Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty

1 May 2006

Can poverty be reduced through the sustainable management of ecosystems? This was the question posed last week at a conference organized jointly by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Hosted by the Danish Government in Copenhagen, the conference discussed the results of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as well incentives to use market based solutions and development assistance to reduce poverty through better management of ecosystems. The Conference was chaired by Kim Carstensen, Secretary General of WWF Denmark.

“The World Conservation Union has been a partner of Danida for many years in linking poverty eradication and sustainable management of natural resources”, said the Danish Minister of Development Cooperation, Ulla Tornaes, in her opening remarks.

IUCN Director General, Achim Steiner, said in his opening remarks that “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment had provided an unprecedented level of understanding of the environment”.

A number of case studies on managing ecosystems were presented during the day. Jan Bojo, Lead Economist at the World Bank spoke about payments for ecosystem services, while Howard Shapiro, Director, Plant Science and External Research at Mars Inc presented the business case for a sustainable cacao programme. Nephentes, a Danish NGO and IUCN member, presented its partnership with the Danish Coop on building capacity in Honduras for certifying and exporting wood products.

Jeff McNeely, IUCN’s Chief Scientist presented the main findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Environmental flows and restoring downstream ecosystem services, was presented by Ger Bergkamp, Head of IUCN’s Water Programme. Ibrahim Thiaw, IUCN’s Regional Director for West Africa, presented concrete examples of benefits for local people from ecosystem management and restoration in West Africa.

“The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment illustrates the link between Goal 7 on environmental sustainability and the other Millennium Development Goals”, stressed Minister Tornaes. “Without environmental sustainability we will find it very hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, education, gender equality, health, water, and sanitation.”

She added that “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment shows us that environmental sustainability is a necessity - not an option”.

For more information please contact:

World Conservation Union (IUCN) – Lucy Deram at lucy.deramiucn.org

Danida - Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen at anmacaum.dk