Wed, Nov 7, 2012
TEEB for Business Coalition launches in
Singapore
Founder board members left to right – Herman
Mulder, Jurgen Voegele, Dr Dorothy Maxwell,
Vivian Balakrishnan, Peter Bakker, Pavan
Sukhdev, Peter Seligmann, Tony Gourlay
Singapore, 7 November
2012 - International leaders from business,
government and non-governmental organizations
gathered in Singapore on Tuesday to launch
officially the new TEEB (The Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity) for Business
Coalition Headquarters, which aims to achieve
a shift in corporate behaviour to preserve
and enhance, rather than deplete, the earth’s
natural capital.
FURTHER RESOURCES
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
(TEEB)
The Coalition brings together global stakeholders
to study and standardize methods for natural
capital accounting to enable its valuation
and reporting in business. This is the business
application of the G8+5 and UNEP-supported
TEEB programme, led by Pavan Sukhdev, which
provides a compelling economic case for
the conservation of natural capital and
is a cornerstone of the Green Economy.
“The work of TEEB makes another sound case
for an inclusive Green Economy in the context
of sustainable development and poverty eradication,
and highlights an urgent need to integrate
the valuation of natural capital into business
practices in the vital private sector -
the Business Coalition aims to do exactly
that,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of the UN
Environment Programme.
The Coalition focuses
on global stakeholder engagement, focused
research and development of methods for
natural capital accounting. The Coalition’s
founding members have pioneered much of
the science and business case for natural
capital valuation and accounting, providing
a credible platform to take the business
application of this forward.
These existing activities
will be built on to ensure the necessary
stakeholders from business, government,
support organizations, academia and civil
society inform effective and pragmatic methods.
This will maximize uptake and enable the
transformative change that valuing natural
capital in business can bring.
“The invisibility of
corporate externalities is a root cause
of many errors of judgement across economics,
ecology and governance,” said Pavan Sukhdev,
Study Leader of TEEB, & UNEP Goodwill
Ambassador. “Solving this complex problem
is a crucial challenge for sustainability,
and it will need global collaboration and
research expertise of significant scale.
I am therefore delighted that so many leading
global institutions, who are represented
in this Coalition, are combining forces
to address this challenge.”
For businesses to be
viable in the long term, the ecosystems
and resources upon which they depend must
be maintained. Businesses rely on ecosystems
that provide critical provisioning services
(e.g. water and food) and regulatory services
(e.g. climate regulation, water purification,
flood management and waste treatment). However,
60 per cent of the world’s ecosystem services
have been degraded over the past 50 years.
Resource constraints
represent a significant business risk. This
is not only from the potential inability
to source the necessary inputs for products
but also from the threat of political and/or
regulatory intervention into operations.
Currently natural capital
is invisible in many business decisions
- most ecosystem services are environmental
externalities and not accounted for in market
economics. However, government and business
alike are recognizing the importance of
valuing natural capital.
Sarah Nolleth, Director
of The Prince of Wales’s Accounting for
Sustainability Project (A4S), said: "A4S
is delighted to be a founding member of
the TEEB for Business Coalition which is
leading the way to develop consensus around
ways for business to more effectively incorporate
natural capital into decision making and
accounting. This is an important step in
helping to reform the way that business
is done to reflect the reliance of our global
economy on the capital and services we get
from the environment."
Dr. Dorothy Maxwell
has been appointed as Director for TEEB
for Business Coalition. Dr. Maxwell joins
the Coalition with over 20 years professional
experience working in the environmental/
sustainability arena in business, government
and academia in the EU, USA and Asia Pacific.
The ceremony, held at
Burkhill Hall, Botanic Gardens, Singapore,
took place as part of the Responsible Business
Forum on Sustainable Development, which
presented practical ways to accelerate solutions
for a more sustainable world while increasing
business and industry growth.
+ More
New Constitution, Public
Opinion Give Kenya Unique Opportunity to
Reverse Deforestation that Costs Economy
US$70 Million Each Year
Wed, Nov 7, 2012
Natural Capital Can Serve as Vibrant Engine
for Sustainable Growth, Say Delegates at
National Dialogue on Water Towers, Forests
and Green Economy
Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director(4th
R) and Dalmas Otieno, Public Service Minister
of Kenya (3rd R) joined by other participants
at the closing of the National Dialogue
on Water Towers, Forests and Green Economy
Nairobi, 7 November
2012 - Kenya should seize a unique opportunity
provided by the new constitution and public
opinion to reverse deforestation in the
nation’s water towers, which deprives the
economy of almost six billion shillings
($US 70 million) annually and threatens
more than 70 per cent of the water supply,
delegates said at the end of a high-level
dialogue in Nairobi.
Over 200 delegates -
including key decision-makers, the private
sector, development partners, civil society
and international observers - spent three
days searching for a concrete way forward
to deal with an issue that a joint UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) and Kenya Forest Service
report issued on Monday revealed causes
major economic damage.
