70289 A 20-YEAR JOURNEY TO GREEN THE WORLD’S ECONOMIES FROM RIO TO RIO A 20-YEAR JOURNEY TO GREEN THE WORLD’S ECONOMIES G L O B A L E N V I R O N M E N T FA C I L I T Y Credits Coordination Maryam Niamir-Fuller Lawrence Hislop, www.grida. Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca Claudia Ortiz no/photolib/detail/township- Jie Pan nearby-the-himalayas_76ce. Text Midori Paxton aspx: 4-5 Jonathan Adams Nhu Phan Maria Gabriela Pinto Istock: 55 Editing Danielius Pivoriunas John Diamond Frank Radstake Daniel Juhn: 30 Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca Ramesh Ramankutty Andrew Hume Walter Reid Frans Lanting: 10, 100 Lesley Richardson Graphic Design Eddy Russell Minden Pictures: xxvi, 22 Christian Hofer Nik Sekhran Patricia Hord.Graphik Design Christian Severin Nature Picture Library: 170 Junu Shrestha Printing Jean-Marc Sinnassamy Panos Pictures: 32, 37, 45, 47, Professional Graphics Ibrahima Sow 50, 59, 89, 90, 158, 167 Roland Sundstrom Contributors Hiroaki Takiguchi Reuters: 77 Chizuru Aoki Sekou Toure Paul Akiwumi Louis Léandre Shutterstock: iv, viii, xi, xiv, Ulrich Apel Ebobola Tsibah xxiii, 27, 28, 60-61, 72, 80, 102, Mohamed Bakarr Andrew Velthaus 105, 107, 109, 114-115, 118, Glynnis Barber Yoko Watanabe 132, 150, 152, 177, 179, 197, Mandy Barnett Ivan Zavadsky 200-201, 202, 208-209, 214 Pierre Célestin Bengono Mark Zimsky Bonizella Biagini Stock.XCHNG: 108 Tertius Carinus Photography Ana Marie Currea AGE stock photo: 17, 20, 130, Art Wolfe: 110, 162 Mame Diop 135, 138-139, 140, 142, 145, Yacout Yasmine Djellal 149, 190, 192 The World Bank: xvi, xx, 7, Saliha Dobardzic 8-9, 35, 38-39, 40, 42, 52, 57 Alfred Duda Associated Press: 49, 127, (top), 82, 87, 92, 95, 97 (top Robert K. Dixon 182, 185, 189, 198, 205 right), 117, 137, 155 (top & William Ehlers bottom right), 159, 169, 199 Ian Gray Danita Delimont: 160 Nicole Glineur Thomas Hammond GEF: xviii, 2, 12, 18-19, 25, 36, Andrew Hume 57 (bottom), 62, 65, 66, 68, 69, Franck Jesus 70, 75, 79, 85, 97, 119, 120, André Laperriere 122, 125, 126, 155 (bottom Thomas E. Lovejoy left), 165, 172, 174-175, 176, Claudio Maretti 180-181, 187, 195 Jessie Mee Rawleston Moore Getty images: vi, xii, xxiv, 15, Martha Mwandingi 29, 97 (top left), 98-99, 112, Helen Negret 129, 147, 157 © 2012 Global Environment Facility 1818 H Street NW Washington, DC 20433 Production Date: May 2012 Contents PRESENTATION v FOREWORD ix INTRODUCTION xix CHAPTER 1 THE ROOTS OF THE GREEN ECONOMY 3 CHAPTER 2 CHANGING THE PARADIGM IN THE CONGO BASIN 13 CHAPTER 3 FORESTS FOR LIFE 23 CHAPTER 4 VILLAGE POWER 33 CHAPTER 5 ENERGY EFFICIENCY, RENEWABLE ENERGY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE 43 CHAPTER 6 AS EASY, ALMOST, AS CHANGING A LIGHT BULB 53 CHAPTER 7 REVIVING THE DANUBE 63 CHAPTER 8 DEFUSING A TICKING TIME BOMB IN MOLDOVA 73 CHAPTER 9 SMALL GRANTS, BIG RESULTS 83 CHAPTER 10 FLOWER VALLEY 93 CHAPTER 11 NATIONAL PARKS AND THE NEW ECONOMY 103 CHAPTER 12 PROTECTED AREAS AND MORE IN THE AMAZON 113 CHAPTER 13 CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CORAL TRIANGLE 123 CHAPTER 14 THE BENGUELA CURRENT 133 CHAPTER 15 IN THE LAND OF THE PATAGONES 143 CHAPTER 16 BUILDING RESILIENCE IN NIGER 153 CHAPTER 17 INTEGRATED ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT IN CHINA 163 CHAPTER 18 AVERTING A HIMALAYAN TSUNAMI 173 CHAPTER 19 FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE WITH NEW REFRIGERATORS 183 CHAPTER 20 FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO DDT 193 CONCLUSION 203 ABOUT THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY 210 Kalahari Desert, Namibia P R E S E N TAT I O N Izabella Mônica Vieira Teixeira Minister of the Environment, Brazil The year 2012 marks the twentieth anniversary of the United developing countries to achieve the objectives set forth in Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which the aforementioned conventions. ushered in the cycle of major United Nations conferences that produced a lasting impact. This cycle of conferences From the outset, a solid partnership was forged between left their mark on the last decade through the international the GEF and Brazil. The Brazilian portfolio includes initia- agreements reached and the great legitimacy conferred tives related to biodiversity, climate change, land degra- on a series of principles, strategies, and programs related dation, international waters, and persistent organic pollut- to issues of key importance to humanity, such as human ants, among others. Under the umbrella of the current GEF rights, gender equality, combating racism and, most impor- System for the Transparent Allocation of Resources (STAR/ tantly, the promotion of sustainable development. The GEF-5), Brazilian projects focused on biodiversity, climate lasting impact mentioned above, which confers tremen- change, and land degradation, with benefits accruing to dous importance on the Earth Summit, was its ability to government entities, non-governmental organizations, and lay the legal and conceptual groundwork in Rio de Janeiro Brazilian civil society. Total contributions to Brazil stand at for a development model centered around three pillars of US$337,435,654, with an additional amount of nearly US$1 sustainability, which are enshrined in the Rio Declaration billion provided in the form of co-financing. and three conventions. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, continues While important partnerships have been forged with the this important historic legacy by outlining the path agreed GEF, the most sizeable GEF contributions to Brazil have been upon in the quest for solutions aimed at growth, inclusion, in the area of biodiversity. Brazil embraced the challenge of and protection. maintaining its legacy as the world’s biggest repository and provider of biodiversity and, with the assistance of the GEF, The creation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) sought new and additional financial resources to achieve was in line with the approach of joining forces in a bid to the objectives of conserving its biological resources and achieve a more sustainable environment, with emphasis on adopting measures to ensure their sustainable use. support for environmental projects. As a financing mech- anism for the three conventions arising from Rio 92, the For megadiverse developing countries, which are the main GEF has complemented the other mechanisms used by providers of genetic resources, international cooperation, Presentation v the commitments assumed under Rio 92 and the conven- tions bearing the name of this Brazilian city. In Brazil, the GEF has been a valuable partner in the execution of the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) Program, the biggest tropical forest conservation program in the world. And it includes objectives set forth in the three aforementioned conventions. Its activities cover 43 percent of the Amazon biome and play a decisive role in the conser- vation of forest areas, thereby contributing to biodiversity preservation and to reduced deforestation, and thus to lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Sixty-four federal and state conservation units (CUs) (32 million protected hectares) have been created or strengthened. Of this amount, the program supported the creation of 46 conservation units, with 14 being integral protection conservation units and 32, sustainable use conservation units. The program further assisted with the strengthening of 18 integral conservation units covering an area of 8.5 million hectares. The ARPA program is being implemented in three phases. Phase I ended in 2003 and Phase II is currently underway. During Phase I of the program, total contribu- tions amounted to close to US$115 million, with roughly US$79 million coming from direct and indirect investment by the Brazilian Government and donors, and nearly US$36 million from the Protected Areas Fund [Fundo de �reas Protegidas FAP]. The GEF contributed US$30 million to Phase I, US$14.5 million of which was allocated to the FAP and US$15.5 million, to direct investment in the conserva- tion units supported by the program. The GEF contribution to Phase II stands at US$15.89 million. The GEF is also providing assistance with such programs Brazilian Amazon as the Sustainable Cerrado Initiative, which has had a very positive impact on biodiversity conservation at this location, the second largest biome in Brazil. It recently approved including South-South cooperation, is of critical importance the Marine and Coastal Protected Areas Program and thus to efforts to move forward with biodiversity conservation directly strengthened Brazil’s program in the area of marine activities by helping mobilize the necessary financial, human, biodiversity, whose richness and importance parallel its and technical resources. In recent decades, the GEF has land ecosystems, through a contribution of over US$20 been providing assistance aimed at reducing the significant million, for which an additional US$70 million has already deficit in the implementation measures adopted by the been provided in the form of counterpart funding from the international community to address the challenges identi- business sector. This project includes components aimed fied, and has been striving to modify its structure to meet at expanding the system and designing income-generating vi From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies mechanisms for families that depend on the biodiversity patterns. Although much progress has been made since conservation units. 1992, we are now undoubtedly at a critical juncture and need to act with a sense of urgency to craft new economic Brazil is hoping to receive further assistance from the development models that allow for a significant reduction GEF, given the new projects already submitted such as the in greenhouse gas emissions, the reversal of biodiversity proposal to strengthen the National System of Conservation loss, and measures to combat desertification processes. Units [SNUCs] and restore the Paraíba do Sul River basin. In addition, Brazil is developing new initiatives and proposals I am confident that this quest to make our economies for submission to the GEF, in keeping with current alloca- more sustainable will receive international support and assis- tion projections for the country, and is considering further tance, and that this effort, so important for humanity as a rehabilitation efforts targeting land degradation, the imple- whole, can be waged the world over, without exception and mentation of benefit-sharing arrangements, and biosafety with a generosity of spirit driven by the vision of a shared actions. These projects strengthen the impact of Brazilian future. We must be cognizant that the role of international initiatives to adopt and achieve the Aichi targets, thus guar- cooperation in facilitating the implementation of global anteeing equitable economic growth and effectively reducing agreements remains critical and that the entities enabling the rates of biodiversity loss. such cooperation are key forces that collectively drive this transition process. Financing agencies and funds such as the Twenty years after the Earth Summit, we are meeting in GEF can and should support government actions aimed at Rio de Janeiro once more to forge new international agree- harmonizing policies that seek to leave present and future ments aimed at ensuring the sustainability of our planet. generations with a more sustainable planet. In this regard, We stand before a society that is more keenly aware of the the GEF can play a leading role by helping countries foster challenges to be addressed in order to make the neces- the changes sought to create a more just, united, and envi- sary transition to sustainable production and consumption ronmentally sustainable world. Born in Brasília, Brazil, Izabella Teixeira is a biologist and holds a Master’s Degree in Energy Planning and a Doctorate. in Environmental Planning at COPPE/UFRJ. She has also worked as a professor at MBA and at environmental courses in different universities — she is an expert in strategic environmental assessment. From 2007 to 2008, Izabella Teixeira was the Deputy-Secretary of the Environment at the State Government of Rio de Janeiro until she was nominated for the posi- tion of Deputy-Minister of the Environment in Brazil. In May 2010 she was appointed Minister of the Environment and in January 2011 she has been reappointed to that position by the new President of Brazil. Presentation vii Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa FOREWORD Monique Barbut CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility From the flanks of the Himalayas to the fringes of the must be handled with care. That is what we do, and as you Sahara, the earth’s environment is in constant motion. As read about some of the prime initiatives supported by the glacial ice recedes and droughts become more prevalent, GEF described in this book, perhaps the single most impor- people and wildlife thrive or struggle depending on how tant concept to keep in mind is that of leverage — the idea quickly and effectively they can adjust. Whether the natural of getting the absolute most out of limited resources up or the human-managed environment continues to sustain against truly formidable challenges. life and economic growth or whether overuse and waste of finite resources endangers it is one of the great questions This book is not what you have grown to expect if you are of our age. Virtually no place on earth today is free from familiar with technical reports by the Global Environment the effects of human activity, but this unprecedented domi- Facility. It takes a bird’s eye view to tell the story of the first nance of a single species over the biosphere gives us the 20 years of a global public fund, drawing on an illustrative power to shape our destiny. Happily, the linkage between sample of 20 initiatives that show the strength and breadth environmental stewardship and sustainable development of a portfolio consisting of 2,800 projects and nearly 14,000 is now much better understood by society. It’s not just that small grants, implemented in 168 developing countries and we can grow and thrive while protecting the environment countries with economies in transition. but that we can do so by protecting the environment. We conceived of this publication with the hope of making This is a long-term endeavor, one that has engaged the the GEF story better known to both insiders working on Global Environment Facility (GEF) for the past 20 years and will environmental issues and to those unfamiliar with this continue to do so for years to come. The projects supported unprecedented global experiment. Rather than summarize by the GEF and its 182 member states range from the ocean what you will learn from this collection of 20 GEF project depths to the highest mountain peaks. Like precious envi- accounts, in this foreword I will briefly offer a comple- ronmental resources, the precious financial resources the mentary perspective examining the evolution of the GEF GEF invests in the stewardship of the global public goods, from its origins as a global environmental fund addressing represented by a stable climate, by the continuous flow of the financial needs of parties to the Rio Conventions to vital ecosystem services, and by a functioning biosphere, its position today as a multi-thematic investment facility go a long way. Scarce as they are, these financial resources laying the seeds of sustainable development throughout Foreword ix the developing world. In this process, I will state how the cycle — meaning the set of steps that are needed to access GEF has spurred innovation across the international assis- funding from the GEF. tance arena. Dedication to continuous improvement of the facility The Global Environment Facility was created on the traces back to the outstanding contribution of Mohamed eve of the United Nations Conference on Environment T. El-Ashry, the first CEO of the GEF, in shaping a lot of and Development (UNCED), popularly known as the Earth what the GEF is today — an independent financial mech- Summit, or Rio 92, to provide the financial incentive that anism accountable to its donors and recipient countries. leverages change in developing nations when they incor- Mohamed had the vision during the first decade of the porate global environmental benefits into their traditional GEF to put in place the critical cornerstones on which the development efforts. To accomplish this, the GEF was to GEF network infrastructure now stands. He was followed become a multilateral instrument functioning as a partner- by Len Good, who successfully led the complex process of ship and a bridge between agencies in the United Nations introducing the first resource allocation framework in the system, the development banks and bilateral donors, and the GEF system, a key ingredient that helped to concentrate donor and recipient nations. The GEF was also mandated to resources where they are most needed to generate global play the role as a financial mechanism to the environmental environmental benefits, and to strengthen country owner- conventions born in and around Rio 92 — the Convention on ship over GEF-funded projects. Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United The GEF has been independently evaluated throughout Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). its existence. But it went even further in signaling the impor- Recently created multilateral funding mechanisms, such as tance of oversight by establishing an independent evaluation the Climate Investment Funds, the Adaptation Fund and office that reports directly to the GEF council. Each four-year others, have emulated the GEF network approach, attesting replenishment cycle of the GEF has been informed by an to the success of this cooperative model. Overall Performance Study. The first two studies focused mainly on the institutional development of the GEF and This approach enables participants to tap into the wealth how the organization responded to the guidance of the of skills and comparative advantages already present in the conventions; the third and fourth looked increasingly at system, without the need to recreate or duplicate existing results and impact. Independent studies have further capabilities. But as capacities have grown in developing influenced and enhanced this constant cycle of evaluation countries and the early investments taken root, it has become and reform. Furthermore, the GEF is the only multilateral clear that greater diversification is needed. Accordingly, funding mechanism to count with independent scientific the GEF is expanding the network to include other agen- advice that is provided to all projects that are submitted cies, in particular national entities. This new window for for funding. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel accessing resources has already become fully operational in (STAP), administratively supported by UNEP, consists of the Adaptation Fund, whose Secretariat is housed at the GEF. seven internationally recognized experts in all of the areas that the GEF invests, and who ensure that projects draw In an era of increasingly scarce financial resources, the on solid scientific precepts. world demands that the institutions it supports are well-run, constantly seeking to improve their operations, and capable Underlying this highly technical work is a basic under- of delivering on their promises. The GEF has witnessed standing that for a global institution to effectively address the cycles of dearth and plenty through its first 20 years environmental challenges, it must enjoy the confidence of of existence. But the demand for efficiency, effectiveness, the nations that sustain it. Improving performance not only accountability, burden sharing, delivery and transparency, makes the GEF more effective in its day-to-day work, it also has remained a constant. GEF reforms have succeeded in encourages member states to trust the GEF as a locus for decreasing secretariat costs and streamlining the project their efforts to improve the global environment. x From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Guilin, China Foreword xi In some cases, the improvements have been dramatic. Shifting ownership of project ideas and priorities to the For example, the GEF has cut the time that it takes for a recipient countries was another evolutionary path taken by project proposal to be approved from 66 months in its early the GEF. Through a number of key reforms, the balance has days down to a maximum of 18 months today. The GEF has shifted gradually but steadily towards countries. Through also begun tracking resource allocations against project and the first decade of operations, the GEF lacked a system to program outcomes to better understand the costs associated precisely assess needs and to distribute resources to devel- with achieving particular results. All projects must establish oping countries according to the potential for a project to a baseline prior to the start of implementation and report generate global environmental benefits. This limitation on a select set of indicators during the life of the projects. frequently prevented countries from setting their priorities In this manner, the GEF gains a stronger understanding for GEF investments. Reforms introduced in 2006 with the of how its resources have contributed to impacts on the Resource Allocation Framework (RAF) and in 2010 by its much ground. The GEF has been aggressive about controlling and improved successor, the System for Transparent Allocation of reducing administrative costs. In 2007, management costs Resources (STAR), rebalanced this equation. More recently, averaged between 15 and 18 percent of project budgets. resources provided by the GEF to be used in formulating their We have progressively reduced this threshold, which is now environmental priorities have given countries more control at 5 percent for projects above US$2 million. of how and for what purposes they utilize GEF funds. Rio de Janeiro: birthplace of the global environment Conventions xii From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies This shift toward country-driven projects represents a when introduced in 1994 and remains an innovation today. breakthrough in international development assistance. The To date, the Council has arrived at all its decisions through most recent batch of projects — what we call a Work Program consensus. But should consensus prove difficult to reach, — approved by the GEF council in November of 2011, flows the GEF has a provision for approving initiatives by what directly from these policies that turned the table in favor of might be called a double super-majority: an affirmative country-driven programming. The latest GEF Work Program vote representing both a 60 percent majority of the total surpasses its predecessors in being closely linked to the number of GEF member countries and a 60 percent majority development agendas of the recipient countries and solidly of contributions. This provides for balanced representation anchored on an existing baseline of development efforts. between developing and developed countries, and donors With nearly US$500 million in grants and US$4.5 billion in who contribute to the GEF. cofinancing, this batch of projects leverages resources at the extraordinary ratio of 1:9 — meaning nine dollars in The core theory of Rio 92 held that the international non-GEF funding for every one dollar of a GEF grant. Only development architecture needed a third pillar — the envi- five years ago, the ratio of GEF funding to cofinancing was ronment — to complement the economic and social pillars 1:4. You do the math: US$1 of GEF funding used to be erected to realize the goals of sustainable development. supplemented by US$4 of cofinancing , for a total of US$5 To add this third pillar, Rio 92 became the cradle of the Rio toward projects. Today, US$1 leverages US$9 in cofinancing, environmental conventions dealing with biodiversity, climate or US$10 total — in other words, a 100 percent increase in change and desertification, for which the GEF would be the total GEF financing and cofinancing. This significant shift funding mechanism. The GEF started as an environmental reflects growing confidence in the GEF and has helped fund in support of these three globally-agreed environmental establish it as a leading investment mechanism for devel- priorities, but did not remain confined to these silos, at least oping countries, providing donors and recipients alike with no more than the economic and social development pillars the highest returns in the interface between the environ- remained isolated from their environmental connections. ment and development. Over time the thematic diversification of the GEF has Over time, the GEF’s thematic mandate has grown to grown to become a key strength and a source of inno- span six focal areas: climate change mitigation, biodiversity, vation. This was accomplished by taking concrete steps land degradation, international waters, persistent organic to harmonize aid internally, after the fragmentation of its chemicals and the ozone layer. Today, it also incorporates funding lines dating back to its establishment. For example, investments in climate change adaptation by its manage- a discretely-funded Sustainable Forest Management/REDD+ ment of the UNFCCC-mandated Least Developed Country program now joins biodiversity, climate change mitigation Fund (LDCF) and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), and local livelihood objectives into more efficient projects together with serving as the Secretariat to the Adaptation and programs that stress the multiple benefits provided Fund. During the last replenishment of the trust fund, the by forests, as recognized by all three Rio Conventions. GEF put in practice what it had learned from investing in Likewise, the growing understanding that investments in forest management and conservation for multiple benefits natural resource management increase the resilience of through a specialized funding window on Sustainable Forest productive systems in face of climate change has prompted Management/REDD+, and last year it started hosting the the GEF to now combine resources from biodiversity and Nagoya Protocol Implementation Fund. The expansion in sustainable land management with those from the adap- the thematic reach and funding windows was supported tation funds it manages (LDCF and SSCF). and made possible by the pioneer structure that guides the governance of the GEF instrument. We have come full circle in our journey from Rio to Rio in the span of 20 years. The community of nations went The idea of governing the GEF through a representa- to Rio in 1992 with the conviction that the environment tive Council of member governments was an innovation was inextricably linked to development. Urgent action was Foreword xiii Ngala Private Game Reserve, South Africa xiv From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies needed at the planetary scale to address the widespread our planet’s life support systems requires more concerted loss of biodiversity, the rising threats posed by human- and integrated effort. Twenty years later, we have come to induced climate change, and increased insecurity faced realize that biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable land by hundreds of millions of people due to land degrada- management are integral parts of the same vital tissue that tion and desertification. We were successful in spurring supports the emergence of green economies as the basis action, but we also left Rio with a fragmented agenda, for lasting sustainable development. In my view, Rio+20 and both inside the environmental theme and between the its aftermath should take this premise as a central tenet of three pillars of development. The hands-on practice of the international development agenda. financing developing countries in the GEF progressively defied the artificial construct of the global accords and The chapters of this book focus on individual projects or that of its financial support base. programs, but I believe you will see as you read along that in many different ways, they are all connected. The GEF is at The lessons from the investments made by the GEF work in widely different places, and also at widely different described in this publication reveal how intertwined the scales, from individual farm plots to continent-wide chal- environmental, economic and social agendas are when put lenges. Integrating and leveraging local concerns, global to work in the real world. Experience has shown that while challenges, limited resources and ambitious goals amount some progress can be made via thematically-based inter- to what we are about. I hope this volume helps stimulate national accords, the multi-faceted nature of the threats to the interest and participation that are keys to our success. Foreword xv Wind turbine farm, Tunisia G EF has matured into a potentially powerful pathway towards sustainable development GEF is an innovative experiment in leveraging the mandates, expertise and structures of three major multilateral institutions — the UN Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme and the World Bank — and now includes more members of the UN system and Regional Development Banks seeking to integrate environmental goals into their regular programmes. Drawing in a wider partnership of development actors, both public and private, has contributed to mainstreaming of global environmental goals. The Partnership has weathered institutional stresses during its growth phase, especially as it adapted to the Paris Declaration and other global decisions for improving development aid, but its impact on the ground remains strong and significant. The Multilateral Partnership is critical for the GEF’s ability to remain relevant, transparent, efficient and effective. 20 years after the start of that experiment, and through the successive visions of three eminent CEOs, the GEF has matured into a potentially powerful pathway towards sustainable development. As the only GEF Implementing Agency whose core business is the environment, UNEP has supported the GEF at the strategic level, and enhanced its scientific rigor by hosting its Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, as well as assisted over 142 countries to access over $1 billion grant financing that has leverage a further $1.3 billion in co-financing. Since 2008, UNEP has led a collaborative process involving numerous organizations and individuals on the greening of economies, in a manner that is people- and planet-centered, promoting inclusive growth, the creation of decent jobs, leading to greater equity in the distribution of benefits and enhancement of social protection, and sustaining environmental resources and services. As the first case study in this book shows, GEF co-financing of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has played a catalytic role in this process, laying the foundation for countries to achieve the transition to green economies. In the coming decade, GEF and UNEP working together can contribute to achieving this vision. Jointly they can ensure a better alignment of global environmental policy-making with global environmental financing, and strengthen a global collaborative effort to secure sufficient, predictable and coherent funding for global environmental challenges. Achim Steiner UN Under Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Open air tannery, Bangladesh INTRODUCTION From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies On April 30 th, 1992, a Thursday, the footprint was estimated at 1.4 planet Earths. In other words, morning headlines described a world in by one reckoning, humanity is consuming ecological services faster than Earth can renew them. transition. The message could not be clearer: We need to rebal- Heavy fighting raged in Bosnia, despite attempts to nego- ance the goals of environment and development, and do so tiate a cease-fire. Kabul descended into chaos following the fall urgently. So the debate over what an alternative development of the Najibullah government, the last vestige of Soviet influ- path should look like, which began in earnest at the United ence in Afghanistan. Riots broke out across Los Angeles after Nations Conference on Environment and Development in a jury acquitted four white police officers in the video-taped Rio de Janeiro in 1992, continues to rage with undiminished beating of an African-American man named Rodney King. passion and relevance. But it is a debate that is shifting in the direction of a greater understanding that environmental Largely lost amid the news of war and riots, the United Nations protection and economic growth are not opposing ambi- Population Division issued a warning. After revising upward tions, they are, in fact, co-dependent. its forecasts for world population growth, the U.N. called for an immediate and sustained program to curb the expansion. The issues of sustainability, poverty eradication, food and It said such action was needed to reduce poverty and hunger energy security, climate change, and biodiversity conservation and to protect the earth’s natural resources. In April, 1992, the dominated the agenda at the first Rio conference. That they world population stood at approximately 5.5 billion. In the 20 remain high on the agenda now testifies not to a lack of prog- years since, the human population has grown by more than 25 ress but to the depths of the challenges those issues represent. percent and as of 2012 stood at just over 7 billion. The past two decades have seen significant achievements in some areas, though not always fast enough or of sufficient Over those two decades, as the population grew, so did scale to keep pace with global changes. Nevertheless, our an understanding that the development path laid out in the understanding of the causes of environmental and economic middle of the 20th Century was no longer sustainable. By ills, the links between them, and the shape of lasting solu- the first years of the 21st century, humanity’s total ecological tions has become far more sophisticated. Introduction xix In April, 1992, the terms routinely used today to describe change and biodiversity to be finalized in less than two and argue about the global environment were just being months in Rio de Janeiro, the financial burden on devel- coined. While negotiators were drafting what would become oping nations would only grow. A new and robust financing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, mechanism was clearly needed. ideas about CO2 emissions and rising sea levels were only beginning to enter the common parlance. “Biodiversity� The negotiators conferred that role upon the GEF, but was still a new word to most people, even as the Convention only after vigorous debate. Donor nations — the devel- on Biological Diversity was also nearing completion. Few oped country governments negotiating the biodiversity and people knew what “desertification� meant and fewer still climate change conventions — insisted that a modified GEF understood it as a looming problem that required inter- functionally independent of the World Bank was the only national action. option for helping developing countries meet their obliga- tions under the conventions. Unless the GEF was designated The U.N. warning about population growth was not the as the financing mechanism, they warned, there would be only global milestone to go largely unnoticed on April 30 th, no global environmental conventions signed at Rio. 1992. On that day, representatives of governments from the developed and developing worlds, meeting in Washington, Thus the fully-fledged GEF was born — in an atmosphere D.C., agreed to restructure a pilot program begun within the of debate and controversy but also of determination and World Bank the previous year called the Global Environment innovation. While the debates have continued since that Facility, or the GEF. With international treaties on climate spring of 1992, governments, businesses, and civil society xx From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies are converging towards a broad consensus regarding the can obscure more than they reveal. Had an interested but need to create green jobs and build a green economy untrained observer obtained and read a copy of the April — one that improves human well-being while protecting 1992 document creating the new GEF (such texts were hard the global commons by reducing environmental risks and to come by in those days before Google and instant access ecological scarcities. to information — no newspapers reported on it, there was no news conference or press release), they may have missed The defining feature of the GEF began to take shape in the most salient fact: The GEF was, and remains, an experi- the earliest days following the agreement on the restructured ment, something brand new in the way the governments organization. The central concern, then as now, was how to of the world manage our most vital shared resource, the assist developing countries in fulfilling their commitments Earth and its natural heritage. to the Rio Conventions to protect the global commons. This concern formed itself into a question: Where will the funding As with any experiment, or series of experiments, the come from when a developing country bears the costs for GEF has had successes and failures, and over the past environmental protection but the benefits accrue not just twenty years, through aggressive real-time evaluation of to the country but to the entire global community? From its projects, it has sought to learn from both. Today the this question came the idea of incremental costs, a unique GEF is the world’s leading public financial fund dedicated but often misunderstood feature of the GEF. A consensus to smart, environmentally sound choices that boost local arose that the GEF should fund the additional, or incremental economies and protect the planet. The GEF has invested costs associated with transforming a project with national almost US$10.5 billion, almost entirely in the form of grants, benefits into one with global environmental benefits. As augmented by about US$51 billion in co-financing, for 2,700 an example, choosing solar energy technology over coal projects in 165 developing countries and countries with or diesel fuel could meet the power generation needs of economies in transition, spanning 5 continents. the host nation, but the use of clean technology would cost more. GEF grants would cover the difference or “increment� Even such impressive figures tell less than the full story. between a less costly, more polluting option and a costlier, The compelling narrative of the GEF lies not in its history more environmentally friendly option. No other funding but in its potential for the future. The chapters that follow mechanism has taken on this challenge, and it remains a explore 20 projects from the first 20 years of the GEF, not vital part of global efforts for sustainable development. as a retrospective exercise but as an exploration of how the institution can continue to address global problems The participants in the GEF agreed in 1992 that the through tangible, local solutions and can help spread the Facility would fund incremental costs in four focal areas seeds of a new economy. — climate change mitigation, biodiversity, international waters, and ozone depletion — and would function as the To understand that potential one must understand and funding mechanism for global environmental conventions. appreciate the ongoing evolution of the GEF and its approaches The GEF was designed to be cost effective, consistent with to biodiversity conservation, development, sustainability, national priorities, and accountable for its activities. Uniquely climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation, as well, donor countries participate in GEF’s governing pollution control, and the myriad other areas of concern. body through their respective finance ministries rather The purpose of this book is to document that evolution by than through their representatives coming from sectoral exploring in detail some of the most salient experiences ministries such as agriculture or environment. This formula of the past two decades at the GEF. has helped ensure that the Facility is still running strong 20 years after its founding. The evolution of the GEF since its inception has not occurred in isolation, but rather as a result of its deep and These principles, set out in the cautious, process-oriented extensive connections to the worlds of international conser- language that complex international agreements demand, vation and development. The GEF is intertwined not only Introduction xxi with the two conventions that were signed at the first Rio to the idea that nearly all human activity depends on the conference, but the two that have followed since — the services such as flood protection and climate regulation that United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification nature provides. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment laid (UNCCD) and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent the foundation for the Green Economy, and helped shape Organic Pollutants — and the GEF is still the only financing the GEF’s evolution as well, particularly the need to deal facility to serve that role for multiple conventions. The GEF with ecosystems in an integrated way (see Chapter 2 on the is connected as well to ten agencies, 182 national govern- Congo Basin Programme and Chapter 10 on the Agulhas ments, hundreds of national ministries and departments, Biodiversity Initiative), and the need to consider people in and hundreds more NGOs. These multiple responsibilities all environmental projects. have created in the GEF a deep appreciation of the inter- relationship of various environmental sectors, the ways in The projects described here illustrate how GEF’s experi- which, for example, programs on climate change mitigation ence in the field has led to innovative approaches to working and biodiversity, or on international waters and reduction at multiple scales to provide multiple benefits to both people in pollutants, complement one another. and nature. For example, GEF’s program in Sustainable Forest Management (Chapter 3) works from local to global The evolution of the GEF mirrors that of the community levels to promote improved forest management to maintain it serves, across conventions and across sectors. This is the rich biodiversity, to protect carbon stocks by preventing story the following chapter will tell, not as chronology of deforestation, and to meet the pressing needs of forest- events but as the growth and application of a set of ideas dependent communities. The sophistication of that program about conservation and sustainable development, the move- is the result of the growing international recognition of the ment from general principles and global imperatives to importance of forests in the provision of various benefits specific and tangible projects with real impact on people’s (some 18 percent of all carbon emissions that contribute to lives and livelihoods. global warming come from deforestation), as well as years of experiments in the field. Some of those experiments, The story thus begins with the roots of our understanding such as those under the GEF Small Grants Programme, have of how profoundly human health and well being depend on been inexpensive and local, but they have made compel- healthy ecosystems, and of the limits to which we can exploit ling contributions nonetheless (Chapter 9). The GEF’s ability those systems before they collapse. That understanding has and mandate to work across scales gives it the potential to led to new ways of thinking about how to design and imple- continue developing new methods that fit global impera- ment both broad programs and focused national efforts. The tives as well as local realities. pattern can be seen across the GEF’s work in biodiversity, sustainable forestry, climate change, international waters, The GEF has long been committed to helping commu- and persistent organic pollutants: translating international nities and nations find their way to a low-carbon, resource consensus into fundable efforts. The examples here, drawn efficient future, as seen in energy efficiency and renew- from varied geographies and focal areas, work at various able energy projects like those in Bangladesh (Chapter 4), scales and reflect a commitment to proven strategies like China (Chapters 5 and 19), and Poland (Chapter 6). Perhaps protected areas and a willingness to test new approaches the clearest sign of the GEF’s evolution also relates to its to new challenges, such as land degradation, transboundary climate work. While the need to mitigate the causes of climate waters, and climate adaptation. change was apparent from the inception of the GEF, the urgency of adapting to its effects is far more recent. As the Throughout its history, the GEF has sought to address administrator of two climate adaptation funds, the Least environmental threats while improving human well-being and Developed Country Fund and the Special Climate Change social equity. The GEF was the prime financial driver behind Fund, the GEF has taken a lead role in helping countries the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Chapter 1), which promote conservation and development in the context of for the first time brought wide attention and solid evidence a changing climate (see Chapters 16 and 18). The GEF also xxii From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Perito Moreno glacier, Patagonia, Argentina Introduction xxiii Rio de Janeiro, Brazil xxiv From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies became the Secretariat of the newly created Adaptation Fund, The other constant in the GEF’s work has been the resourced by proceeds generated by the Clean Development recognition of the continued relevance and utility of the Mechanism of the Climate Change Convention — a market- protected area as a tool for biodiversity conservation (see driven offshoot of the climate negotiations. Chapters 11 and 12). Simply put, protected areas work. To every nation, protected areas represent the core of their Just as climate adaptation was not a concern for the national ecological infrastructure, and can even become GEF in 1992 but has become a significant focus of invest- local engines for sustainable development. As the GEF ment, so has land degradation grown in importance from continues to evolve, the challenge will be to strengthen being an operational objective in the GEF strategy to now the ability of governments and communities to identify representing a fully-fledged focal area. The Convention to protected areas in the broad landscape and understand Combat Desertification entered into force in 1996, and in what must be protected, what can be used, and how both 2002 the GEF’s mandate expanded to include efforts to can be done sustainably. fight land degradation. As in other focal areas, the GEF responded to a call for action with efforts that would Meeting that challenge will be possible only if the GEF be meaningful to particular people in particular places, and its partners continue to bring the best scientific thinking while demonstrating global benefits and offering impor- to the problem. This means more than gathering the most tant lessons that could be applied in many other contexts accurate data, though that is a component. It means grasping (see Chapters 15 and 17). the implications and potential of the GEF’s exploratory and experimental approach to addressing environmental chal- The GEF has responded to changing global priorities lenges. The GEF has become increasingly sophisticated over as well as local needs while adhering consistently to some its lifetime in assessing the results of its work, and it is now important elements of its approach. Working with limited prepared to take the next key step and move from hypothesis resources, the GEF must act as a catalyst by funding foun- to evidence. By gathering compelling evidence about the dational activities, demonstration activities, and investment. impact of its efforts and the complex interrelationships of The GEF’s work in International Waters in particular uses all conservation, development, land use, and climate change, three of these approaches explicitly (see Chapters 7 and 14), the GEF is positioned to catalyze far-reaching changes in but the need to catalyze and leverage public and private the actions of both individuals and governments. We hope engagement in conservation and development is inherent the following chapters will illustrate how far the GEF has in everything the GEF does. come over the past 20 years, and how far it still may go. Introduction xxv Green turtle, Atol das Rocas, Brazil T hrough twenty years of experiment and innovation, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has created working models of sustainable development that have shaped our attitudes toward environmental protection and economic growth. No longer are the goals of development and conservation viewed as mutually exclusive. In fact, through its willingness to try new approaches, to promote country-driven programming and market-based investment, to create partnerships among technical agencies, multilateral development banks, NGOs, and the private sector, the GEF has shown that the green economy can provide economic bene�ts comparable to or beyond those of conventional, unsustainable alternatives and standard philanthropic models. The twenty initiatives highlighted here are just a fraction of the 2,800 projects and 14,000 small grants awarded to 168 countries with emerging economies over twenty years. But they show the breadth of the GEF reach as an investment facility that has laid the ground work for sustainable development and forward-looking solutions to the challenges of food and energy security, climate change, sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation and the eradication of poverty. Edward Norton Actor / Filmmaker / UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity Thailand CHAPTER 1 The Roots of the Green Economy A saying among rural and indigenous purification and flood control. The report looks forward to vibrant agriculture and natural resources that improve and people in the Philippines goes like this: sustain human well-being in the Philippines. Para sa amin, ang langit ay lupa, meaning, “For us, paradise is our land.