I’m with stupid: The power of cross-sector partnerships for conservation

Background/Question/Methods

The forces behind nature conservation and human development goals are losing ground working separately to achieve their aims.  Increasing numbers of people and their changing lifestyles means that diverse demands for lands and waters will continue to intensify.  A small but growing number of governments, development banks, and NGOs are combining forces to develop strategies that consider conservation and development goals together.  The hope is that these approaches can illuminate trade-offs, identify where compatible uses occur, and guide policies and investments at more meaningful scales. The Natural Capital Project (NatCap), a partnership among Stanford, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and the University of Minnesota, is developing and applying a suite of ecosystem service models in over a dozen sites around the world to test this notion that combined conservation and development strategies can lead to better outcomes for people and biodiversity. The InVEST accounting tool relies on partners to identify alternative management interventions, then uses land use/land cover or marine habitat and water quality information to estimate how policy-induced changes in ecosystem condition change the values the system can provide for people and biodiversity. I will illustrate the value of partnerships between governments, NGOs, and local and international investors in 3 specific decision contexts where biodiversity conservation and human development objectives are together informing strategies and investments.

Results/Conclusions

Considering the multiple values of coastal habitats for supporting tourism, fisheries, and coastal protection in Belize is informing a government-led coastal zone management plan that will be approved later in 2012.  NatCap is working with public and private investors in water funds throughout Latin America to secure clean water supplies and support of farming and ranching livelihoods in upper watersheds.  InVEST is helping to prioritize where and how much money from the funds should be invested in particular protection or restoration activities based on changes in the beneficiaries (or losers) of alternative investments.  Finally, a government planning process in Indonesia has used InVEST to assess alternative values from palm oil plantations, carbon storage and sequestration, and biodiversity conservation.  Development banks and NGOs are working with local and national governments to use the InVEST results to prioritize investments for carbon credits in ways that will also support livelihood and development objectives.  This new-fangled cooperation among sectors shows promise, but continued monitoring of the longer-term impacts on investment and permitting decisions is essential to build evidence that it is a durable strategy.