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ecosystem services and freshwater initiative Ecosystem services are the benefits that functioning ecosystems provide to people. These services, many of which are critical for supporting life on Earth, include provision of fresh water, protection from storm surges/flooding, fertile soil and food, clean air, climate regulation, and medicines. The global market value for the provision of food, timber, marine fisheries, and hunting and fishing is estimated at more than one trillion dollars per year. However, these ecosystem values are not adequately reflected in markets and polices, as evidenced by the fact that more than 60 percent of our planet’s ecosystem services have already been degraded or are being used unsustainably. Freshwater systems provide essential ecosystem services, both for human populations and as home to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on Earth. However, the world’s freshwater systems and their myriad species are losing their value for people due to depletion of water supplies, pollution of what remains, unsustainable harvest of species, the introduction of alien species, and changing climate. Conservation International is addressing the threats to ecosystem services, particularly in fresh water, for the benefit of humans and biodiversity alike through its Ecosystem Services and Freshwater Initiative. Launched in 2007, this initiative includes science, practice, and leveraging policy and behavior changes. The results CI is generating are critical for making a business case for biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation as a means of generating human welfare benefits within larger contexts of human development, poverty alleviation, and land-use decisionmaking. These results can only be achieved through strong partnerships with research institutions, national and international nongovernmental organizations (including development and humanitarian organizations), governments, corporations, and local organizations among others; such partnerships are a cornerstone of CI’s overall conservation strategy. Our approach has three parts: • Developing the scientific base for understanding ecosystem services, identifying threats, and determining priority areas; • Promoting innovative policies that support human development and the conservation of freshwater and ecosystem services; • Conducting field programs to test new approaches on the ground. fresh water: an essential resource In all its forms, water shapes and nourishes life on Earth. Life on this planet first developed in water, and the world’s unique biodiversity and human communities both depend on water’s continued availability. However, only one percent of the Earth’s fresh water flows freely, and burgeoning human populations are making unsustainable demands on this vital resource that are already outstripping supply in many regions around the world. Both biodiversity and human communities are at risk: an estimated one out of every six people on Earth has no access to clean drinking water; two out of six people lack adequate sanitation; and four out of six are afflicted by water-borne illnesses. The degradation and decline of freshwater systems is now far too prevalent to be ignored. With the population expected to increase to 9 billion by 2050, and with much of that growth happening in poor developing countries, the global freshwater crisis is only going to get worse. Freshwater “flash points” are increasing in number worldwide as the global population grows and consumption outpaces conservation measures. The global freshwater crisis will be the next climate change in terms of magnitude and urgency. We rely on water for far more than basic maintenance of human health: freshwater ecosystems also provide food and livelihoods for millions. The ecosystem services provided by freshwater systems, including fisheries, filtration, and flood regulation, have global economic value estimated at trillions of dollars annually. Nearly 70 percent of all fresh water used by people is for agricultural purposes, and we have come to rely on steady water flows for a significant portion of the world’s energy generation. Climate change represents another formidable threat, resulting in too much water in some places, and not enough in others. Finally, freshwater systems have aesthetic and recreational value. A remarkable array of biodiversity shares this limited supply of clean fresh water with us. Freshwater ecosystems support unparalleled concentrations of species, yet they are among the most imperiled ecosystems on Earth, with extinction rates as high as 15 times greater than in the marine realm. This makes freshwater ecosystems and the biodiversity they support a global conservation priority. But conservation and the aspirations and needs of human communities often collide, necessitating the search for solutions that benefit both freshwater biodiversity and people. Conservation International believes that ensuring safe supplies of clean fresh water for human communities and conserving freshwater biodiversity are not mutually exclusive goals; in fact, these goals are closely linked and can both be achieved if we are willing to meet the challenge. Our five-year vision is to work with existing and new partners to set global, science-based priorities for freshwater conservation, implement management and protection of key resources to benefit both human communities and freshwater biodiversity, and promote innovative policies for governments and markets. Developing the Scientific Base Science helps us better understand ecosystem services and their links to biodiversity and human welfare, identify threats, and determine priority areas. Research by CI scientists and our partners will help us apply our limited resources most efficiently, targeting areas where biodiversity is most at risk and where the welfare of human communities is most threatened by loss of ecosystem services. Given the importance of fresh water, we are first focusing on the freshwater biome. CI is leading a Global Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment, along with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other partners, to determine the global freshwater hotspots based on the IUCN Red-Listing process. Because this will take several years to complete, we are also undertaking an exercise to define a subset of areas that offer immediate opportunities to conserve freshwater biodiversity and freshwater ecosystem function and to promote human