1. Introduction
The 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly that happened in New York, USA on 17th September 2010, provided means to implement the long-term sustainability goals that were decided at the Rio+20 U N Conference on Sustainable Development held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 20–22 June 2012. The post-2015 development agenda was then initiated as a continuation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which also included the agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such, U N’s General Assembly during the 68th session decided to come out with a single framework for both MDGs and the SDGs by end of 2015. The fear however is, that the sustainable goals might weaken the poverty reduction agenda once they are integrated. Nevertheless, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) synthesis report of the Inland Press, Washington D.C., considers integration as an important step since biodiversity and ecosystem services are vital for human existence. Recognizing that unsustainable use of natural resources would result in biodiversity loss, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) based its strategic plans on sustainable use (Lucas et al., 2014). Thus, the plans pronounce a 2050 vision for sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems with five strategic goals and 20 (Aichi) targets emphasizing the integration of the concept of equity while using biodiversity and ecosystem services for human well beings with even the nations requiring the mainstreaming of biodiversity into their development agenda. The MDGs highlight fundamental necessities to lessen poverty and recognizes the role of biodiversity for development in MDG 7 which comprises the CBD 2010 biodiversity target of significantly reducing biodiversity loss.
The 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly that happened in New York, USA on 17th September 2010, provided means to implement the long-term sustainability goals that were decided at the Rio+20 U N Conference on Sustainable Development held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 20–22 June 2012. The post-2015 development agenda was then initiated as a continuation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which also included the agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such, U N’s General Assembly during the 68th session decided to come out with a single framework for both MDGs and the SDGs by end of 2015. The fear however is, that the sustainable goals might weaken the poverty reduction agenda once they are integrated. Nevertheless, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) synthesis report of the Inland Press, Washington D.C., considers integration as an important step since biodiversity and ecosystem services are vital for human existence. Recognizing that unsustainable use of natural resources would result in biodiversity loss, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) based its strategic plans on sustainable use (Lucas et al., 2014). Thus, the plans pronounce a 2050 vision for sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems with five strategic goals and 20 (Aichi) targets emphasizing the integration of the concept of equity while using biodiversity and ecosystem services for human well beings with even the nations requiring the mainstreaming of biodiversity into their development agenda. The MDGs highlight fundamental necessities to lessen poverty and recognizes the role of biodiversity for development in MDG 7 which comprises the CBD 2010 biodiversity target of significantly reducing biodiversity loss.
With this background, we understand how important sustainability for a sustainable world is. As such, mainstreaming sustainability including biodiversity and ecosystems into the development goals must be considered crucial. This paper presents a short analysis of why the chosen (below) issues should be given priority.
2. Focus area 17. Ecosystems and biodiversity
People depend on nature in many different ways. Of the many key issues that are considered for sustainable living earth under focus area 17, the two most important ones that are very important for a sustainable world are explained below.
People depend on nature in many different ways. Of the many key issues that are considered for sustainable living earth under focus area 17, the two most important ones that are very important for a sustainable world are explained below.
2.1. Promoting sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management (SFM) must be promoted for a sustainable world for forests are the basis of many ecosystems. Sustainable forest management must include continued availability and secure the future while deriving the present goods and services and must embrace all legal, economic, social, administrative, technical, and environmental features of the conservation and utility of forests. SFM would involve several steps of thoughtful anthropogenic interference including activities targeted at conservation and sustaining the forest ecosystem and its functions to favor explicit species for enhanced production of goods and services. The Forest Principles adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992) specify how the forest should be managed for a sustainable world which must be adhered to. In Bhutan, SFM is promoted through programs such as community forestry, forest management units, protected areas, strict nature reserves, and biological corridors. Each of the programs picks certain areas of the government forest land where there are important species (flora and fauna) and start managing the area with a set of sustainable principles adapted to local conditions.
Sustainable forest management (SFM) must be promoted for a sustainable world for forests are the basis of many ecosystems. Sustainable forest management must include continued availability and secure the future while deriving the present goods and services and must embrace all legal, economic, social, administrative, technical, and environmental features of the conservation and utility of forests. SFM would involve several steps of thoughtful anthropogenic interference including activities targeted at conservation and sustaining the forest ecosystem and its functions to favor explicit species for enhanced production of goods and services. The Forest Principles adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992) specify how the forest should be managed for a sustainable world which must be adhered to. In Bhutan, SFM is promoted through programs such as community forestry, forest management units, protected areas, strict nature reserves, and biological corridors. Each of the programs picks certain areas of the government forest land where there are important species (flora and fauna) and start managing the area with a set of sustainable principles adapted to local conditions.
Therefore, mainstreaming SFM into the development goals of any country providing priority to SFM is crucial as in the case of Bhutan which is already using it.