� The willingness of the Philippines to develop a plan that sees agriculture in this context and not as an entirely separate sector of the economy stems from an idea that now seems That neatly sums up how deeply interwoven the land, and obvious but less than a decade ago was rarely stated plainly: by extension agriculture, is with the culture of the country. Human well-being depends on the services that nature provides, One third of Filipinos are employed in farming, fisheries and those services are not free, or at the very least should and forestry, and these account for about 14 percent of the not always be free. This fundamental concept of ecosystem nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Agriculture is more services has now become part of the common language of than a mere economic consideration; in the Philippines, conservation and development, and much of the founda- many people base their judgments about the legitimacy tion for the new thinking was laid in 2005 with the release of the government on the scarcity or availability of rice. of the groundbreaking Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Given the national importance of agriculture, the govern- A precursor to the conceptual framework that inspired ment of the Philippines convened scientists, farmers, entre- the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to launch preneurs, government officials, and other stakeholders to its Green Economy Initiative, the Millennium Ecosystem develop a plan for the future of agriculture in the country. Assessment was a visionary and ambitious global effort to The result, called Philippine Agriculture 2020, envisions assess ecosystem change and analyze its effects on human a sector that will have a major role in reducing poverty, well-being. With early and crucial support from the GEF and achieving food security, global competitiveness, sustain- UNEP, more than 1,000 natural and social scientists from ability, justice, and peace. The aim is to do so in the broader about 100 countries contributed to the project. Philippine context of healthy ecosystems that support biodiversity Agriculture 2020 is just one example of the national efforts and provide many other important services, such as water built around the conceptual framework of the Millennium The Roots of the Green Economy 3 Ecosystem Assessment — fundamentally the idea that ecosys- tems and human well being are inextricably linked. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment presented the most compelling and scientifically justified case for linking ecosystem services to human well-being. In so doing, the Assessment made a major contribution to linking biodiver- sity conservation with poverty mitigation. This corrected a notable gap in the Millennium Development Goals. Adopted by the United Nations in 2000, the Goals have become a driving force behind international development assistance, setting out a path to address poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequity, education and sustainability — but they said little about biodiversity and ecosystems. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s emphasis on exploring trade-offs has also been welcomed as a more realistic basis for analysis and policy than the prevailing focus on ‘win-win’ solutions for conser- vation and development. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment produced conclu- sions on which most of the scientific world could agree — a notable achievement in itself. It did this by synthesizing existing knowledge across scientific disciplines and providing the first comprehensive global assessment of the status and trends of all the world’s major ecosystem services and the consequences of ecosystem change for human well being. The main finding was shocking, and captured the attention of world leaders: Nearly two-thirds of the world’s ecosystem ■ The degradation of ecosystem services is a barrier to services and their products are being degraded or used achieving Millennium Development Goals; unsustainably, including clean water, sustainable fisheries, ■ And reversing the degradation can be achieved in some air quality, and the regulation of regional and local climate, cases, but it will require significant changes in policy, natural hazards, and pests. institutions, and practices. The other main findings of the assessment were equally The significance of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s sobering: conceptual foundation and conclusions began to ripple through ■ In the past 50 years, humans have taxed ecosystems and governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and private enterprises their ability to provide food, water, timber, fiber and fuel almost immediately. Within a year, findings from the Assessment faster than ever before. This has caused a reduction in were incorporated into decisions and recommendations from the diversity of life on earth; both the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar ■ Though these changes have contributed to gains in human Convention on Wetlands. Ramsar’s Wise Use Guidelines, for well-being and economic development, the price has example, now emphasize the benefits and values of wetlands been degradation of many ecosystems and the exacer- for sediment and erosion control; flood control; maintenance bation of poverty. Unless addressed, the problems will of water quality and abatement of pollution; maintenance of diminish benefits for future generations; surface and underground water supply; support for fisheries, 4 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies N early two-thirds of the world’s ecosystem services and their products are being degraded or used unsustainably, including clean water, sustainable �sheries, air quality, and the regulation of regional and local climate, natural hazards, and pests. Agricultural settlement in the Himalayas grazing and agriculture; outdoor recreation and education the Assessment have been working in the years since its for human society; and climatic stability. completion to create the new U.N.-led Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services The inclusion of concepts and findings from the Millennium (IPBES). The IPBES will be the first ongoing global mecha- Ecosystem Assessment in the Convention on Biological nism recognized by both the scientific and policy commu- Diversity also translated into changes in the direction of the nities that synthesizes information for decision making in GEF, particularly the need to deal with ecosystems in an inte- the global environmental conventions, development policy grated way, and consider people in all environmental projects. dialogues, and elsewhere. IPBES will be the mechanism that The Biodiversity, International Waters, and Sustainable Land addresses the gaps in the science policy interface on biodi- Management focal areas of the GEF rely heavily on findings versity and ecosystem services and will improve the links from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and UNEP, the between emerging scientific knowledge and policy action World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program at multiple scales. (UNDP) have internalized findings from the Assessment as well. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment also reached beyond The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment began the long the traditional conservation and development communities process of strengthening the links between environmental by involving business in the assessment process to a greater science and international policy. Many of the key figures in degree than any comparable global effort, underscoring that The Roots of the Green Economy 5 ecosystem service considerations are important to businesses to value ecosystem services and biodiversity, but from the as well. Business stakeholders had seats on the Board of perspective of global policy makers. TEEB got its start in the Assessment, and the Assessment was particularly influ- 2007, when environment ministers from the governments ential at the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Formally the of the world’s leading and emerging economies, meeting in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., the bank incorporated the Potsdam, Germany, agreed to initiate the process of analyzing concept of ecosystem services in its environmental policy, the benefits and costs of biological diversity and biodiver- the first time that any firm in the financial sector explicitly sity conservation. recognized the threats to ecosystem services. In addition, the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council on TEEB relates biodiversity with ecosystems services and Sustainable Development built on the Millennium Ecosystem provides both a theoretical and an empirical framework for Assessment to create a methodology that helps corporations valuing them. The study also provides an economic analysis manage business risks and opportunities arising from their of factors affecting ecosystems and biodiversity, an impor- company’s dependence and impact on ecosystems. More tant step given the new evidence about the degradation of than 200 companies worldwide have now undertaken the ecosystems and biodiversity loss and the potential impact Corporate Ecosystem Services Review. of these losses on human welfare. The TEEB analysis is a key component of UNEP’s broader Green Economy Initiative. Despite the broad scope and sophisticated approach, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment inevitably left some The fundamental insights from TEEB have their roots in issues unaddressed. The Assessment’s guidelines and frame- the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which was the first work do not themselves provide the tools that planners and comprehensive effort to apply economic thinking to the use policy-makers need at local, regional, and national scales. of biodiversity and ecosystem services. With that as a foun- This is hardly surprising, given that no one has yet developed dation, TEEB has helped to clarify two critical points: why a full set of accounting tools that can measure the value of prosperity and poverty reduction depend on maintaining ecosystem services as accurately as those in use to measure the flow of benefits from ecosystems; and why successful the value of traditional economic goods and services. environmental protection needs to be grounded in sound economics, including explicit recognition, efficient allocation, The gaps in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment may and fair distribution of the costs and benefits of conservation turn out to be as important as its concrete findings and recom- and sustainable use of natural resources. mendations. Inspired by what was missing as well as what was present in the Assessment, scientists soon began inno- The analysis of TEEB builds on the Millennium Ecosystem vative efforts to take the next steps. One such effort is the Assessment and presents an approach that can help deci- Natural Capital Project, launched in 2006 as a joint venture sion makers recognize, demonstrate and where appropriate of Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, World capture the values of ecosystems and biodiversity. Valuation Wildlife Fund, and The Nature Conservancy. The National is not an end in itself but simply a tool to rethink economic Capital Project is developing tools for quantifying the values assumptions that led people to overlook — sometimes will- of natural capital, particularly a family of software-based tools fully, but more often out of necessity or ignorance — our for Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs, dependence on services from nature. or InVEST. InVEST enables decision-makers to quantify the importance of natural capital, to assess the tradeoffs associ- The World Bank is also taking up the challenge of reversing ated with alternative choices, and to integrate conservation the systemic under-valuation of ecosystem services first iden- and human development. tified in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as one of the main causes of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. Another effort building on the Millennium Ecosystem The Bank’s five-year global partnership on Wealth Accounting Assessment, The Economics and Ecosystems and Biodiversity and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) is an effort (TEEB) study led by UNEP, also takes on the question of how to make wealth accounting a reality in a number of countries. 6 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Santa Cruz Laguna, Philippines The Roots of the Green Economy 7 While the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, TEEB, and other efforts have made progress in the measurement and valuation of ecosystem services, and many agencies and organizations have undertaken case studies and demonstration projects, the challenge remains to engage Ministries of Finance and economic planning agencies in dialogue about implementing that progress in national accounting. To meet this challenge, ecosystem valuation has increas- ingly focused on ‘greening’ national income accounts. National income accounts are crucial because they constitute the primary source of information about the economy, such as GDP, and are widely used for assessment of economic performance and policy analysis in all countries. Thus, integrating the economic value of ecosystems into national income accounts is key to communicate its importance to Ministries of Finance, plan- ning agencies, and other key decision-makers. All of these innovative efforts stand on the intellectual and scientific foundation laid by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Few projects of its kind have been as effective in changing the way people from world leaders to on-the- ground field practitioners think about how to assess the value of nature and thus how to bring about lasting conservation and human development. Reports such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment are often doomed to gather dust on countless office shelves, mute testaments to nothing so much as good intentions. Such has not been the fate of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. In the Philippines and many other places, including, as described in the next chapter, the Congo Basin, the power of the findings and ideas keeps the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment fresh and relevant, with lasting impact on the way governments and institutions understand the relation- ship between conservation and development. 8 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Paddy �eld in Sri Lanka The Roots of the Green Economy 9 Water reservoir, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 10 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Daily, G.C., Kareiva, P.M., Polasky, S., Ricketts, T.H., and Tallis H. Perrings, C., A. Duraiappah, A. Larigauderie, and H. Mooney 2010. Mainstreaming Natural Capital into Decisions. In Natural 2011. The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Science-Policy Capital: Theory and Practice of Mapping Ecosystem Services, Interface. Science 331:1139-40 ed. P.M. Kareiva, H. Tallis, T.H. Ricketts, G.C. Daily, and S. Polasky. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ranganathan, Janet. 2011 Investing In Nature For Economic Growth. July 26, 2011. http://insights.wri.org/news/2011/07/ Hanson, C., J. Ranganathan, C. Iceland, and J. Finisdore. 2008. investing-nature-economic-growth-part-i-ii The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review. World Resources Institute. Reid, W. 2006. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Survey of Initial Impacts. http://www.watsoninstitute.org/ge/scenarios/ Liu, Jianguo, Shuxin Li, Zhiyun Ouyang, Christine Tam, and pubs/Reid%20Survey%20of%20Preliminary%20MA%20 Xiaodong Chen. 2008. Ecological and socioeconomic effects Impact%20-%202.pdf of China’s policies for ecosystem services. PNAS 105 (28): 9477- 9482 TEEB. 2010. Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature: A Synthesis of the Approach, Conclusions, and Recommendations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and of the TEEB — http://www.teebweb.org/Portals/25/TEEB%20 Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC. Synthesis/TEEB_SynthReport_09_2010_online.pdf http://www.maweb.org/en/Synthesis.aspx Wells, MP et al. 2006. Terminal Evaluation of the UNEP/GEF Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Living Beyond Our Project “Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.� UNEP Evaluation Means:Natural Assets and Human Well-Being. http://www. and Oversight Unit September. maweb.org/en/BoardStatement.aspx Yukuan, W. 2010. Mapping Ecosystem Function Conservation National Academy of Science and Technology. 2006. Philippine Areas to integrate ecosystem services into land use plans in Agriculture 2020. http://www.nast.ph/index.php?option=com_ Baoxing County, China. www.TEEBweb.org docman&task=cat_view&gid=55&Itemid=7 Ouyang Zhiyun. 2011. Ecological Function Conservation areas Identi�cation and Policy Applications in China. http://www. smithschool.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/290611- Zhiyun-Ouyang.pdf. The Roots of the Green Economy 11 Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic CHAPTER 2 Changing the Paradigm in the Congo Basin The city of Libreville, capital of Gabon, with roots in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Will the beneficiaries of an ecosystem service like clean water may be known for oil, but water makes be willing to pay those people who incur the opportunity it work. costs of conserving such a service? In local terms, will the people of Libreville, who benefit from the power and water The wealth from some of the largest oil reserves in Central provided by the Mbé River, pay the land users upstream Africa pays for the city’s skyscrapers, hotels, and lush neighbor- to adopt sustainable land management practices and thus hoods. Water, on the other hand, keeps the lights on. Water, preserve the city’s lifeline? that is, spinning the turbines of two dams on the Mbé River, about 100 kilometers northeast of the city center. About 60 Such payments for watershed services may show the people percent of the country’s population, many of whom missed of Gabon a new relationship between the economy and the out on the oil boom, lives in Libreville. The rapid growth of environment. In an interview with Africa News, the former the city has strained local infrastructure, and some poor resi- general director for the environment and nature protection dents who once had running water in their homes must now at the Ministry of Environment, said “We have to shift from wait in the streets with buckets to get water from hydrants. thinking about the environment in an economic context to thinking about the economy in an environmental context. For now, the problem is not too little water but rather We’re changing the paradigm.� how to deliver it while keeping it affordable for even the poorest families. Solving that problem will require innovative The Mbé River watershed, a key region both biologically and broad-scale thinking, and Gabon may provide an ideal and economically, begins in the mountains near Gabon’s place to test new approaches for conservation and develop- border with Equatorial Guinea and encompasses about ment efforts in the Congo Basin, home to one of the world’s 160,000 hectares. This globally important region is among largest and best preserved tropical rain forests. the most biologically diverse in Africa, rich in species, many of which exist nowhere else on Earth. The diversity The Mbé River watershed presents an ideal opportunity of the Mbé River watershed stems in part from its unusual to test an intriguing and increasingly popular question, one topography: Huge, rocky outcrops called inselbergs loom Changing the Paradigm in the Congo Basin 13 above the forest canopy, each one an island in a sea of trees T that harbors its own distinct plants and animals. Further increasing diversity, the region receives up to 2,000 milli- meters of rain per year, making it one of the wettest places on the continent. he sustainable The Mbé watershed straddles two biogeographic regions, with mountainous coastal forests to the west and lower-lying management forests stretching eastward into the center of the Congo Basin. The combination of location, climate, and topography has and protection of the natural isolated the landscape and ensured habitat stability throughout the last ice-age, when most forests of the region dried out capital assets of the Congo Basin and became savannahs. As a result of its long period of isolation and stability, the Mbé River watershed is one of will eventually bene�t more the oldest forests in all of Africa, and it harbors a unique than 25 million people assemblage of species. whose livelihoods depend About a third of the Mbé River watershed falls within Monts de Cristal National Park. Outside the park, however, mining on the forest ecosystems. and forest concessions, along with villages and small scale farming could threaten the forests and ecosystem services. For now at least, the most important economic resource is the river itself. The Mbé feeds two dams, with a total output of nearly 130 megawatts, and a pipeline brings drinking water from the Mbé into Libreville. Neither the dams nor the drinking water will last unless the entire watershed remains intact; loss of forest cover could lead to erosion and siltation that could eventually shut off both the power and the water. Despite fragile and erosion- prone soils, especially on steep slopes and near rivers, not and increase sediment load in rivers, which harms both the one of the four logging concessions in the watershed abides hydroelectric dams and aquatic biodiversity. by internationally-recognized sustainable forestry standards that could help prevent sedimentation and protect water Traveling along the main road that runs from Libreville to quality. The companies cite notably high start-up costs as the city of Medouneu on the border the Equatorial Guinea the reason for their unwillingness to adopt such practices. reveals another potential threat to the Mbé. The road runs along the western edge of the watershed, and small towns Mining presents similar risks, though the mining industry is and villages dot the roadway. The residents have made small less developed than logging in the Mbé River watershed. The clearings for their manioc, bananas, pineapple, peanuts, and Mountains of Monts de Cristal contain rich mineral deposits yams. The road, however, provides the promise of access — gold, diamonds, iron and platinum. Two exploratory mining to urban markets, and with it the risk that the small-scale permits for iron and platinum cover the entire watershed, agriculture will become commercial, leading to deforesta- and artisanal gold miners work in the region as well. Mining tion. Deforestation rates in Gabon are among the lowest in activity can threaten biodiversity and watershed ecosystem Central Africa but could increase if the population or the services; gold mining in particular can cause mercury pollution demand for food rises. 14 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Yaounde, Cameroon Changing the Paradigm in the Congo Basin 15 The people and the business interests in the Mbé water- Recognizing the considerable challenges ahead to maintain shed thus have great incentive to exploit the resource of the ecological integrity and resilience of its forest ecosys- the area as fully as possible, while the residents of Libreville tems, countries across the Congo Basin have jointly taken and the utility company that owns the dams and the pipe- important steps to address the threats. In 1999, heads of line, will suffer the consequences if such exploitation leads state from Central Africa signed the Yaoundé Declaration, in to long-term damage to the river. Payments for watershed which they announced their commitment to forest conserva- ecosystem services may thus make perfect sense here. tion in the region. In 2005, the countries ratified the Central African Forest Commission Treaty, and the commission is The idea of such payments for watershed services has now the regional authority for orientation, decision making, generated considerable interest, particularly in Latin America. and coordination of subregional actions and initiatives for The idea is still novel in the Congo Basin, even though the the conservation and sustainable management of forest region holds enormous potential for hydroelectricity, perhaps ecosystems. Ten countries of the Congo Basin — Burundi, as much as one-sixth of the global total. The GEF, the govern- Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, ment of Gabon, UNDP, and the Wildlife Conservation Society Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, are working on a pioneer project to test whether a payment and São Tomé and Principe — have developed a shared scheme can be an effective way to secure environmental vision and a 10-year plan of action on forestry, called the friendly behavior of upstream land users. Convergence Plan, backed by strong, high-level political will and commitment. The Mbé River watershed is an excellent site for a pilot project of this sort, given that the hydroelectric power utility To support this commitment, the GEF launched the is an obvious buyer of the watershed ecosystem services. Strategic Program for Sustainable Forest management in Unlike carbon or biodiversity, the watershed services of the Congo basin in February, 2008. The Strategic Program the Mbé are tangible and there is an equally obvious local seeks to reverse the current rate of deforestation and degra- beneficiary. With GEF support to the start up costs, the dation of ecosystems, maintain ecosystem functioning, and parties are designing a contractual payment scheme which conserve ecosystem values such as the biodiversity and ensures that the quantity and quality of water provided by carbon-based capital of the Basin. the watershed is maintained. In exchange, Monts de Cristal National Park, management bodies, local communities, and The Strategic Program helps countries in the Basin meet other stakeholders will receive financial resources to invest their conservation and development targets and coordinates in management activities that lead to further protection of the many regional, national, and local initiatives already this valuable resource. underway. The program also plays an important role in bridging the current gaps between political commitment This initiative is exciting, with all the potential ingredi- and institutional weakness and the lack of stakeholder partici- ents for success. It is also daunting, due to the number of pation in on-the-ground implementation. stakeholders with multiple interests, including ministries, the Monts de Cristal National Park, local authorities, mining and The Strategic Program has three main components: logging concessionaires, and local communities. The utility ■ Maintaining ecosystem functions and values, especially company needs to understand the link between deforesta- biodiversity and carbon-based capital, in the regional tion and sedimentation. Similarly, local populations currently network of protected areas cause relatively little land degradation, making it difficult ■ Fostering sustainable management and use of forest and to determine what harmful activities they could be paid to water resources in the larger productive landscape of stop doing. Finally, if the utility company, the main buyer the Congo Basin of ecosystem services in this model, passes on some or all ■ And strengthening the policy, regulatory, institutional, of the cost to its customers — electricity and water users and sustainable financing framework for sustainable in Libreville — then support for the idea could evaporate. ecosystem management. 16 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Southeast Cameroon, Africa Changing the Paradigm in the Congo Basin 17 The Strategic Program has identified 13 projects, including the Mbé River watershed project, that reflect strong partner- ships among Central African countries, their institutions, and other partners such as GEF agencies, cooperating agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and civil society. The sustainable management and protection of the natural capital assets of the Congo Basin will eventually benefit more than 25 million people whose livelihoods depend on the forest ecosystems. A growing number of multilateral development organi- zations and international agencies are now using this kind of programmatic approach to support developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The GEF has long been committed to a programmatic approach, based on the principle that the institution’s focus should be on programs rather than just simply individual projects. The GEF programmatic approach enables countries to achieve mean- ingful impacts by strengthening country ownership, promoting integration of global environmental concerns into decision making, and increasing opportunities for cofinancing from a variety of other sources. This philosophy is based on the recognition that project- based activities provide recipient countries with little leverage to influence sector-wide transformations, while a program- matic approach is more likely to deliver synergistic results that benefit all. A broad range of activities are already underway in the Congo Basin, promising better conservation of forests and showing the potential to provide multiple benefits to the people of the region while protecting the ecosystem services on which they depend. 18 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Congo River Basin Changing the Paradigm in the Congo Basin 19 Cameroon, Africa 20 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Burgess et al. 2004. Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Schefuss, E., Schouten, S., Jansen, J. & Sinninghe-Damsté, J., Madagascar: A Conservation Assessment. Island Press: (2003). African vegetation controlled by tropical sea surface Washington, DC. temperatures in the mid-Pleistocene period. Nature, 422, 418- 421. Connolly, C. 2009 Challenges to Establishing Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in Gabon: A Case Study of the Mbé Sunderland, T., G. Walters & Y. IsseMbé. 2004. A preliminary River Basin Report prepared for WCS TransLinks Program WCS vegetation assessment of the Mbé National Park, Monts de Gabon Program Wildlife Conservation Society. August Cristal, Gabon. A report for the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). InfoPlus Gabon. 2009. Can Libreville’s Electricity Users Save Gabon’s Mbé Watershed? Africa News, October 11, 2009 UNDP Sustainable Management of the Mbé River Forested Watershed through the Development of a Payments for Leal, M.E. 2009. The past protecting the future, locating Ecosystem Services (PES) Mechanism. Undated Project climatically stable forest in West and Central Africa. International Document. Journal for Climate Change Strategies & Management,1, 92-99. Changing the Paradigm in the Congo Basin 21 Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda CHAPTER 3 Forests for Life Ask just about anyone who has thought Yet, as the work in the Mbé River demonstrates, the impor- tance of forests extends far beyond their role in seques- about global climate change to name tering carbon and regulating the global climate. Biodiversity, where most greenhouse gases come from economic progress, and human well being also depend on and like as not they will respond, correctly, healthy forests. Forests regulate water cycles and provide habitats for biodiversity while hosting a wide variety of genetic with energy production and industry. resources. More than two billion people use wood for cooking, heating, and food preservation. The UN Food and Agriculture Together, those obvious culprits account for nearly half of Organization (FAO) estimated that the forest industry contrib- the global total of greenhouse gases. Ask for the next biggest uted approximately US$468 billion to global GDP in 2006. source, however, and most people will likely be stumped. The answer is deforestation. More than all the cars, trucks, Forests also provide an essential source of cash, especially buses, trains, and boats on Earth, more than all the indus- during poor harvests. In many countries, non-timber forest trial-scale agribusiness, more than all the construction, the products — such as fruits, nuts, honey, mushrooms, bushmeat, loss of forests produces almost one-fifth of annual global plant products, medicine, aromatic products, and exudates greenhouse gas emissions. such as lacquer — play important roles in local economies and livelihoods, and are important exports. According to Forests such as those in the Congo Basin and else- the FAO, the value of these products extracted from forests where contain an estimated 80 percent of the above-ground worldwide amounted to at least US$18.5 billion in 2005. and 40 percent of below-ground terrestrial carbon, and currently hold more carbon than earth’s atmosphere. The The challenge for the GEF and its partners is to find new role of forests as important carbon reservoirs has gained ways to deliver multiple benefits — biodiversity, carbon remarkable attention in the global climate change discus- sequestration, and human well-being — and to achieve sion over the past several years. Today the consensus is broader and more meaningful impact on these vital ecosys- that meeting emission reduction targets will be impossible tems. Those benefits can overlap, but knowing where that without including forestry. happens and under what conditions requires taking a broad Forests for Life 23 view. As the financial mechanism for not only the global and smaller parcels become degraded and ultimately disap- climate convention but the biodiversity and desertification pear, converted into pasture or farmland. conventions as well, the GEF is uniquely positioned to bring the often disjointed policies and funding sources together. One way to approach the problem is the concept of Sustainable Forest Management, or SFM. According to the The need for innovative and broad-scale thinking is clear. United Nations Forum on Forests, SFM is a dynamic concept Each year, rapidly growing human populations press deeper that seeks to maintain and enhance the economic, social, and deeper into forest frontiers in search of land for farming and environmental values of forests, for the benefit of both and grazing. The problem is particularly severe in the tropics, present and future generations. SFM is of particular interest which account for approximately 90 percent of total green- in densely populated areas and places where many people house gas emissions from deforestation. The process feeds a heavily depend on forests for their income, because it allows downward spiral. As forests become fragmented, the smaller the use of a wide range of forest products while addressing the pressure on forest resources. Many developing countries lack the capacity to efficiently implement SFM on a larger scale in part because deforesta- tion has, until recently, received little attention compared to T the other causes of climate change. That began to change in 2005 when the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change acknowledged that reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, or REDD, plays he challenge for the a vital role in a comprehensive strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. SFM, including forest conserva- GEF and its partners is tion, is a relatively inexpensive and effective tool for miti- gating climate change. to �nd new ways to deliver multiple Since the idea of REDD was first introduced it has been bene�ts — biodiversity, carbon broadened to include conservation, sustainable manage- sequestration, and human well-being ment of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, and is now called REDD Plus, most often spelled as REDD+. — and to achieve broader and more The possibility of using carbon markets to direct significant financial resources from developed countries to developing meaningful impact on these vital countries for forest conservation — a fundamental compo- nent of REDD+ — has generated widespread interest and ecosystems. dramatically raised the profile of the role of forests not only in regulating the global climate but also as an important part of the move towards a green economy. In recognition of these varied services, in 2007 the GEF began to broaden its SFM efforts. The new approach was based in part on the understanding that SFM applies at a variety of scales, from local to regional to global, and that working across all these scales will be vital to integrating forests into economic decisions. 24 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies SGP project, Soche Mountains, Malawi Forests for Life 25 Add up all the goods and services that forests provide Soche Mountain Forest Reserve after years of degradation and their value alive vastly outweighs their value cut into logs, and neglect. The project helps people near the mountain crushed into pulp, or burned into charcoal. Addressing the develop community-based action plans. Activities include importance of metrics in environmental endeavors, econo- re-establishing forest cover on Soche Mountain, and applying mists can calculate with reasonable accuracy the value of good agricultural practices on farmland just below the moun- some of the benefits from forests, particularly in regulating tain, such as tree planting, promoting natural regeneration of climate, sustaining freshwater and coastal fisheries, preventing endemic vegetation, soil and water conservation practices, erosion, and maintaining water supplies. Forests also have and capacity building. important intangible benefits — social, cultural, aesthetic, even religious — that have no price in the market but are Four communities joined together to form the Friends of hugely important locally and globally. What is clear is that Soche Mountain and planted a total of 46,000 trees. More forests deliver a range of services, and it is the package of than a third of the deforested area has been rehabilitated. ecosystem services, not just tons of carbon, that need to Communities have established communal woodlots and now be considered. practice sustainable land management techniques in their own fields and homesteads. By working with community Unfortunately, existing economic systems cannot adequately leaders the project persuaded farmers to stop cultivating value forests. Markets fail because they usually do not account the mountain slopes. for what economists call externalities: the damage to water- sheds that deforestation can cause, the diminished crop The project has also demonstrated that community conser- yields due to erosion, the decline in health because of the vation can bring additional benefits. One chapter of Friends lack of clean water, and so on. The people who live near and of Soche Mountain supported an effort to provide potable depend on the forests bear those costs. Without a green water from a source on the mountain for use by communi- economy that values ecosystem services, this burden will ties. As a result, over 250 households now have access to continue to grow and sustainable forest use will remain a safe drinking water, after chlorination and basic treatment challenge rather than an achievement. for sedimentation. A GEF-funded project in Malawi illustrates all of these As Maynard Nyirenda, Director of the NGO working on Soche trends, as well as some possible solutions. The project Mountain, recalls, “We came to support community conserva- reveals at a fine scale how forests, forest conservation, and tion efforts on Soche Mountain without plans to address the rural development can be part of a low-carbon future. The water problem. However, through a lengthy dialogue process, Soche Mountain Forest Reserve sits at the edge of the city of community leaders insisted that if we wanted to succeed we Blantyre, in southern Malawi. Due to the increasing demand must provide a solution to the community’s greatest need from the city for forest products, the reserve has lately — safe drinking water and that everything would then be seen accelerated degradation. Biomass-based enterprises, under control — they were right!� such as fuel wood and timber extraction, beer brewing, and brick making, have proliferated in the area, leading to Building the capacity of both government authorities deforestation. People in search of agricultural land have and local communities to participate in sustainable forest cleared trees from the slopes of the Soche Mountain, but management and REDD+ projects is an important element the communities cultivating the slopes lack both technical in developing acceptable solutions. Another GEF-funded and material support to integrate sound conservation and project aims to improve the African countries’ knowledge of agronomic practices into their farming systems. and capacity for REDD+ issues, and to help them to articu- late this new concept within the broader agenda of sustain- The GEF Small Grants Programme in Malawi supports able forest management. The project is building capacities the Soche Mountain Land Care Extension Project, a multi- for measurement and monitoring of carbon stocks through pronged community effort to restore the ecosystem of the various types of technical assistance. 26 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Samui waterfall in Thailand Forests for Life 27 Amboseli National Park, Kenya An important element of this project was a 10-day South- Inspired by the Brazilian forest monitoring system called South exchange (direct collaboration between developing TerraAmazon, the new TerraCongo system will allow the DRC countries) on community forestry and REDD+ which took to monitor the performance of REDD+-plus demonstration place in Brazil with participants from six African countries. activities and initiatives, deforestation in protected areas, The exchange helped countries to understand the role that and logging concessions, as well as national policies and community forestry can play in their national REDD+ strat- measures in the forestry sector. The system is integrating the egies. The activity brought together participants from the information coming from the National REDD+-plus Registry Central African Republic, Cameroon, Democratic Republic into a single visualization interface, thus promoting trans- of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar and the Republic of Congo parency and coordination between the various initiatives to exchange experiences on community forestry and REDD+ underway on the ground. with various Brazilian counterparts, including federal and state governments, the private sector, civil society, and indigenous Efforts in Malawi, the DRC, and the Congo Basin more people’s organizations. broadly are just a few examples of GEF innovation in financing projects and programs that seek to generate multiple benefits A key feature is of this exchange is the training of African from forests. This experience will help ensure that strategies personnel on lower cost forest monitoring techniques perfected such as REDD+-plus address ecosystem services, biodiversity, by Brazil’s space institute, INPE. The idea is to provide a combi- and local people as well as the carbon that forests contain. The nation of open-source data, tools, and algorithms that can be increasing awareness of forests and their potential to mitigate adjusted to specific country needs for Geographical Information climate change provides a historic opportunity to counteract Systems (GIS), image processing, database management, environmental degradation while directly promoting sustain- and data access. At the UN Climate Conference in Durban, able development. The potential to address both climate South Africa, in December 2011, the Democratic Republic change and rural development in a variety of contexts has of Congo (DRC) unveiled a new forest monitoring system been central to the GEF’s efforts over the past two decades developed through the exchanges with INPE. and will be increasingly important for the next two as well. 28 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Gabon, Congo Basin Forests for Life 29 Border of the Tai National Park, Ivory Coast 30 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources FAO. State of the World’s Forests 2007. http://www.fao.org/ WWF and Heinrich Boell Foundation, 2008. New Finance for docrep/009/a0773e/a0773e00.HTM Climate Change and the Environment. Eds.: G. Porter, N. Bird, N. Kaur and L. Peskett. