PtB TEEB for Policy Makers Webinar/Earthcast 7 april 2011

1. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)
in National and International Policy Making
Patrick ten Brink
TEEB for Policy Makers Co-ordinator
Head of Brussels Office
Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)
Earthscan – Webinar
7 April 2011
1

2. TEEB’s Genesis, Aims and progress
G8+5 “Potsdam Initiative – Biological Diversity 2010”
Potsdam
1) The economic significance of the global loss of biological diversity
Importance of recognising, demonstrating & responding to values of nature
Engagement: ~500 authors, reviewers & cases from across the globe
TEEB End User
Reports Brussels
Interim Climate
2009, London 2010
Report Issues Update
TEEB TEEB CBD COP11
Synthesis Books Delhi
National
TEEB
Ecol./Env. Work
Economics
literature
Sectoral
CBD COP 9 Input to TEEB
Bonn 2008 UNFCCC 2009 work
India, Brazil, Belgium, Et al.
Japan & South Africa
Sept. 2010 Rio+20
Brazil
BD COP 10 Nagoya, Oct 2010

3. UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
defines biodiversity as “the web of life”
• Variety of species - plants, animals and microorganisms
• Genetic differences within each species - e.g. varieties of
crops and breeds of livestock
• Variety of ecosystems - e.g. forests, wetlands, mountains,
deserts, lakes, rivers, coastal marine, agricultural et al

4. Biodiversity and its value is about
• Diversity/variety – e.g. pharmaceuticals, food security; and
E.g. genetic resources: > than
• Quantity – e.g. carbon storage, fish stock, flood control, timber, water
retention;
• E.g. for fish production: > than
• Quality – e.g landscape and tourism, ecosystems and water filtration
Building on Balmford and Rodriguez et al (2009) Scoping the Science

5. Biodiversity loss
Biodiversity loss leads to loss of natural wealth, ecosystem services, benefits to UNEP (2011)
UNEP Yearbook
economy and society/wellbeing (see TEEB (2009,2010,2011) MEA (2005)

6. The Pathway from Ecosystem Structure
and processes to human well-being

7. Coral Reefs: Critical natural asset in danger
• Coral Reef Services (per hectare) can have very high values
• Global valuation studies place the value as high as US$ 172 billion per annum
• Over 500 million people are dependent on the services from reefs
• however…. Coral Reefs are an ecosystem at the threshold of irreversibility
Need: reduce pressure on coral reefs, MPAs et al & encourage GHG emissions
reductions -450ppm and 2 degrees already accepting major losses

8. Global Fish stocks: an overexploited,
underperforming natural asset at risk of collapse
Source: adapted from FAO 2005
 Half of wild marine fisheries are fully exploited; a further quarter already over-exploited
 At risk : $ 80-100 billion income from the sector
 est. 27 million jobs short term vs long term
 over a billion people rely on fish as their main or sole source of animal protein

9. Valuation and policy making:
from valuing natural assets to decisions
“I believe that the great part of miseries of
mankind are brought upon them by false
estimates they have made of the value of things.”
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

10. Valuation and policy making:
from valuing natural assets to decisions
“There is a renaissance underway, in which people are waking up
to the tremendous values of natural capital and devising
ingenious ways of incorporating these values into major resource
decisions.”
Gretchen Daily, Stanford University
Book announcement: The Economics of Ecosystems and
Biodiversity in National and International Policy Making now
TEEB Reports: http://www.teebweb.org/ available from Earthscan
Summaries (in range of languages) and chapters

11. TEEB for Policy Makers Book
The Global Biodiversity Crisis
• Nature’s assets & biodiversity loss
• Economic values and loss
• Social dimension
Measuring what we manage
• Indicators
• Accounts
• Valuation
• Assessment
Available Solutions
• Markets/pricing/incentives
• Regulation: standards
• Regulation: planning, protected areas
• Investment (man-made & natural capital)
Transforming our approach to
http://www.teebweb.org/ natural capital

