UNEP: EM Policy Series

This sixth issue is titled "Restoring the natural foundation to sustain a Green Economy: A century-long journey for Ecosystem Management,” and focuses on key actions for the transition period of the next 20 years, after UNCSD (Rio+20).

Ecosystem Management and Green Economy

The High-level International Forum on Ecosystem Management and the Green Economy, hosted by UNEP in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has issued a three-page communiqué recognizing the role of ecosystem management in the transition to a green economy and recommending actions to be taken at UNCSD (Rio+20).

Post-Conflict Assessment of Rwanda

The UNEP-led comprehensive, national-scale report titled "Rwanda: From Post-Conflict to Environmentally Sustainable Development," analyzes the most pressing environmental issues and offers a series of interventions that would help the country accelerate its sustainable development agenda. It urges, among other things, to create opportunities for a transition towards a green economy including reinforcing policies and investments in large-scale ecosystem rehabilitation, renewable energies, sustainable agriculture and agroforestry. Total cost of the recommendations proposed in the report is estimated to be $US147.35 million.

UNEP: Food and Ecological Security

The 4th issue of the UNEP Policy Series on Ecosystem Management focuses on the synergy and trade-offs in ensuring food and ecological security. While discussing the impacts of accelerated food production on ecosystems and ecosystem services, the brief stresses that policies and management approaches that aim to minimize the effects of ecosystem service trade-offs should based on a thorough understanding of the trade-offs.

Also available in French and Spanish on the UNEP at www.unep.org/policyseries.

USA: National Ocean Council

As a first step in addressing the objectives of the National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, our Coasts, and the Great Lakes; the US National Ocean Council (NOC) recently released nine strategic action plan outlines for public review. The outlines address the following:

1. Ecosystem-Based Management

2. Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning

3. Inform Decisions and Improve Understanding

4. Coordinate and Support

5. Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

6. Regional Ecosystem Protection and Restoration

7. Water Quality and Sustainable Practices on Land

8. Changing Conditions in the Arctic

9. Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Observations, Mapping, and Infrastructure

UNEP: EBM for Marine and Coastal Ecosystems

UNEP has launched a new training resource: “Taking Steps toward Marine and Coastal Ecosystem-based Management – An Introductory Guide” laying out a series of principles to guide management towards long-term sustainability of marine and coastal ecosystems with three main sections:
1: Making the case for EBM – Why and how is change necessary?;
2: Examining the core elements of EBM;
3: Moving towards EBM: Visioning – Planning – Implementation.

The target audience of the Guide includes planners and decision-makers in local, national and regional governments and communities across a broad spectrum of interests and uses and is not intended to be a technical manual or textbook, but rather an introduction to EBM principles and ‘thinking’.

World Bank: Linking Natural Resource Management and Wealth of Nations

As part of an initiative by World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick called the Global Partnership for Ecosystems Valuation and Wealth Accounting, the World Bank has released a book titled "The Changing Wealth of Nations," The book contends that most countries are relatively highly dependent on natural capital initially, and the ones that progress most successfully are those that manage their assets for the long term and reinvest in human and social capital as well as in building strong institutions and systems of governance.

SPREP: 21st Meeting

The SPREP Secretariat has published the report of the 21st SPREP Meeting, held from 6-9 September 2010 in Madang (Papua New Guinea). It includes the Madang Communiqué adopted at the meeting, according to which SPREP members adopted the 2011-2015 Strategic Plan as the guiding document for regional environmental work, including by SPREP, with four priorities on climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem management, waste management and pollution prevention, and environmental monitoring and governance.

UNEP: Policy Series on Ecosystem Management

The second issue of the UNEP Policy Series on Ecosystem Management The role of ecosystems in developing a sustainable 'Green Economy' discusses how investing in ecosystems can deliver benefits to all levels of society in helping communities adapt to climate change.