Growth in global economic output, driven in large part by the globalization of trade and investment, is putting increasing pressure on natural resources everywhere. The pace of economic globalization may be outstripping the capacity of local and national governments, and multilateral institutions,
to monitor and regulate markets in the public interest. IUCN will help by providing information and analytical tools for assessing the impacts of trade and investment flows on natural resource use, and by offering alternative policy proposals which can help ensure that global trade and finance support rather than undermine biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
IUCN will work to support full integration of biodiversity values into economic, trade and investment policies.
Thematic Priority Area - Greening the World Economy
Integrating ecosystem conservation values in economic policy, finance and markets.
Virtually all environmental problems have an economic component, and many are driven by market imperfections. While it is unrealistic to ever expect perfect markets, IUCN seeks to better inform market decisions, helping to ensure that the full impacts of economic decisions on ecosystems
are well understood (and quantified where possible). If decision makers are better informed about the full implications of their decisions, and the public is well informed about these implications, then economic policies are more likely to support sustainable development and the biodiversity upon which human well-being depends.
Today’s economies generally fail to support the sustainable management of ecosystems, primarily because the full value of biodiversity is not taken into account. Despite significant progress in many countries, much work remains to be done to widen and deepen the incorporation of environmental values and related livelihood concerns in economic policy, markets and finance, particularly with respect to biodiversity, intangible ecosystem services and poverty reduction. A related priority is to develop new sources of finance for biodiversity conservation, together with improved allocation mechanisms to ensure more cost-effective and more equitable conservation.
The challenge is not so much conceptual or technical as political, namely to persuade the public and policy makers that economic policies and markets can and should be reformed to support ecosystem conservation. The starting point is to build capacity within government agencies and private business to assess and reduce adverse environmental impacts. Further steps typically involve efforts to internalize environmental values in economic policy and markets through the use of economic incentives.
Global Result 5.1
Economic, trade and investment policies better integrate biodiversity values.
Global Result 5.2
Companies, industry associations and consumer groups incorporate ecosystem values into planning and action.
Modern economies consume vast quantities of energy and raw materials, and produce high volumes of wastes and polluting emissions. Emerging economies, especially China and India, will have a significant and increasing influence on biodiversity globally in the coming decades. Fuelling development in these economies will certainly involve exploitation of natural resources both domestically and globally. Impacts of this growth have already been felt within China, which is now expanding trade relationships with the rest of the world, in an effort to secure long-term supply of critical resources. At the other end of the scale, millions of small and medium-scale entrepreneurs and investors across the globe continue to rely on natural resources and ecosystem services for their livelihoods.
Continued globalization of capital markets and supply chains, combined with mounting regulatory pressure from governments and increasingly effective NGO campaigns, is likely to foster wider environmental awareness by companies throughout the world, and corporate social and environmental
responsibility strategies are one of the results of this growing awareness. The challenge for IUCN is to hasten this trend by mobilizing public and political opinion, strengthening government regulatory capacity and policy frameworks, and assisting companies and industry associations that demonstrate a real commitment to change in mainstreaming the environment in their wider activities.
IUCN will work to support full integration of biodiversity concerns and opportunities into business planning at all scales.
Products from the garden, Dabra_village, Mamberamo, Papua
Photo: Agni Boedhihartono / IUCN