well-being through freshwater services. CI successfully used a similar methodology to identify and update the terrestrial biodiversity hotspots and the highbiodiversity wilderness areas, thereby creating priorities for conservation action that would have the greatest impact in the Earth’s most important regions for biodiversity conservation. (Please see www.biodiversityhotspots.org.) That research, conducted by CI’s Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) and published in the journal BioScience, found that hotspots and high-biodiversity wilderness areas account for a significant proportion of the planet’s ecosystem services. These services support communities and economies around the globe, including more than a billion poor people who most critically depend on them and can least afford to pay for alternatives. CI and partners are now assessing the economic value of services that freshwater ecosystems provide for both human and biological communities to bolster the case for conservation for the benefit of both biodiversity and human well-being. With our partners, CI has also developed two tools that aid science-based decisionmaking in conservation, landuse planning, and the value of ecosystem services. The first, Consvalmap (www.consvalmap.org), is an interactive database containing peer-reviewed studies for specific ecosystem services in particular places. Consvalmap helps researchers, policymakers, and other decisionmakers and stakeholders find quality information about ecosystem services and identify gaps in knowledge about service benefits, valuation methods, and case studies. The other tool is Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services, or ARIES. This tool, developed collaboratively by CABS and the Gund Institute, relies on geodata with multiple data layers, such as vegetation, water flows, land tenure, land value, and population, and on probabilistic decision models that are constructed based on the user’s specific needs. ARIES provides a description of the ecosystem services that are likely available as well as the potential cost and benefits of conservation and development scenarios that the user is considering for a specific location. CI is helping to refine and field test ARIES in Madagascar, the Australian wet tropics, and Mexico. To support our research, CI will collaborate with local partners to establish three regional freshwater research centers, focusing first on Mexico and Central America, Indo-Burma, and China. These centers of research excellence will be the primary mechanism for delivering freshwater biodiversity and water services research in the three regions. Spatial concordance of global biodiversity priorities and ecosystem service value. Ecosystem service value (percentile) 99 0 0 99 Biodiversity priority (percentile) Published: Turner et al. 2007. Global conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. BioScience. Volume 57(10):868-873. ©American Institute of Biological Sciences Promoting Innovative Policies Decisionmakers and corporate partners will be essential to our efforts to change policies and business practices to ensure the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. For example, burgeoning human populations and their resulting agricultural and industrial development all rely on abundant supplies of fresh water for their continued progress. However, this kind of large-scale development can deplete freshwater supplies and/or substantially alter the flow, distribution, and quality of water. The challenge for conservationists is to help guide development in ways that guarantee future supplies of fresh water for both human communities and freshwater biodiversity, while suggesting alternatives to the kinds of projects that most immediately threaten biodiversity. service options. Similar approaches have been empirically demonstrated in states like California and nations like Israel, both of which adopted highly innovative public policies, market-driven utility regulations, and market incentives for delivering the least-cost and lowest-risk electric, natural gas, and water utility services. Two of the most immediate threats to freshwater ecosystems are hydropower dams and the use of water for agriculture. Dam building is predicted to increase dramatically in Asia, Africa, and Latin America over the next decade, and many of these dams will have severe impacts on freshwater ecosystems. CI and partners recognize the need for energy and sufficient water for crop irrigation, but we believe that provision of multiple benefits is possible through sound resource planning and management. The magnitude and complexity of our global freshwater challenges demand innovative, cutting-edge solutions. We are equipped and prepared to use the latest policy and economic tools to address the threats to freshwater ecosystems by quantifying the valuable services they provide to human communities, and by showing how much people benefit from intact functioning ecosystems. For example, CI is partnering with others to help ratify the United Nations Watercourse Convention, which helps address transboundary water conflict and resource management issues. Another cost-effective way to meet human demand for fresh water is to increase efficiency. Agriculture accounts for more than two-thirds of water demand, but wastes up to 80 percent of water used for conventional crop irrigation. CI is also exploring water efficiency and quality standards through the Water Stewardship Alliance and other partnerships. CI and partners are already helping develop and promote policies and markets for payment for freshwater services, such as: One way to answer these questions of costs and benefits of energy and natural-service provision is through Integrated Resources Planning, which (for water projects) determines the means of maximizing water and electricity services required for human livelihoods, while minimizing biodiversity and habitat loss. In China and Cambodia, for example, CI is comparing the cost-effectiveness of proposed hydrodams based on energy demands, potential energy yields, and costs of human population resettlement, sedimentation and biodiversity loss, all of which help build arguments for lower-risk, lower-cost water and energy • National payment-for-freshwater-services programs being developed in Ecuador and China that quantify the benefits of watershed protection for communities (e.g., increased protection from floods, landslides, and erosion, and decreased incidence of water-borne disease) and maintenance of water