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/ FAO. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005. ftp://ftp.fao. ifa_report.pdf org/docrep/fao/008/A0400E/A0400E00.pdf Fonseca, G. A. B. et al. 2007. No Forest Left Behind. PLoS GEF. A New Climate for Forests BIOLOGY 5, Issue 8 e216. http://0-biology.plosjournals. org.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/perlserv/?request=get- UNEP. 2011. Forests in a Green Economy. A Synthesis. http:// document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050216&ct=1 www.unep.org/pdf/PressReleases/UNEP-ForestsGreenEco- basse_def_version_normale.pdf UNEP. 2011. Toward a Green Economy — Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. Available at: http://www.unep. org/greeneconomy/ Forests for Life 31 Natore District, Rajshahi, Bangladesh CHAPTER 4 Village Power Rural Bangladesh has as little modern For years, many economists viewed that cost barrier as insurmountable, and argued that renewable energy was too infrastructure as any place on Earth — few expensive for the developing world. Enter the Grameen Bank. roads, bridges, or power lines, and hardly Created in 1971 by economist Muhammed Yunus, Grameen any industry. Bank began as an effort to demonstrate that offering small, low-interest loans to poor and landless people, mostly women, in rural Bangladesh could help lift people out of poverty. What Bangladesh has in abundance are small villages Not only did the bank offer the strongest case yet for that and sunlight. Putting those two things together brought approach, creating the field of microfinance in the process, about a breakthrough for both rural development and the it expanded into a global enterprise and earned Yunus the fight against climate change. Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The idea is simple enough in theory: Since no national In 1996, Grameen Bank created a subsidiary, called Grameen power grid will provide rural electrification in Bangladesh Shakti (roughly translated from Bengali it means “village for the foreseeable future — about 70 percent of the popu- power�) to provide financing for solar energy in Bangladesh. lation in Bangladesh does not have access to electricity Two years later, the GEF-funded Small- and Medium-Scale today — why not take advantage of the abundant sunlight Enterprise Program, operated by the International Finance and countless small but densely populated villages and use Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank, approved small-scale solar systems to power households across the Grameen Shakti for financing. The firm used a US$750,000 country? That attractive hypothesis quickly runs up against grant to buy its initial supply of solar panels. With the equip- the hard fact that few people in rural villages can afford ment in hand, and with the benefit of Grameen Bank’s long a solar panel. With a US$400 price tag, a 50-Watt system experience with rural economies, Grameen Shakti was able large enough to power a few lights and a small appliance to overcome the two main barriers to sales of solar home or two would consume nearly a third of the average rural systems in Bangladesh, namely, high upfront cost and lack family’s yearly income. of consumer credit. Village Power 33 The project has improved lives and provided cleaner energy to more than a million Bangladeshis. A typical house- hold in rural Bangladesh uses candles or kerosene for light, posing a fire hazard, and in the case of kerosene a health hazard from the fumes as well. On top of that there is the soot that must be cleaned, a task that always falls on women. The savings on the cost of kerosene alone, about US$7 per month, in many cases covers the loan payment for the solar system. Kerosene costs have risen dramatically in recent years, driven up by world oil prices and higher transport costs, and they will rise still further as the Government of Bangladesh reduces its kerosene subsidy. A typical solar home system in Bangladesh consists of a small 30 to 100Watt photovoltaic panel — 50Watt is the most common — connected to a battery for storage. By 2011, Grameen Shakti had installed 550,000 such systems in more than 60,000 villages, benefiting some 2.5 million people. The installation rate is growing exponentially, with plans to reach one million installations serving 10 million people by 2015. A million solar home systems, once in operation, will reduce approximately 50,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year by replacing kerosene and diesel generators, according to a World Bank report. Grameen Shakti also helps fund other renewable energy technologies, including wind, biogas, and solar thermal projects. The biogas program is linked to the emerging poultry and livestock industry in Bangladesh by focusing Cell phones can mean more than just a link to the world on marketing slurry (what remains after producing biogas outside the village. In the Tangail district of central Bangladesh, from manure) as a replacement for chemical fertilizer. for example, one shop owner saw an even bigger oppor- By 2007, Grameen Shakti had built up a network of 390 tunity. Capitalizing on the growing demand for cell phone offices in all of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, reaching out service in his village, the shop owner purchased a solar to the rural areas where 70 percent of the country’s 135 system from Grameen Shakti, added rental cell phones to million people live. his shelves, and started keeping his shop open four extra hours a day. In only four months, income from the phone Solar home systems bring significant social as well envi- operations reached US$30 per month — easily covering his ronmental benefits. The electricity means schools can payment installments of US$6 a month to the bank. remain open later, children can study at home at night, health clinics have reliable power, and businesses can stay This example just hints at the potential income that can open longer. Perhaps as important as all of those benefits, be generated by solar home systems. In the neighboring solar power enables people to charge cell phones. With Ghazipur District, pharmacist Shahid Sarkar also keeps his Grameen Shakti also establishing Internet connections, shop open longer and uses his cell phone to order medi- rural villages can be linked to the rest of the country and cines more efficiently. Tailors, restaurants, and groceries can the world. also bring in more money by extending their hours thanks 34 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies S olar home systems bring signi�cant social as well environmental bene�ts. The electricity means schools can remain open later, children can study at home at night, health clinics have reliable power, and businesses can stay open longer. Bangladesh to solar systems. Solar home systems have led to increased elsewhere, including from developed economies. In many production in areas such as fishing, rice processing, poultry countries, people generally assume that their electric meter farming, and handicrafts. Grameen Shakti hopes to create spins in just one direction; they buy power from the utility 100,000 jobs in renewable energy and related businesses. company and pay the bill each month — period. The idea that they could generate their own electricity and sell it Women gain particular benefits from owning a solar home back to the utility or to their neighbors — causing their system. They feel more secure after dusk and can be more meter to spin the other way — is too radical for most mobile. Since they usually spend more time in the home, they to imagine. In Bangladesh, however, with no long history benefit most from the elimination of kerosene smoke. Many to overcome, setting up households as their own micro- women have used the increased working time provided by utilities, ready to generate and sell electrical power, is the solar home system to start small-scale businesses such already taking hold. as poultry and handicrafts, and Grameen Shakti is training female technicians to install and maintain the solar systems. Grameen Shakti pioneered this micro-utility model to make electricity available even to those who might not qualify Other opportunities for entrepreneurship promise for a loan on their own. Instead of installing a solar home even more fundamental changes. Here the people in rural system and paying US$6 per month to the bank, a family Bangladesh have an advantage over energy consumers might rent a single lamp from their neighbor for US$2 per Village Power 35 Bangladesh month. One system can provide this sort of service to five and decentralized energy sources— wind, solar, hydro-electric, or six homes or businesses, easily covering the owner’s loan tidal, geothermal, and biomass. These renewable sources are payment and making electricity more widely available. The immune to the volatility of the fossil fuel markets and bring micro-utility model has become extremely popular among the added benefits of stimulating employment, technological Bangladeshi shopkeepers, and thousands of solar home development, and economic growth. systems and tens of thousands of lights have been installed under this scheme. Renewable energies constitute a key element of a sustainable future and they have been fundamental to The efforts in Bangladesh demonstrate how a relatively GEF since its inception. Over the course of its 20 years small investment from the GEF early on can leverage vastly history, the GEF has invested over US$1.1 billion in renew- greater investments in renewable energy technologies. Such able energy initiatives in almost 100 developing countries investments are more crucial than ever, as climate change, and economies in transition. These investments have been increasing dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, growing augmented by an additional US$8.3 billion in cofinancing. imports, and rising energy costs are making the developing GEF support has been instrumental in putting renewable world increasingly vulnerable to both economic and envi- energy on the agenda of all major developing countries ronmental shocks. and emerging economies. Solar energy projects like Grameen Shakti, and the renew- The GEF remains committed to promoting renewable able energy sector in general, offer an opportunity to reduce energy in developing countries and economies in transi- greenhouse gas emissions and pollution and to exploit local tion as an essential component of sustainable development 36 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Bangladesh that can face the climate change challenge. As the expe- Grameen Shakti is the most successful solar photovoltaic rience of Grameen Shakti illustrates, however, enormous project in the Small- and Medium-Size Enterprise Program, challenges remain. Perhaps the greatest challenge now is far exceeding expectations in terms of the number of solar that while governments and donors race to forestall the home systems installed. Other photovoltaic projects, partic- worst by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the climate is ularly those attempting to operate in less densely popu- already far more variable than ever, and no country is more lated areas than Bangladesh, failed to live up to original vulnerable to that variability than Bangladesh. In 1998, for expectations. Economies of scale are vital to the success of example, the worst flood in over a century devastated two- solar companies, since they reduce the costs of collecting thirds of the country. Floods inundated 90 percent of the payments or providing services, and such economies of scale Grameen Shakti operating area, cutting into the proceeds are harder to come by in sparsely populated and remote rural for new sales of solar home systems and repayments of loans areas. Bangladeshi villages provide Grameen Shakti with a on old ones. Subsequent severe floods hit Bangladesh in large pool of potential clients without which a private solar 2004, and again in 2011. company simply cannot sustain the cost of a service techni- cian or collection agent. Grameen Shakti literally weathered those storms because its repayment plans were resilient enough to adapt to the Grameen Shakti’s ties to Grameen Bank and, through it, changing circumstances. The same principle applies to all of countless local communities, proved to be invaluable and a the GEF’s climate projects: they invest in climate resilience, major driver of success. The credibility, trust, and community putting in place technologies and methods that reduce standing of the Grameen brand enabled Grameen Shakti pollutants and can adapt to new climate realities. to overcome the challenges that have defeated many solar Village Power 37 home system companies elsewhere in the world. In fact, strengthening trust and communities may be the most impor- tant outcome of micro-credit schemes, even more so than expanding economic opportunities or empowering women. While Bangladesh is ideally suited to solar power because of its higher than average solar radiation, demand for solar energy was minimal at the time of Grameen Shakti’s founding. The Grameen Bank thus placed considerable focus on providing increased value to its clients, while making a dedicated effort to reduce costs and thus lower prices. They even offered a warranty, including free maintenance for the first three years, training seminars, monthly inspections, and, most remark- ably of all, a 20-year money-back guarantee. That Grameen Shakti would feel compelled to offer such a guarantee speaks volumes about the continuing reluctance to adopt unproven technologies, even when the benefits are readily apparent. The willingness and ability of Grameen Shakti to experiment with new approaches, and its success in spreading solar power to so many villages suggest that it may yet overcome this reluctance, and in so doing make a significant contribution to rural development, energy security, and climate change mitigation in Bangladesh and beyond. With GEF support, even banks that serve larger, more tradi- tional borrowers than does Grameen Shakti, such as banks in China, are beginning to see the return on investments in energy efficiency. This recognition raises the prospect of even greater global impact. 38 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sri Lanka Village Power 39 Residential solar power 40 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Barua, Dipal. “Bringing Green Energy, Health, Income and Sustainable Energy Solutions to Reduce Poverty in South Asia Green Jobs to Bangladesh.� Presentation at the Preparatory — MANUAL- Local Organizations managing Sustainable Energy Meeting, International Advisory Board to the International http://www.inforse.dk/asiaM_IV_organizations.htm Climate Protection Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. World Bank, 2007. Household Income and Expenditure Survey Poznan, Poland, December 7, 2008. Online at: http://www.unep. 2007 org/pdf/A_Global_Green_New_Deal_Policy_Brief.pdf World Bank 2007. Bangladesh Grameen Shakti Solar Home International Finance Corporation. 2007. Selling Solar: Lessons Systems Project, Project Information Document. Online at from More than a Decade of IFC’s Experience. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pageP K=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK= Grameen Shakti, Bangladesh, Micro-�nance solar home 64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entity systems — Ashden Award winner http://www.youtube.com/ ID=000020953_20080109093650 watch?v=6YTNWRgHYqw Karlan D. and Zinman, J. 2011. Microcredit in Theory and Practice: Using Randomized Credit Scoring for Impact Evaluation. Science 332: 1278-84 Village Power 41 Great Wall of China CHAPTER 5 Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change Residents of crowded, bustling, dirty their fields and orchards. This kind of radical energy efficiency saves millions of tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere, Beijing who crave a taste of nature can saves millions of dollars, and, by reducing pollution of many drive about 80 kilometers to the northwest, sorts, saves not just carbon but lives as well. passing the Great Wall on the way, to the The funding for DQY’s biogas plant came from a five- Songshan National Nature Reserve. year loan provided by the GEF and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under a program called China Utility-Based While there they might catch a glimpse of an imperial eagle, Energy Efficiency, or CHUEE. Within three years of its launch golden leopard, or a black stork, hike through the ancient in 2006, the program spawned 98 energy efficiency and pines and cypresses, or admire the view from Flying Dragon renewable energy projects. The program’s US$512 million Cliff. At 4,700 hectares Songshan conserves biodiversity and in loans reduced China’s CO2 emissions by 14 million tons helps provide clean water and air for Beijing, but if the visitors per year. As with the solar power project in Bangladesh in want a glimpse of the future they would do well to stop at the partnership with Grameen Shakti, CHUEE has demonstrated very edge of the reserve, at a farm with 3 million chickens. novel and effective approaches to rural development, energy security, and climate change mitigation. Beijing Deqingyuan Chicken Farm, or DQY, is the largest in China and borders Songshan to the south. It also runs The reduction in carbon emissions that CHUEE achieved entirely on biogas made from the hundreds of tons of chicken is significant, equivalent to removing all CO2 emissions from manure the farm produces each day. The farm produces a country the size of Bolivia. Another measure, however, enough energy to run not only its own operations but to sell highlights the enormous challenges ahead: A single coal- the surplus electricity to the local utility company and thus burning power plant in China, the Zouxian plant in Shandong power the nearby town as well. Farmers then use the rich province, about 400 kilometers due south of Beijing, emits organic sludge left over after producing biogas to fertilize 33 million tons of CO2 per year1, more than twice the amount 1. www.carma.org Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 43 saved by all the energy efficiency investments under and resulting climate benefits, but also in lasting energy the CHUEE project. security, helping reduce the amount of energy countries need to import, and protecting the local environment by Such figures make the case not for abandoning energy reducing the pollution that comes with fossil fuel based efficiency and renewables, but rather understanding the energy production. complexities and the variety of factors — technology, policy, financial capacity and willingness, to name a few — that Investing in efficiency and renewable sources thus offers make up the bottom line number of tons of CO2 reduced. broad economic and environmental benefits in addition to And while that bottom line provides a useful shorthand, it saving energy. Finding and replicating projects that offer such actually sheds little light on perhaps the most important multiple benefits has been a key goal of the GEF since its aspect of energy efficiency investments: they continue inception. Today the GEF is one of the public sector’s largest to pay dividends year after year, decade after decade. funders for energy efficiency and renewables in the world, Those dividends are reflected not just in the energy savings with direct investments of US$850 million in more than 90 developing countries and countries with economies in transi- tion countries, and an additional US$5.9 billion in cofinancing. These investments are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 1.4 billion tons by 2020. T The GEF has invested a substantial share of its resources in projects that remove market and other barriers to energy efficiency and renewables. Through its support, developing countries have introduced a combination of policies and oday the GEF is one of regulatory frameworks, standards and labels for appliances, lighting, buildings, and industrial equipment. They have the public sector’s largest established market-based approaches and financial instru- ments. Finally, the GEF has fostered technology transfer funders for energy ef�ciency and through the demonstration of energy-efficient and renew- able energy technologies that directly affect current and renewables in the world, with direct future generations. investments of US$850 million in The DQY chicken farm in particular and the CHUEE project more than 90 developing countries more generally offer important lessons for the GEF and any institution working on climate change projects. On its 50 and countries with economies in hectares, the DQY farm has taken the goal of agricultural self-sufficiency nearly as far as it can go. Founded in 2000, transition countries, and an additional DQY now employs 600 people and is the only chicken farm in China which conforms to both European and US standards for US$5.9 billion in co�nancing. animal welfare. The official egg supplier for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, DQY, producing about 1.5 million eggs every day, takes up 70 percent of the city’s branded egg market. Despite its size, DQY produces no emissions. The 220 tons of droppings and 170 of waste water produced daily are blended together and fed to an anaerobic tank for fermen- tation. The resulting methane gas is then further treated 44 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Shanxi, China Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 45 to remove water and harmful chemicals, then burned in In practice, this was not the way things worked out. The two large generators to produce electricity. What is left utility served small businesses such as hotels, shopping malls, over after fermentation gets applied as fertilizer, while the and restaurants, and when a bank that specialized in such exhaust gases from the biogas combustion are fed to a clients bowed out of the project, those banks that remained boiler to heat the water used to clean the chicken sheds, saw small businesses as too risky and expensive because of thus making the system an almost entirely closed loop. high transaction costs. Furthermore, there was little pres- sure from the government and the public on gas utilities This is an elegant solution to an utterly inelegant problem. to improve energy efficiency or promote renewable energy It reduces CO2 emissions by eliminating the need for elec- sources, as the government’s focus was on large industrial tricity generated by burning coal. Moreover, by burning and energy companies. methane, it removes an even more potent greenhouse gas — methane, which is more than 20 times more effective at At the same time, however, demand for investment in trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2. The system also energy efficiency and renewables in China was booming. removes sulphur, nitrogen oxides and dust, thus improving So the CHUEE project shifted from focusing on utilities and the local air and water quality, controlling odor, and improving on a transition to gas to a focus on the banks themselves, the environment for the workers and the production and since few banks in the country were familiar with the kinds of living conditions of the farmers. energy projects that companies were interested in developing. Typically in China, a bank makes a loan to a private business All 300 households in the village near the plant have which puts up all its corporate assets as collateral for working been using the biogas for cooking and heating free of capital and pays the loan off in one to two years. Banks tend charge since 2007. Not only is it free, it saves time as well, to be wary of new technology, of loans for purposes other according to Liu Mingliang, the head of the village. “The than, say, expanding a factory or upgrading a production flame is much bigger than natural gas and can save almost process, and of longer term loans. All of these elements five minutes in boiling a kettle of water,� he told the China figure prominently in financing renewable energy and effi- Daily in 2009. ciency projects, so CHUEE included technical assistance to help bankers understand the needs of the companies that The DQY biogas plant obviously produces benefits for the were coming in increasing numbers to ask for loans. company, the local community, and the country, and many people are interested in learning from it — the farm hosts More importantly, however, CHUEE provided the banks with dozens of delegations from interested businesses every week. guarantees against losses on loans for energy projects. The Just the fact that the project was even considered for funding guarantee would give the banks incentives to lend companies under the GEF/IFC China Utility-Based Energy Efficiency project money for new equipment, like the storage tanks, genera- tells a story about how such ambitious projects play out on tors, and specialized equipment that DQY needed to turn the ground, and about the need for projects to be nimble chicken manure into clean energy. The goal was to provide enough to respond to changing conditions. incentives for participating banks to experiment with new financing approaches for energy projects, as well as to build At the outset, the fundamental idea behind the project, their capacity to undertake this kind of business as a stan- as the name suggests, was to place utilities at the center dard business line. and make them “one-stop shops� for companies looking to become more efficient and for banks looking for good loan The original design of the program was intended to prospects. The project also began as an attempt to improve target small to medium sized companies, like DQY, that the efficiency of natural gas, a clean but relatively expensive faced particular challenges in accessing suitable financing fuel, thereby making it price-competitive with cheaper but for energy projects. Once the focus shifted from utilities to far dirtier coal. A gas utility and several banks were lined up banks, however, that became more difficult, as the banks as key initial participants. tended to focus on larger companies that needed larger 46 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Zhejiang Province, China Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 47 loans and that also had more collateral, like steel, chemical, less coal and thus to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. and cement companies. The original expectation was that The government took a series of steps that caused lending 60 percent of the guaranteed loans would be small (about to energy efficiency projects by public sector banks to US$0.2 million). In reality, the average loan size was US$5.7 soar in 2007. These steps included direct loans from state- million, and loans of US$0.2 million or less constituted less owned banks to large state-owned enterprises for energy than 10 percent of the actual portfolio. efficiency investments, and a ban on loans to steel and cement industries unless the loans were for energy effi- Moving down market to smaller companies remains a ciency or pollution reduction. key challenge, as these companies are the ones with limited access to finance for energy projects. The size of their proj- While CHUEE remains a niche player in the context of ects tends to be smaller than average for the program as China’s energy efficiency and emission reduction efforts, it a whole, and their impact on greenhouse gas reduction is clearly has played a role in the country’s energy market. The correspondingly more modest. Moving down market there- program has provided many unique contributions to that fore needs to be accompanied by scaling up for maximum market. Building banks’ institutional capacities, promoting impact on CO2 reduction. new lending practices, and improving access to financing for some underserved yet important groups all are important The goals of the CHUEE project and those of the Chinese contributions to increased energy efficiency and expanded government are complementary. The government recog- use of renewable energy in China. Together, these advances nizes that inefficient and non-renewable energy use poses will lead ultimately to China burning less coal, thus placing a risk to the country’s sustained economic growth, and it CHUEE and projects like it at the center of the effort to build has committed to greater efficiency as a means to burn low-carbon, resource-efficient economies. 48 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Windmills in Beijing, China Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 49 Biogas project generating energy for a rural community, China 50 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Chen Xiaorong and Mark Hughes. 2009. Farm fuels city’s need Presentation at First Greek-Chinese Forum on the Environment, for power. China Daily. 4/5/2009. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ 3-4/12/2009, Athens. http://library.tee.gr/digital/m2470/m2470_ bizchina/2009-05/04/content_7740156.htm qing.pdf. China Launches Its First Chicken Manure-Biogas Plant World Bank. 2005. Project Executive Summary, China Utility- AUGUST 7, 2008 BY ARIEL SCHWARTZ Clean Technica http:// Based Energy Ef�ciency Finance Program. GEF Council cleantechnica.com/2008/08/07/china-launches-its-�rst-chicken- Submission, 3/16/2005. manure-biogas-plant/ Maynard, H. Where is China in your farming future? AgriSuccess May/June 2010 Farm Credit Canada http://www.fcc-fac.ca/en/ learningcentre/journal/stories/201005-1_e.asp Gu Qing. 2009. DQY-China’s First Zero-emission Poultry Farm. Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 51 Energy ef�cient light bulb, Sri Lanka CHAPTER 6 As Easy, Almost, as Changing a Light Bulb Say the word “coal� and most people and Poland. During the Soviet Era, governments in the region pursued rapid industrialization based on lignite-burning think glossy black, slow-burning rocks, power plants. Dozens of such plants fed cheap power to the hard stuff that generations of miners the refineries and chemical factories. As workers moved in, dug out of the Appalachian Mountains still more plants were needed to provide heat and power to the growing towns and cities. The result was an environ- in the eastern United States, Shaanxi mental catastrophe, an unmatched level of industrial pollu- Province in central China, or Jharkhand tion. Pollution so devastated the region where Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland meet that it earned a grim in eastern India. nickname: the Black Triangle. Lignite, while technically a kind of coal, does not fit that After decades of blight, by the 1980s the Black Triangle was image. First of all, it is brown, and crumbly. Lignite burns so practically unfit for human habitation. Sulfur dioxide concen- fast it just seems to disintegrate. Geologists classify lignite trations were double the maximum safe level. Even worse, as coal but really it is just peat that never quite hardened. It soot and dust spewing from the power plants turned the seems unfinished, like half-fired clay. sky a dreary gray, forcing children to wear surgical masks on their way to school. Life expectancy fell and infant mortality Bituminous and anthracite coal, the more familiar kinds, rose as the pollution got so thick that even stepping outside ship well and indeed trade all over the world. Lignite, being became dangerous. soft, does not. When burned, lignite also produces less heat, more carbon dioxide, and four times as much sulphur as its Then, in the fall of 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, while harder cousins. Where deposits of lignite occur, however, the at nearly the same moment the Solidarity Movement in Poland fuel is abundant, close to the surface, and therefore cheap. and the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czechoslovakia brought down Communists governments. The resulting demo- Among the largest deposits of lignite in the world occur cratic regimes set about almost immediately to bring the in Central Europe, particularly Germany, the Czech Republic, Black Triangle back to life. The task entailed a complex effort Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 53 involving international agreements, new laws and regulations, T clean, modern power plants and sophisticated technologies to scrub emissions from old ones. In Poland, however, one of the most important steps was as easy — almost — as changing a light bulb. he idea of using By the early 1990s, once Poland’s economy had recov- ered from the shock of leaving central planning behind, the targeted projects to government and international donors saw an opportunity. While the country was becoming more efficient in its energy transform markets has become use, it was the twelfth largest emitter of CO2 in the world, despite a population of just 38 million people, well below an important tool for the GEF much larger emitters. Much of the demand for electricity was coming from household lighting, as most everyone in and its implementing agencies. the country used old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. While The lessons these organizations more efficient, longer lasting compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) were becoming common elsewhere in the world, they have learned in Poland and were practically unheard of in Poland, and the few that were available cost far too much for most consumers. The indus- elsewhere can be applied to trial giant Phillips opened a plant to manufacture CFLs in Poland, but exported nearly all of them. other efforts to build a green If Poland wanted to provide cheaper energy services, reduce economy, piece by piece. pollution, and defer the need for new energy generation, transmission, and distribution capacity, then getting those domestically-produced CFLs into light fixtures across the country was the place to start. A compact fluorescent bulb lasts six to ten times longer than an ordinary incandescent bulb and consumes only a quarter of the electricity. Replacing one 60-watt ordinary bulb with a 15-watt CFL avoids burning around 160-180 kilograms of coal or a barrel of oil at a power learned in Poland and elsewhere can be applied to other plant. This translates to around 300 kilograms of greenhouse efforts to build a green economy, piece by piece. gas emissions reductions. At the heart of the GEF/IFC program, called the Poland In 1994, the GEF and International Finance Corporation Efficient Lighting Program, or PELP, were subsidies to reduce (IFC) began funding efforts to stimulate the Polish market the retail prices of CFLs from any manufacturer that was able for CFLs. Beyond simply selling a certain number of more to meet minimum technical requirements. GEF provided over efficient light bulbs, the goal was to transform the entire US$2.6 million in subsidies to five Polish lighting manufacturing market for them. Only by making sure that consumers would companies that competitively bid voluntary wholesale price continue to buy CFLs after the project ended would it have reductions equal to at least the full value of the subsidies. a lasting effect. As a result, CFL prices decreased by 34 percent in real terms from 1995 to 1998, and they have remained low since the The idea of using targeted projects to transform markets project ended. The retail price of a single CFL fell by about has become an important tool for the GEF and its imple- US$6, about three times the average subsidy for each one, menting agencies. The lessons these organizations have and consumers bought 1.2 million CFLs through the project. 54 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Warsaw, Poland Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 55 The percentage of Polish households using CFLs tripled, the impact that widespread use of CFLs would have on the from 10 percent to 30 percent. New manufacturers entered the power grid and demonstrated to the Polish electric utility Polish market, increasing competition, and the total number industry, in real field conditions, the potential benefits of of CFLs in use increased to about 1.6 million units in 1996, a demand-side program. up from 0.6 million in 1994. The results were clear: in the neighborhoods partici- The public education component of the project promoted pating in the pilot, demand for electricity dropped by 15 the CFL subsidy program by providing general consumer percent. In some households, peak power usage dropped information on the benefits of energy-efficient lighting by 40 percent. Such significant reductions would mean from a trusted, non-industry source. The public came to enormous savings for the power companies, and important know the project’s “green leaf’’ logo as a consumer brand reductions in greenhouse gas emissions if the companies connoting energy-efficiency and high quality. implemented demand-side management across the country. Counting just the efficient bulbs purchased as a direct Opening the market for CFLs is proving to be largely result of the two-year subsidy, the project produced elec- beneficial in Poland, but intervening in anything so complex tricity savings of at least 435 gigawatt-hours and reduced can bring unintended consequences. Now that the project CO2 emission by at least 529,000 tons. But the impact was has ended, the new CFL market has evolved and cheaper, far larger when its indirect contributions are taken into imported bulbs are flooding into the country. The overall account, including greater awareness of CFLs, encourage- quality of CFLs has declined, posing the risk that consumers ment of new manufacturers, and a lasting reduction in price. will become disenchanted and go back to the old incan- Counting all that, the program impact amounted to total descents. At the same time, however, new European regu- electricity savings of at least 2,320 gigawatt-hours and CO2 lations are encouraging the sustainable growth and use reductions of 3.62 million tons. All told, CO2 emissions per of CFLs, and more efficient incandescent bulbs as well. capita in Poland have fallen by 25 percent since 1989. Improving energy efficiency involves more than just The project accelerated the maturation of the Polish lighting. Broader efforts are needed, and here Poland faces CFL market toward saturation within about three years. A other obstacles. Poland for now can generate more elec- higher percentage of households in Poland now use CFLs tricity than it needs, so the government has less incentive than do so in the United Kingdom or the United States, to enforce efficiency measures. The coal industry is also and sales increased at more than twice the rate in the rest enormously influential in Poland, given that coal provides of Central and Eastern Europe. Polish consumers can now more than 80 percent of electricity generation in the country find more different types and wattages of CFLs in more and provides many jobs. As a result, government policy places, including supermarkets, hypermarkets. This is what has focused less on energy efficiency initiatives, which a transformed market looks like. encourage using less energy and therefore less coal elec- tricity generation, than on creating new jobs in renewable Consumers were not the only focus of the project. A pilot energy industries such as biomass. component was aimed at demonstrating to Polish electric utilities that they would be better off helping customers Despite such challenges, the GEF/IFC experience in Poland use less electricity than watching demand grow and then suggests that the purely private-sector approach had a signifi- investing in expensive new power plants and transmission cant impact on the market at a reasonable cost. That impor- lines. This approach, called demand-side management, was tant lesson has already reached other countries, and inspired not widely accepted in Poland in the mid-1990s. The pilot the GEF and the IFC to create the Efficient Lighting Initiative project worked in three cities where the electric power grid (ELI), a three-year, US$15 million investment to promote effi- capacity was inadequate to meet existing electric loads or cient lighting in Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, soon would be. Engineers carried out detailed analyses of Latvia, Peru, the Philippines, and South Africa. 56 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Morocco Sri Lanka India Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 57 ELI achieved impressive results over its three-year life: estimates indicate that ELI catalyzed immediate uptake of ■ In Peru, annual sales of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) efficient lighting, even as the program strategy focused increased twentyfold, from 250,000 to over 5 million; on underpinning long term, sustained market growth. ■ In Argentina, the price of CFLs dropped eightfold due to ELI-inspired promotion and competition between GEF efforts to promote CFLs in Poland and around the lighting manufacturers; world have brought significant economic and environmental ■ In the Philippines, manufacturers improved the quality of benefits by bringing down costs and reducing the need for their efficient lighting products to meet ELI specifications; new energy-generating capacity. While the focus in many of ■ Electric utilities in Argentina, Peru, the Philippines, and these efforts begins with the economic benefits, by way of South Africa began selling and financing efficient lamps getting governments and communities to buy in, the impact to their customers; on the global environment is real and will be increasingly ■ Municipal authorities in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Peru, important as the GEF and its partner agencies explore, and South Africa began energy-efficient street lighting new ways to foster green economies from regional and upgrades; national efforts all the way down to projects involving just ■ Thousands of newly trained lighting professionals in a few towns or villages. That ability to work across scales seven countries are able to specify efficient lighting and across all levels of government and civil society, a hall- for their clients. mark of the GEF since its inception, can help transform the green economy from a compelling idea to a tangible reality Across seven countries, ELI reduced energy consump- for millions of people. That approach had one of its truest tion by 2,590 gigawatt-hours, and CO2 emissions by more tests and greatest successes in the campaign to revive one than 2 million ton between 2000 and 2003. These initial of Europe’s lifelines, the Danube River. 58 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Cusco, Peru Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 59 60 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Birner, S. and Martinot, E. 2005. Promoting energy-ef�cient products: GEF experience and lessons for market transformation in developing countries. Energy Policy 33:1765-1779 Ledbetter, M. et al. 1998. IFC/GEF Poland Ef�cient Lighting Project: Demand-Side Management Pilot — Final Report. Prepared by Battelle and the Polish Foundation for Energy Ef�ciency IFC. 2005. The ELI Story: Transforming Markets for Ef�cient Lighting. World Bank. 2006. Poland Ef�cient Lighting Project. Budapest, Hungary Post-Implementation Impact Assessment. Energy Ef�ciency, Renewable Energy, and Climate Change 61 Danube Delta, Romania CHAPTER 7 Reviving the Danube September, 1991, could hardly have in the Danube Delta and beavers in the Upper Danube, and leading to worsening floods across the basin. Pollution, been a less auspicious moment for bold especially from organic substances and nutrients, posed a environmental initiatives in Central and major long-term threat to the environment. In the 1970s and Eastern Europe. 