12. Multiple benefits from ecosystems
Provisioning services Many services from the same resource
• Food, fibre and fuel
• Water provision
• Genetic resources
Regulating Services
• Climate /climate change regulation
• Water and waste purification
• Air purification
• Erosion control
• Natural hazards mitigation
• Pollination
• Biological control
Cultural Services
• Aesthetics, Landscape value, recreation and
tourism
• Cultural values and inspirational services
Important to appreciate the whole set of eco-system
Supporting Services services & take into account in decisions
• Soil formation
Not only after they have been lost and oft costly substitutes
+ Resilience- eg to climate change needed

13. Evidence base - Assessing values and actions
Assessing the value of working with natural capital has helped determine where
ecosystems can provide goods and services at lower cost than by man-made
technological alternatives and where they can lead to significant savings
• USA-NY: Catskills-Delaware watershed for NY: PES/working with nature saves money (~5US$bn)
• New Zealand: Te Papanui Park - water supply to hydropower, Dunedin city, farmers (~$136m)
• Mexico: PSAH to forest owners, aquifer recharge, water quality, deforestation, poverty (~US$303m)
• France & Belgium: Priv. Sector: Vittel (Mineral water) PES & Rochefort (Beer) PES for water quality
• Venezuela: PA helps avoid potential replacement costs of hydro dams (~US$90-$134m over 30yr)
• Vietnam restoring/investing in Mangroves - cheaper than dyke maintenance (~US$: 1m to 7m/yr)
• South Africa: WfW public PES to address IAS, avoids costs and provides jobs (~20,000; 52%♀)
• Germany : peatland restoration: avoidance cost of CO2 ~ 8 to 12 €/t CO2 (0-4 alt. land use)
Sources: various. Mainly in TEEB for National and International Policy Makers, TEEB for local and regional policy and TEEB ca ses

14. Beneficiaries:
Public sector (e.g. water – national & municipalities),
Public goods (e.g forests, biodiversity, climate),
Private sector (e.g. water, beer, energy, agriculture),
Citizens (e.g. water quantity, quality, price, security) and
Communities (e.g. payments, livelihoods/jobs, ecological assets & “GDP of the poor”)
Decisions: conservation / restoration investment, PES / public programmes, protected areas
Policy synergies: Water – availability/quantity, quality,
Climate - mitigation (green carbon) and (ecosystem based) adaptation to CC
Job creation and livelihoods
Security - natural hazards (e.g. flooding), water, energy
Finances - public sector budget savings (Nat. gov’t, public services, municipalities)
Industrial policy – energy, water, forestry, agriculture...
Consumer affordability
Poverty
and in each case : biodiversity.

15. Global Issues, Regional solutions:
Assessing value of nature-based CC mitigation
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern project 2000-2008
• Restoration of 30,000 ha (10%)
• Emission savings of up to 300,000 t CO2-eq.
• CO2 Avoidance cost of 8 to 12 € / t CO2
• if alternative land use options are realized
(extensive grazing, reed production or alder
forest) costs decrease to 0 to 4 € / t CO2
Restored peatland in Trebeltal 2007
Foto: D. Zak, http://www.fv-berlin.de
Source: Federal Environmental Agency 2007; MLUV MV 2009; Schäfer 2009

16. Cities & assessing Multiple Benefits – City of Toronto
Ecosystem Annual Value
Valuation Benefits (2005, CDN $)
Carbon Values 366 million
Air Protection Values 69 million
Watershed Values 409 million
Pollination Values 360 million
Biodiversity Value 98 million
Recreation Value 95 million
Agricultural Land 329 million
Value
Source: Wilson, S. J. (2008)
Map: http://greenbeltalliance.ca/images/Greebelt_2_update.jpg

17. TEEB for Policy Makers – Available Solutions to
respond to the value of nature
• Rewarding benefits
• Payments for ecosystem services (PES)
• REDD+
• Tax incentives, and tax transfers
• Markets and certification/labelling
• Green public procurement (GPP)
• Avoiding damage
• Pricing – full cost recovery, pollution charges,
liability
• Regulation: standards, bans
• Protecting assets
• Spatial planning
• Protected areas – designation, management
• Investing in natural capital
• Restoration, new investments
http://www.teebweb.org/

18. Payments for Ecosystem Services Hydrological services: Aquifer recharge;
Improved surface water quality, reduce
(PES) frequency & damage from flooding`
Instrument: Mexico PSAH: PES to forest
owners to preserve forest: manage &
not convert forest
Result
Deforestation rate fell from 1.6 % to 0.6 %.
18.3 thousand hectares of avoided deforestation
Avoided GHG emissions ~ 3.2 million tCO2e
Reduce Deforestation Address Poverty
Munoz 2010); Muñoz-Piña et al. 2008; Muñoz-Piña et al. 2007.