flows. With the appropriate legislation and governance of resources in place, markets can be created for freshwater services that concomitantly support continued conservation of freshwater ecosystems. • Private-sector investments in conservation projects that generate payments for both carbon mitigation and watershed protection services. CI, through its Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) secured $1.25 million in start-up funding for the China Freshwater Fund from 3M Foundation and Alcoa Foundation that is now being disbursed to pay for pilot payment-for-freshwater-services projects as well as to conserve high-biodiversity freshwater areas. CELB has also developed a relationship with Cargill to examine the potential impacts of palm-oil and logging run-off on coral reefs and sedimentation loading in the Mullins Harbor (Milne Bay) catchment. Our Work in the Field To ensure the development of successful, replicable strategies to conserve the ecosystem services provided by freshwater systems and other ecosystems, CI and our partners are implementing pilot projects in different regions. These projects integrate science and natural resource management to inform policy and land-use decisions regarding dam development, agricultural development, watershed management, and tourism development. Results are also translated into conservation plans, habitat restoration actions, and sustainable landscape designs to demonstrate and help pay for conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecological functions across terrestrial and aquatic biomes. These projects are testing the extent to which standardized approaches are possible across different contexts and provide insights on how our ecosystem services and freshwater approaches can be adapted to varying sociopolitical, economic, and cultural contexts. This will enable CI and our partners to systematically scale up this work to achieve major impacts in priority regions, and to engage new kinds of partners, such as relief and development agencies. The following are some highlights from CI’s field projects around the world. 1. In the Philippines, we are mapping and assessing deforestation and risk/hazard probabilities within catchments to identify areas critical for the maintenance of water supplies for people and ecological functions for species. The results are being used to create a sustainable development plan for the Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Conservation Corridor. 2. We are working with Wetlands International–South Asia to develop scenarios linking lake water levels and maintenance of critical habitat areas in India’s Keibul Lamjao National Park that will be translated into an optimal water allocation plan. This plan will ensure the maintenance of habitats and fish migration routes (upon which 200,000 fisherman depend for survival), as well as hydropower generation and agricultural and domestic uses of water; 3. We are working in the Abiseo-Cóndor-Kutukú Conservation Corridor in the Andes to define ways to conserve watersheds and manage land uses. Activities include predicting the potential for forestcarbon investment, identifying connectivity potential between key biodiversity areas for larger-ranging species (e.g., the spectacled bear), and mapping and quantifying development trends (settlements and population, current and proposed roads, mining concessions, and other infrastructure projects). A proposed land-use plan and financing strategy will be ready for discussion and negotiation with local stakeholders and regional management authorities in fiscal year 2009. 4. In Cambodia, we are identifying freshwater priority areas or key biodiversity areas that must be protected to prevent the extinction of globally threatened freshwater species; developing freshwater sanctuaries that would be supported and co-managed by local communities to protect areas where a high concentration of biodiversity intersects heavy human reliance on fish protein; projecting the impacts of a series of proposed dams on both communities and biodiversity; and evaluating the economic value of intact forests for dam operators (through controlling water flows and reducing sedimentation) to assess the potential to fund forest conservation through fees on hydropower facilities. Water and Wildlife of the Yucatan Beneath the Yucatan Peninsula is an underground system of streams and lakes so vast it contains about 25 percent of Mexico’s total fresh water supply. These subterranean waters are extraordinarily rich in biodiversity. A preliminary search of species catalogues revealed hundreds of freshwater species specialized for life in this unusual habitat, including blind, cave-adapted fishes. Because this subterranean habitat is not connected to similar habitats elsewhere, these species are nearly all endemic to Yucatan. This groundwater supported the Mayan civilization and continues to support the descendants of that culture. It is also essential to an economic boom based mainly on tourism and, to a lesser extent, on agriculture. This development is exploiting water resources without accounting for the needs of indigenous people in the interior. Unfortunately, the peninsula’s groundwater quality is increasingly threatened from both above and below. Rising sea levels are causing saltwater incursion, and at the same time, agricultural runoff and urban waste disposal is contaminating the upper layers of fresh water. CI is working with local partners to protect this critical groundwater system. As a first step in creating a watershed management plan, CI and our partners are gathering data on the endemic species in the cave system and assessing human water use and needs. 5. In Mexico, we are identifying areas of zero extinction in the northern Mexican desert (http://www. zeroextinction.org/), where one or more species that do not exist anywhere else on the planet are found in small pools; and we are conducting an integrated resource management project in the Yucatan Peninsula that includes an assessment of species in the underground cave system that supplies water resources to coastal tourism and 25 percent of Mexico’s citizens. We are also partnering with Amigos de Sian Ka’an and the Coral Reef Alliance to develop guidelines to help cruise lines and hotels reduce water use and ensure adequate sewage treatment. 6. We are working to develop partnerships with relief agencies and corporations in Guatemala to restore watersheds and ensure freshwater provision and payment for water services for community residents in the Sierra de Las Minas region. 