1980s, nutrient pollution threw off the ecological balance in the western Black Sea and led to a dead zone — produced when oxygen levels are too low for most organisms to survive In just a few months would come the final dissolution of — and that covered tens of thousands of square kilometers. the Soviet Union, the overwhelming political force in the region for half a century. The violent breakup of Yugoslavia The problems were clear, and in theory at least so were was already underway and would not be fully resolved for the solutions. A map of the Danube shows why: The river another eight tragic years. Cooperative efforts on water stretches 2,780 kilometers from Germany’s Black Forest to and the environment, troublesome in the best of circum- the Danube Delta on the western shore of the Black Sea. stances, would seem downright foolhardy when many of the The Danube River Basin covers 10 percent of Europe, a total potential participants are bombing each other. Even so, at area of over 800,000 square kilometers. The basin today that fraught moment, governments, the GEF, UNDP, and includes the territories of 19 countries, making it the world’s NGOs meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, took the first, halting steps most international river basin. It is also home to 81 million toward cooperation on conserving and restoring one of the people with a variety of languages and histories. With these most important resources they all share, the Danube River. preconditions, any effort to restore the Danube would need broad, and in fact, unprecedented international coopera- By the mid-1980s, the need for urgent action in the Danube tion. Far less clear was how this could happen in practice. Basin was plain. Over the previous 150 years, growing human populations and booming industries had wreaked serious Such was the setting for the GEF’s first foray into inter- environmental havoc. Some 80 percent of the Danube’s national waters. While GEF’s work in the Danube Basin has wetlands and floodplains had disappeared since the end evolved into a multi-faceted program lasting 15 years, it began of the 19 th century, threatening key species such as pelicans with a single goal: build the willingness and the capacity Reviving the Danube 63 for a diverse group of nations with a history of war and and strategies to improve the basin. This permanent, finan- mistrust to work together. The first task was to demonstrate cially sustainable body is now vital to maintaining conti- the benefits that only such cooperation could achieve. The nuity, momentum, and country commitment to managing working hypothesis of the GEF’s International Waters inter- the Danube effectively and sustainably. vention was simple: Get countries to examine the basket of benefits they receive from shared water resources like After 2000, on the basis of a voluntary political commit- the Danube they will quickly realize that the basket would ment by all Danube countries, the main priority for the be much bigger if they cooperated with their neighbors. Commission became the implementation of the EU Water Everyone on the Danube Basin needed to understand how Framework Directive, which obliges EU member states such transboundary resources are used, abused, or trans- and accession countries to use a river basin approach for formed. A better understanding would give decision-makers managing their water resources. Now that even coun- confidence that longer term joint interventions could tackle tries outside the EU have agreed to abide by the Water problems more effectively. Framework Directive, effectively all Danube countries are guided by a single overarching legal framework governing Here, political transformation helped catalyze envi- the region’s waters. ronmental transformation. In the vacuum created by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the European Union was now One of the first projects of the Commission was the the region’s dominant economic engine. The promise of GEF/UNDP-led Danube River Basin Pollution Reduction accession to the EU and the subsequent need to meet its Programme. That effort led to the preparation of the first stringent environmental directives provided the driving force GEF “Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis� for the Danube for environmental change in the Danube Basin. The GEF Basin with a focus on nutrient pollution. This analysis would and UNDP provided countries with significant assistance in become an important building block for subsequent Danube helping to build their capacity to meet the EU’s accession analyses and for an action program that included measures and legislative challenges. In 1994, meeting once again in to reduce water pollution, promote conservation, and restore Sofia, 11 Danube countries and the European Commission ecosystems. Joint action by countries was seen as essential signed the Danube River Protection Convention. This agree- to reduce the flow of pollutants from agricultural, domestic ment provided the overall legal framework for protecting and industrial sources into the Danube and Black Sea. and sustainably using water and other shared ecological resources in the Danube Basin. A GEF/World Bank Investment also provided a focused regional framework for country-level investments aimed at The Convention came into force just four years later, a common goal of reducing nutrient pollution in the Black on October 22, 1998, a remarkably fast accession for a Sea and helping to jump-start and further accelerate key complex treaty covering such sensitive and often contested investments in sectors such as municipal wastewater, agri- resources. That this was achieved so quickly testifies both cultural run-off, and industrial pollution, as well as policy to the urgency of the problem and to the foundation that and legal reforms and capacity building for enhanced moni- the GEF had helped create for basin-wide cooperation. toring and enforcement. Days later came another milestone, the creation of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube The process established a scientific and technical fact- River (ICPDR) and its Permanent Secretariat, the main imple- finding analysis feeding into a negotiated plan that estab- menting body of the Danube Convention. lishes clear priorities for action. This initiative in the Danube basin has become a model for other transboundary water Since its creation, the Commission has grown into one of problems. The joint fact-finding and analysis encompasses the largest and most active international bodies of experts two fundamental components of multinational efforts like on integrated water resource management in the world, the Danube project, building trust and fostering a shared promoting policy agreements and setting joint priorities understanding of the problems all the parties face. 64 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies T Danube River in Serbia he support by the GEF and UNDP not only turned the Danube into a model of integrated river basin management, it also backed up the political stability of the whole Danube region. In addition to cross-border cooperation, the EU Water numerous meetings at the community level provided the Framework Directive obliges Member States to engage the means by which the project could reach many of the stake- public into river basin management planning process, through holders, especially farmers. Many projects supported by small which it also encourages the involvement of NGOs and local grants were geared to solving nutrient reduction, and about citizens in water issues. In order to facilitate this process, the half of the small grants went to NGOs supporting activities GEF, through its Small Grants Programme, helped create the to promote best agricultural practices. Danube Environmental Forum, the umbrella organization for the largest network of NGOs and local communities in the Public awareness of the issues facing the Danube is now basin. It consists of 174 member organizations from 13 Danube at an all-time high. In 2004, the International Commission for countries. The Danube Small Grants Programme marked the the Protection of the Danube River launched international first time the GEF had worked with NGOs in this way. Danube Day to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Convention. Danube Day is now an annual event paying The Danube Environmental Forum was particularly successful tribute to the Danube and its tributaries. The diverse activi- in fostering public involvement, particularly in countries like ties on and near the river draw millions of people from a Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, where NGO activities and cross-section of society and help create stronger connections the notion of public access to information have short histo- between people, the basin and its biodiversity, mobilizing ries. NGOs, working on door-to-door campaigns and hosting Danube Basin residents to take action. Reviving the Danube 65 Danube River in Romania 66 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies The GEF’s experience in the Danube illustrates the necessity The environment of the Danube Basin and of the Black of working at various spatial, temporal, and political scales. The Sea is now showing clear signs of recovery, overcoming a GEF’s involvement began with a regional focus, supporting legacy of pollution that has left scars across the region. In the steps toward a binding, international convention. Once that northwest shelf of the Black Sea, the turnaround has been framework was in place the focus turned to efforts at finer nothing short of extraordinary. Twenty years ago, the entire and finer scales, from basin-wide to binational to national shelf was hypoxic, a huge dead zone marked by periodic to local, all the way to working with individual farmers to blooms of algae but few fish, shellfish, or other species. Now, improve their practices. Working at all of these scales can have with reduced nitrogen and phosphorous pollution, oxygen significant impacts as long as the broader commitments and depletion in the lower levels of the sea observed in the 1970s institutions are in place. That lesson is being been applied to and 1980s has been virtually eliminated, with oxygen levels other transboundary waters, such as the Benguela Current now at or near saturation in most areas. Measures of biodi- off the southern African coast, Lake Victoria, and the Guarani versity are up: The number of benthic species observed in Aquifer beneath Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. the early 2000s was nearly double that of the late 1980s, though still significantly lower than conditions in the 1960s. The support by the GEF and UNDP not only turned the More broadly, across the Danube Basin, nitrogen emissions Danube into a model of integrated river basin management, have decreased by 20 percent and phosphorus almost by 50 it also backed up the political stability of the whole Danube percent over the last 15 years. region. The Commission was able to begin implementation of the Water Framework Directive so that it is now the bench- The Danube offers a telling illustration of the GEF’s cata- mark for European transboundary water bodies. With GEF’s lytic role. The GEF has three categories of catalytic activities, support, the Commission also took a holistic look at the pres- all of them evident in the Danube: foundational, demonstra- sures facing the river, such as the significant eutrophication tion, and investment. In the Danube project, the GEF used problems caused by agricultural inputs, the important flood these three categories in a phased approach: the foundational buffering attributes of riverine wetlands, and the critical need phase of bringing countries together; a demonstration phase to improve tariff and charge schemes for water and sanitation with efforts like the pollution reduction programme; and an systems. Ultimately, GEF and UNDP efforts in the Danube– investment phase in which countries and other donors join Black Sea area could become a model for expanding public to provide the funds necessary to scale up activities. Acting awareness of the need to embrace integrated water resource as a catalyst has always been fundamental to the GEF, and management as a way to ensure that economies can grow will continue to shape the way it works in all its focal areas without environmental destruction. and in all regions. Reviving the Danube 67 Danube River in Bulgaria 68 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Danube River in Hungary Reviving the Danube 69 Danube delta in Romania 70 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources GEF. Strengthening Cooperation in the Danube Basin. http:// Kideys, A.E. 2002. Fall and Rise of the Black Sea Ecosystem. www.thegef.org/gef/node/2183 Science 297:1482-84. Mee, L. 2006. Reviving Dead Zones. Scienti�c American, Fox, A, and de Morsa, S. 2007. Final Evaluation of the November. UNDP/GEF Project RER/01/G32 Danube Regional Project: Strengthening the Implementation Capacities for Nutrient Sommerwerk, N., et al. 2010. Managing the world’s most Reduction and Transboundary Cooperation in the Danube River international river: the Danube River Basin. Marine and Basin Freshwater Research, 61: 736–748 Gerlak, AK. 2004. Strengthening river basin institutions: The Staudenmann, J. 2005. Regional Cooperation in the Danube Global Environment Facility and the Danube River Basin. Water Basin leading to development of the River Basin Management Resources Research: 40:1-10 Plan. International Conference on Regional Cooperation in Transboundary River Basins Dushanbe, 30 May – 1 June 2005 International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River. 2006. 15 Years of Managing the Danube River Basin, 1991-2006. Reviving the Danube 71 Moldova CHAPTER 8 Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb in Moldova The tiny village of Ratus sits at a As Ratus became a dumping ground for pesticides, so Moldova at large became a hot spot for deadly PCBs. crossroads in central Moldova, about Industrial expansion during the Soviet era meant rising 60 kilometers from the capital, Chisinau. demand for electricity and electrical equipment and a related need for cooling and insulating fluids that would Surrounded by fields, with other small villages nearby, not catch fire, as did the mineral oil previously used for the few streets in Ratus cover less than a square kilometer, a those purposes. The solution came in the form of a rela- village in most ways typical of rural parts of Eastern Europe. tively inert class of man-made chemicals called polychlo- But until recently Ratus held a dangerous secret. For years, rinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Throughout the latter half of the entire district of Telenesti, some 850 square kilometers the 20 th Century, tons of PCBs accumulated in electric in size, sent tons of obsolete and prohibited pesticides to capacitors and transformers even though scientists had Ratus. These hazardous chemicals accumulated in rotting determined that they were potent environmental and health containers until 400 tons sat in an old warehouse, essentially hazards in the 1930s. In Moldova, a major energy gener- a toxic ticking time bomb for the people and the environ- ating and transit hub for the Soviet Union, most equipment ment in Ratus, across Moldova, and beyond. containing PCBs was out of use but still in place by the late 1980s, leading to oil spills and leaks from corroded In the Soviet era, particularly the 1970s and 1980s, Moldova capacitors. Approximately 20,000 PCB-containing capaci- imported huge amounts of pesticides to spur agricultural tors containing about 380 tons of PCBs were situated in 20 production. Between the 1950s and 1990s, farmers used electrical substations throughout the country, but espe- 560,000 tons of pesticides, including 22,000 tons of the cially at the Vulcanesti Power station. organochlorinated variety. Soil samples taken between 1976 and 1990 showed pesticide contamination levels 50 After Moldova declared independence from the Soviet times the maximum allowable concentration. High concen- Union in 1991, owners of the chemicals and warehouses trations of the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane abandoned their stockpiles and the containers began to (DDT) turned up in 60 percent of soil samples despite the decay, leaving wind and rain to spread the poison across prohibition of DDT in 1970. the region. “We didn’t believe that we would ever be free of Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb in Moldova 73 this danger threatening the public health and the environ- The problem is hardly Moldova’s alone. Pesticides, industrial ment,� the mayor of Ratus village, Raisa Pavlov, said in 2007.2 chemicals, and unwanted by-products of industrial processes known collectively as Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs, Many people who came into contact with the pesticides are a global scourge, particularly so in Eastern Europe and did not know anything about the risks and did not comply Central Asia. There they form part of the grim environmental with any of the minimum protection requirements. Excessive legacy of collective agriculture and heavy industrialization that exposure to the chemicals in rural areas led to an increase of led to the near death of the Black Sea and the Danube River, ailments, including chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. By the late and left pollution hotspots scattered throughout the region. 1990s, increasing numbers of mothers were being hospital- ized, and the number of children born with malformations was POPs can cause diseases in humans even in unimaginably growing. Most people who worked with chemicals got seriously small concentration — parts per trillion or even less. They can ill, and some died of cancer. The threat to the environment remain toxic for decades because they resist degradation in and health of thousands of people was real and growing. air, water, and sediments, and they accumulate in the fatty tissues of most living organisms, leading to concentrations higher than those in the surrounding environment. They also can travel great distances from the source of release through air, water, and migratory animals, often contaminating areas thousands of kilometers away from any known source. Thus, POPs can cause significant adverse human health and envi- A ronmental effects both near and far. Women, infants, and children are especially vulnerable to certain effects of POPs. These synthetic chemicals can move s Ratus became a easily through the human body, even through a woman’s placental barrier and into the womb, exposing unborn children dumping ground for to health hazards during the most vulnerable stages of devel- opment. Evidence links human exposure to specific POPs or pesticides, so Moldova at large classes of POPs with adverse health effects, including cancers, became a hot spot for deadly diabetes, immune system changes, learning disorders, and reproductive deficits and sex-linked disorders. The source PCBs. “We didn’t believe that we of the harm caused, however, is not always easily identified. would ever be free of this danger Recognizing the dangers of POPs, many countries began limiting or banning their production, use, and release, in threatening the public health and some cases as early as the 1970s. These efforts culminated in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the environment,� the mayor of that was adopted in May of 2001, and that entered into force Ratus village, Raisa Pavlov, in 2004. The more than 160 countries that are Parties to the Convention agreed to eliminate or reduce the release of said in 2007. POPs into the environment. The Stockholm Convention began with a focus on 12 POPs of immediate concern, often referred to as “the dirty 2. quoted in World Bank 2007 74 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Pesticide stockpiles, Moldova Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb in Moldova 75 dozen.� These are the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, Moldova ratified the Stockholm Convention in 2004 and dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB, also immediately began preparing its National Implementation used as an industrial chemical), mirex, and toxaphene; PCBs; Plan. The focus of the plan was identifying the main sources and dioxin and furans, which are unintentional byprod- of POPs in the country: the warehouses full of pesticides ucts of combustion and industrial processes (as are PCBs like the one in Ratus, and power stations that have stored and HCB). Unintentional chemical byproducts are among huge amounts of used capacitors and oil contaminated with the most potent cancer-causing chemicals known. In 2009, PCBs. In 2005, the GEF provided US$6.35 million in funding the parties to the Convention added nine new chemicals for Moldova in the first NIP implementation project in the to the list. GEF portfolio. The project took an integrated approach to deal with the top priority Stockholm Convention issues The GEF is the lead institution providing technical and facing Moldova, addressing PCBs, obsolete pesticides, financial assistance to support the efforts of developing and strengthening of institutions and regulations for long- countries and countries with economies in transition to term sustainability. implement the Stockholm Convention. The GEF is helping countries create national inventories of POPs and working The goals of the GEF project, carried out by the World Bank, with these nations to reduce or eliminate the use and release were to help Moldova manage and dispose of contaminated of these chemicals into the environment. The GEF also stockpiles and to strengthen the regulatory and institutional helps facilitate safe disposal and supports the development arrangements for long term control of POPs and other toxic of environmentally sound alternative products, practices, substances. This would be done in line with the requirements and techniques. of the Stockholm Convention and other related conventions and protocols ratified by Moldova. There would be benefi- Since adoption of the Stockholm Convention the GEF has ciaries at the local, regional, and global levels: some 150,000 committed US$496 million to projects in the POPs focal area people live or work in the vicinity of contaminated sites, and and leveraged some US$1.5 billion in co-financing, bringing managing POPs provides regional and global environmental the total value of the GEF POPs portfolio to approximately benefits by reducing pollution of water supplies, preventing US$1.6 billion. Just seven years after the Stockholm Convention pesticides and PCBs entering regional and global food chain went into force, the GEF is helping more than 138 countries through soil contamination, and reducing impacts on land, to inventory their POPs and develop priority interventions biodiversity, and waters. to reduce or eliminate releases of these chemicals to the environment and risks to human health. These efforts have This sort of ambitious undertaking is complex and there also raised awareness and built the capacity of institutions are bound to be surprises. In late 2006, for example, as work to consider and plan for eliminating not only POPs but other began on the removal and destruction of POP stockpiles at harmful chemicals as well. Through these activities, intra- the Vulcanesti power station in Moldova, engineers had an governmental coordination, stakeholder engagement, and unwelcome surprise. The plan was to incinerate 50 tons of open information have been advanced, particularly towards contaminated soil from the station. But it turned out that the site industry and the private sector. had more than 3,000 tons of contaminated soil. The contami- nated soil was buried in enormous cofferdams constructed The first step for signatories to the Stockholm Convention at the site. Because of the intervention, things went more is the preparation of a National Implementation Plan (NIP) smoothly after that. Over the next ten months, another dozen to guide the overall effort. By the end of 2008, the GEF had power stations were dismantled and about 19,000 capacitors, funded or was funding initial planning in 138 countries. More with a total weight of 950 tons, were destroyed. than one hundred countries are now at the stage where their Plan has been endorsed and submitted, or is in the final The evacuation of obsolete and prohibited pesticides began review and endorsement stage, and 108 of these countries in early 2007 at the central store house in Ratus. Nationwide, have already submitted their plans to the Convention. the project enabled the environmentally sound destruction 76 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Savichi, Belarus Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb in Moldova 77 of nearly 1,300 tons of obsolete pesticides, and over 950 Once enacted, these laws and regulations will form the legal tons of PCB containing equipment (approximately 19,000 foundation for a modern regulatory system for the manage- capacitors) — about 80 percent of the PCB contaminated ment and control of POPs and other toxic chemicals and electrical equipment in the country. The project identified wastes in Moldova. hotspots including more than 1,500 old and abandoned warehouses and pesticide mixing or preparation sites and The involvement of various levels of government, local 16 PCB contaminated sites. The effort also strengthened the communities and civil society in the project helped to generate country’s legislative and regulatory framework, which sets strong support for regulatory reform and capacity building for the stage for a modern chemical management system, and POPs management in the country. For example, Moldova’s increased public awareness about health and environmental Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Anatolie Spivacenco, stated hazards from POPs. that the project had led to adoption in Parliament of legisla- tion regulating import, storage, and use of pesticides. The These actions resulted in substantial local and global envi- head of the Environmental Movement of Moldova, Alecu ronmental and human health benefits. The risk of exposure Renitsa, noted that the project had allowed thousands of tons to dangerous chemicals has been significantly reduced or of poisons stockpiled during the Soviet era to be destroyed, eliminated. Improvements to transboundary and global water and had benefitted the communities, the country, and the quality is also ensured through the elimination and better environment as a whole. Projects operating in one country, management of these substances. Prior to the project, what or even in one city or one village, like Ratus, but which have little legislation existed on chemicals and hazardous waste far broader impact, are a hallmark of the GEF and one of its was woefully inadequate. Since then, a total of 15 draft laws defining principles: Limited scale does not necessarily mean and regulations have been completed under the Project. limited significance. 78 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Moldova Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb in Moldova 79 Moldova Sources GEF. 2011. Report of the GEF to the Fifth Meeting of the World Bank. 2007. Reducing and Destroying Stockpiles Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on of Persistent Organic Pollutants Is a Chance for Health in Persistent Organic Pollutants. http://www.thegef.org/gef/sites/ Moldova. http://www.worldbank.org.md/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ thegef.org/�les/documents/document/GEF_POPs_Report_ COUNTRIES/ECAEXT/MOLDOVAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:215135 COP5.pdf 78~pagePK:1497618~piPK:217854~theSitePK:302251,00.html Ritter, L., K.R. Solomon, J. Forget M. Stemeroff and C.O’Leary. World Bank. 2005. Project Document on a Global Environment Persistent Organic Pollutants Report prepared for The Facility Grant in the Amount of US$6.35 million to the Republic International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). Undated. Of Moldova for a Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/ritter/en/ritteren.pdf Stockpiles Management and Destruction Project. Report No:33862-MD. October 28, 2005. Stockholm Convention. http://chm.pops.int World Bank. 2011. Implementation Completion and Results UNEP. 2010. Ridding the World of POPs: A Guide to the Report on a Global Environment Facility Grant in the Amount Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. http:// of US$6.35 million to the Republic Of Moldova for a POPs chm.pops.int/Convention/Media/Publications/tabid/506/ Stockpile Management and Destruction Project in Moldova. Default.aspx. Report No: ICROOOO 1945. June 20, 2011 Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb in Moldova 81 Ganges River, India CHAPTER 9 Small Grants, Big Results The Bagmati River, sacred to both reuse, and recycle their garbage. At first the results were mixed: They encountered some resistance but also received Hindus and Buddhists, flows down Nepal’s some expressions of support. Encouraged, they decided Kathmandu Valley, through terraced rice to expand the effort and formed an organization called the fields and past ancient temples. Women’s Environmental Protection Committee, or WEPCO. “We used to blame the government, the municipality- everyone but ourselves,� recalls Vaidya. As the river nears the teeming cities of Kathmandu and Lalitpur, it becomes as much a garbage dump as a source By 2004, WEPCO had expanded waste collection to of spiritual cleansing. Untreated sewage flows into the river, over 1000 households, charging each a small fee, and and generations of residents have used the waterway to managing about seven tons of waste daily. Since most dump their household trash as well. of the household waste is biodegradable, it makes for an ideal source of biogas. WEPCO has built several small Local people, government agencies, international orga- demonstration biogas plants producing gas usable for nizations, and foreign tourists have complained about the cooking. The organization also sells fertilizer made from growing garbage problem in Kathmandu and Lalitpur, cities organic compost. with a combined population of nearly 1 million. Complaints abound; workable solutions have been scarce — that is until The women of WEPCO have found other ways to turn two women, Bishnu Thakali and Sharada Vaidya, together trash into opportunity. The group collects paper from banks, with their neighbors, stepped forward with a plan of action. hotels and other businesses and recycles it, training local women and selling recycled paper products, including In 1992, Thakali, Vaidya, and about a dozen other women stationery that often goes back to the same businesses fed up with the growing mountains of trash in their Kupondole that provided the waste paper in the first place. “There is neighborhood, just south of the Bagmati, took matters good money in waste, from recycling paper and plastics into their own hands. Starting with 50 nearby houses, they to making cooking gas from kitchen waste. Everybody in went door to door making the case for people to reduce, Kathmandu can save money and keep their environment Small Grants, Big Results 83 cleaner. But it takes education,� says Thakali, who is now F the President of WEPCO. WEPCO is just one example of the projects that GEF supports through its ground-breaking Small Grants Programme (SGP). For almost two decades, the SGP has been one of the or almost two decades, crown jewels of the GEF, working with communities around the world to combat the most critical environmental prob- the SGP has been one of lems. Through thousands of small grants, the program has demonstrated that supporting communities in their efforts the crown jewels of the GEF, working to achieve more sustainable livelihoods is not only possible but vital in bringing about change and improving the global with communities around the world to environment. combat the most critical environmental Launched in 1992, the same year that Thakali and Vaidya problems. Through thousands of small began their war on trash, SGP channels financial and tech- nical support directly to community-based organizations, non- grants, the program has demonstrated governmental organizations (NGOs), and indigenous peoples’ organizations in 122 developing countries. Through nearly that supporting communities in their 14,000 grants, SGP has supported activities that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people’s well- efforts to achieve more sustainable being and livelihoods, striking a balance between human and environmental needs. The United Nations Development livelihoods is not only possible but vital Programme (UNDP), acting on behalf of the other GEF imple- in bringing about change and improving menting agencies, carries out SGP projects through strategic partnerships. SGP has been able to match program funding the global environment. from the GEF (approximately US$400 million) with cash and in-kind contributions for a total financial impact of over US$800 million since the program’s inception. strategies, and implement technologies to reduce threats to SGP projects focus on testing innovative solutions to envi- the global environment if they are replicated over time. SGP ronmental problems at the community level, with the hope and also gathers lessons from community-level experience and expectation that successful approaches will be replicated at initiates the sharing of successful community-level strategies broader scales. The grants, which average about US$35,000 and innovations among local organizations, host govern- with a maximum of US$50,000, go directly to local groups ments, development aid agencies, and others working on a and indigenous peoples in recognition of the key role they regional or global scale. play as a resource and constituency for environment and development concerns. The decentralized structure of SGP SGP is more than simply a fund that provides small grants. By encourages maximum country- and community-level owner- raising public awareness, building partnerships, and promoting ship and initiative. policy dialogue, SGP seeks to promote an enabling environ- ment within countries for achieving sustainable development Program grants ensure that communities and other key and addressing global environmental issues. SGP has helped stakeholders understand and can carry out conservation organizations and governments support local, community- and sustainable development strategies and projects that based initiatives while at the same time meeting national protect the global environment, help develop community-level obligations and global commitments. 84 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Citarum River, Indonesia Small Grants, Big Results 85 That approach bore fruit in Nepal, and helped empower the coastal communities that depend on the health of the the women of WEPCO. It is also working in the Caribbean reef system. Fishermen who were once opposed to the MPAs nation of Belize on the Yucatan Peninsula. Responding to have now become among their greatest advocates. Many are a range of threats facing the Belize Barrier Reef System, an leading efforts to expand the boundaries of MPAs within the SGP-funded initiative called the Community Management Belize Barrier Reef System and to improve fisheries manage- of Protected Areas Conservation Programme (COMPACT) ment policies within the reef. has been working for more than a decade to preserve the integrity and character of the reef. The program, an initiative The fishing village of Sarteneja, Belize, provides a telling of SGP, UNESCO, and the United Nations Foundation, seeks illustration of the impact the SGP can have. Since the commu- to develop World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves and nity has historically depended largely on harvest of lobster, other socio-ecological production landscapes into learning conch, and finfish, COMPACT supported a project to provide laboratories for sustainable development. COMPACT works alternative livelihoods to reduce pressure on the declining at eight current or proposed World Heritage Sites around the fisheries resource. The project has focused on increasing world, and in Belize is developing and supporting a range local awareness of the value and unique attributes of the of conservation and sustainable livelihood activities through Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, while training transparent and democratic partnerships with coastal commu- local tour guides and helping to market the eco-tourism and nities and other stakeholders. educational tourism potential of the area. The Belize Barrier Reef System, the second largest in the COMPACT projects, like those in Belize, provide tangible world behind Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and a World demonstrations of the highly touted but often largely abstract Heritage site since 1996, encompasses seven marine protected notion of linking local livelihoods and biodiversity conserva- areas (MPAs) with a total area of 116,148 hectares. One of tion. Demonstrating constructive ways of involving local stake- the most diverse ecosystems in the world, the reef is Belize’s holders in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiver- top tourist destination, attracting almost half of the country’s sity in and around protected areas remains one of the most 260,000 annual visitors, and is vital to its fishing and tourism important challenges and priorities for nature conservation. industries. Twenty-two coastal communities several inland communities are adjacent to the World Heritage Site and Another SGP project illustrates how a relatively small amount local livelihoods depend on the health of the reef system for of funding can engage local stakeholders in this way to tackle activities such as fishing and tourism. multiple problems including biodiversity conservation, land degradation, and gender issues. Communities in remote, COMPACT’s establishment in Belize grew out of a year- rural areas traditionally lack access to conventional power long participatory process which brought together key stake- sources. These communities have to rely on kerosene or fire- holders in a national forum to discuss the conservation and wood for basic energy needs, leading to local deforestation sustainable use of the Belize Barrier Reef System. A baseline and contributing to climate change. Solar energy provides assessment resulted as part of this process; it revealed the an alternative energy solution while simultaneously spurring degree of alienation felt by the fishing community toward the progress in human development including poverty reduc- MPAs, which they viewed as having been aimed at restricting tion, gender equality, education and health. There remains a traditional fishing in favor tourism development. need, however, to enhance the capacities of local communi- ties to build, install, maintain and repair solar technologies In response, COMPACT’s site strategy prioritized helping and local women could play a significant role in addressing fishers benefit from the MPAs through co-management arrange- these issues. ments and alternative livelihood initiatives. Thus the emphasis was on the need to help local users understand the global In 2008 the SGP began a partnership with Barefoot College value of the reef and their roles as its stewards. The result in Tilonia, India. A pioneer in demystifying complex techno- has been a shift in the attitude of fishermen and others in logical processes for illiterate students, this institution has 86 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Fishing in Mexico Small Grants, Big Results 87 been working since 1972 to provide basic services and solu- schools, hospitals, food processing plants, local administra- tions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of tion offices, religious buildings and community centers. Most making them self-sufficient and sustainable. Barefoot College fundamentally, the projects have managed to reduce CO2 and SGP are working together to support “Women Solar emissions, ease pressure on deforestation, and decrease air Engineer� pilot projects across Africa’s and Asia’s poorest pollution from burning firewood and kerosene. countries. In this collaborative effort, the GEF SGP provides communities with technical support and funding for the solar However, the most profound impact of solar electrifica- panel kits. The Barefoot College, offers a six-month training tion has been on community-wide economic activity. Solar program to the women beneficiaries of the GEF SGP. lighting has enabled the extension and improvement on the continuity of economic activities after dark. All partici- The partnership between SGP and Barefoot College is pating communities noted the powerful effect of the GEF rooted in the belief that it is fundamental to empower commu- SGP-Barefoot College partnership on the social status of the nities to develop their own sustainable energy solutions. illiterate women trainees. The program empowered women Under the Solar Engineers project, each community forms trainees to acquire complex technical skills, enabling them to a village solar committee that supervises the community’s return as qualified solar engineers to serve their communi- solar energy project and selects candidates for the training in ties. Most of the Women Solar Engineers managed to trans- India. After learning how to install, maintain and repair solar late their new livelihood activity into better living standards. energy kits, the engineers return to electrify households in their villages. In return for their installation, maintenance, The Small Grants Programme embodies a central theme and repair services, the women engineers receive a monthly of the work of the GEF and its partners: What matters most salary from the village solar committee. is the tangible, measurable difference their efforts make for the environment and for people often struggling to survive. Through these projects the women have managed to That impact can be seen in finest detail at the local level in provide electricity to over approximately 2,245 households, small projects, where innovation can be found as well. As bringing light to nearly 15,000 beneficiaries in 32 villages in seen in Nepal, Belize, and in the dozen countries served so 12 countries: Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, far through the partnership with Barefoot College, the Small Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, and Grants Programme offers real-world experience in the some- Uganda. In addition, communities have seized the opportunity times fraught process of linking sustainable local livelihoods to provide electricity to numerous public facilities, including and biodiversity conservation. 88 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Rajasthan, India Small Grants, Big Results 89 Rajasthan, India 90 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Nepal Times. 2003 Issue 148 (June 6-June 12). http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2003/06/06/ NepaliSociety/6133/print http://www.asiafoundation.org/media/view/slideshow/37/ cleaning-up-nepals-kathmandu-valley http://www.ngoforum.net/index.php?option=com_content&tas k=view&id=6878&Itemid=6 http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Kathmandu_Today_Little_ More_Than_A_Garbage_Dump_And_Open_Sewer_999.html http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2008/09/19/Nation/15234 http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2003/06/06/ NepaliSociety/6133/print http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?Doc umentID=318&ArticleID=3995&l=en&t=long UNDP. 2011. A Partnership Between the GEF Small Grants Programme and the Barefoot College for Solar Eletri�cation. UNDP. COMPACT: Engaging Local Communities in Stewardship of Globally Signi�cant Protected Areas. UNDP/GEF. 2008. Joint Evaluation of the GEF Small Grants Programme. Evaluation Report 39. Small Grants, Big Results 91 Flower Valley, South Africa C H A P T E R 10 Flower Valley The annual Chelsea Flower Show The gold medal highlights the increasing emphasis that global consumers are placing on sustainability. In an effort to in London draws thousands of flower translate that interest into tangible progress for biodiversity lovers from around the world who conservation and rural development, the GEF and the United stroll through showy displays and arbors Nations Development Programme (UNDP), supported the South African government in the creation of the Agulhas reveling in the orderly exuberance of Biodiversity Initiative (ABI). This project brought together the English country garden. private landowners, rural communities, government agen- cies, and both national and international organizations to This century-old tradition would seem an unlikely stage tap into new markets sustainably-grown flowers in order to for the innovative conservation and use of South African protect landscapes in an economically viable way. The objec- biodiversity. Yet this is precisely what attendees of the show tive of ABI was to convince landowners, private businesses, walking the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, encoun- and local communities that biodiversity—if managed and tered in the spring of 2011. used sustainably—will provide economic benefits in the long-run comparable to that of the conventional and unsus- In May, 2011, the judges at the flower show awarded a tainable alternatives, such as cattle and sheep ranching, or gold medal to a South African exhibit of stunning plants wheat farming. picked from the Agulhas Plain and other areas in the Cape Floral Kingdom. This global center of plant diversity over- The Agulhas Biodiversity Initiative, a broad effort to improve looks the junction of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the conservation and sustainable use in the Agulhas Plain, is one southernmost tip of Africa. The flowers and plants in the of three complementary GEF initiatives in support of the exhibit—which included the colossal King Protea, with blossoms Cape Action for People and the Environment (CAPE) part- nearly a foot in diameter, and other species representative nership program, jointly supported through the World Bank of the unique South African ecosystem known as fynbos— and UNDP, and coordinated by the South African National were picked according to a new set of standards designed Biodiversity Institute. GEF financing in the Cape Region is to ensure a sustainable harvest of these natural treasures. aimed at strengthening the ability of individuals, institutions, Flower Valley 93 and government to test and carry out new types of conserva- endangered, or vulnerable, and at least 29 species have tion and development in a variety of ecological and socio- already become extinct. economic conditions. The rich biodiversity of the Cape Region provides for a The CAPE Programme seeks to conserve the biodiver- multitude of essential ecological services and livelihood oppor- sity of the Cape Floral Kingdom while creating significant tunities. However, over 80 percent of the 275,000 hectares of social and economic benefits. This region is the smallest and the Agulhas Plain is privately owned, so any strategy for the richest of the six floral kingdoms in the world, and the only conservation of this rich biodiversity needs to include local one to be found entirely within one country. In an area of communities and especially the landowners and land users. just nine million hectares the Cape Floral Kingdom contains over 9,000 species of plants, nearly 70 percent of which are With national partners, including South African National found nowhere else on earth. More than 1,400 species in Parks (SANParks), the GEF and UNDP launched ABI to explore the Cape Floral Kingdom are listed as being critically rare, innovative ideas and to secure the Agulhas National Park, which was created in 1996 and is the largest protected area in the vicinity. The Park, like much of the region, had been invaded by exotic plants which were choking out the native fynbos and leading to catastrophic wildfires. Under ABI, land D managers tested new methods of clearing and containing these invasive and highly combustible alien species. Most importantly, ABI gave its partner organizations the chance to work with private landowners and disenfranchised local evolved, collective communities to find economic benefits in the sustainable use of the biodiversity of the Agulhas Plain. landholder conservation An important step came in 1999, when a 530 hectare farm is a powerful idea. It provides enormous in the Plain called Flower Valley was on the verge of being sold and potentially converted to vineyards, which would advantages, including the management have wiped out another parcel of native fynbos. Instead, Flora & Fauna International intervened to buy the land, and of landscapes over much larger areas, donated it to the newly created Flower Valley Conservation Trust. Flower Valley Farm became a testing ground for new economies of scale, the control of methods for meeting the challenges of ecologically, economi- unsustainable activities through peer cally, and socially sustainable use of the fynbos biome.3 pressure rather than prohibitively ABI and its partners, including the Trust, recognized the need to strengthen the scientific basis for sustainable harvesting, expensive and unwanted top-down to promote social responsibility and compliant production systems, and to develop markets to manage sustainable fynbos regulation, and greater ef�cacy of flower products such as bouquets. Ultimately, through this work and the resulting economic incentive, the harvesting service delivery. of fynbos has become an important conservation mecha- nism in the region. The Code of Best Practice for sustainable wild harvesting is now complete, along with a vulnerability 3. A biome is a large geographical area with distinct plant and animal groups adapted to that particular climate; examples include tundra, taiga, grasslands, savanna and desert. 