supply, an agricultural product, a sacred site, or another ecosystem service (see Box 1.1).

Table 1.1. Linking development goals and ecosystem services

Source: WRI 2008.

Undertaking an ecosystem services assessment and taking the findings into account in policies and action can improve the long-term outcome of decisions. As improvements are made in describing and valuing the benefits of ecosystem services, decision makers can better understand how their actions might change these services, consider the trade-offs among options, and choose policies that sustain the appropriate mix of services. A range of assessment initiatives in recent years have focused on various aspects of ecosystem services. Box 1.2 provides an overview of the main recent and ongoing global assessment initiatives; further resources and background information on ecosystem services can be found in the Additional Resources section at the end of this chapter.

An assessment of ecosystem services needs to consider both the ecosystems from which the services are derived and also the people who depend on and are affected by changes in the supply of services, thereby connecting environmental and development sectors. Assessments play numerous roles in the decision-making process, including responding to decision makers’ needs for information, highlighting trade-offs between decision options, and analyzing ecosystems to avoid unforeseen long-term consequences. They inform decisions through providing critical judgment of options and uncertainty and through synthesizing and communicating complex information on relevant issues. They are also of value through the process they involve, which engages and informs decision makers long before final assessment products are available.

Box 1.1. The trade-off between food and fuel

Global food prices have been on the rise since 2000; they rose nearly 50 percent in 2007 alone. The price of basic staples, such as corn, oilseed, wheat, and cassava, is predicted to increase 26–135 percent by 2020. The recent increase in the cost of grain-based staples, such as tortillas in Mexico, beef noodles in western China, and bread in the United States, has several causes, including the emerging consequence of the increase in bioenergy production.

Promoted as a clean, sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, industrial countries have set increasingly higher mandates for the use of bioenergy to combat global climate change. Efforts to meet the rapid increase in demand for bioenergy have led to a global competition for limited natural resources such as land and water. Experts predicted that 30 million extra tons of corn—half of the global grain stock—would be dedicated to ethanol production in 2008 in the United States. On average, the grain required to make enough ethanol to fill a large car is enough to feed a person for a whole year. Crops can be used as food or fuel; both are important ecosystem services provided by nature. As countries continue to target corn and other agricultural products as the future supply of fuel, however, less food becomes available and food prices increase worldwide.

While the potential benefits of bioenergy can range from lower greenhouse gas emissions (in some cases) to renewability and energy independence, there are often trade-offs across other ecosystem services as a result of increased biofuel production. In addition to decreased food supply, the possible trade-offs include water quality impacts associated with increases in aggregate fertilizer use, nutrient runoff and erosion, and in some cases an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Although the economic, social, and environmental effects of the recent biofuel push are not yet fully understood, many countries are rapidly expanding the area dedicated to these crops. It is in situations such as this that policy makers can benefit enormously from thorough assessments to determine options and better understand the consequences of their decisions.

Successful assessments share three basic features:

First, they are credible. Involving eminent and numerous scientists as authors and expert reviewers and ensuring that all reports undergo expert peer review will help to ensure credibility. Assessments should focus not only on what is known with certainty by the scientific community but also on what remains uncertain. The clarity that assessments have given to areas of real scientific uncertainty (such as climate change in the 1990s) has been just as important in guiding policy as the clarity they have provided where there is broad scientific agreement. Moreover, by identifying areas of scientific uncertainty that matter for policy decisions (e.g., the ability to predict thresholds of change in socioecological systems), assessments can also help stimulate more support for scientific research.

Box 1.2. Recent and ongoing international assessments that focus on ecosystem services

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, released in 2005, assessed the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. The MA consisted of a global assessment and 34 subglobal assessments to assess current knowledge on the consequences of ecosystem change for people. The MA brought about a new approach to assessment of ecosystems: a consensus of a large body of social and natural scientists, the focus on ecosystem services and their link to human well-being and development, and identification of emergent findings. The MA findings highlight the strain that human actions are placing on the rapidly depleting ecosystem services but also that appropriate action through policy and practice is possible. (www.MAweb.org)

International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development

The International Assessment of Agriculture Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), released in 2008, was an intergovernmental process that evaluated the relevance, quality, and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology (AKST) and the effectiveness of public- and private-sector policies as well as institutional arrangements in relation to AKST. The IAASTD consisted of a global assessment and five subglobal assessments using the same assessment framework, focusing on how hunger and poverty can be reduced while improving rural livelihoods and facilitating equitable, environmental, social, and economical sustainable development through different generations and increasing access to and use of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology. (www.agassessment.org)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fourth report (AR4) in 2007. The IPCC was established to provide decision makers with an objective source about climate change. Similar to the MA, the IPCC does not conduct any research or monitor specific data and parameters; it assesses the latest scientific, technical, and socioeconomic literature in an objective, open, and transparent manner. Ecosystem services are addressed in the fourth report of the IPCC by the reports of Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) and Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change). The findings of AR4 highlighted a number of overarching key issues in relation to ecosystems and the services they provide for climate mitigation and adaptation. Specifically, the report drew links between the loss of ecosystem services and the reduction of societal option for adaptation responses. (www.ipcc.ch)

Land Degradation Assessment of Drylands

The Land Degradation Assessment of Drylands (LADA) is an ongoing assessment that aims to assess causes, status, and impact of land degradation in drylands in order to improve decision making for sustainable development at local, national, subregional, and global levels. Currently the LADA is focusing on developing tools and identifying available data that will be required to discover status and trends, hotspots of degradation, and bright spots (where degradation has been slowed or reversed). (http://lada.virtualcentre.org/)

Global Environment Outlook

The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is the United Nations Environment Programme’s ongoing assessment of the environment globally. The fourth GEO was released in 2007 and consists of a global assessment and subglobal assessments. GEO-4 provides information for decision makers on environment, development, and human well-being.