7. We are working in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in Australia, one of 35 basins discharging into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, to understand ridge-to-reef flows. The modeling approach being developed will be transferable to other regions and will prompt policy initiatives such as payment-for-water-quality programs for tour operators who are affected by sedimentation and nutrient deposition. 8. In Africa, we are working in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, which crosses Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Some 2 million rural people depend on ecosystem services in this 300,000 km2 area. We are identifying vulnerabilities and strategies for enhancing ecosystem resilience and human adaptation to different climate change scenarios, and providing recommendations on the allocation of scarce conservation resources toward ensuring adequate protection of key priority habitats, natural resources, and ecosystem services. 9. Finally, in the Sichuan province in China, we are estimating values of water provision, carbon, and biodiversity and have identified a potential paymentfor-ecosystem-services plan in which water users pay a water usage fee to cover conservation actions within a park. The Ecological Compensation Fund was also established to rehabilitate habitat and preserve watershed services, including water availability for downstream users, and give upstream villagers a way to earn income. Fresh Water, Biodiversity and people In Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake region, local people are making the rules to protect the fresh water that is necessary for their survival. “Each community fishery has different rules and regulations depending on the real situation in those places,” says Sitha Prum, of Cambodia’s, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. “They can create, manage, and monitor their own fisheries domain.” Some 1.2 million people directly depend on Tonle Sap for food and fresh water. That number is increasing as more families facing poverty in other regions of the country move to the lake to fi sh for income and food, Prum says. The lake and flooded forest, which cover more than 479,000 hectares (about 1 million acres) in the wet season, faces tremendous threats, including the construction of several hydroelectric dams and rampant deforestation. CI works with the Cambodian government and local communities to establish community fish sanctuaries that protect the lake’s biodiversity and benefit the local people. This new model for freshwater protection connects the benefits of sustainable stocks and access to fish to the maintenance of water quality. Fresh Water and Climate Change Climate change’s impacts on freshwater resources pose an enormous challenge for sustaining life on Earth. In many places, such as those where glaciers are melting quickly and rainfall patterns are changing, water may no longer be available when it is needed, worsening existing problems of water scarcity and decreased agricultural productivity. In other places, there will be too much water, increasing the incidence of water-borne diseases and fl oods. This is particularly true in the biodiversity hotspots, where many unique species are already under threat and some 500 million people are now exposed to an increased fl ooding risk because of the combined effects of deforestation and climate change. Rising water temperatures and the drying out of existing habitats may also lead to catastrophic losses for freshwater ecosystems. Freshwater biodiversity is particularly threatened under most climate-change scenarios because species tend to be highly concentrated in fairly small areas and are also limited in their ability to relocate to more favorable habitats. The impacts of climate change on freshwater systems will present a set of new conditions to which humans and other species must adapt. Conservation and development agencies must join together to ensure that climate change does not undo gains made in water quality and availability, sanitation, or biodiversity conservation. Conclusion Functioning ecosystems are vital for conserving biodiversity and for providing important services for people. Many of these services are linked to fresh water. Life on Earth, whether human, plant, or animal, depends on access to clean, predictable sources of fresh water, and quality of life diminishes markedly where this vital resource is lacking or depleted. The pressures on freshwater ecosystems and resources are intensifying as development of water resources escalates and watersheds are altered and degraded. If we are to conserve the unique biodiversity found within freshwater ecosystems, as well as our own essential sources of clean, fresh water, we must protect the habitats and hydrological processes that support them. Conservation International is ready to act now to address the global freshwater crisis—applying science, leveraging policy and best practices, and implementing watershedand site-level freshwater conservation projects. Building on our initial results, CI will develop a five-year business plan for freshwater conservation that focuses on mitigating threats in high-priority places. The plan will incorporate best practices for addressing freshwater and human needs/dependencies on freshwater resources, allowing us to leverage global financing opportunities, determine how to bundle services and create markets for water and forest carbon, and build governance and other enabling conditions required for successfully implementing payment-for-water-services programs. OUR mission Built upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature for the well-being of humanity. www.conservation.org PHOTO CREDITS Left to RighT, Top to bottom: © CI/photo by John Martin, © CI/photo by John Martin, © Art Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com*, © Jérôme Spaggiari, © Olivier Langrand, © Robin Moore, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © CI/photo by Russell A. Mittermeier, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © Giacomo Abrusci, © Cristina Mittermeier*, © CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © CI/photo by Kate Barrett, © CI/photo by Russell A. Mittermeier, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © Art Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com*, © Art Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com*, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro *member of