94 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Protea of the Floral Kingdom, South Africa Flower Valley 95 index for 71 harvested species and 79 species with harvest and thus would justify a premium price on the flowers of potential (only 150 of some 2,000 species are commercially Flower Valley. Consumers, however, have not shown a will- harvested). Seven suppliers have been trained and certified ingness to pay more for certified flowers, so retail chains are to sell flowers, and a formal national certification system is not willing to pay suppliers more, either. For wild harvested now in the making. fynbos, at least, the value of certification appears to lie not in price premiums but in preferential market access and year- In its early years, the Trust, as a non-profit organization, round demand. While the project has been unable to secure struggled with complex commercial challenges such as linking premium prices for sustainably harvested fynbos flowers, it flower pickers and property owners. In response, in 2003 the has secured a direct market with major retailers, reducing Trust and private investors created an independent for-profit payments to middlemen and increasing returns to farmers. company called Fynsa to handle the commercial matters These direct markets would not have materialized without and to find markets for sustainably harvested wild fynbos the sustainable production and verification systems devel- purchased from certified suppliers. oped under the project. Aligning the goals of a start-up, for-profit business with In another unexpected turn, despite progress made in developing new ethical and ecological sustainable approaches the development of a system for certifying fynbos harvesters posed some serious challenges. Nevertheless, Fynsa struck and securing certified markets, the Flower Valley Programme a deal with the European retailer Marks & Spencer and has not demonstrated that wildflower harvesting is viable as supplied the luxury retailer with over 330,000 bouquets the sole land use for landowners in this area. Rather, it has in 2006. More recently, Fynsa completed a similar agree- shown that there is value for the landowner in holding on to ment with Pick ‘n Pay, a large supermarket chain in South virgin fynbos land for harvesting as a complementary land- Africa, and is now in the process of expanding to include use option in a mixed farming enterprise. other South African retailers and another major retailer in the UK. The deal with Marks & Spencer has provided Fynsa The partners of ABI continue to work on ways to address with a steady, reliable demand for its fynbos bouquets, the troubling question of how to make biodiversity part of increasing employment and providing a year-round income. the economic foundation for the Cape and indeed all of Fynsa now buys flowers from harvesters working on private South Africa. The project made great strides towards a biodi- lands covering over 30,000 hectares, and the income and versity economy through the Nuwejaars Wetland Special steady market provides an incentive for the private land Management Area, northeast of Agulhas National Park, owners to conserve biodiversity. with financing secured from the Government of Germany’s International Climate Initiative. There, 25 private landowners Through stewardship agreements with landowners and and the community of Elim made binding commitments to the expansion of the Agulhas National Park, ABI helped to conservation management of their land. They are finding secure the protection of 102,000 hectares, or 37 percent of new ways to protect the ecologically important Nuwejaars the Agulhas Plain. At least 40 percent of this surface area is Wetland while retaining their farms and ranches. The commu- on privately owned productive landscapes, reinforcing the nity has undertaken collective action to remove invasive alien important role of the agricultural sector to conservation. By species, restore natural fire regimes, rehabilitate wetlands, the end of the project, the area of properties harvested by and reintroduce wildlife—including buffalo, a species not certified suppliers was expected to double to 120,000 hectares. seen in the region in two centuries, and hippo, missing from the area for 150 years. The Flower Valley Programme demonstrates that biodi- versity can be an economic resource, but it did not work This development of stakeholder-driven collective action exactly as planned. The Programme began with the assump- is a new form of conservation in South Africa. Devolved, tion that green certification would show consumers that a collective landholder conservation is a powerful idea. It particular product has been produced in a sustainable way provides enormous advantages, including the management 96 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies School children attending parade. Cape Town, South Africa South Africa Dyer Island, South Africa Flower Valley 97 of landscapes over much larger areas, economies of scale, the control of unsustainable activities through peer pressure rather than prohibitively expensive and unwanted top-down regulation, and greater efficacy of service delivery. This model is ideally aligned to South Africa’s need to expand conserva- tion onto private and communal land. The project’s work in Nuwejaars is demonstrating how collective landholder action can transform land use practices, creating approaches that are more dependent on sustaining biodiversity, eco-tourism and carbon- and energy-neutral production. The challenges for efforts like ABI and, more broadly, the CAPE Programme are clear. South Africa’s national and provin- cial parks are threatened by landscape processes that extend far beyond their boundaries. The future of the parks thus depends on an equally broad approach to conservation, one that emphasizes connectivity across the landscape, particularly in the face of climate change and economic globalization. Protected areas must be both ecologically and economi- cally viable, and that will require far deeper understanding of conservation economics and governance. In light of these challenges and to address the growing isolation of parks, ABI partner SANParks developed a draft buffer zone policy. According to Tertius Carinus, Project Coordinator of the SANParks Cape Region Buffer Zone Project, “ABI provided a solution on how the management [of protected and productive areas] can be linked. We, as the ABI related staff, have now been taken up in SANParks as part of the “new� Buffer Zone approach in SANParks. This new approach gives SANParks a policy mandate to work off- reserve,� which will reduce the threats to the ecosystems in both the protected reserves and the productive areas. An economy based on the economic management of public goods and environmental services like water, aesthetic values, and carbon does not yet exist in South Africa, or just about anywhere else. Yet ABI and the CAPE Programme are important tests of new models of conservation beyond protected areas and of linkages between state and private conservation. Such efforts are vital demonstrations that biodi- versity protection, income generation, and job creation can be complementary aims. Cape Town region, South Africa 98 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Flower Valley 99 Lambert’s Bay, South Africa 100 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Child, B. 2010. Independent Terminal Evaluation of the ‘UNDP- http://www.capeaction.org.za/index.php?C=bio&P=8 GEF CAPE Agulhas Biodiversity Initiative (ABI). http://www.undp.org/gef/portfolio/writeups/bd/abi.html http://www.flowervalley.org.za/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_ Nuwejaars Wetland Landowners Association. 2011. Towards vision_mission&cause_id=1866 a Sustainable Agulhas Plain. Nuwejaars Wetland SMA Project http://www.fauna-flora.org/closerlook/flower-valley- Report. conservation-trust/ http://www.fauna-flora.org/news/sustainable-fynbos-harvesting- Rands, MRW et al. 2010. Biodiversity Conservation: Challenges introduced-to-chelsea-flower-show/ Beyond 2010. Science 239: 1298-1303. http://www.marksandspencer.com/Marks-and-Spencer-Flora- Bouquet/dp/B0028C2NIU Tortell, P. 2010. C.A.P.E. Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development Project Terminal Evaluation Report Flower Valley 101 Cheetah, Namibia C H A P T E R 11 National Parks and the New Economy Thousands of years ago, the Nama from the cold Benguela current in the south Atlantic. Some of these creatures are small, like the so-called fog beetles that people of what is now southern Namibia spread their hardened outer wings into the damp breeze and described the enormous desert that drink the tiny drops of water that condense on the bumpy stretches for 1,500 kilometers along the surface and roll down into their mouths. Other animals in the Namib are quite large, including oryxes, springboks, Atlantic coast with a stark but telling word; ostriches, even desert elephants and lions. All have evolved they called it simply Namib, or “vast place.� unique and often extraordinary techniques to survive in the harsh Namib environment. For the GEF and its partners, the Namib and the Cape Floral Kingdom to the south represent examples of a vast While creatures of the Namib can subsist on fog and challenge — to find ways to conserve huge landscapes while endure scorching temperatures, species living in northeastern also crafting a unifying vision of a country’s protected areas Namibia face the opposite challenge, as the climate there as both priceless biological assets and as engines of a new produces nearly 600 millimeters of rain per year. This diversity economy. Addressing this issue head-on, the Government of of climate, topography, and plant and animal species makes Namibia, the GEF, and UNDP joined forces to craft a project Namibia a priority for biodiversity conservation. Scientists called Strengthening the Protected Area Network (SPAN). recognize 28 different vegetation types in Namibia, many that occur only here or in adjacent areas. Approximately 75 The Namib has been dry for some 56 million years, longer percent of the mammal species richness of southern Africa than any other desert on Earth. The arid millennia have weath- exists in Namibia, with 14 endemic species. Namibia has also ered the soils of the Namib, creating spectacular seas of sand been an evolutionary hub for certain groups of organisms dunes that can tower 300 meters over the desert floor. With including melons, succulent plants, solifuges (also called just a few millimeters of rain each year, the barren landscape false spiders), geckos, and tortoises. appears devoid of life. Yet a startling array of species have evolved to survive here, many by finding ways to capture Long ago, well before the colonial era, Namibia recog- moisture from the dense fog that frequently moves inland nized the importance of this rich natural heritage and began National Parks and the New Economy 103 efforts to protect it. In 1907, during German colonial rule, C Etosha became the country’s first National Park and was at the time the largest game reserve in the world. Those efforts accelerated following independence in 1990. The Government went so far as to address habitat conservation and protection of natural resources explicitly in the new onservation is in our constitution. As a result, the Government’s conservation efforts have made the country a stronghold for popula- hands, the animals are tions of large animals such as the black rhinoceros, with almost a third of the world’s population, and the cheetah. in our hands. We must try to protect The system of state-managed protected areas forms the them, as this will eradicate poverty cornerstone of Namibia’s conservation program. The protected area network encompasses 20 sites, including Namib-Naukluft in communities, and we should National Park, which is larger than Switzerland and protects protect animals so that future most of the desert and the adjoining Naukluft Mountains. All told, Namibia’s protected areas cover 17 percent of the coun- generations will also be able to try’s land area — by comparison neighboring South Africa protects about 7 percent; the United States, which invented the see species such as rhino. concept of the national park, has set aside about 12 percent. Until the SPAN project began in 2006, the protected area system, despite its large size, was not wholly representa- tive of the country’s diverse ecosystems and habitats. For instance, the succulent karoo, the northern savannas and the miombo woodlands remained largely outside the protected area system. The system also lacked internal cohesiveness and connectivity, with too many small and isolated protected areas. This can lead to the fragmentation of wildlife popula- The SPAN project helped the Government to address tions, excess damage from tourism activity, costly manage- these threats and fill gaps in the system. The project assisted ment and enforcement of poaching laws, higher vulnerability the Government’s formal launch of activities in three new to alien species invasion, more bush fires, and over use of protected areas. The largest is the two million hectare water and biological resources. Sperrgebiet National Park, which extends southward from Namib-Naukuft and covers more than 1.5 million hectares The sites within the protected area network faced the of the succulent karoo biome. That single addition to the further challenge of insufficient financial resources. The protected area system increased the representation of succu- shortfall limited the management effectiveness of the parks, lent karoo from just over 10 percent to more than 90 percent. thereby threatening the ecosystem services and biodiversity In north-eastern Namibia, the project also helped to formalize that they seek to protect. Before SPAN began, the annual the creation of Bwabwata National Park in 2007. With support budget of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism for park from the project, the Government addressed the problem of management was approximately US$7 million, a fraction of the small protected areas by consolidating two small reserves, the funds necessary to adequately manage the system. The Mahango and Caprivi Game Parks, and adding a strip of Government in fact did not know the actual cost of managing biodiversity-rich land on the Kwado River, a major wildlife parks, making effective planning impossible. corridor between Botswana and Angola. 104 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies White rhinoceros, South Africa National Parks and the New Economy 105 Beyond establishing protected areas, Namibia has taken to do so, a concerted national effort could yield even more a further important step, one that may yet prove to be a impressive results. model for the rest of the world for land and resource protec- tion. Namibia is showing how protected areas contribute The Ministry used these study results to negotiate an to a nation’s broader economy. In part, this approach is a increase in the state budget for park management and child of necessity. Although the human population density development by 300 percent over the last four years. The of Namibia is amongst the lowest in Africa, the lack of water government also earmarked 25 percent of park entrance makes agriculture — the mainstay of most African econo- revenue for reinvestment in the protected area system mies — difficult, if not impossible, in much of the country. through a trust fund, providing up to US$2 million addi- Under these circumstances, natural resource-based activi- tional financing per year. ties, including wildlife production and management made possible by the areas under protection, represent sound The economic analysis of the protected area system also economic as well as ecological use of land. led to successful negotiation of a large amount of additional donor funding for those areas, including US$15 million from The old habit of placing little or no value on the economic Germany and a US$67 million grant from the U.S. Government’s benefits of protected areas dies hard. Prior to the SPAN Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to build protected project, even a government as conservation-conscious as area infrastructure and strengthen community-based nature Namibia did not fully realize the economic importance of its tourism. This investment is expected to create 6,000 new protected areas, and thus tended to rate investing in those jobs. A large part of the MCA grant — US$40.5 million — areas a low priority. To change that outlook, Namibia’s Ministry was a direct investment in the management infrastructure of Environment and Tourism used the SPAN project as a of Etosha National Park, marking the first time that an MCA catalyst, and undertook a comprehensive economic analysis poverty alleviation grant was awarded to a biodiversity- of the protected area system in 2004 (when SPAN was in its based tourism project as an investment in parks. Clearly the development phase). The results were striking: looking only US Government has recognized, as Namibia Government at park-based tourism and leaving aside other ecosystem did before it, that a well-managed protected area network services provided by the system, the study determined that can, and must play, a significant role in poverty alleviation. the protected area system contributed up to six percent of Namibia’s GDP. The study also found that the economic The importance of demonstrating the value of protected rate of return on the government investment over 20 years areas to local communities has long been clear in Namibia. was as much as 23 percent, and that further investment in The country has a strong community-based natural resource protected areas could lead those areas to contribute up to management conservancy program that gives user rights 15 percent of GDP over the next two decades. to the communities that live in the conservancies. Wildlife conservancies, which particularly benefit the rural popu- Although not typically considered a “sector� of the economy lation, have become one of the fastest growing areas of on the list of national accounts, purchases of services by economic development in the country. Most conservancies foreign tourists make up nearly a quarter of the total value and private reserves cater simultaneously to conservation of Namibia’s exports of goods and services. Tourism is thus and productive uses of land, such as livestock husbandry one of Namibia’s most important industries, and it largely and farming. They act as buffers to the protected area depends on wildlife, as nearly 70 percent of the tourism system, providing a transition zone from more intensive to dollars are spent on nature-based tourism, according to less intensive land uses. the study. The total economic impact of protected area tourism increased from approximately US$240 million in The conservancies and protected areas on private and 2003 to some US$317 million in 2008. An important corol- communal lands form crucial parts of the conservation effort lary of this analysis was that if protected areas can deliver in Namibia, as 80 percent of country’s population of large solid economic returns without a deliberate national policy game animals occur outside of the state protected areas. 106 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Opuwo, Namibia National Parks and the New Economy 107 Namibia The populations of game animals on private and communal animals are in our hands. We must try to protect them, as lands have increased dramatically since the creation of new this will eradicate poverty in communities, and we should property rights systems. protect animals so that future generations will also be able to see species such as rhino.� People like Johnson Tjirikombanda Vejorerako have seen the changes. One of the longest serving park rangers The GEF-funded and UNDP-supported SPAN project has in Etosha National Park, Vejorerako grew up on the park’s helped pay the salaries of dedicated field staff like Vejorerako, western edge, helping his family graze cattle alongside wild- people who form the foundation of lasting conservation and life. He believes the Government’s conservancy program has who understand the role that local communities must play. improved conservation efforts. The project has fostered innovative thinking and built trust about the role of protected areas in Namibia and beyond. The “Now the animals are like people’s cattle and they have project has helped demonstrate the role that protected areas a reason to look after them as they receive benefits from can play in both conservation and economic development, them,� Vejorerako says. “Conservation is in our hands, the and what steps are required to turn that potential into reality. 108 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies African lion, Namibia National Parks and the New Economy 109 Namibian Desert 110 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Chapeyama, O., and W. Schalken. 2009. Strengthening the Turpie, J., J. Barnes, G-M Lange, and R. Martin. 2010. The Protected Area Network. Mid-term Evaluation. UNDO and GEF. Economic Value of Namibia’s Protected Area System: A Case November 2009 for Increased Investment. Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Namibia. February 2010 Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Namibia. 2010.State of Protected Areas in Namibia: A Review of progress and Turpie, J., G-M Lange, R. Martin, R. Davies, and J. Barnes. 2004. challenges. Economic Analysis and Feasibility Study for Financing. SPAN. December 2004 SPAN Project. 2006–2009. Sandpaper (No 1–16) Namibia Constitution, Article 95, Chapter 11, 1990. Turpie. J., J. Barnes, M. de Longcamp, M. Paxton. 2010. Sustainable Financing Plan for Namibia’s Protected Area Namibia’s Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment System. Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Namibia. and Economic Growth. (TIPEEG), 2010. February 2010 National Parks and the New Economy 111 Mato Grosso, Brazil C H A P T E R 12 Protected Areas and More in the Amazon In 1998, the President of Brazil, nearly unbroken blanket of green unrolling beneath them, hour after hour. In Brazil alone, the Legal Amazon Region Fernando Henrique Cardoso, surprised — an area covering the northern states of Amazonas, Pará, his country and the world with a bold Acre, Amapá, Tocantins, Roraima, and Rondônia, plus part announcement: Brazil would set aside of the states of Mato Grosso and Maranhão — occupies over four million square kilometers of land, an area that would 10 percent of its forests in protected areas, make it the seventh largest country in the world. This vast a commitment of 25 million hectares, about expanse contains approximately 30 percent of the planet’s remaining tropical rain forest, and is estimated to contain half the size of France, most of it tropical carbon stores of 120 billion tons. rainforest in the Amazon. Near Brazil’s border with Suriname and French Guiana, That pledge set the stage for the Amazon Region the landscape changes. Here the endless swaths of green Protected Areas Program, or ARPA, the most ambitious are punctuated by dramatic granite outcroppings that tropical forest conservation programs ever attempted. Over rise thousands of feet above the forest canopy. This is the the past decade, ARPA has become a touchstone for the Guiana Shield, one of the most biologically diverse ecore- GEF and has demonstrated the interconnections between gions on Earth, and one of the most remote. In 2002, this biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation, provi- area became a landmark for conservation with the creation sion of ecosystem services, and economic security for the of Tumucumaque National Park, the world’s largest tropical people of the Amazon region. forest national park. The vast size of the Amazon beggars all description, even At over 40,000 square kilometers, Tumucumaque is larger after decades of land fever has cleared forest for ranches, than Belgium, and while scattered illegal mines can be found, farms, and settlements in an arc of deforestation that stretches it has no roads and almost no human inhabitants. With its across Brazil from southwest to northeast. Travelers on vast size and relatively pristine condition, Tumucumaque commercial flights over the Amazon basin can still see a offers a rare opportunity to conserve an intact tropical forest Protected Areas and More in the Amazon 113 community of remarkable diversity. This single reserve supports at least 800 plant species, 366 birds, 207 fishes, and over 100 mammals (including 48 species of bats). Among these are such rare and endangered creatures as giant river otters, giant armadillos, tapirs, bush dogs, red-handed tamarins, and a rare, threatened tree known as the serpentwood. The creation of Tumucumaque was one of the most public successes of ARPA, launched in 2002 with a US$30 million grant by the GEF and implemented by the World Bank, with the equivalent of over US$50 million in co-financing provided by the German bilateral funding agency Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the World Wildlife Fund, the Government of Brazil, and other donors. ARPA set out to help Brazil ensure comprehensive protection of its majority portion of the Amazon by increasing the number of strictly conserved areas, improving their management, and also creating new areas dedicated to the sustainable use of forest resources. By the time ARPA began, efforts to coordinate and imple- ment environmental policies in the Brazilian Amazon had been lagging for years. In the 1990’s, annual deforestation rates in Brazil were around 17,000 square kilometers and corresponded to average annual emissions of 200 million tons of carbon. Annual deforestation peaked in 2004 at Brazilian Amazon approximately 27,000 square kilometers. The extent of the Amazon basin, lack of managerial capacity and resources, powerful forestry and mining interests, and poverty in the region have historically stymied regional and national reforms. For a sense of the scale of the challenge, consider that Even a decade ago, the Brazilian government spent less a comparable protected area network, the National Park than US$3.5 million per year to manage 30 protected areas System in the United States, has been in development for in the Amazon. 130 years yet is less than half the size of the APRA reserves and has been vastly more costly to create. Few protected ARPA set out to significantly change that situation, and do area systems face the daunting issues ARPA has had to so completely and in relatively short order. While protected overcome, including enforcement of environmental laws in areas are not always the right tool for conservation in every remote areas, effectively addressing the needs and aspira- context, in the Amazon, protecting large, contiguous areas of tions of rural people for improved livelihoods, and valuing forest has proven to be effective in both conserving biodiver- and funding conservation activities against the wider back- sity and in maintaining crucial ecosystem services, particularly drop of ongoing resource exploitation. reducing carbon emissions from deforestation, preventing floods and soil erosion, and regulating regional and perhaps Despite the obstacles, ARPA has made nearly unequaled even global rainfall and temperature. ARPA thus set out progress. ARPA initially set an ambitious goal of protecting a goal at once simple to state and profoundly difficult to 12 million hectares of forest; by 2008 it had reached twice achieve: Create the most ambitious tropical forest national that, with 24 million hectares in 44 new protected areas. Of protected area system in the world. that total, approximately 13.2 million hectares are under strict 114 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies A RPA has become a touchstone for the GEF and has demonstrated the interconnections between biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation, provision of ecosystem services, and economic security for the people of the Amazon region. ARPA initially set an ambitious goal of protecting 12 million hectares of forest; by 2008 it had reached twice that, with 24 million hectares in 44 new protected areas. preservation protection while 10.8 million hectares are in understates the species in the Amazon, ARPA has still protected sustainable use reserves. All told, the project supports 62 a significant representative sample of the region’s biodi- protected areas, nearly a third of all protected areas in the versity. ARPA protected areas contain at least 56 species Brazilian Amazon, and helps fund efforts to improve park that are threatened with extinction, and since 2001, scien- management for more than eight million hectares of strict tists have discovered 35 species new to science in ARPA preservation areas. supported areas, including a striking, orange-sideburned monkey called Prince Bernhard’s titi (Callicebus bernhardi); What do all the newly protected areas mean for biodi- the cryptic forest falcon (Micrastur mintoni); and the Pará versity in the Amazon? In broad terms, ARPA protects 16 out thin-toed frog (Leptodactylus paraensis). of 19 forest ecosystems in the Brazilian Amazon, five out of six floodplain ecosystems, and all four savanna types. An ARPA draws on a diverse set of institutional partners, analysis of 39 of the protected areas supported by ARPA from the Brazilian non-profit organization FUNBIO to the found over 11,400 species of plants and animals. One esti- Ministry of the Environment and state government agencies mate of the total species diversity in the Amazon puts the to international donors and organizations, civil society, scien- figure at just over 45,000 species, suggesting that ARPA tific advisors, and international and domestic experts. This alone may protect fully one-fourth of the region’s diversity partnership across the grassroots, national, and international of life. Even if, as seems likely, the earlier estimate severely levels reflects a new, participatory approach to protected Protected Areas and More in the Amazon 115 area management and conservation that is proving to be a Protected areas are also the most cost-effective means global model. For example, ARPA has helped create local of reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and are protected area committees, as required under Brazilian thus a sound investment. The cost of decreasing emissions law, to bring communities into the process of creating and from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is estimated as managing reserves, and has helped strengthen the ability US$1 to $2 per ton of CO2 equivalent. This includes paying of five state governments (Mato Grosso, Acre, Tocantins, for programs benefiting local communities within forests Rondônia and Amazonas) to conserve their own state protected and other ecosystems, opportunity costs, plus law enforce- areas. ARPA’s efforts to institutionalize the political will for ment and further financial support for protected areas. By the conservation and increase support for conservation goals conservative estimate of the Brazilian Government, Amazonian as part of the mandate for state governance is an important rainforest contains 100 tons of carbon per hectare, so the contribution to state capacity in the Amazon. cost would be US$100-$200 per hectare. ARPA, however, demonstrated that protected areas can achieve the same But the creation of strictly protected areas alone is not result for just US$10 dollars per hectare. enough. About half of ARPA protected areas are extractive reserves and sustainable development reserves that directly Investment in protected areas brings multiple benefits. benefit local human communities. The project has been It decreases emissions at less cost than other options while instrumental in promoting the sustainable use of natural generating revenue. The economic profits from creating and resources associated with the protection of culturally and strengthening protected areas is estimated to reach tens of socially important livelihoods —thus helping prevent even billions of dollars by 2050, once the other benefits of leaving more damaging economic activities from taking root. The the forests standing — such as preventing flooding and soil economic gains, in turn, are helping to deliver global envi- erosion, regulating temperature and rainfall, ecotourism, cultural ronmental services, including climate change mitigation. values, scientific research, and so on — are taken into account. As the world looks to protect the Amazon as a globally During the second of three planned phases of ARPA, to essential carbon sink, ARPA has been an important showcase last from 2010 until 2014, the overall target for the project have for the types of mechanisms needed for successful action. been expanded to cover those ecosystem services as well. The 62 protected areas supported by ARPA are preserving The spatial extent will also increase, to a total of 60 million a forest carbon stock of about 4.6 billion tons of carbon hectares of the Brazilian Amazon. (18 percent of the total stock protected in the Amazon), almost twice that required for emissions reduction under ARPA represents not only the world’s largest conserva- the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol. Models based on a tion program in protected areas but a crucial component of small part of ARPA (13 protected areas created between a sustainable future for the Amazon. The project has demon- 2003 and 2007) showed that around 1.1 billion tons of strated the economic value of biodiversity and protected carbon could be saved from emissions until 2050. Similar areas. It has shown that dramatic expansion of biodiversity studies showed that the total of Brazilian Amazon protected conservation is not only possible in the tropics, but that such areas could be responsible for saving some eight billion expansion can be part of broader efforts to bring biodiversity tons of carbon. and ecosystem services into local and national economies. 116 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Vicinity of Manaus, Brazil Protected Areas and More in the Amazon 117 Hyacinth macaw, Brazilian Amazon 118 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies ARPA ranger house, Brazilian Amazon Protected Areas and More in the Amazon 119 ARPA floating station, Brazilian Amazon 120 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources ARPA. 2010 — Biodiversity. Prepared for CBD COP-10, Nagoya Deus, P. Puertas, H. L. de Queiroz, E. Suárez, M. Varese, E. M. Venticinque, R.Wallace (2008) Landscape Conservation in the ARPA. 2010 — Deforestation and Climate Change. Prepared for Amazon Region: Progress and Lessons, WCS Working Paper CBD COP-10, Nagoya No. 34. Bozeman: Wildlife Conservation Society. Ricketts et al. 2010. Indigenous Lands, Protected Areas, and Fearnside, Philip M. (2009): Brazil’s environmental policies for Slowing Climate Change. PLoS Biology 8(3): 1-4 the Amazon: Lessons from the last 20 years. Contribution for the panel on “Models of Development: An Analysis of the Ryland and Brandon. 2005. Brazilian Protected Areas. Last 20 Years of Public Policies for the Amazon Region� in the Conservation Biology 19: 612-618 conference on “Environmental Policy, Social Movements, and Science for the Brazilian Amazon,� University of Chicago. 5-6 Soares-Filho et al, (2008): Reduction of carbon emissions November 2009. associated with deforestation in Brazil: the role of the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA) Hall, Anthony, (2004): Extractive Reserves: Building Natural Assets in the Brazilian Amazon Soares-Filho et al. (2006): Modelling conservation in the Amazon basin. Nature 440:520-23. Laurance William F. (2005): When bigger is better: the need for Amazonian mega-reserves. Trends in Ecology and Evolution World Bank. 2009. Implementation Completion and Results 20(12): 645-48 Report on Grant from the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund in the Amount of USD 30 million to the Fundo Brasileiro Painter, M., A. R. Alves, C. Bertsch, R. Bodmer, O. Castillo, A. Para Biodiversidade (FUNBIO for an Amazon Region Protected Chicchón, F. Daza, F. Marques, A. Noss, L. Painter, C. Pereira de Areas Project. Protected Areas and More in the Amazon 121 SGP program — Wisata coral farm in Indonesia C H A P T E R 13 Conservation and Development in the Coral Triangle Legend has it that centuries ago a Triangle is home to more than 150 million people, half of whom rely on marine resources as their primary source of flood washed away a princess from Johor, protein. This area supports the largest tuna fisheries in the Malaysia. world, which generate billions of dollars in global income every year. The spectacular reefs and blue waters draw tour- In his grief, her father ordered his subjects to sea, to return ists from around the world. In the Philippines alone, annual only when they had found his daughter. So goes the creation tourism revenues top US$4.5 billion, at least US$1 billion myth of the Bajau, a Malay people who are among the world’s of which is tied to coastal and marine venues. All told, the last sea nomads. value of fisheries, tourism, and shoreline protection from coral reefs, mangroves, and associated habitats is estimated A few Bajau still live in the traditions of their ancestors, to be US$2.3 billion annually. working ancient trade routes among the scattered islands of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This is part of the The Bajau offer a window into how such statistics about Coral Triangle, a region spanning six countries and nearly the value of ecosystems translate into the real lives of people six million square kilometers encompassing the oldest and directly dependent on nature. Far from the tuna, or shrimp, richest coral system on Earth boats or tourist enclaves; Bajau fishers, who are skilled free divers, hunt with homemade goggles and spear guns at depths Some Bajau are born at sea in narrow, high-prowed vessels of 30 meters or more. They have also adopted more modern called lepa-lepa, coming ashore only occasionally to trade and more destructive fishing methods, including dynamite pearls, fish, or sea cucumber for rice, water, or other neces- and potassium cyanide. The poison stuns grouper and other sities. Government programs have resettled many of the reef fish in high demand for the restaurant trade, then the Bajau to villages built on stilts — these communities, some cyanide settles onto the coral and kills it. of them as much as a kilometer from shore — dot the islands. The widespread use of such techniques, hardly limited Whether nomadic or sedentary, the Bajau depend entirely to the Bajau, has led to the destruction of reefs across the on the sea as do many people in this region. The Coral Coral Triangle: Eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, the Conservation and Development in the Coral Triangle 123 Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Solomon than twice the number found on reefs elsewhere. Healthy reef Islands, specifically the Sulu Sea and inland waters of the systems also help buffer coastal communities from surf and Philippines, Celebes/Sulawesi Sea, Java Sea, Flores Sea, tidal extremes caused by severe storms and tsunamis. Banda Sea and parts of the Pacific Ocean extending to the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Through Just as ARPA illustrates how the Amazon forests are crucial the millennia, genetic diversity from two oceans has been components of a sustainable future, so too the protection mixing in this region characterized by extremely complex of reefs and mangroves in the Coral Triangle will be vital bathymetric and oceanographic features, including deep to help people in the region adapt to climate change and troughs, upwellings, strong currents, and shallow shelves. secure their future. In late 2007, the six governments of the Coral Triangle — Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, The Coral Triangle, also known as the “nurseries of the seas,� the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste — agreed is the global center of marine biodiversity, holding more than to establish a new international partnership to conserve coral 75 percent of the known coral species, six of seven species reefs and the multitude of species and fisheries they support. of marine turtle, and about 3,000 species of reef fish — more In May of 2009, the six nations gathered at the Coral Triangle Initiative Summit in Manado, Indonesia, where the Heads of states signed a historic declaration adopting a 10-year plan of action to avert the growing threats to the region’s coral reefs, fish, mangroves, vulnerable species, and other vital marine and coastal living resources. T The Coral Triangle Initiative derives from high-level political commitments and proactive implementation by governments of the Coral Triangle area, supported by multilateral and bilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), he effort in the Coral and private sector partners. The six countries have chosen to address in partnership the management, conservation and Triangle aligns with adaptation to climate change of the tuna fisheries and coral ecosystems in that region. international efforts to improve So far, the GEF is the largest contributor of funds to the trawl �sheries and may offer Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI). Planning of the GEF program for the Coral Triangle was led by the participating countries important lessons on what and it was assisted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the coordinating agency, and four other GEF agencies: FAO, measures work best in managing UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank, in addition to the World bycatch, reducing waste, and thus Wildlife Fund (WWF). To support the Initiative, in 2008 the GEF began a program of US$63 million that covers biodiversity, improving �sheries resources. international waters, and adaptation to climate change activi- ties. The program has also been able to catalyze more than US$300 million of co-financing for the Initiative to conserve tuna and coral ecosystems while alleviating poverty. The GEF/ADB program in the Coral Triangle provides a framework for action on conservation of the Southeast Asia portion of the Coral Triangle and support the region’s 124 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Flat worm, SGP coral farm project, Indonesia Clown �sh, SGP coral farm project, Indonesia Conservation and Development in the Coral Triangle 125 Terumbu Disekitar, SGP coral farm project, Indonesia sustainable development. The effort includes establishing partners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the national and sub-regional governance frameworks and regional private sector. The initiative brings together for the first mechanisms to address threats to marine resource systems, time all the partners needed to mobilize action in the coun- and strengthening capacity of key institutions responsible tries of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The sustainable for coastal and marine resources management, especially management of these resources is crucial to ensure that at the national and local levels. an adequate supply of food exists to directly sustain 120 million people living along the coastlines. The program helps countries in the Coral Triangle expand national Marine Protected Areas (MPA) and Marine Managed The GEF program supports more than 10 projects in Areas (MMA) networks. But as in the case of Namibia’s the six participating countries. Among them is a US$3.88 protected areas, the size of the area protected is not the only million grant to restore productive capacity of critical water- issue. The program also helps develop adaptive management sheds, enhance biodiversity conservation and protected strategies in response to climate change impacts. It supports area networks and reduce poverty of dependent commu- these strategies by creating mechanisms for coordinated nities in selected watersheds in the Philippines. It is being and sustainable financing of these efforts, including inputs implemented by the ADB and includes cofinancing of from governments, multilateral and bilateral development US$103 million. 