19. Protected areas & benefits
• 1/3 of the world’s 100 largest
cities draw a large part of their
drinking water from P As.
• P & forests purify water for
As
NY city = US$ 6 billion (total)
savings in water treatment
costs
• Venezuela’s national P system
A
prevents sedimentation that
would reduce farm earnings by
around US$ 3.5 million/year.
Dudley and Stolton 2003, Pabon-Zamora et al. 2009

20. Investment in ecological infrastructure: multiple benefits
• Afforestation: carbon store+ reduced risk of soil erosion & landslides
• Wetlands and forests and reduced risk of flooding impacts
• Mangroves and coastal erosion and natural hazards
• Restore Forests, lakes and wetlands to address water scarcity
• Coral reefs as fish nurseries for fisheries productivity / food security
• PAs & connectivity to facilitate resilience of ecosystems and species
Potential for lower cost adaption to climate change and policy synergies
Adaptation to climate change will receive hundreds of US$ billions in coming
years/decades.
Critically important that this be cost-effective.
Support for identifying where natural capital solutions are appropriate & invest.

21. Eroding natural capital base & tools for an
alternative development path
Opportunities/benefits of ESS
No net loss from 2010 level
Past loss/ Investment in natural capital +ve
degradation Halting biodiversity loss change
`
Regulation
Better governance
Economic signals :
PES, REDD, ABS (to reward benefits)
Charges, taxes, fines (to avoid degradation/damage:
Alternative natural capital Subsidy reform (right signals for policy)
Sustainable consumption (eg reduced meat)
Development path
Markets, certification/logos & GPP
Agricultural innovation
Investment in natural capital:
green infrastructure
Predicted future loss of natural capital
Restoration
(schematic) – with no additional policy action
PAs
2010 2050

22. TEEB quantitative assessment
-50%
Ben ten Brink et al (2010)
Expanding PAs has a role, as does reducing deforestation. Changing diet the most
important. Biofuels can be counterproductive. Combined these issues are not enough –
need full set of instruments and integration across sectors

23. Summary
Making Natures Values Visible: improved
evidence base for improved governance, awareness for …is this enough to work out
what to do?
action – government, business, people
Measuring better to manage better: from
indicators to accounts
Changing the incentives: taxes, charges, subsidy
reform, markets
Protected areas: biodiversity riches that can offer value
for money
Ecological infrastructure and benefits: climate
change and beyond
…always better to look at
Natural capital and poverty reduction: the whole board
investment for synergies And engage the full set of
Mainstream the economics of nature: across players.
sectors, across policies, seek synergies across disciplines.

24. TEEB Implementation – some post Nagoya steps
TEEB Country & Regional Studies Rio+20
TEEB Brazil, TEEB India, TEEB NL, TEEB Nordics .. CBD COP11
TEEB Integration
Support for business and biodiversity (indicators, valuation reporting)
RAMSAR
TEEB for Agriculture; TEEB & Water …. COP 2012
Initiatives building on TEEB recommendations
SEEA 2012
World Bank/UNEP et al 5+5 initiative on National accounts …
Science / Economics evidence base
Quantitative assessment, valuation, Green infrastructure etc
Parallel track: Similar type work independent of TEEB
Many initiatives that focus on (responding to) the value of nature by range of actors

25. Thank you
TEEB Reports available on http://www.teebweb.org/
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in National and International Policy Making and
other TEEB books available on Earthscan
and follow us on http://twitter.com/TEEB4ME & http://www.facebook.com/TEEB4me
Patrick ten Brink, ptenbrink@ieep.eu
IEEP is an independent, not-for-profit institute dedicated to the analysis, understanding and
promotion of policies for a sustainable environment.
www.ieep.eu
The Manual of European Environmental Policy
http://www.europeanenvironmentalpolicy.eu/