FURTHER RESOURCES
Deforestation Costing Kenyan Economy Millions
of Dollars Each Year
The Role and Contribution of Montane Forests
and Related Ecosystem Services to the Kenyan
Economy
Video News Release and B-Roll for Journalists
The Inclusive Wealth Report 2012
The Role and Contribution of Montane Forests
and Related Ecosystem Services to the Kenyan
Economy found that forests contribute to
a wide range of sectors, accounting for
3.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
compared to the current official figure
of 1.1 per cent.
The economic benefits
of forest ecosystem services are more than
four times higher than the short-term gains
of deforestation, but trees continued to
be felled due to a multiple and complex
reasons, including unregulated charcoal
production, livestock grazing and human
settlements.
Kenya’s new constitution
calls for an increase in forest cover to
ten per cent, which, coupled with an increasing
public demand to halt and reverse deforestation,
has the potential to trigger unprecedented
investment in the forest sector, the Dialogue’s
final outcome document said.
“Kenya has already signaled
its intent to build up this natural capital
as a vibrant and sustainable engine for
growth and prosperity,” said UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner. “There now exists a unique opportunity
to translate this pioneering and commendable
intention into implementation.”
“The outcomes of this
meeting provide an agenda for moving beyond
an era when forests were seen as unproductive
land that could be turned into something
more valuable by cutting down the trees,”
he added.
Sustained high-level
political support for and the involvement
of the private sector and local communities
are essential to bring about the transformation,
the Dialogue found.
Alongside the high-level
momentum, enabling conditions for better
management and private sector investment
- such as secure land tenure, good forest
governance and law enforcement - should
be established, through a clear and conducive
legal framework.
The Dialogue presented
a Five-Year Roadmap to success, which included
the following recommendations:
Implementation - Government
should strengthen the implementation and
enforcement of existing policies, which
can serve as the basis of sustainable management
of its water towers and forests.
Improved coordination and synergies - The
new constitutional limit on government departments
provides an opportunity to avoid multiple
policies, plans and strategies with overlapping
mandates, and should be seized.
Establish Payment for Ecosystem Services
schemes - These schemes for conserving mountain
forests and wetlands, which already exist
in countries such as Mexico, China and the
US, should be socially just, beneficial
for communities and land owners, and directly
support conservation.
Capture forest landscape restoration potential
- Deforestation costs the Kenyan economy
an estimated 5.8 billion KSh per year. The
potential return of restoring degraded forest
landscapes is therefore significant.
Develop a multi-source
investment portfolio - A public-private
partnership should be established to support
the development and employment of a multisource
investment portfolio for the sustainable
management and utilization of forest ecosystems.
Build on research -
Data for the critical role and economic
importance of forest ecosystems for Kenya’s
well-being must be up to date. Both water
availability and water quality must be kept
in view.
Promote participation,
education and training - Capacity building
should be offered to all stakeholders, including
communities. The crucial role of forest
ecosystem to economic and sectoral development
needs to be communicated widely to sectoral
ministries and institutions, private sector
and media. The Dialogue further called for
investment in the establishment of a vibrant
small- and middle-sized enterprise sector,
which delivers forest ecosystem services
and goods and related value addition.
“The Government of Kenya
has taken many steps over the last few years
to transform the management and utilization
of our water towers and forest ecosystems,”
said Hon. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of
Kenya. “These public sector steps, for example
the new Forest Act, are however just the
first steps on a path which leads to our
Vision 2030.
“I call upon communities,
landowners and the private sector to demand
and to push government for the proper implementation
of our policies and enactment of such enabling
conditions where investments in forests
are viable,” he added.
Mr. Steiner also presented
a new UNEP publication, Securing Water and
Land in the Tana Basin: a resource book
for water managers and practitioner, to
Minister of Public Works Dalmas Otieno.
The booklet documents
field-tested practical technologies from
other countries that can be replicated in
Kenya to help improve management of water
and land resources. Examples of the technologies
include bench terraces and tied ridges,
sand dams and subsurface dams, flood water
management, and improved agroforestry.
The Tana basin is crucial
for Kenya, with the river providing drinking
water, irrigation and power - with up to
64 per cent of Kenya’s hydropower deriving
from dams along the river. However, the
river has high siltation due to poor land
use and faces a deteriorating water shed.
About the National Dialogue
The high-level Dialogue
featured a number of distinguished personalities
including Hon. Noah Wekesa, Minister of
Forestry and Wildlife, Hon. Dalmas Otieno,
Minister of State In Charge of Public Service,
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the
United Nations Environment Programme, H.E.
Mr. Lodewijk Briët, Ambassador European
Union, and was held between 5-7 November,
2012, at UNEP’s Headquarters in Nairobi.
The Dialogue was held
as part of Kenya’s follow-up to the Rio+20
outcome “The Future we want” and as part
of the Government of Kenya’s efforts to
implement its Vision 2030 and environment
and forest policies. The Dialogue has received
funding from and was facilitated by the
UN-REDD Programme, a joint initiative of
UNEP, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the UN, and the UN Development Programme,
which provides support to over 40 countries
to implement efforts for reducing emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation.