126 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sangihe Beach, North Sulawesi, Indonesia Conservation and Development in the Coral Triangle 127 This recently launched project envisions integrated special turtle extruder devices designed to keep the crea- natural resources management of watershed resources in tures out of the nets. Smaller-scale trawl operators make the upper river basins. The goal is to optimize economic and use of nearly all their catch, selling the low-value fish for ecological benefits for national development, social equity, aquaculture or local markets. Faced with declining catches and enhanced quality of life, especially for the poor local of larger and more valuable species, pinched by rising fuel communities. These efforts will slow the degradation and prices and weak access to markets, and hampered by poor overexploitation of target watersheds, and eventually lead post-harvest methods, more and more fishers in the Coral to their rehabilitation, enabling them to produce water and Triangle depend on bycatch as a source of income. other environmental goods and services on a sustainable basis. Improved watershed management will also help reduce The problems of waste, capture of juveniles and sea poverty in local and dependent communities. The project will turtles, and damage to reefs need to be addressed not help conserve globally significant biodiversity, reduce land- only in an environmental context but in the context of based pollution of coastal waters, protect carbon stocks, and poverty and food security. The GEF program is working reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. to improve the management and monitoring of bycatch in close collaboration with current resource users. Some of The GEF-funded program also aims to improve the manage- the key initiatives include: establishing bycatch manage- ment of fisheries in the Coral Triangle. The countries in the ment plans; promoting the use of more selective fishing region are among the largest fish producers in the world, gear; developing sustainable policies and practices such and the industry is an important source of employment and as zoning fishing areas; and promoting awareness of and economic growth. A significant portion of the catch comes knowledge on trawl fisheries bycatch management. The from bottom-trawling, which supplies low-value fish to be program has also helped to generate better data on the used as feed in aquaculture operations. Poorly managed overall fishing effort and capacity, bycatch trends, and bottom-trawling poses significant threats to both the envi- mapping of fishing grounds. ronment and the economy. The nets damage coral when dragged across the seabed, and they snare bycatch — fish The problem of bycatch is global. The effort in the Coral and other marine organisms that lack value because they are Triangle aligns with international efforts to improve trawl too small or are considered inedible. fisheries and may offer important lessons on what measures work best in managing bycatch, reducing waste, and thus Wasteful and destructive bycatch is an increasingly impor- improving fisheries resources. Improved management and tant problem. Some large-scale operations, for example the sustainable use of resources is the goal of the GEF’s efforts shrimp fleets in Indonesia’s Arafura Sea, simply discard what in International Waters and Large Marine Ecosystems. The they consider low-value fish. The fish killed in this process beneficiaries are not just the fish. In the Coral Triangle, may include juveniles of ecologically important and economi- regional, national, and local stakeholders — in particular cally valuable finfish, threatening the viability of an impor- the fishermen, fish workers, and communities that depend tant fishery and the livelihoods it supports. Trawlers may on healthy and sustainable fisheries for their livelihoods and also catch sea turtles unless the boats are equipped with food security — all stand to gain. 128 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Raja Ampat, Indonesia Conservation and Development in the Coral Triangle 129 nice coral reef photo of the coral triangle in Asia Raja Ampat, Indonesia 130 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Bruno JF, Selig ER (2007) Regional decline of coral cover in the Langenheim, J. 2010. The Last of the Sea Nomads. Johnny, indo-paci�c: timing, extent, and subregional comparisons. PLoS The Guardian, Friday 17 September 2010 http://www.guardian. ONE 2(8):e711 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000711 co.uk/environment/2010/sep/18/last-sea-nomads Burke, L., Selig, E. and Spalding, M. 2002. Reefs at Risk in Lymer, D., Funge-Smith, S., Clausen, J. and Miao, W. 2008. Southeast Asia. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute, 72 Status and potential of �sheries and aquaculture in Asia and pages. http://www.reefbase.org/resource_center/publication/ the Paci�c 2008. Bangkok: FAO Regional Of�ce for Asia and the main.aspx?re�d=12496 Paci�c. http://www.ap�c.org/modules/wfdownloads/single�le. php?cid=35&lid=224 Gilman, E. 2011. Bycatch governance and best practice mitigation technology in global tuna �sheries. Marine Policy Selig ER, Bruno JF, 2010 A Global Analysis of the Effectiveness 35(5): 590-609. of Marine Protected Areas in Preventing Coral Loss. PLoS ONE 5(2): e9278. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009278 Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Hoegh-Guldberg, H., Veron, J.E.N., Green, A., Gomez, E. D., Lough, J., King, M., Ambariyanto, TNC. 2009. Coral Triangle Facts, Figures and Calculations: Hansen, L., Cinner, J., Dews, G., Russ, G., Schuttenberg, H. Z., Part I Boundaries and Geographic Statistics; Part II Patterns Peñaflor, E.L., Eakin, C. M., Christensen, T. R. L., Abbey, M., of Biodiversity and Endemism. http://conserveonline.org/ Areki, F., Kosaka, R. A., Tew�k, A., Oliver, J. (2009). The Coral workspaces/tnccoraltriangle/documents/coral-triangle- Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies factsheet-and-soundbites at Risk. WWF Australia, Brisbane, 276 pp. www.panda.org/ coraltriangle Conservation and Development in the Coral Triangle 131 Humpback whale, South Africa C H A P T E R 14 The Benguela Current Hout Bay, South Africa, lies in the shadow some 3,000 kilometers along the coast from the Cape of Good Hope nearly to the Congo. The Benguela is the life-blood of Table Mountain, one of the continent’s of the southern Atlantic and a vital economic resource for most distinctive geological features and a South Africa, Namibia, and Angola. Fisheries being roughly symbol of the city of Cape Town. six times more productive than that of the North Sea, the Benguela Current supports an important global reservoir of biodiversity and biomass of zooplankton, fish, sea birds, The town of Hout Bay is in part a well-to-do suburb of that and marine mammals, while nearshore and offshore sedi- bustling city of some 3 million people and a tourist destina- ments hold rich deposits of precious minerals (particularly tion in itself. The body of water that is the town’s namesake is diamonds), as well as oil and gas reserves. also among the busiest in the Western Cape, with an active, established fishing industry. The Benguela Current is one of 64 Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) around the world (the Sulu-Sulawesi Sea in the Coral A microcosm of South Africa, Hout Bay is a complex commu- Triangle is another). These are natural regions encompassing nity, home to many ethnic groups and social classes. While coastal waters from river basins and estuaries to the seaward the commercial fishery gets most of the attention from the boundary of continental shelves and the outer margins of local and national government, a good many people of Hout coastal currents. They are relatively large regions of 200,000 Bay and from communities all along the coast of Southern square kilometers or greater, defined by their undersea Africa also depend of the sea for their lives and livelihoods. topography, or bathymetry, the depth and composition of the seabed, or hydrography, the productivity of their fish- These subsistence fishers work from small boats in pursuit eries and the make-up of their natural food chain. Across of lobster, snoek (a perch-like staple of the Cape), hottentot (a the globe, 80 percent of the global marine fisheries catch kind of sea bream endemic to southern Africa), as well as line comes from these ecosystems. fish. They must contend not only with commercial fleets and their huge trawl nets but also with changes in the Benguela Since the mid-1990s, however, annual fish catches in LMEs Current, the rich ocean upwelling that flows northward for have declined by more than 10 percent overall, representing The Benguela Current 133 millions of metric tons. Fishing down food webs, meaning A targeting and depleting the populations of successively lower levels of marine predators, together with destructive fishing gear, pollution, and habitat loss from destructive trawling and coastal aquaculture, have all been shown to contribute to the decline of marine ecosystems across the globe. Existing ngola, Namibia, and populations in many cases are today only a fraction of historical levels. The depletion of ocean fisheries and the destruction of South Africa created coastal habitats constitute globally significant environmental problems: As much as 90 percent of the large fish have been the new, ecosystem-based, Benguela removed from the oceans, and three quarters of fish stocks are fished at their maximum yield level, overfished, or depleted. Current Commission, the �rst Large Marine All of these trends threaten the food security of hundreds Ecosystem commission in the world. of millions of poor people globally, people like South Africans With more than 200 million people around Ivor Mars and Andre Prins.4 Ivor Mars has been fishing in and around Hout Bay since he was 12 years old and has seen the the world directly dependent on �sheries changes first hand. “The way we were catching fish at that time and the way they catch fish now is a big difference,� for food security, cooperative efforts like Mars says. “I don’t think there are a lot of fish left in the ocean now. In a couple of years from now there will be nothing in those supporting sustainable use of the the water left, not even a seal will be left, because they are catching everything.� Benguela Current will be essential to securing the oceans and their resources Others in the region feel the same way. “It is very disturbing to think what our future is going to be like if the people carrying and reducing poverty. on the destructive fishing keep polluting our area,� says Andre Prins, who fishes out of Saldhana Bay, about 120 kilometers north of Hout Bay. The commercial fleets, he believes, “must only are coastal and marine ecosystems at risk, but so too are change their way of fishing, change the trawl nests, change the human communities that depend on them for economic the equipment they are using to harvest the fish from the security and social stability. sea, because it is destructive, it is messing with our future, our community’s future, and just a matter of time before this Sector-by-sector approaches to economic development bomb is going to burst out. Our children’s generation is not created this crisis, which is precisely why a similar focus on so stupid. They are not illiterate. They see things.� single marine sectors (e.g. fisheries, pollution, habitat, biodi- versity) will fail to solve it. Marine ecosystems are by their The challenge, for the GEF and everyone concerned with very nature interconnected — no firm boundaries prevent addressing the problems these and other fishermen face, fish and other sea creatures from migrating, often over great both economically and in terms of the underlying environ- distances, and currents readily carry pollution far from its source. mental trends, is that the depletion of fisheries resources Recognizing the need for an ecosystem-based approach to in coastal oceans is but one symptom of mismanagement. coastal and marine systems, the GEF over the past 15 years Taking on these problems requires a comprehensive approach, has worked to create a movement in support of intergovern- addressing such issues as wasteful land practices, the pollu- mental instruments to reverse the downward spiral of coastal tion of freshwater systems, and inefficient energy use. Not and marine resources. 4. Mars and Prins quoted in Current Voices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9kqnPbn2A&feature=player_embedded 134 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Fishing trawler, South Africa The Benguela Current 135 Only collective action can cope with these transboundary migration to the coast and localized pressure on marine coastal and marine concerns, shifts in climate, the impacts and coastal resources (e.g. destruction of coastal forests of globalization, and the financial pressures they put on and mangroves) and severe pollution of some embayments. declining coastal ecosystems. The scale of economic loss facing coastal countries is at the level of trillions of dollars of The first step in building trust among the three countries ecosystem goods and services, and they are at risk through was a transboundary diagnostic analysis of the situation in failures in governance. the Benguela LME. This analysis identified and investigated the causes of negatives impacts on the region, and built In the mid 1990s, the governments of South Africa, Namibia a common framework for finding solutions. The national and Angola saw the need for collective action to conserve dialogues began the process of aligning different ministries the resources of the Benguela Current. Habitat loss, pollu- related to land and water activities to work in an integrated, tion, the unsustainable exploitation of marine and coastal ecosystem-based fashion. natural resources, and increasing problems of human and ecosystem health caused by introduced species were among As a result, in 2002, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa the issues these three nations sought to address. The govern- agreed on specific reforms and investments in an action ment requested GEF assistance with the sustainable manage- program that needed to be carried out to improve planning ment and utilization of the Benguela Current. Of primary and management of resources in the region. Since then, concern was the protection of the area’s marine life. The they have surveyed shared fisheries, reduced the by-catch nations sought to accomplish this through the development of seabirds, sharks, and turtles caught by longliners, and of methods to better predict environmental and ecosystem proposed new marine protected areas. changes, the protection of biological diversity, and strength- ened capacity to adapt to fluctuating climatic conditions that Most important of all, Angola, Namibia, and South threaten fisheries. Also on the to-do list was the reduction Africa created the new, ecosystem-based, Benguela Current of coastal and off-shore mining impacts and better manage- Commission, the first Large Marine Ecosystem commission ment of land-based pollution. in the world. The Commission, launched in 2007, demon- strates how the political commitment of three countries can South Africa, Namibia, and Angola have a tangled history combine to address ecosystem sustainability. In response, that makes cooperative management of their shared marine the GEF funded a second and final project to operationalize resources challenging indeed. Colonial powers with different the Commission and support negotiations for a legal agree- languages, cultures, and laws fought for influence in the ment, the Benguela Current Convention, among the three region and created boundaries without regard to indigenous countries to sustain its work. inhabitants and natural habitats. The colonial governments paid little attention to managing marine resources, a sorry The Convention, signed in late 2011, will be ratified in legacy inherited by the independent states. Even today, 2012. As with the Danube Convention (see Chapter 7), this the various agencies responsible for pieces of the complex binding agreement will provide the foundation for long-term puzzle that make up the offshore environment rarely coop- cooperative management of the Benguela Current LME. The erate. Mining concessions, oil and gas exploration, fishing Convention will enable the Benguela Current Commission rights and coastal development have taken place with little to fulfill its role of marrying science with management to or no proper integration or regard for other users. improve decision-making in fisheries, coastal management, mining, and energy. During the 1960s and 1970s, a profusion of foreign fleets fishing off Angola, Namibia and South Africa severely depleted Marine ecosystem projects supported by the GEF use the fisheries. At the same time, all three countries were science-based tools to provide forecasting and recom- engaged in liberation struggles and associated civil wars. mendations so that stakeholders at all levels can adapt to Consequences of these wars have been the population highly variable climate and long-term climate change. The 136 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Walvis Bay, Namibia The Benguela Current 137 Benguela environment is highly variable, prone to large-scale episodic warming events called Benguela Niños, intrusions of warm water from the east or cold water from the south, and changes in winds and salinity. All of these compound the effects of fishing and complicate the task of sustainable resource management. In addition, the Benguela Current is believed to play a significant role in global ocean and climate processes and may be an important site for the early detection of global climate change. The GEF-supported, ecosystem-based approach in the Benguela region and elsewhere is building political and stake- holder commitment to action, setting the stage for the world community to invest in capacity building and technology. The participatory process relies on sound science to generate political solutions and commitments to reverse marine degra- dation and resource depletion. With more than 200 million people around the world directly dependant on fisheries for food security, cooperative efforts like those supporting sustainable use of the Benguela Current will be essential to securing the oceans and their resources and reducing poverty. Sustainable fisheries management, pollution control, the maintenance of essential habitats, and the creation of marine reserves will prove good investments in the produc- tivity and value of the goods and services that the oceans provides to humanity. Eastern Cape Province, South Africa 138 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies The Benguela Current 139 Cape Cross, Namibia 140 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Duda, AM 2009. GEF Support for the Global Movement toward O’Toole, M.J., Shannon, V., de Barros Neto, V. and Malan, the Improved Assessment and Management of Large Marine D. 2001. Integrated Management of the Benguela Current Ecosystems. In Sustaining the World’s Large Marine Ecosystems. Region — A Framework for Future Development. 2001. In B. von Edited by Kenneth Sherman, Marie Christine Aquarone and Sara Bodungen and R.K. Turner, eds. Science and Integrated Coastal Adams Management. Dahlem University Press. 229-251. Duda, A. M. 2008. The Benguela Current Program, Global Pauly, D. et al. 1998. Fishing down marine food webs. Science Environment Facility, and International Waters. In: Hempel, 279:860-863. O’Toole, and Sweijd (eds): Benguela: Current of Plenty. Benguela Current Commission, Cape Town. pp. 86-89. Shannon, LV and M. J. O’Toole. 2003. Sustainability of the Benguela: ex Africa semper aliquid novi. In G. Hempel and K. Duda, A.M. and Sherman, K., 2002. A new imperative for Sherman, eds. Large Marine Ecosystems of the World: Trends in improving management of large marine ecosystems. Ocean & Exploitation, Protection and Research, Elsevier. 227-253. Coastal Management 45:797-833. Sherman, K., Belkin, I., Seitzinger, S., Hoagland, P., Jin, D., FAO, 2007. The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture, Aquarone, M.C., and S. Adams. 2009. Indicators of Changing 2006. Fisheries Dept. ISBN 978- 92-5-105568-7. FAO. Rome. States of Large Marine Ecosystems. In Sustaining the World’s Large Marine Ecosystems. Edited by Kenneth Sherman, Marie Jackson, J.B.C. et al. 2001. Historical over�shing and the recent Christine Aquarone and Sara Adams. IUCN. collapse of coastal ecosystems. Science 293:629-638. Sherman, K., 1994. Sustainability, biomass yields, and health of Myers, R. A. and B. Worm. 2003. Rapid worldwide depletion of coastal ecosystems: An ecological perspective. Mar. Ecol. Prog. predatory �sh communities. Nature 423:280-283. Ser., 112: 277-301. O’Toole, MJ. 2009. Ocean Governance in the Benguela Worm, B. et al. 2006. Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean Large Marine Ecosystem – Establishing the Benguela ecosystem services. Science 314: 787-79. Current Commission. In Sustaining the World’s Large Marine Ecosystems. Edited by Kenneth Sherman, Marie Christine Aquarone and Sara Adams. IUCN The Benguela Current 141 Patagonia, Argentina C H A P T E R 15 In the Land of the Patagones When the Portuguese explorer Magellan plant genera, usually represented by only a few species. The birds and mammals are also diverse, including an endemic landed in 1521 on the southern coast of plover, a burrowing parrot, Darwin’s rhea, an endemic opossum, what is now Argentina, the people living four endemic rodents called Tuco-tucos (similar to pocket there were Tehuelche Indians. gophers), and the curious Patagonian hare, a monogamous rodent of ancient South American origin. The Tehuelche tended to be tall, at least compared to Patagonia resisted permanent settlement until the late Europeans of the time, and Magellan took them to be a race 19th century, when both Chile and Argentina encouraged of giants. He called them “Patagones,� after the frightening, immigration to the area. Since then, the region has offered dog-headed character Patagon in a chivalric novel of the day. hard lessons in the consequences of overgrazing, but, more The legend that giants bestrode the land henceforth called recently has provided a lesson in how sustainable land manage- Patagonia would persist in Europe for centuries. ment can provide a foundation for both rural livelihoods and environmental protection, with global implications. The actual Tehuelche had far more prosaic lives than myth would have it. They survived the cold and arid conditions The 19th century settlers in Patagonia brought their animals in Patagonia as nomads, traveling hundreds of kilometers with them, and by 1910 the region had more than 20 million hunting guanaco that thrived on the shrubs and tuft grasses. sheep, though still relatively few people. The settlers also brought Vast and inhospitable, Patagonia stretches across more than with them from Europe and more humid parts of South America 1,500 kilometers, most of it cold, windswept, and dry. Within their assumptions about how to raise livestock. They added these generally harsh conditions, however, Patagonia hosts a animals to their herds based on what they thought the land mosaic of 11 different biozones, including arid scrub, grass- could support, but without a clear understanding of the limits lands, scrub forests, and humid zones called mallines. Both the and characteristics of the new environment. forest and the Patagonian steppe represent unique biomes. This variety of terrain and climate has led to a diversity of For a time, the flocks of sheep and the smaller herds of species, many found only here. Patagonia has six endemic cattle brought prosperity as the production of wool and meat In the Land of the Patagones 143 boomed. By the 1950s, however, the damage had begun to mount. As the flocks and herds grew, they exceeded the availability and capacity of the local ecosystems, degrading them to the point of permanent damage. Overgrazing led to the loss of native grasses and eventually to erosion, as Patagonia’s relentless winds blew away the dry and sandy soil. As more livestock concentrated into remaining areas of quality pasture, a downward spiral of land degrada- tion ensued. With a reduction in ecosystem productivity, historical management strategies were no longer appro- priate, threatening the remaining resource and making the breeders more vulnerable to fluctuations in the market. With lowered profitability and increased degradation, the majority of the small-scale, subsistence farms fell into condi- tions of extreme poverty. Patagonian sheep herds have declined to 8 million head in the last decade with almost 12 to 18 percent of the breeders abandoning their ranches, causing up to a 47 percent reduc- tion in rural employment in the Patagonian provinces with significant environmental and social effects. While sheep- rearing once provided significant inputs to regional incomes, it now represents only one percent of the region’s GDP. The loss of Patagonia’s native grasslands also means the release of significant quantities of CO2. Overgrazing causes a transition from steppe ecosystems to shrubland, with the loss of more than nine tons of carbon per hectare. Restoring — can still be saved through sensible and scientifically vali- the range conditions across Patagonia could avoid the emis- dated management. Studies on changes in plant compo- sion of more than 50 million tons of carbon. sition associated with grazing in Patagonia show that the number of species can be maintained or even rise slightly The comfortable assumption has long been that simply with moderate or intermittent levels of interventions, but not reducing the amount of livestock or abandoning ranches when this disturbance or the grazing systems are intense or altogether would reduce pressure on the land and lead permanent. Thus, moderate grazing seems not to endanger to the recovery of the ecosystem. In Patagonia, however, species composition while intense grazing does. decades of rest have not resulted in recovery nor improved the physical and biological aspects of these fragile rangelands. The GEF and UNDP are working with the Government Scientists now understand that most vegetation and soil of Argentina to spread the adoption of range management transitions are irreversible. Almost 12 percent of Patagonian technologies that will both sustain production and maintain territory — 10 million hectares, roughly the size of Egypt — the diversity and function of the local ecosystems. Under the has passed the point of no return and will never recover. mandate to improve the management of drylands through the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification The flip side of that grim statistic is that most of the (UNCCD), GEF and UNDP focused on restoring the integ- degraded land in Patagonia — 85 percent by one estimate rity, stability and functions of the rangeland ecosystems of 144 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies P roperly managed rangelands with continuous or seasonal grazing are very different from the overstocked and under-managed systems characteristic of the baseline circumstances. Cachi, Argentina Patagonia. The goal is to keep Patagonia’s unique species of intensified economic and social development, while main- and habitats, spectacular grasslands, and human communi- taining and enhancing ecological and global life-support ties resilient and sustainable. functions of land resources. On the other, it reconciles envi- ronmental issues with economic and social development by The range management technologies being applied in improving the policy, planning, and management of lands. Patagonia fall under the broad heading of sustainable land As the foundation of sustainable agriculture and land use, management, or SLM. SLM innovations include measures to SLM clearly plays an important role in poverty alleviation. increase the productivity of agricultural and forestry lands (e.g. soil quality, vegetative cover), maintain ecosystem services Combating desertification in Patagonia highlights how (e.g. carbon sequestration, water availability, erosion and flood investing in sustainable land management generates not just control, drought mitigation), and protect genetic resources local benefits but global ones as well, including reducing the (e.g. crops, livestock, wildlife). risk of carbon emission from loss of vegetation and erosion, protecting important biodiversity, and demonstrating the links By harnessing synergies and linkages between compo- between ecosystem rehabilitation and economic develop- nents within production landscapes, SLM can generate ment. When the project began in 2003, the GEF had relatively multiple global environmental and livelihood benefits. On little investment in land degradation, but since then that focal the one hand, it addresses the often conflicting objectives area has grown into an important part of the GEF portfolio. In the Land of the Patagones 145 Ranching remains important to both the economy and only periodically. They generally exist outside of the cash culture of Argentina, so the GEF and UNDP developed this economy, bartering for goods and services, and selling project in the spirit of demonstrating how sustainable land their labor in their spare time to generate cash. Illiteracy management can work for livestock producers. Two key is estimated at 70 percent. They are frequently of native aspects were engaging ranchers in making decisions about origin and rely heavily on family labor for tending flocks. the project and creating incentives so they would see the This group uses mostly local breeds with little application value of investing in land management. of range management techniques. Today, several thousand herders in Patagonia still maintain Given these conditions among both the poor and wealthy a nomadic existence, much like the Tehuelche of centuries producers, it is not surprising that only three percent of ago. They move their small herds from summer pastures in breeders, covering about two million hectares of land, had the Andean highlands to lowland grazing in the winter. But adopted SLM practices when the GEF/UNDP project began. much of their traditional pastoral knowledge is outdated due A number of factors explain this low percentage: the strong to historic demographic and economic changes. The number traditional component of sheep production; the weaknesses of herders has grown, but the ownership of more and more of the extension services; the disperse nature of the small- land has been concentrated in a few wealthy and powerful scale producers; the negative impact of incentives without owners. While most of the sheep farmers in Patagonia have sustainable management requirements; the lack of a common small flocks, most of the land is under the control of medium- vision on SLM between institutions, programs and projects; and large-scale producers, those with flocks of over 2,000 head. and the negative economic results that prevented farmers These producers control more than 80 percent of Patagonia’s from seeking technical advice. land. The largest producers, just three percent of the total, control more than half the land. The largest ranches, located The GEF/UNDP project focuses on activities that will lead in the southernmost states of Tierra del Fuego and Santa to broader-scale adoption of improved land management Cruz, can have 20,000 head of sheep and cattle. Many of the practices. The modified approach will improve the quality and owners of these modern facilities, with full border fences, quantity of production, increase financial returns, enhance paddocks, windmills and comfortable houses, actually live the economic sustainability of the farms, and reduce poverty. in Buenos Aires. Other causes of land degradation and desertification such as oil, mining, introduced species and firewood collection, Over centuries, small herders lost their access to the range- have less widespread impacts and will be addressed in other land they once used, to the point where their traditional sustainable management programs but using the network, livestock management was no longer feasible in a greatly information exchange opportunities, and consciousness raising reduced area. Most sheep farmers in the region thus maintain aspects of this program as a platform for development. small herds of cattle and sheep, operating on private property or on legally consigned lands, mostly without subdivisions All grazing systems in Patagonia are extensive; sheep and and often without fencing that would enable them to better other livestock range over large areas in search of fodder, in divide their management time and energy, protect sensitive contrast to intensive systems that concentrate the animals areas, or protect their ewes during lambing. in smaller areas with better grazing. While many countries promote intensive grazing over 100-500 hectares or even They maintain one-room clay houses for their families, less, in Patagonia few producers operate on anything less often without floors or access to electricity and gas. The than 2,000 hectares. typical family will have about six or seven members whose access to health care is limited due to a lack of hospitals Even over such large areas, relatively inexpensive infra- in the rural zones. The rural road infrastructure is an earth structure such as electric fencing of meadows and lambing road impassable in winter. Horseback is the main mode shelters allow for forage deferment for a better nutrition of of transportation, with public transportation being used ewes at lambing and better protection from climatic conditions 146 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Mara nursing young, Patagonia In the Land of the Patagones 147 and from predators. That helps more lambs to survive, which Increase in production stems from reduced mortality increases profitability and generates a surplus for sale. Range and improved individual animal performance. That, in turn, management is improved because meadows are rested and increases the number and quality of animals and the wool animals better distributed over the land. Using SLM, breeders available for sale. These breeders were able to produce reduce the uncertainty of production and obtain 18 to 33 enough financial and non-financial returns to meet the expec- percent higher net income compared to those using tradi- tations of quality and way of life of their families. Properly tional management. managed rangelands with continuous or seasonal grazing are very different from the overstocked and under-managed Recognizing that Patagonian ecosystems are easily systems characteristic of the baseline circumstances. damaged by overgrazing, these practices conform to the extensive nature of the production systems in Patagonia Sustainable land management is not a panacea. Even with and to the needs of the ecosystem by providing manage- optimal forage allocation, some farms do not achieve enough ment guidelines that are adaptable to the situation of the financial return to be economically sustainable. In these cases, SLM individual producer and to the characteristics of the local needs to be combined with other productive alternatives such as ecosystem. These practices involve objective range forage agro-tourism, a well-developed activity in Patagonia with nearly 100 evaluation, stocking adjustments based on range and ranches offering tourism services that rely on Patagonia’s natural weather conditions, better protection of ewes and lambs and cultural assets and employ family labor. Other alternatives at critical times, and other good production practices that such as rearing of native wildlife like guanacos or rhea, while still have enabled breeders increase their net income by 18-22 in their infancy, may be options for alternative development in percent in comparison with traditional management. . the long term. 148 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Argentina In the Land of the Patagones 149 150 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina Sources GEF. 2011. Land for Life Bertiller, M. B., J.O. Ares, A. J. Bisigato. 2002. Multiscale Indicators of Land Degradation in the Patagonian Monte, Argentina. Environmental Management Vol. 30, No. 5, pp. 704–715 UNDP Project Document. Sustainable Management of Arid and Semi Arid Ecosystems to Combat Deserti�cation in Patagonia. Suttie, J.M., S.G. Reynolds and C. Batello, eds. 2005. Grasslands of the World UNFAO. Rome. In the Land of the Patagones 151 Niger river C H A P T E R 16 Building Resilience in Niger The Arabic word sahil means “shore� or Framework Convention on Climate Change and adminis- tered by the GEF, helps poor countries prepare and imple- “coast.� From this root comes the English ment plans adapting to climate change, called National word Sahel, the transition zone in North Adaptation Programs of Action. Other programs of the Africa from the sandy and barren Sahara GEF help to address the effort to slow or reverse climate change. But the LDCF recognizes that no matter what we to the more fertile savannas of the south. do now to mitigate climate change, some of its adverse impacts are already with us and in need of being tackled This shifting frontier cuts the nation of Niger neatly in half, urgently. The Fund focuses on reducing the vulnerability placing the country and its largely rural population literally in poor countries of those sectors and resources vital to on the front lines in the effort to adapt to climate change, development and livelihoods, including water, agriculture combat desertification, and reduce poverty. and food security, health, disaster risk management and prevention, infrastructure, and fragile ecosystems. One of the poorest nations on Earth and heavily depen- dent on agriculture, Niger’s population is at the mercy of an In Niger, the LDCF supported a project implemented increasingly fickle climate; some recent years have brought by UNDP in collaboration with Niger’s National Council devastating floods, but more often the problem is far too for Environmentally Sustainable Development. The initia- little rain, not too much. The most serious impact of climate tive joined forces with national stakeholders including change in Niger is an increase in the frequency, intensity, six ministries, Niger’s rural development agency, and and duration of droughts, resulting in a decrease in agricul- municipalities, to enhance adaptation of the agriculture tural production, an increase in grazing pressure on pastoral and water resources sectors to address urgent and imme- ecosystems, and consequently soil erosion on a vast scale. diate climate change impacts. UNDP is promoting climate- resilient development of the agriculture and water sectors, To face this multiple onslaught, Niger turned to the integrating the climate change risks those sectors face in GEF-managed Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) Niger into relevant policies, plans and programs at the for help. This fund, established under the United Nations national and local level. Building Resilience in Niger 153 The project in Niger is climate adaptation at its most For centuries, farmers here grew sorghum, millet, maize, and human level — gritty, often low-tech, but practical, tangible, beans, and pastoralists moved their herds with the seasons in and above all, vital to the people most directly at risk due to search of good grazing. With the worsening droughts, many the harmful effects of a changing climate. areas that once supported these activities are no longer suit- able. The culprit is reduced water content in the soil as a result Among those most vulnerable are the people who live in of increased temperatures and “evapotranspiration.� This term the small oasis village of Aderbissinat. Deep into the Sahel, refers to the loss of water to the atmosphere through evapo- about 700 kilometers northeast of the capitol of Niamey, ration and plant transpiration, and is a good measure of the Aderbissinat lies on a major trans-Saharan route linking Algeria amount of water needed for plants to grow healthy. Increases to Nigeria. The location accounts for the ethnic diversity of in temperature that experts predict will also further reduce the the village, a home to Tuareg, Hausa, and Arab families, and availability of water for both plants and people. The combined a busy marketplace that draws nomadic Fulani herders from effect will be reduced agricultural productivity and fewer sources the surrounding plains. of water for rural communities. The recharge of surface and ground water resources will be reduced as a consequence of the increase in drought frequency and warmer temperatures, thus further impacting water availability for rural communities. Agricultural productivity in Niger is also under pressure from rapid human population growth in the past decade, continuing at a rate of greater than three percent. This has B lead to an increase in livestock numbers in pastoral areas and an expansion of intensive agriculture into marginal land- scapes, both of which have contributed to the negative spiral of soil erosion and loss of agricultural productivity. efore there was no grass An underdeveloped economy in rural areas further exac- and fodder here,� he says. erbates the problem of declining agricultural productivity. Rural communities have insufficient technical and adminis- “Everything was dry. But now thanks trative capacity and infrastructure such as roads, schools, hospitals and municipal offices, deficits that slow economic to the banquettes, the grass and trees growth and prevent people from starting new enterprises. Insufficient government capacity to mobilize financial resources are growing everywhere. In a few years for natural resource management helps perpetuate the cycle. Land tenure systems, meanwhile, lead to overuse and degra- it will be forest here. dation of common-property resources with little accountability of environmental degradation. Finally, a decline in nomadism among pastoral people results in continual livestock pres- sure and inadequate resting periods for ecosystem recovery. Against these pressures, new ideas are showing promise. Local farmers, government agencies in Niger, and interna- tional researchers have developed varieties of cereals and forage that grow well with limited water. These varieties could help poor rural communities become more resilient to climate change and wide swings in climate from year to 154 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Niger LDCF project in Aderbissinat, Niger Niger Building Resilience in Niger 155 year. But barriers remain, including lack of money to buy but a lot of commitment and energy. Near Aderbissanat, for seeds and the technical capacity to use them well. The seed example, farmers and herders are using a variety of techniques or seedlings of such varieties are seldom available to local to stabilize the soil, such as planting more than 40,000 trees. farmers because of ineffective distribution. LDCF funding supports an initiative to set up mechanisms for the sustain- In such dry climates farmers need to harvest not just able dissemination of drought-adapted crop varieties to crops, but water itself. Since the overall drying of the climate vulnerable communities. makes the occasional torrential rains even more destruc- tive by removing the vegetation that holds the soil in place, With these seeds, farmers are already beginning to the rains will actually speed desertification unless some- transform the landscape of Niger. UNDP and the Ministry thing is done to trap the water and keep it from carrying of Agricultural Development helped provincial agencies off all the topsoil. One water harvesting technique known distribute nearly 24,000 kilograms of millet, sorghum and in Niger as a ‘Zai’ entails digging half-meter wide holes one cowpea seeds to farmers in Aderbissinat and seven other to two meters apart and filling these holes with a mixture of communities in southern and western Niger. The initial tests compost, manure and topsoil. Rainwater runs off the bare of the drought-resistant crops on 80 hectares produced more soil surface between the holes and drains into them. In this than 87,000 kilograms of cereal. way, each ‘Zai’ hole becomes a biological hotspot, with a greater soil-water and nutrient content than the surrounding Food shortages still occur at the end of the dry season soil. Crops like millet, sorghum and maize are sown in the and will likely get worse with climate change. But the new ‘Zai’ holes and their productivity is greatly increased rela- seeds will improve yields, and this, in turn, will support cereal tive to plants sown outside of these holes. and fodder banks, another effort to help communities adapt and mitigate the impact of droughts. The principle of cereal Banquettes and half-moons perform similar functions. and fodder banks is simple: Local farmers deposit grain into Digging straight, narrow trenches through a level field (a the banks during times of surplus, earning “interest� on the banquette) or curved trenches along the contour or a hillside deposit, enabling them to withdraw the cereal or fodder (a half-moon) forms barriers to wind and surface runoff and during times of need. The banks also buy from farmers and collect dust, water, and soil. As with the Zai, the trenches the government at a subsidized rate during times of shortage. become zones of high productivity because of greater soil The number of functional banks will need to grow for commu- water and soil nutrient content than surrounding bare soil nities to overcome increasingly intense climate pressures. surfaces. Sowing seeds of drought-resilient grasses stabi- lizes the trenches, and they have the potential for reversing Properly managed cereal and fodder banks can increase desertification and increasing the resilience of pastoralists food security. Mismanagement, however, frequently leads to to climate change. misappropriation of the cereal stocks. Existing cereal banks are unevenly distributed among the different regions in Niger The LDCF project in Niger has helped construct 1,500 and many require rehabilitation. The project has established banquettes and 17,500 half moons, leading to the resto- cereal bank committees that are democratically elected and ration of 305 hectares of degraded lands. The barriers comprised of women and men. These committees have the require maintenance and the livestock numbers need financial, administrative, and general management training to be kept under control to prevent degradation of the needed to manage the cereal bank stocks and source and fodder resource. Accordingly, the project involves working disseminate seeds of appropriate drought-resilient crop varieties. to develop the technical and administrative capacity at the local level for managing both barriers and livestock. No matter how hardy the varieties, the seeds by themselves will not be enough to restore the badly degraded lands in The people of Aderbissinat can see things changing for the the Sahel. Erosion has taken a severe toll. As with the seeds, better even now. Jadah Izahi, a member of the village committee however, some possible solutions require relatively little money that helps manage the project, knows the improvements 156 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Tahoua, Niger Building Resilience in Niger 157 Diffa, Niger first hand. “Before there was no grass and fodder here,� he of climate risks, and increasing preparedness and prevention says. “Everything was dry. But now thanks to the banquettes, policies at the local level. More broadly, the project contrib- the grass and trees are growing everywhere. In a few years utes to building adaptive capacity to climate change in the it will be forest here.� Alhoussemi Ismaila, from the village agricultural sector across Niger and even the broader Sahel. of Edouk, roughly 200 kilometers due west of Aderbissanat, At the national level, government, NGOs, and businesses are sees progress too: “Before it was a degraded land. Today strengthening their capacity to integrate climate change risk with the support of the LDCF project, we built benches and reduction strategies into development policies and programs. planted trees. Thank God, hope is there.�5 The government of Niger has been an enthusiastic partici- Broad-scale adaptation to climate change builds on these pant in these efforts and as a result national ministries are kinds of successes. The success of adaptation policies will be developing better-adapted policies and programs that measured in terms of increased preparedness and resilience support adaptive strategies. Institutional mechanisms for to climate hazards in local communities like Aderbissinat and integrating, monitoring and evaluating adaptation across Edouk, or Tamololo, Badoko and Tondikiwindi. Field-based sectors and scales will enhance the adaptive capacity of activities in adaptation provide vital opportunities to test and Niger to address climate change risks. Through better adap- improve practical approaches that can be applied elsewhere, tation measures and alternative financing mechanisms, and in Niger, across the Sahel, and any drought-stricken, vulner- with the help of LDCF funding, the government will be able rural community. able to put in place cost-effective measures of addressing climate change over the short term and build foundations The project in Niger is already providing the most vulner- for longer term success. Such small victories, replicated able population with increased food security and climate- in thousands of villages like Aderbissinat, can add up to resilient livelihood alternatives, as well as raising awareness change on a global scale. 5. quotes from CNEDD, 2011. 158 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Bamako, Mali Building Resilience in Niger 159 Zinder, Niger 160 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Biasutti, M. and A. Giannini. 2006. Robust Sahel drying in interventions to build resilience and adaptive capacity of the response to late 20th century forcings. Geophysical Research agriculture sector to climate change in Niger. Project Document. Letters 33, L11706, doi:10.1029/2006GL026067 — Source: Project Identi�cation Form, 2006. Haarsma, RJ, FM Selten, SL Weber, and M Kliphuis. 2005. Sahel rainfall variability and response to greenhouse CNEDD. 2011. Le Project PANA Résilience: Une Initiative à warming. Geophysical Research Letters 32, L17702, Soutenir par Tous. Video. Part I: http://www.youtube.com/ doi:10.1029/2005GL023232 watch?v=2R0fvUpiMUI; Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xraJHnv83II Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= Hulme, M, RM Doherty, T Ngara, MG New, and D Lister. 2001. CcW2EgEqJFs&feature=related African climate change: 1900-2100. Climate Research 17:145-168 Government of Niger/United Nations Development Programme. PIMS No. 382. Implementing NAPA priority Building Resilience in Niger 161 Yunnan, China C H A P T E R 17 Integrated Ecosystem Management in China In March of 2010, Beijing residents face growing pressure from low and erratic rainfall, fragile soils, scarce surface and groundwater resources, and sparse awoke to skies turned an eerie yellow. natural vegetative cover. Climate change and poor agricul- tural land management practices make all those problems A dense fog of wheat-colored dust enveloped the city as worse. The dust and sand storms bring ecological, social, choking whirlwinds filled Tiananmen Square, coating cars and economic harm, impacting 250 million people living in and bicycles and reducing visibility to near zero. With so western China — and much of East Asia as well. many tiny particles in the air the pollution index reached 500 — the worst level possible. Drylands account for 71 percent of China’s land area, 31 percent of its forested land, and over 90 percent of its grass- Major cities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) can lands. Approximately half of this region — about 2.5 million have days like this, usually caused by burning soft coal to hectares — suffers from moderate to severe land degrada- feed the country’s growing need for energy. In this case, tion. Desertification — defined as land under productive however, the culprit was not coal, but sand. The topsoil use that is progressively deteriorating, though not literally from a huge swath of 16 provinces across west, central, and turning to desert — is spreading at an ever increasing rate. northern China blew east in sandstorms so large that some By the 1990s, the process was consuming land at twice the of the sand ended up in the Northwest United States, more annual rate seen in the 1950s. than 10,000 kilometers away. Pressure is increasing on these areas as demand for meat Much of the PRC is dry, so sandstorms are hardly unknown and other livestock products rises in conjunction with a there, but they are becoming larger and more frequent. growth in urbanization and a rise in living standards. Gansu, Sandstorms originating in the western region have increased Qinghai, and Shaanxi provinces, and Inner Mongolia, Ningxia from an average of one every two years in the 1950s to more than Hui, and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions account for 79 two each year in the 1990s. The storms stretch across 6.8 percent of the PRC’s desertified areas and 92 percent of the million square kilometers in five western provinces and country’s degraded areas. While the western PRC contains autonomous regions, places that are naturally dry but now large deposits of oil, gas, and coal, most people still live in Integrated Ecosystem Management in China 163 rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. A But given how little the land can produce and how suscep- tible it is to degradation, the drylands of western China are among the poorest parts of the country: approximately 100 million people here (40 percent of the population of the region) live on less than US$1 per day. While the northern s the experience in and westerns provinces and autonomous regions are home to 17 percent of the PRC’s population, their combined GDP China demonstrates, is only 7.2 percent of the national GDP. The economic losses due to land degradation in these six provinces and auton- a piecemeal, sectoral approach in omous regions have been estimated at approximately 24 percent of their combined GDP. which individual technical agencies Dryland degradation also has national and global conse- follow strategies focused on only part quences. In 2002, the direct economic losses due to land of the wider problem will not succeed degradation were estimated at US$21.2 million per day, mostly due to erosion, as with little ground cover what rain over the long haul. does fall washes off immediately and takes the topsoil with it. China’s Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the loss of agricultural production due to land degradation is approxi- mately 30 percent of agricultural GDP, excluding the down- stream costs of damage to infrastructure and water quality. The western region occupies an important ecological GEF in 2003 for help. What emerged was an innovative ten- location: the provinces and autonomous regions cover 30 year program to address desertification as major national ecosystems, with more than 5,000 recorded species of priority and the first country partnership for the GEF. wild animals and plants. The expansion of degraded areas is a growing threat to that diversity, particularly among endemic The key to this partnership is the commitment of the species in these fragile ecosystems. PRC to its success. Since ratification of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 1997, the PRC has The decline in forests and other vegetation in dryland progressively increased its efforts to slow and eventually areas that threatens biodiversity is also contributing to climate reverse land degradation. The willingness of the PRC to drive change through increased CO2 emissions. Rehabilitating the partnership with the GEF and to generate global benefits vegetation and improving farming methods will benefit in the context of desertification provides important lessons carbon sequestration. It is estimated that improvements on how to evolve effective mechanisms to coordinate poli- in the management of agricultural land in the western region cies, programs, and actions by various sector agencies could store more than 25 million tons of carbon each year; operating in the areas of agricultural and rural development; improvements to forest quality and forest land manage- land, forestry, and water management; and environmental ment could sequester 87 million tons of carbon each year. protection, finance, and planning; and introduce effective and transparent monitoring and evaluation systems to assess In the face of such complexity, with so many variables over the outcomes and impact of efforts to combat land degra- so large an area and with so much potentially to be lost, or dation and reduce poverty. gained, no single approach will suffice. The government of the PRC recognized the need for a broad-based way of thinking The PRC, GEF, and their partners, particularly the Asian about the problem of land degradation, and approached the Development Bank (ADB), saw an opportunity to address the 164 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies China Integrated Ecosystem Management in China 165 connected problems of land degradation and rural poverty development strategy in the affected provinces and autono- through Integrated Ecosystem Management, or IEM. This mous regions. GEF financing has played an important role holistic approach includes multiple sectors, institutions, in advancing the Government’s vision, and could serve as and governance frameworks based on understanding the an important driver for other countries. natural resource characteristics of individual ecosystems, the services those systems provide, and the opportunities for — The project provided a mechanism to institutionalize and obstacles to — sustainable utilization of an ecosystem’s IEM across the government of the PRC, from local to provin- natural resources to meet people’s welfare and economic cial to national levels. The initial US$25 million grant from needs. IEM thus represents an ecological approach to natural GEF has also become a model for its catalytic effect, as it resource management that aims to ensure productive and generated US$300 million in funding from the government, healthy ecosystems by integrating social, economic, physical, and changed how the government approaches the broad and biological needs and values. issue of sustainable land management. The fundamental idea of using diversified practices can be applied in other Rather than treat each resource in isolation, IEM seeks natural resource sectors as well, such as forestry, and the to treat all ecosystem elements together to obtain multiple willingness to measure results over a long time frame marks ecological and socioeconomic benefits. That requires an important change in perspective for resource manage- integrating natural and social science disciplines, such as ment in general. agronomy, animal husbandry, silviculture, ecology, sociology, and economics, offering hope for a better understanding of The GEF/ADB project piloted innovative ideas to link the natural properties of ecosystems and society’s depen- components of the ecosystem — land, vegetation, and dence on them, and the social, economic, and political factor water, for example — directly to communities that depend that contribute to their disturbance. on them. This included providing new land management technologies, new animal breeds and crop varieties, and Integrated Ecosystem Management also makes explicit new skills and methodological approaches for the communi- the trade-offs inherent in practically any decision regarding ties. Each village was provided with a better understanding how to use natural resources: planting too many trees may of land degradation, was introduced to the IEM approach, diminish the local water supply; a focus on agriculture may and was helped to collectively choose locally appropriate have an impact on the other ecosystem services the land IEM-based interventions. provides. In drylands, be they in western China or anywhere else on Earth, understanding these tradeoffs and their conse- Although limited in area, the pilot demonstration sites quences is essential to both conserve biological diversity and strengthened the PRC-GEF Partnership by showing how to provide benefits to people. to build IEM capacity through testing and validating locally appropriate small-scale technical interventions. Overall, The GEF and ADB sought initially to lay the founda- household livelihoods improved as a result of the tech- tion for applying IEM to dryland ecosystems in China. A nical interventions and vocational training. Furthermore, five-year project led by ADB helped improve policies, laws, efficiency improvements, new technology, and skills training and regulations for controlling land degradation, fostered provided farmers with opportunities to realize additional better coordination and planning among the institutions income through increased yields and livestock weights while responsible for land management, and established systems reducing erosion and improving soil quality. for monitoring and evaluating land degradation in western China, all within a common IEM agenda. As a result of the In the provincial pilot sites, the PRC–GEF Partnership project, the PRC Government has essentially embraced played an incremental role in introducing a range of alter- IEM as the approach to combating land degradation and native natural resource-based enterprises to local populations desertification in drylands, and for which the government that conformed to the requirements for IEM. In Huangyuan is channeling major investments as part of the country’s County, Qinghai province, for example, the project helped 166 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies China Integrated Ecosystem Management in China 167 initiate a series of greenhouse and mushroom farm trials. Land degradation is a multidimensional problem that Villagers saw net profits increase their annual income per demands multidimensional solutions. As the experience capita by CNY$1,100. In 2008, a further 80 greenhouses and in China demonstrates, a piecemeal, sectoral approach mushroom farms were built. Farmers are now considering in which individual technical agencies follow strategies establishing a cooperative to sell directly in Xining, the provin- focused on only part of the wider problem will not succeed cial capital. With the support of the PRC–GEF Partnership, over the long haul. Tackling land degradation in drylands more than 500 greenhouses were built at the pilot sites. requires developing strategies that respond to local envi- ronmental and economic realities but that fit within a In Minhe County, also in Qinghai Province, and other pilot broader and commonly understood framework. That will sites introduced courtyard vegetable gardens. Courtyards form the basis for development and implementation of a are a traditional PRC architectural feature, but they are rarely comprehensive, multisector, and interagency action plan utilized for vegetables. These gardens have improved house- for restoring, sustaining, and enhancing the productive hold nutrition and reduced expenses, and provided oppor- capacity, protective functions, and biodiversity of natural tunities for small-scale experimentation with new crops. ecosystem resources. 168 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Pepper farmer in Gansu province, China Integrated Ecosystem Management in China 169 170 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Keough, HL, and DJ Blahna 2006. Achieving Integrative, Collaborative Ecosystem Management. Conservation Biology: 20:1373–1382 Radstake,F, M. Ariens, H. Luna, and J. Quitazol-Gonzalez, eds. 2010. Dryland Ecosystems: Introducing an Integrated Management Approach in the People’s Republic of China. Asian Development Bank. http://www.adb.org/documents/reports/ Yunnan, China dryland-ecosystems/dryland-ecosystems.pdf Integrated Ecosystem Management in China 171 Himalayan glacier melt lakes C H A P T E R 18 Averting a Himalayan Tsunami The most famous medical advice structures, major hydropower projects, farmland, and public infrastructural projects. in history actually had nothing to do with medicine. To see Lake Thortormi today, even from space, is like to see a lake being born. The lake sits at the lower edge Benjamin Franklin’s well-worn adage that an ounce of of Thortomi glacier, held in place by a moraine dam at the prevention is worth a pound of cure referred not to illness southern end made up of rocky debris left behind as the but fire. Among his many other pursuits, Franklin was a glacier has retreated to the north, higher and higher into the pioneer of public safety and created Philadelphia’s first fire mountains. Formation of glacier ice from the winter snowfall, company in 1736. and some melting of such ice in summer is a normal phenom- enon. However, the warming climate of the past decade has Franklin’s insight was so powerful, and applied to so significantly increased the rate of glacier melting, causing the many things, that from it we remember a simple and ageless glaciers to retreat. While the lake for the moment remains lesson: it is far better to prevent disaster than attempt to largely a slurry of rocks, sand, and water, meltwater pours deal with the consequence afterward. into the basin at an ever increasing pace. That lesson can be seen in action in countless circum- That poses an enormous threat for the downstream stances, none more compelling than a climate change adap- communities, human and otherwise, in the Punakha- tation project now underway in one of the most remote Wangdi and Chamkhar Valleys. Particularly worrisome is and rugged places on Earth, a Himalayan glacial lake in the unstable moraine dam separating Lake Thortomi from Bhutan called Lake Thortormi. The lake lies at an elevation its neighbor to the west, the deeper and more fully formed of 4200 meters, on the southern slopes of Gangchen Singye Lake Rapstreng. Ice cements the moraine together, so as or Table Mountain, near Bhutan’s border with Tibet. Just temperatures rise and the ice melts the dam may give in. below the lake runs the Pho Chhu River, which flows into That would send water from Thortomi Lake cascading into the Puna Tshang Chhu, the country’s longest river, along Lake Rapstreng, forming a super lake with more than 53 which there are emerging townships, important historical million cubic meters of water. Averting a Himalayan Tsunami 173 A lake that massive would place enormous pressure on the remaining moraines holding it in place. Should they burst, the results would be catastrophic. In 1994, a partial collapse of a moraine of the neighboring Lake Luggye resulted in flood that killed 21 people and swept away livestock, crops, and homes. A flood from Lake Thortomi would be three times that size, and given how fast the water is rising, it could happen at any time. Scientists have a name for these disasters: Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, or GLOFs. Since Bhutan’s northern territory abounds with glaciers and glacial lakes — by one estimate 677 glaciers and 2,674 glacial lakes — the country faces a great risk for this particularly fierce and unpredictable scourge, like a mountain tsunami. Of all Bhutan’s glacial lakes, 25 pose potentially high risk for GLOFs, with Lake Thortormi one of the most critical of all. Time is of the essence. The urgency of adapting to climate change is brought home in stark terms — approximately 10 percent of the Bhutanese population lives in the Punakha- Wangdi and Chamkhar Valleys, and their very lives are at stake, along with hydropower plants, farms, and important cultural sites. LDCF project in Bhutan The Government of Bhutan recognizes the threats but lacks the capacity to address them. Thus, it requested funding from the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) For three months in late summer, when the weather and managed by the GEF to mobilize additional resources for turns favorable, workers set up a tented village on the climate change adaptation projects. With financial support valley floor to the south of the lake. Every day, they make from the LDCF, the Department of Geology and Mines and the 90 minute hike over the ridge separating their tempo- the Disaster Management Division, in partnership with the rary home from the lake, carrying their sledge hammers, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), developed pickaxes, shovels, ropes, and burlap bags; given the eleva- a project to reduce the risk of GLOFs in the Punakha-Wangdi tion and the rugged terrain, heavy machinery is not an and Chamkhar Valleys. option. Standing in the bone-chilling water on the glacier, the workers haul boulders and clear mud entirely by hand. The project is among the most concrete, tangible approaches Like slowly turning a giant spigot, the workers cut channels to climate change adaptation anywhere in the world. In a to allow a controlled flow of water off the glacier, into the combination of technical sophistication and backbreaking Pho Chuu River and down the valley. manual labor under the most challenging conditions imag- inable, a team of geologists, glaciologists, engineers, and The LDCF funding came just in time. If Lake Thortormi 250 workers — most from local villages but some from more had developed for another year, it might have been too far-flung parts of Bhutan — are lowering the water level in late to do anything about it. As it stands, by dint of shovels Lake Thortormi. and pick axes, the level of the lake has fallen more than two 174 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies T he Lake Thortormi project highlights the role local communities can play in climate adaptation. They are the true heroes of this story. meters, and levels in two subsidiary lakes have fallen by as The Lake Thortormi project also highlights the role local much or more. The goal of the project is to eventually lower communities can play in climate adaptation, and they are Lake Thortormi’s water level by a full five meters. the true heroes of this story. Some of the workers trek for many days and must cross a 5,200 meter pass to reach the The immediate benefits of the project are clear, and lake, one of most remote work sites on the planet. They earn twofold. The first and most apparent, the risk of cata- about US$10 a day for the three-month stint, five times the strophic flood has been markedly reduced. This is climate average national wage. adaptation as prevention, literally a hands-on application of Franklin’s adage — rather than compensate individuals The money the workers earn will make a meaningful and even nations for damages, avoid them altogether and difference in their lives. For Shan Dorji Doya, who walked for save both lives and money. The project also demonstrates fourteen days to reach Lake Thortormi, this was an opportu- how much can be accomplished with a relatively small nity to start a new life. “With the money I earn from working,� investment. While climate adaptation is a global challenge he says, “I plan to open a small store so I can support my requiring sophisticated science, it will come about at least family.� The benefits also extend to people beyond those in part in small steps, with specific tasks tailored to local actually clearing the rocks and sand. The project consid- circumstances, some of them as basic as breaking rocks ered using helicopters to bring in the 60 tons of supplies the with hammers. project needs, but chose instead to employ local horse and Averting a Himalayan Tsunami 175 LDCF project, Bhutan yak herders. As a result, local communities earned more than of an automated early warning system has begun, including US$150,000, helping them pay for school for their children the construction of 14 siren towers and a control room. The and expand businesses. The project has thus improved the system is targeting more than 90 percent of the house- overall quality of life in the area, providing new investments holds in the vulnerable communities downstream of the and new opportunities. Punatsangchu River in the Punakha-Wangdue valley, in addi- tion to a vital hydropower project, schools, health centers, Lowering the water level in Lake Thortormi is just part and other important infrastructure. of a larger effort to reduce the risk of glacial lake outburst floods in Bhutan. With LCDF funding, UNDP is helping the The Bhutan project provides important lessons about government integrate the risk of climate-change induced how to reduce climate vulnerability and increase the adap- floods into the existing disaster risks management frame- tive capacity to climate change by financing efforts to foster work. A Disaster Risks Management Bill has been drafted climate-resilient development. The first lesson was how to and has gone through a comprehensive review and stake- put in practice the initial concrete actions on the ground, holder analysis and is awaiting approval by the Parliament. and to use the available knowledge about vulnerability as Moreover, based on a hazard zoning exercise, a govern- the basis for proactive, preventive adaptation actions. Since ment circular for GLOF-resilient land use planning has been water from Himalayan glaciers is crucial to Bhutan’s economy, disseminated to local authorities in Punakha, Wangdi, and the project is helping put adaptation in the context of devel- Bumthang. This has prevented new construction in poten- opment, an important step in addressing adaptation issues tially hazardous sites and a number of planned construction across entire regions and the globe. efforts have been put on hold as a result. The project also illustrates how to achieve climate-resilience Several rounds of awareness and advocacy programs on by taking into account national circumstances and economic GLOF risks and the existing, manual early warning system and social priorities. By increasing disaster risk management and procedures have been conducted in 21 vulnerable capacity in affected valleys (including the integration of climate communities along the Pho Chhu River basin. Installation change risks), lowering the water level in Lake Thortormi, 176 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Bhutan Averting a Himalayan Tsunami 177 creating early warning systems, and integrating all these and hydropower in its basin. Drastic and sudden changes measures into existing development plans, the project in in the hydrological regime would have profound conse- Bhutan resulted in a reduced risk of expected significant quences in these countries downstream of the glaciers. destruction of economically important areas, and prevention, Projects like that on Lake Thortormi will not prevent such or at very least limitation, of human and economic losses. changes, which if they occur will likely be driven by the global climate, but such efforts may be able to help limit The risks of climate-change induced floods extends far the damage. beyond these Bhutanese districts and covers the entire Himalayas. This project marks the first time that a compre- The project in Bhutan has been one of the most successful hensive approach to the problem has been attempted, and under the LDCF, which set the precedent for funding climate is a pioneering effort on prevention of GLOF related hazards adaptation projects. One of the main accomplishments of the and plans are being made to replicate the efforts in neigh- LDCF portfolio has been to test and demonstrate adaptation boring countries like Nepal to reduce the GLOF related risks measures on the ground, as in Bhutan. The LDCF and the throughout the region. Special Climate Change Fund, which also prioritizes adap- tation action and is managed by the GEF, provide practical Even more broadly, preventing glacial lakes from bursting operational knowledge. They offer vulnerable countries and can have impacts across all of South Asia. That entire region, communities, through the GEF network of agencies who home to more than a billion people, depends on the rivers implement projects and national and local stakeholders, initial that have their headwaters in the Himalayas. The Pho Chhu resources to finance this pioneering portfolio. This experi- River, for example, fed by Lake Thortormi, flows eventu- ence has resulted in a much clearer sense of what climate ally into the Brahmaputra, which is considered the life- adaptation means in practice, how to implement it, and how line of India and provides water for irrigation, transport, to estimate its costs. 178 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Himalayan mountains Averting a Himalayan Tsunami 179 LDCF project in Bhutan 180 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Cyranoski, D. 2005. Climate Change: The Long-range Forecast, Nature 438: 275-276. ICIMOD and UNEP, 2001. Inventory of Glaciers, Glacial Lakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods: Monitoring and Early Warning Systems in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region — Bhutan, Kathmandu: ICIMOD ICIMOD and UNEP, 2007. Impact of Climate Change on Himalayan Glaciers and Glacial Lakes: Case Studies on GLOF and Associated Hazards in Nepal and Bhutan, Kathmandu: ICIMOD Iwata, S., Y. Ageta, N. Naito, A. Sakai, C. Narama, and Karma (2002) Glacial Lakes and Their Outburst Flood Assessment in the Bhutan Himalaya. Global Environmental Research, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 3-17 UNDP Project Document. Government of Bhutan. United Nations Development Programme PIMS no. 3722 Reducing Climate Change-induced Risks and Vulnerabilities from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Punakha-Wangdi and Chamkhar Valleys. December, 2007. Averting a Himalayan Tsunami 181 Beijing, China C H A P T E R 19 Fighting Climate Change with New Refrigerators The kitchen in a modern home or available to consumers. Given that newer refrigerator models usually cost more up front — though they are cheaper in apartment in Beijing, Hong Kong, or any the long run — the lack of information about efficiency and of China’s booming cities can look sleek the average consumer’s lack of understanding about why and inviting, with all the conveniences an efficient appliance makes more economic sense than a cheaper but inefficient one, posed significant obstacles to the upwardly mobile urbanite has come making energy-efficient models more popular. to expect. That might cause little concern but for one fact: The The appliances have all the best features, use the most choices Chinese consumers make about how they use high-tech materials, and meet the current standards for energy have global implications. In 1985, only 7 percent of design. Perhaps the most important feature of all, however, urban households in China had refrigerators. By 2002, that is also the easiest to miss. Look closely at the refrigerator number had grown to 87 percent, an annual growth rate of in a Chinese kitchen these days, and tucked away unob- 15 percent. To meet the needs of that exploding market, trusively in an upper corner is a small label. That label has refrigerator production in China jumped from 1.4 million changed things for the better in China, both economically units in 1985 to 48 million in 2008, making it the largest and environmentally. It is just one of a set of innovative market refrigerator market in the world. incentives targeted at the manufacturers and retailers of environmentally friendly refrigerators and the customers For most of that period of explosive growth, those millions who purchase them, and it offers lessons for the future that of refrigerators failed to measure up to international stan- extend far beyond any single country as well. dards in several key ways. First, Chinese refrigerators were inefficient; the average model used half-again as much power The refrigerator label shows potential buyers which as comparable imported refrigerators. Second, throughout models are the most energy efficient. While a common the 1980s most manufacturers in China used chlorofluorocar- sight in Japan, the United States, and Europe, in the mid- bons (CFCs) like Freon (the trade name for Dupont’s line of 1990s manufacturers in China did not make such information CFCs) to cool their refrigerators. While effective and cheap, Fighting Climate Change with New Refrigerators 183 CFCs also deplete the ozone layer. Left unchecked, ozone B depletion leads to more ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface of the Earth, with harmful effects on human health, agriculture, and biodiversity. Changing the market for refrigerators in China would thus y 2005, refrigerators pay dividends twice over. Greater efficiency in such a large market would lead to significant savings in the need for energy, were 29 percent which in China is largely produced by burning coal and thus generates tons of CO2 along with other health threatening more ef�cient on average than emissions, sulfur dioxide and particulates, to name two. Making refrigerators CFC-free would be a big step toward they were in 1999, resulting in eliminating them from all commercial and industrial uses. Building this kind of synergy across two global environmental savings of 12 million tons conventions — the United Nations Framework Convention on of CO2 emissions. By 2010 Climate Change and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer — is a key strategy for the GEF. that �gure soared to In the mid-1990s, government agencies and experts inside 46 million tons. and outside China realized that unless Chinese manufacturers improved the efficiency of their refrigerators, the country would require more than 5,700 megawatts of new annual power generation, equivalent to an annual average of 60 million tons of additional CO2 emissions. Excessive energy consumption by refrigerators thus became an extremely pressing issue. At the same time, policy, economics, and technology were Technology was also rapidly changing the industry. Scientists coming together in China to create an ideal moment for from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California transforming the market of refrigerators. China had ratified began working with Chinese manufacturers on developing the Montreal Protocol in 1991, joining the treaty that sets out efficient, CFC-free technologies in 1995. Those technologies a schedule for the phase-out of the manufacture and use of could reduce energy consumption by refrigerators in China CFCs. The Montreal Protocol created a Multilateral Fund to by as much as 40 percent, and the political and economic help China and other developing countries make the transi- trends toward efficiency were favorable. Still, significant barriers tion away from CFCs. China also wanted to export refrigera- remained to the widespread commercialization of energy tors overseas, particularly to Europe, but those markets were efficient refrigerators. increasingly dominated by CFC-free models, so if China wanted to compete it would need to adapt. That was a powerful incen- In 1998, the GEF and UNDP launched a project to overcome tive; “If we could obtain a good market share [for CFC-free those barriers. After a year of planning, the GEF approved refrigerators],� one manager explained, “we could conduct US$9.6 million for project which, with funds from other sources, ODS [ozone-depleting substances] reduction even if there would ultimately total more than US$40 million to bring efficient, were no financial support [from the Multilateral Fund]. But if CFC-free refrigerators to China. As with the lighting market in we could not obtain a good market share, we would not carry Poland (see Chapter 6), market transformation has potential out ODS reduction even if financial support were available.�6 for enormous and lasting impact, and a huge leverage of the 6 Quoted in Dauvergne, 2010. 184 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Shandong, China Fighting Climate Change with New Refrigerators 185 GEF investment. The project in China, however, is even more manufacturing of energy-efficient refrigerators, but also daunting than the lighting project in Poland. Refrigerator by assuring a market for them. technology, for one, is far more complex than a light bulb, with multiple components and hence multiple manufacturers, The two major elements of the project were consumer each with processes, standards, and competitors. The kind education, though the energy-efficiency label, for example, of incentives offered in Poland to make compact fluorescent as well as improved standards and training and financial bulbs cheap and available would be just a part of the trans- incentives for manufacturers. The efficiency labels identify formation in China, where a far broader effort to educate an appliance as meeting minimum energy efficiency stan- both producers and consumers would be needed. dards and achieving a rating of level 1 (most efficient) to 5 (least efficient). The project funded a program to educate A new refrigerator market meant convincing manufac- retailers, focusing on the large retail electronics and appli- turers that switching production to more expensive but more ance stores that dominate in major urban markets in China, energy efficient models would be profitable even though as well as the public through articles, advertisements, docu- they would need to transform their entire supply chain. mentaries, and posters. All these efforts promoted aware- Retailers would also need to believe that they could sell ness of the environmental and economic benefits of energy- more expensive refrigerators and consumers would need efficiency refrigerators. Many customers were exposed to to overcome sticker shock and understand the long term the environmental impact of their own energy use patterns benefits. As if this was not challenging enough, existing for the first time, as well as the potential for energy efficient energy efficiency standards would have to be revised in a appliances to translate into energy bill savings. way that was technically feasible, commercially viable, and in line with international standards. The project targeted 16 major refrigerator companies and 10 manufacturers of compressors — the vital components Manufacturers were understandably nervous about responsible for determining how much energy a refriger- market demand for and cost-effectiveness of high-efficiency ator uses. To help these companies understand what the models. Little research has been done about either the switchover would entail, the project organized domestic and potential demand for such models or the costs of devel- overseas training aimed at introducing engineers to inter- oping them. Due to historically low electricity prices and national technology options, computer design modeling, little emphasis on energy efficiency in the Chinese economy, energy efficiency measures and expert technical assistance. both producers and consumers were uninterested in energy- Participating manufacturers were then entered into a compe- efficient products. tition in which they received a modest monetary incentive (ranging from US$60,000 to US$120,000) to design and The majority of Chinese manufacturers also lacked the produce energy efficient refrigerators and compressors. engineering and design expertise to develop new energy- The companies that could produce and sell the product efficient refrigerator models or modify existing designs to make that saved the greatest total energy over a 12-month period them more energy-efficient. Most domestic manufacturers received a US$1 million prize. relied heavily on imported or licensed technology such as high-efficiency compressors, and since those manufacturers The national campaign drew wide participation from featured a limited and unchanging product line, they had competing manufacturers. The winner among refriger- limited experience in product design or redesign. ator manufacturers was Kelon, a company that produced and sold 442,000 units during the first six months of the The UNDP/GEF project began with the recognition contest and one million units within the first year. Its refrig- that effective commerce requires both buyers and sellers erator turned out to be 67 percent more efficient than the of goods ready to participate at the same time. The project prevailing norm and went on to achieve the distinction of was designed to address the problem of refrigerator effi- being one of the most energy efficient refrigerators in the ciency not only through spurring the development and world. Among compressor manufacturers, Huangshi Dongbei 186 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Ozone layer destruction seen from space Fighting Climate Change with New Refrigerators 187 won the US$400,000 main prize with a package of 18 highly the European Grade A rating. By 2005, refrigerators were 29 efficient compressors. percent more efficient on average than they were in 1999, resulting in a savings of 12 million tons of CO2 emissions. By The project simultaneously worked to build public 2010 that figure soared to 46 million tons. That is equivalent preferences for energy efficient refrigerators and to demon- to the output of about ten 600 megawatt coal-fired power strate to retailers that there was a profit to be made. In late plants. Counting the entire savings over the lifetimes of the 2003, 57 nationwide electronics and appliance retailers were refrigerators, the new models will have saved by 2025 a total selected to participate in this program. These companies of nearly 700 million tons of CO2. were sensitized to the links between energy efficient appli- ances, environmental impacts and the implications for cost The success of this project demonstrates that it is possible savings for consumers. The new refrigerator efficiency stan- to find creative solutions that are both environmentally friendly dards and labels were explained to staff, who also received and attractive to consumers in China and elsewhere. The ideas sales and marketing training on how to persuade consumers that underlie this effort can work in many different contexts to purchase these new products. and in many places — with commercial air conditioners and refrigeration, more efficient residential, commercial, and indus- The results have been dramatic. There are currently 256 trial buildings, even the development and marketing of “next models of domestically manufactured energy-efficient refrig- generation� automobiles. This kind of innovation and experimen- erators on the market today that meet the energy efficiency tation will be an essential part of finding solutions to pressing requirement of Grade 1 of the national standard for refrig- global problems, be they climate change, biodiversity loss, or erator energy consumption, an even stricter standard than pollution, and is fundamental to the GEF’s approach. 188 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Yichang city, central China Fighting Climate Change with New Refrigerators 189 Shanghai, China 190 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Birner, S. and Martinot, E. 2005. Promoting energy-ef�cient of Market Transformation: Energy Ef�ciency and Renewable products: GEF experience and lessons for market transformation Energy. Available at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/ in developing countries. Energy Policy 33:1765-1779 publications/energy_casestudies/ Dauvergne, P. 2010, The Shadows of Consumption: UNDP. 2005. Combating Climate Change: Market Consequences for the Global Environment. Boston: MIT Press Transformation for Green Refrigeration. China Country Of�ce. Available at: http://www.undp.org.cn/modules.php op=modloa United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, d&name=News&�le=article&catid=37&topic=&sid=44613&mo Division for Sustainable Development. 2007. Case Studies de=thread&order=0&thold=0 Fighting Climate Change with New Refrigerators 191 Osprey, Baja California, Mexico CHAPTER 20 Finding Alternatives to DDT In May, 2001, as delegates gathered in In fact, negotiators faced a rather more complex choice. Stockholm for final negotiations on an inter- While few people dispute the harmful effects of DDT on the environment, it also fills one important purpose: It is national treaty to rid the world of a class of extremely effective in killing or repelling mosquitoes, and particularly harmful and persistent chemi- hence has long been a key weapon in the fight against malaria. So when the Stockholm Convention compiled the cals, they faced a tough choice regarding list of chemicals to be eliminated immediately, DDT was not perhaps the best known of them all. among them. Instead, DDT was on a second list of chemi- cals that the Parties to the Convention agreed to restrict Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane or DDT, has been infamous as much as possible, but with exceptions for acceptable as an environmental hazard since the 1960s, when scientists purposes such as malaria control. identified it as a severe health and environmental threat. DDT accumulates in animal tissue and thus magnifies as it works The challenge then was to find ways to control malaria its way up the food chain. Its impact is particularly severe on that did not include the use of DDT. The need for a predatory bird species such as eagles, pelicans, and falcons, as substitute to be at least as effective as DDT is clear: Malaria it weakens their eggshells, causing them to crack prematurely. continues to be endemic in the developing world, causing Widespread use of DDT led to a significant decline in the abun- more than one million deaths every year. According to dance of these and other bird species wherever it was used. the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria. In Mexico and Since countries began banning the use of DDT in the Central America nearly 109 million people live in areas 1970s, many of those species have made great comebacks. that are environmentally favorable to the transmission In that sense, the campaign against DDT has been one of of the disease, and 35 percent of them are at high risk. the most spectacular environmental successes of the past Because of the ongoing failure to develop a truly effective half-century. On that basis alone, a casual observer might anti-malaria vaccine, the major public health intervention have predicted that DDT would be on the top of the list of remains focused on controlling the mosquito vector of the chemicals banned under the Stockholm Convention. parasite that causes the disease. Finding Alternatives to DDT 193 During the last decade, Mexico and other Central American to the ability of people to contribute to their communities countries have gradually discontinued DDT sprayings for economically and socially, and threaten wild species locally mosquito control. But even in countries that no longer use and around the world. DDT it remains relatively inexpensive and effective, so there continues to be the risk that a sudden outbreak in malaria In an effort to speed the development of alternative would force government agencies to begin using DDT again methods to DDT, in 2004 the GEF funded nearly US$7.5 unless there were other proven options. million for a regional project through UNEP and the World Health Organization to prevent reintroduction of DDT for Developing DDT-free methods of controlling malaria has malaria control. The program promoted new techniques a double benefit. It removes a persistent organic pollutant for controlling mosquitoes and implemented a coordi- (POP) from the environment and has a significant impact on nated regional program to improve national capacities. public health. The links between these steps and a vibrant, The WHO builds its approach for controlling vector-born sustainable economy are clear: As long as POPs remain in disease, called Integrated Vector Management, on the the soil and water they pose short- and long-term threats recognition that controlling the disease requires coopera- tion across health, agricultural, and environmental sectors, and depends in large part on the involvement and empow- erment of local communities. With Integrated Vector Management as the framework, the GEF/WHO project worked with 202 communities of 50 municipalities in eight countries — Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and O Panama. The work covered close to 160,000 people directly and an estimated 6.8 million indirectly representing nearly 30 percent of those in the highly affected areas. verall, the project In the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, for example, residents of this largely rural area undertook a variety of achieved a 63 efforts to control mosquitoes and the spread of malaria. These included clearing stream banks of vegetation that percent reduction in malaria cases can harbor mosquito larvae, draining stagnant water from ditches and water channels, cleaning houses and patios to and a more than 86 percent decrease remove any potential breeding sites, whitewashing houses with lime as an insecticide, and experimenting with plants in cases linked with Plasmodium that repel mosquitoes, such as the neem tree, an Indian falciparum. In Mexico, Guatemala, native. Native fish species and bacteria that eat mosquito larvae were also released into local streams. Nicaragua and Honduras, the Other strategies tested in Talamanca and elsewhere replication was very extensive — included bed nets and mesh screens on windows and doors. People in rural communities also learned how to recognize Guatemala alone has extended the signs of malaria and the importance of rapid and thor- ough treatment of suspected cases, as this can significantly control methods to 600 towns. reduce the risk of transmission. Community participation thus became a central axis of the malaria control activities. 194 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Anopheles mosquito The project transformed towns into healthy communi- Overall, the project achieved a 63 percent reduction ties — clean, without rubbish or weeds in the open areas, in malaria cases and a more than 86 percent decrease in with neat and tidy houses and yards. In Guatemala, commu- cases linked with Plasmodium falciparum, the malarial para- nity leaders say that the “clean houses� strategy had other site that causes the most severe kind of infection and the positive impacts as well, such as reduction in vector born highest death rate globally. For instance, there was a reduc- diseases like dengue and scabies, reduction of common tion from 2,439 people with malaria in 2004 to 914 in 2007, house fly, the improvement of community safety (because surpassing the goal of reducing malaria morbidity 50 percent it is possible to see intruders from a longer distance), basic by 2015, according to the Millennium Development Goals. environmental sanitation, and improvement of the streets. In Guatemala, places for watering farm animals and cattle called “aguadas� saw the frequency of malaria cases in Communities that worked with the project are now able the community drop from once every month to once every to respond effectively to new challenges. The floods that three months. Several communities registered zero malaria occurred in Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica in 2008 and cases in 2007 and 2008. In Panama in 2008, 90 percent of 2009, for example, were followed by a strong reaction of the the controlled localities registered zero local transmission community, as they worked to eliminate mosquito breeding (autochthonous) cases of malaria. sites and refugees, cleaned houses and patios, and actively searched for patients with fever. That community engage- The project has demonstrated that it is possible to control ment enabled the prevention of malaria outbreaks without or even eliminate malaria with environmentally friendly the use of insecticides. methods and without the use of persistent insecticides, Finding Alternatives to DDT 195 and that such an approach is cost effective, highly repli- The most important outcome, however, may not be the cable, and sustainable. The main conditions are the combi- local or regional impact of the project, but the adoption nation of control strategies, the intersectorial approach and of DDT-free control methods at even broader scales. The community participation. The strategies needed for this kind GEF, WHO, and UNEP are now using a similar approach in of intervention, such as the control of mosquito breeding some 40 countries in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, sites, cleaning houses and patios are easily adopted by the and Central Asia. The aim of the new projects, a major communities. They also contribute to the empowerment of initiative of the GEF and UNEP, with close to US$40 million the communities and to the change of the understanding funding, is to achieve a 30 percent cut in the application about their participation in malaria control. of DDT world-wide by 2014 and its total phase-out by the early 2020s, if not sooner, while staying on track to meet Building coalitions across the agricultural, health and the malaria targets set by WHO. environmental sectors and with the general population is essential to reducing the use of DDT. Such coalitions are in The new projects underline the determination of the fact essential to implementing the Stockholm Convention international community to combat malaria while realizing a in general, not simply in relation to DDT. low, indeed zero DDT world. The efforts by the GEF, UNEP, and WHO are catalyzing innovative solutions and sustain- The success of DDT-free control methods had a catalytic able choices to meet vital health and environmental aspi- role across the region. There was an extension of the inter- rations. By offering solid evidence for the effectiveness of ventions to other neighboring localities and municipalities combinations of locally-adapted, cost-effective and sustain- due to an initiative of the community leaders and health able vector-control methods, these efforts are facilitating a workers. In Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, sustainable transition away from DDT. The dividends from the replication was very extensive — Guatemala alone has these investments will mean a cleaner, safer and sustain- extended to control methods to 600 towns. able environment for future generations. 196 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Fresh neem leaves, used in pesticide control Finding Alternatives to DDT 197 Posotelga, Nicaragua 198 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Nicaragua Finding Alternatives to DDT 199 200 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Sources Ritter, L., K.R. Solomon, J. Forget. 1996. PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS. Report prepared for the International Programme on Chemical Safety. UNEP. 2009. Final Evaluation of the UNEP GEF project “Regional Program of Action and Demonstration of Sustainable Alternatives to DDT for Malaria Vector Control in Mexico and Central America� White-bellied Sea Eagle WHO. 2011. World Malaria Report. Finding Alternatives to DDT 201 Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Conclusion In 1992, as nations gathered at the first Conference and deeply enmeshed in the GEF’s founding Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the need — environmental protection, economic development, and social justice — are as important as ever. Solving prob- to find new ways to finance global lems that are of global significance lies at the heart of the environmental protection was clear. GEF’s work, whether the challenge be climate change, biodiversity conservation, transboundary marine and Yet hardly any among the world leaders, the hundreds of freshwater resources, land degradation, or pollution. delegates and thousands of observers assembled had a clear Their resolution remains a linchpin in the campaign for idea of how exactly a global environment financial mechanism a prosperous, secure and sustainable future for earth’s would work. It had never been tried at such an ambitious scale people and for the planet itself. and with such urgency. The Global Environment Facility thus began with few relevant models on which to build. This may That campaign can report tangible progress, a result of have been an advantage. No model meant no precedents, innovative and often heroic efforts by governmental and and no old ways of doing things that would have to be given non-governmental actors alike. But ongoing environmental up and replaced. The twenty projects described in this book damage and persistent poverty are daily reminders of the provide a sense of the innovation and creativity that have continuing challenges. Two decades of pilot projects, studies, driven the GEF mission from its inception. They offer a small and negotiations have brought sustainable development sample of the GEF’s efforts during the period of tumultuous closer to fruition, but major barriers and systemic gaps remain change that followed the Rio summit, and the picture that in the implementation of internationally agreed commit- emerges is of an institution evolving to meet new challenges, ments. Millennium Development Goals and the 2010 biodi- and laying the foundation for a new philosophy of the global versity targets, painstakingly crafted and adopted amid hope environment and global economy. and expectation, remain unmet in many countries, despite notable achievements on several fronts, such as the legacy The global changes of the past two decades have of more than 12 percent of all the terrestrial surface of the left some fundamental principles undisturbed. The three planet under some form of protection, and the control of pillars of sustainable development codified at that first Rio the CFC-led scourge over the protective ozone layer. Conclusion 203 The world now faces a host of new and urgent challenges. M The acidification of the world’s oceans is increasing, as is the overuse and pollution of transboundary freshwater resources. Arctic sea ice may soon disappear during summertime, just one of many signs of the need for climate adaptation. Land degradation continues to threaten human and natural uch of the GEF’s communities, while the importance of using forests sustain- ably becomes ever clearer. The pace of global environmental work flows from change is unlikely to slow and the windows of opportunity for shifting that change in a positive direction are becoming the recognition that reinvigorating progressively narrower. the global partnership for sustainable So it is fair to ask: Will the GEF be suited to the challenges of the next 20 years? The record of success of GEF projects development will be essential to illustrated in this book, and the organization’s careful stew- success.… the GEF will continue ardship of scarce resources have demonstrated that it will continue to be a powerful mechanism to bring about change, to be in an ideal position to tackle alongside other supporting mechanisms and programs. The hallmarks of the GEF have been its flexibility in taking on complex, multi-faceted problems new approaches and new methods and its ability to provide tangible benefits in a cost-effective manner. Those character- requiring multi-faceted solutions. istics, in combination with a renewed commitment by donor nations to provide the necessary funding and resources, will be perhaps the most telling factors in determining the ability of the GEF to continue making lasting global contributions to conservation and sustainable development. The GEF’s flexibility stems in large part from the under- standing, evident from its very first days, that it must act As the community of nations renews its commitment to primarily as a catalyst. The experience of the GEF has borne sustainable development and pursues the green economy in out the reasoning behind that approach. Even with signifi- the context of poverty eradication, the scientific, economic, cantly more resources, the GEF would play only a limited and cultural understanding of how and when to exploit the role in advancing environmental protection and sustainable services we receive from nature will need to grow. The GEF, development without the ability to leverage other important with its increasingly transparent and science-based methods, sources of funding, support, and engagement. To date, for can help lead this effort to expand our understanding. every dollar the GEF has generated from donor nations, it has been able to raise nearly five dollars in cofinancing from Since the first meeting in Rio in 1992, and with gathering other sources, such as international institutions, NGOs, private speed, governments, NGOs, and the scientific and busi- partners, and recipient national and regional governments. ness communities have sought ways to use the concept of This record is critical to achieving the scale of activity needed ecosystem services as a mechanism for both the conserva- to bring about global change. The GEF’s knowledge of how tion of biological diversity and sustainable development. to move from pilot efforts to transformative national, regional, This holds both promise and peril. The GEF’s practical expe- or even global projects will become even more important as rience leaves it well-positioned to address the key ques- the need to innovate and rapidly spread successful innova- tions about ecosystem services. These include investigating tions grows in the coming decades. which components of biological diversity are essential for 204 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies Heads of State and Government at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro providing ecosystem services, quantifying changes in the As it becomes the lingua franca for global conventions, the provision of services that are driven by the loss of such diver- parties to those conventions and the international agencies sity, and establishing monetary and nonmonetary values and organizations that support them must understand that placed on ecosystem services by different sectors of society the evolution of the GEF has been remarkable both for what in different regions.7 has changed and what has remained the same. A vital role for the GEF at its inception was to be the financial mecha- If done with care, investing in natural capital and ecosystem nism for the Convention on Biological Diversity, and it took services offers significant opportunities to create jobs and as a starting point the need to secure the world’s protected build businesses that will last and thrive. The goal is to realize areas. Those areas remain a constant for biodiversity conser- the enormous economic potential of such endeavors as public vation in a rapidly changing world. works for environmental protection and restoration, sustainable land and water management practices, ecological farming, Just as the GEF can help answer important questions organic production systems, sustainable forest management, about the role of ecosystem services in building the green community forestry, rational use of biodiversity for economic economy, so too it is poised to address the challenges and purposes, and new markets linked to renewable and uncon- opportunities for global protected area networks. GEF ventional energy sources. The GEF has been a lead investor projects have contributed significantly to one of the great in each of these areas, and while not all of those investments conservation achievements of the past quarter century: have fully yielded the hoped-for returns, drawing on that reaching — and in places even surpassing — the global experience will be essential. target of bringing 10 percent of the terrestrial surface of the planet under protection. The oceans, however, remain Natural capital and ecosystem services are part of a new largely unprotected, hence the agreement of Aichi, Japan language for conservation and sustainable development. in 2010, on a new set of biodiversity targets that include 7. Sutherland et al 2009. Conclusion 205 coastal and marine areas. The GEF will support countries in GEF’s mandate. Increasingly over the past two decades, their efforts to meet these new Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the GEF has worked not only on individual environmental offering insights into the effectiveness of different types of challenges but also on the many intersections between protected areas at conserving biodiversity and providing them. A wastewater treatment program in North Africa ecosystem services. As part of this effort, the GEF will help may arise from issues of scarce water resources; it may also make explicit the tradeoffs and the costs and benefits, in relate to the preservation of fragile marine biodiversity. financial, human, and environmental terms. Sustainable forest management may protect endangered species and provide steady work for local communities, As this book illustrates, GEF’s legacy on environmentally but it also helps store carbon that would otherwise add sound technologies for residential, commercial, industrial, to the atmosphere’s CO2 load. and electric power applications remains current as a powerful tools to mitigate climate-change induced emissions. Since its As the financial mechanism for four major international early days, GEF has supported more than 30 climate-friendly environmental conventions, and with a mandate spanning technologies for energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustain- many additional focal areas, the GEF will continue to be in able urban transport, and methane reduction. GEF played an ideal position to tackle complex, multi-faceted prob- catalytic roles in mobilizing investments, creating enabling lems requiring multi-faceted solutions. Building a green environments, pioneering innovative financial instruments, and economy is just such a task; it will require addressing a promoting market-based mechanisms leading to widespread variety of daunting challenges, including poverty eradication, adoption and dissemination of climate-friendly technologies. food security, sound water management, universal access In no small measure, this experience laid the foundation for to modern energy services, sustainable cities, management other climate change programs to take root in a host of multi- of oceans, and improved resilience and disaster prepared- lateral finance institutions, particularly since the early 2000s. ness, as well as public health, human resource develop- ment, and sustained, inclusive and equitable growth that Much of the GEF’s work flows from the recognition that generates employment. reinvigorating the global partnership for sustainable devel- opment will be essential to success. The partnership model Such a complex endeavor demands differentiated strate- that works best includes virtually all sectors at the interna- gies tailored to the needs of different countries and different tional scale, via technical agencies, multilateral develop- sectors, and working at a range of project scales from very ment banks, nongovernmental organizations, and the private small to very large. It clearly cannot be accomplished entirely sector. This comprehensive partnership brings to bear the at the level of global agreements. As the GEF has seen first- most sophisticated technical skills and the best economic hand, the bottom-up revolution that derives from community understanding at a relatively lower cost. Sustainable develop- participation and empowerment complements and plays an ment will require these sorts of partnerships among women, increasingly important role in finding the path to sustain- children and youth, indigenous peoples, non-governmental able development. organizations (NGOs), local authorities, workers and trade unions, business and industry, the scientific and technolog- Significant progress towards building green economies will ical community, and farmers. All members of civil society require new investments, new skills, and technology devel- will need to play a meaningful role at all levels, and to be opment, transfer, and access. The GEF has seen throughout actively engaged in sustainable development by incorpo- its history the need to provide new, additional, and scaled- rating their specific knowledge and practical know-how into up sources of financing to developing countries. The GEF national and local policy making. has witnessed the power of financial mobilization. While GEF resources are small by themselves, the willingness of Coordination among international, national and local the GEF to invest in a project lends credibility and draws partners goes hand in hand with coordination among donors to developing country projects they might otherwise the various environmental challenges that make up the avoid. That helps win support from host governments as 206 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies well, and with government co-financing the GEF achieves terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems, with profound much more than simply creating larger budgets. consequences for all life on Earth. The challenges to the GEF’s vision for the future of human cultures and economies, As governments become invested partners, projects move and for the biotic communities that form the foundation for into the mainstream and project goals can become national both, are equally profound. goals, with locally driven and funded projects and policies responding to new challenges and opportunities. Among the As with the ideas of natural capital and ecosystem services, most compelling lessons of the GEF’s work is that global envi- the GEF’s long involvement in climate adaptation and miti- ronmental protection investments can indeed attract signifi- gation provides a unique opportunity to help answer the key cant co-financing from national and multiple international questions the international community will face in the next sources, and those leveraged funds can expand the scope two decades, especially as the GEF becomes more sophisti- and enhance the effectiveness of project investments. cated in designing projects as experiments. That approach, still nascent, will help reveal, for example, which elements of Everything the GEF does, from a tiny grant in support of biodiversity in which locations are most vulnerable to climate an organic garden to a massive regional project involving change, and how human responses to climate change such dozens of partners, agencies, communities, and governments as changes in agriculture or energy production will affect across thousands of square kilometers, occurs in the context biodiversity and development. The shift to evidence-based of global climate change, the other constant, with biodiversity conservation and development represents a sea-change for conservation, in the GEF’s work across the past two decades. the GEF and its partner agencies, and one that will play a The effects of climate change are already apparent in many vital role in efforts to build a green economy. Sources Sutherland, W. Et al. 2009. One Hundred Questions of Importance to the Conservation of Global Biodiversity. Conservation Biology 23:557-67. Conclusion 207 Flamingos, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania T he Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established in 1991 by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It is a groundbreaking partnership which provides new and additional funding to developing countries to help them meet the costs of measures to achieve global environment bene�ts in critical focal areas. Today it unites 182 participating States, ten multilateral institutions and a network of civil society representatives. By leveraging the comparative advantages of the different entities in the GEF network, extended today to include 7 executing agencies, the GEF has promoted intensive knowledge sharing and coordination among these diverse organizations. Critically, the partnership ensures the mainstreaming of global environmental issues into core development programming and has led to increased coherence and results at the national, regional and global levels. For example, the GEF has achieved remarkable success in developing synergies between biodiversity conservation, local development, resilience to climate change and community empowerment. As the �nancial mechanism of a number of multilateral conventions, this synergistic role of GEF is increasingly critical in a carbon constrained world with fast changing ecological boundaries. Today more than ever, the GEF is uniquely positioned to assist developing countries in identifying and implementing cost-effective approaches to address in an integrated manner global environment challenges. UNDP is proud to be part of the GEF partnership. Since 1991, over 156 countries have selected UNDP to assist them in accessing over US$ 3.9 billion in GEF grant funds. These grant funds have been combined with over US$ 10.0 billion in co-�nancing, with UNDP providing technical support to over 1,600 global, regional and national programmes and projects. UNDP’s role as a GEF Implementing Agency has evolved from supporting countries through investments in demonstration projects to initiatives that have the potential to transform entire sectors and markets. For example, UNDP interventions for biodiversity conservation have moved from conservation of individual protected areas to unleashing the economic potential of protected areas for sustainable development, and to mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in forestry, agriculture and �shery sectors. In climate change, UNDP focuses on supporting the establishment of enabling policy environments necessary to catalyze public and private �nance for low emission and climate resilient investments and practices. This can include the development of information, regulatory and economic incentives such as standards and labels to phase out of energy-inef�cient domestic appliances, or feed-in tariffs to promote access to affordable and clean energy. Many of the successes achieved through the GEF partnership are highlighted in this publication, and I would like to congratulate the GEF Secretariat for its leadership in preparing it and for the contribution to the important progress made over the past 20 years. The support provided to countries through the GEF represents a signi�cant contribution to improving the state of our planet. It also provides a wealth of innovative and successful measures that have been taken in support of a green economy in many countries around the world. UNDP looks forward to working with our GEF partners to continue this progress, and I hope this publication can support the critical dialogue underway on the international community’s support for a green economy over the next 20 years and beyond. Rebeca Grynspan Associate Administrator, UNDP About the Global Environment Facility The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is an independent ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE GEF financial mechanism that provides grants to developing and eligible countries for projects that benefit the global environment. Assembly Conventions 182 Member Countries CBD, UNFCCC, CCD, Stockholm Convention The GEF supports projects in biodiversity, climate change, GEF Trustee international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer and persistent organic pollutants. These projects link local, CSOs Council STAP Policy advocacy level 32 constituencies: 14 donors and 18 recipients national, and global environmental challenges while promoting Evaluation Office sustainable livelihoods. The GEF serves as the designated financial mechanism for the United Nations Convention on Secretariat Biological Diversity (CBD), the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), as well as a financial mechanism for the United Nations Convention to Combat GEF Agencies Desertification (UNCCD). Implementation of projects and programs By uniting 182 member countries, the GEF works closely with governments, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the CSOs Operational Focal Points Convention Secretariats, and various international Agencies. Project level Government agencies & other stakeholders Cooperation with CSOs is particularly valuable to the GEF, since its projects and policies have greatly benefited from a diversity of views, experiences and perspectives. Since its strategic guidance to the Council. The close interaction among inception in 1991 as a pilot program to address global envi- these actors ultimately results in the implementation of proj- ronmental issues, the GEF has evolved into an effective and ects and programs. These on-the-ground actions are imple- transparent entity with a solid, outcomes-driven track record. mented through a partnership of national stakeholders, under the coordination of the Operational Focal Point (OFP) in each country. As key partners, CSOs contribute to the achievement THE STRUCTURE OF THE GEF of GEF goals in various and distinctive ways — from project identification and execution, to influencing its governance To fulfill its mandate of addressing global environmental and decision-making process. issues, the GEF partnership has a unique structure. Its governing structure is composed of the Assembly, the Council, the Secretariat, ten Agencies, a Scientific and Technical Advisory THE ASSEMBLY Panel (STAP) and the Evaluation Office (see Chart 1). The GEF Assembly is composed of all 182 member coun- The Conference of the Parties (COP) from the Conventions tries, or Participants. It meets every three to four years at the for which the GEF serves as the financialmechanism provides ministerial level to: 210 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies 1. Review the general policies, Affairs Team and an Operations and Business Strategy Team. 2. Review and evaluate the operation of the GEF on the Relations with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are handled basis of reports submitted by the Council; by the External Relations Team. The Secretariat’s main func- 3. Keep under review the membership of the Facility; tions are to implement the decisions of the Assembly and the 4. Consider, for approval by consensus, amendments to the Council; coordinate the formulation and oversee the imple- Instrument for the Establishment of the Restructured Global mentation of program activities; ensure the implementation Environment Facility on thebasis of recommendationsby of the operational policies, in consultation with the Agencies; the Council. chair interagency group meetings to ensure the effective execu- tion of the Council’s decisions and to facilitate coordination and collaboration among the Agencies; coordinate with the THE COUNCIL Secretariats of other relevant international bodies, in particular the Secretariats of the conventions; among others. The GEF Council is the main governing body of the GEF comprising 32 Members appointed by constituencies of GEF In addition, the Secretariat provides Conflict Resolution member countries: 14 from donor constituencies and 18 from services. The purpose of this service is to enhance the overall recipient constituencies (see Box 2). The constituencies are GEF internal climate of transparency, effectively mediate and formulated and distributed taking into account the need for resolve any issues raised, as well as to manage and build balanced and equitable representation of all Participants knowledge on what these issues are. A Conflict Resolution and giving due weight to the funding efforts of all donors. Commissioner at the Secretariat reports directly to the CEO. Council Members rotate every three years, or until a new Government agencies, CSOs and other stakeholders may Member is appointed by the constituency. raise an issue of importance to the GEF operations, launch a complaint, or ask for a Dispute settlement, by sending a The Council meets bi-annually and is responsible for devel- formal request directly to the CEO. More information can be oping, adopting and evaluating the operational policies and found at http://www.thegef.org/gef/node/2131 programs for GEF-financed activities, as well as reviewing and approving the work program (projects submitted for approval). The Council acts in conformity with the policies, program THE GEF TRUSTEE priorities and eligibility criteria decided by the Conference of the Parties of the Conventions concerned. Council deci- The World Bank serves as the GEF Trustee, administering sions are made by consensus. the GEF Trust Fund (the contributions by donors). Among its main responsibilities are the mobilization of resources for The contact information for Council Members and Alternates the Trust Fund; the financial management of the Trust Fund, can be found at: www.thegef.org/gef/Council_Members_Alternates including the disbursement of funds to the GEF Agencies as well as the preparation of the financial reports regarding the investment and use of resources; and the monitoring of THE SECRETARIAT the application of budgetary and project funds. The Secretariat coordinates the overall implementation of The GEF Trustee is accountable to the GEF Council for the GEF activities. It services and reports to the Assembly and the performance of its fiduciary responsibilities. the Council. The Secretariat is headed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) — Chairperson, who is appointed by the Council to serve for four years, and may be reappointed. THE GEF AGENCIES It is structured in different teams, including a Climate Change The GEF Agencies are the operational arm of the GEF and Chemicals Team, a Natural Resources Team, an External in project implementation. The Agencies work closely with About the GEF 211 project proponents — government agencies, CSOs and operations related to Biodiversity (protected areas, marine other stakeholders — to design, develop and implement resources, forestry, biotechnology), Climate Change GEF-funded projects and programs. (including biofuels), International Waters (watershed management), Land Degradation (erosion control), Every Agency has a unique area of expertise, which gives and POPs(pest management). each one a specific comparative advantagefor the GEF: ■ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) ■ Asian Development Bank (ADB) — promotes investment — works on issues related to land degradation, rural projects at the country and multi-country level in Asia as sustainable development, integrated land management. well as the ability to incorporate capacity development IFAD has been working intensively on marginal lands, and technical assistance into its projects. The ADB has degraded ecosystems and in post-conflict situations. strong experience in the fields of energy efficiency, renew- able energy, adaptation to climate change and natural ■ United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — resources management including water and sustainable specializes in technical assistance, especially for capacity land management. development programs and technical assistance proj- ects. The UNDP has a global network of country offices, ■ African Development Bank (AfDB) — although in the experience in integrated policy development, human initial stages of tackling global environmental issues, the resources development, institutional strengthening, and AfDB is in the process of integrating its environmental non-governmental and community participation. policy into its operations. Its environmental projects are related to Climate Change (adaptation, renewable energy ■ United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — the and energy efficiency), Land Degradation (deforestation, only UN organization with a mandate derived from the desertification) and International Waters (water manage- General Assembly to coordinate the work of the United mentand fisheries). Nations in the area of environment. UNEP is the desig- nated authority of the United Nations system in environ- ■ European Bank for Reconstruction and Development mental issues at the global and regional level. The UNEP (EBRD) — works in market creation and transformation, provides the GEF with a range of relevant experiences, and ensuring sustainability through private sector (includ- in particular by catalyzing the development of scientific ing small and medium-sized enterprises) and municipal and technical assessments and norms, assisting countries environmental infrastructure projects at the country and to meet their obligations to the environmental conven- regional level in the countries of eastern and central Europe tions, and in advancing environmental management in and central Asia, especially in the fields of energy efficiency, GEF-financed activities. mainstreaming of biodiversity and water management. ■ United Nations Industrial Development Organization ■ United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNIDO) — involves the industrial sector in GEF proj- (FAO) — provides technical capacity and experience ects in the following areas: industrial energy efficiency, in fisheries, forestry, agriculture, and natural resources renewable energy services, water management, chemicals management. The FAO has strong experience in sustain- management (including POPs and ODS), and biotech- able use of agricultural biodiversity, bioenergy, biosafety, nology. The UNIDO also has extensive knowledge of sustainable development in production landscapes, and small and medium enterprises in developing countries integrated pest and pesticides management. as well as those with economies in transition. ■ Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) — focuses ■ The World Bank — promotes the development and manage- on investment projects at the country and regional level ment of investment projects and mobilizes private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB finances resources. As a leading international financial institution 212 From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies at the global scale in a number of sectors, the World Bank achievements of the GEF in a replenishment cycle. Also, has strong experience in investment lending focusing on the Evaluation Office supports knowledge sharing and institution building, infrastructure development and policy follow-up of evaluation recommendations. It works reform, across all the focal areas of the GEF. with the Secretariat and the GEF Agencies to establish systems to disseminate lessons learned and best prac- tices emanating from monitoring and evaluation activi- THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ADVISORY PANEL ties and provides independent evaluative evidence to the GEF knowledge base. It works independently from The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) is the Secretariat and reports directly to the Council. It is an advisory body to the GEF, with the mandateto provide headed by a Director, appointed by the Council, who objective, strategic scientific and technical advice on coordinates a team of specialized evaluators. policies, operational strategies, programs and projects. The Panel consists of seven members, who are interna- THE GEF FOCAL POINTS tionally recognized experts in the GEF’s key areas of work, and are supported by a global network of experts and insti- Each of the GEF member countries has designated govern- tutions. Also, the STAP interacts with other relevant scientific ment officials responsible for GEF activities. These officials, and technical bodies, particularly with the subsidiary bodies known as the GEF Focal Points, play a critical coordination of the CBD, the UNFCCC, the UNCCD and the Stockholm role regarding GEF matters at country level and serving as Convention on POPs. the liaison with the Secretariat and the GEF Agencies and representing their constituencies at the GEF Council. There The STAP is administratively supported by a Secretariat are two types of GEF Focal Points — Political Focal Points and provided by the UNEP, which also acts as its liaison with the GEF. Operational Focal Points. Their functions and responsibilities are different. All of the GEF member countries (donors and recipients) have Political Focal Points, while only recipient coun- THE EVALUATION OFFICE tries eligible for GEF support have Operational Focal Points. The GEF Evaluation Office has the central role of ensuring the The GEF Political Focal Points are mainly responsible for independent evaluation function within the GEF. The Evaluation issues related to the GEF governance, including policies and Office is responsible for undertaking independent evaluations decisions, and relations between member countries within that involve a set of projects.These evaluations are typically their constituencies. Usually, the Political Focal Points are on focal areas, institutional issues or on cross-cutting themes. those who follow the Council discussions, and represent their Some examples of theseevaluations include: countries at the Assembly. The GEF Operational Focal Points ■ Annual Performance Reports, which provide feedback are responsible for the operational aspects of GEF activities for the ongoing improvement of the portfolio as well as within their countries, including reviewing and endorsing the quality of project monitoring and evaluation across project proposals to ensure consistency with national priorities, the portfolio. and facilitating GEF coordination, integration, and consulta- tion at the country level. The complete list of the GEF Focal ■ Thematic Evaluations — reports from evaluations covering Points, including name, position, government agency and programs, processes, cross-cutting themes or focal areas, contact information can be accessed at: http://www.thegef. providing a basis for decision making and lesson learning. org/ gef/focal_points_list ■ Overall Performance Study (OPS) — undertaken every four years to inform the donors before every replen- ishment, providing an independent assessment of the About the GEF 213 T he United States has been proud to support the GEF’s two decades of achievement in promoting green growth. The GEF has a strong track record demonstrating that lifting the lives of the poor and protecting the environment can go hand in hand. GEF-funded demonstration programs have led to the widespread dissemination of solar hot water heaters and other clean technologies. GEF land and oceans programs have reduced environmental degradation and improved food security for people around the world. And the GEF has invested in establishing and managing 2,302 protected areas, covering 634 million hectares, or more than 1.5 billion acres. Lael Brainard Under Secretary for International Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury “THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET IS IN PERIL. The dangerous impacts of climate change are ever more apparent; biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates; too many of our day-to-day practices and choices are still far from sustainable. The Global Environment Facility, the financing mechanism for UN conventions on biodiversity, climate change, desertification and persistent organic pollutants, has played an important role in addressing these challenges over the past 20 years. Drawing on the strengths of UN agencies, multilateral development banks and other national and regional institutions, the Facility’s efforts have shown that when resources are made available to developing countries, accompanied by careful planning at all levels, seemingly intractable problems can be solved.� Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General of the United Nations “INSPIRING ….A POWER- “WE ARE ON THE CUSP “WITHOUT THE FUL ACCOUNT OF THE OF A MASSIVE, GLOBAL GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT GEF’S WORK, WITH PROOF SHIFT TOWARDS PUBLIC FACILITY ACTING THAT SUSTAINABLE AND PRIVATE FINANCING AS THE FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT IS OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY, MECHANISM OF THE POSSIBLE. If you’ve ever doubted SUSTAINABLE CONVENTION ON that land degradation and desertification DEVELOPMENT for the simple BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY, pose serious threats to humanity or that reason that governments and companies see HUNDREDS OF DECISIONS these threats can be overcome then turn no economic or business model can thrive in TAKEN AT THE INTERGOV- to the three chapters in this book for evidence.� the long term without it. Over the past two ERNMENTAL LEVEL decades, starting long before sustainable WOULD NOT HAVE investment became a central part of official SEEN ANY ACTION ON Luc Gnacadja and corporate thinking, the Global Environment THE GROUND. It is this targeted Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Facility was helping to define the principles financing of projects in the developing world, we need to deploy these funds at the much home to the bulk of the world’s biodiversity, greater scale that is required. This timely book that has assured nations that environmental illustrates how to avoid the old pitfalls and sustainability and a green economy are indeed seize the new opportunities.� achievable and beneficial to all humankind.� Christiana Figueres Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias Executive Secretary of the United Nations Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)