2.2. Slowing, halting, and reversing deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands
Slowing, halting, and reversing deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands is what is a must today. Because, if deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands continue at the current rate, the earth may not be able to withstand the pressure any further. Over the last many years, anthropogenic actions have resulted in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems as they are destroyed to fulfilling human desires. For instance, according to Food and Agriculture Organization report (2006), the total forest cover in the ASEAN Countries in 2005 was 203 million hectares which are 45 percent of the region’s total land area. The same report also stresses that ASEAN’s 55 percent forest cover in the 1990s decreased to 45 percent in 2005 with an annual average rate of deforestation in the region from 2000 to 2005 at 2.75 million hectares or 1.35 percent, compared to the world average of 0.2 percent, which the region in particular and the world, in general, cannot afford. Therefore, stopping and reversing such phenomenon through effective efforts of lessening further deforestation and encouraging plantation programs to recover the already lost forests must be initiated at the earliest.
Programs like plantation, afforestation, reforestation, and providing survival alternatives to reduce cropland expansions must be given priority. In Bhutan, best efforts are in place to slow and halt deforestation with even plantation programs to reverse deforestation given importance, the proof of which is the winning of UNEP’s 2004 Champions of the Earth Award (UNEP, 2005).
Slowing, halting, and reversing deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands is what is a must today. Because, if deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands continue at the current rate, the earth may not be able to withstand the pressure any further. Over the last many years, anthropogenic actions have resulted in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems as they are destroyed to fulfilling human desires. For instance, according to Food and Agriculture Organization report (2006), the total forest cover in the ASEAN Countries in 2005 was 203 million hectares which are 45 percent of the region’s total land area. The same report also stresses that ASEAN’s 55 percent forest cover in the 1990s decreased to 45 percent in 2005 with an annual average rate of deforestation in the region from 2000 to 2005 at 2.75 million hectares or 1.35 percent, compared to the world average of 0.2 percent, which the region in particular and the world, in general, cannot afford. Therefore, stopping and reversing such phenomenon through effective efforts of lessening further deforestation and encouraging plantation programs to recover the already lost forests must be initiated at the earliest.
Programs like plantation, afforestation, reforestation, and providing survival alternatives to reduce cropland expansions must be given priority. In Bhutan, best efforts are in place to slow and halt deforestation with even plantation programs to reverse deforestation given importance, the proof of which is the winning of UNEP’s 2004 Champions of the Earth Award (UNEP, 2005).
3. Other support programs
To combat the aforementioned identified two most important issues under Focus Area 17, the concerned organizations of the World have come up with two important concepts called the Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). Under PES, a user or beneficiary of an ecosystem service makes payments to individuals or communities whose management choices and practices stimulate the provision of ecosystem services while REDD and REDD+ have the goal of significantly reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
To combat the aforementioned identified two most important issues under Focus Area 17, the concerned organizations of the World have come up with two important concepts called the Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). Under PES, a user or beneficiary of an ecosystem service makes payments to individuals or communities whose management choices and practices stimulate the provision of ecosystem services while REDD and REDD+ have the goal of significantly reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
A scheme aimed at sustainable biodiversity conservation, PES is a flexible, incentive-based mechanism that can deliver greater application of policies and incentives to promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as, more efficient use of available finance in existing biodiversity programs. However, Muradian et al. (2013) question the suitability of PES and warn about “overreliance on payments” as a conservation tool which has been termed as an assessment from a PES-skeptical angle by Tacconi (2012). PES of late however is under the scanner of Roldan Muradian and his coauthors (Farley and Costanza 2010; Muradian et al. 2010) and also at various related points by Brockington et al. (2011).
A very simple example of such a scheme in Bhutan is the payment of a certain portion of the water tax of the residents of Mongar (a small town in eastern Bhutan) municipality to the members of the Community Forest Management Group, the residents of a village called Yagpogang where the source of water for the municipality is located. Paid annually, the service givers ensure the water flow continuity by preserving the source and not letting their livestock into the identified forest.
Another program aimed at curbing sustainability is REDD+ which encourages developing countries to reduce their forest and land-based emissions significantly. Through its performance-based incentive mechanism (under UNFCCC), countries that produce fewer emissions are provided funds for their sustainable development.
Since the fund is the most important component of any developmental agenda, these two schemes, in fact, are expected to help achieve the goal of a sustainable globe.
4. Crucial factors for embedding sustainability within the development agenda
The two aforementioned key issues under focus area 17 along with encouraged PES, REDD, and REDD+ programs must be given utmost priority if the forthcoming SDGs’ intention of embedding sustainability within the development agenda to address environmental, social, and economic sustainability for human welfare is to be achieved. However, for sustainability to be mainstreamed, factors such as globalization (ensuring unity amongst the people around the world to consider sustainability as a driving force for human welfare), equity (sharing the resources equally between the haves and the have-nots), and lessening material welfare by the people must be addressed and this can be done only through a holistic approach of inclusive social and economic development, environmental sustainability, peace and security supported by a great amount of policy coherence at all the levels (global, regional, national and sub-national).
Since the fund is the most important component of any developmental agenda, these two schemes, in fact, are expected to help achieve the goal of a sustainable globe.
4. Crucial factors for embedding sustainability within the development agenda
The two aforementioned key issues under focus area 17 along with encouraged PES, REDD, and REDD+ programs must be given utmost priority if the forthcoming SDGs’ intention of embedding sustainability within the development agenda to address environmental, social, and economic sustainability for human welfare is to be achieved. However, for sustainability to be mainstreamed, factors such as globalization (ensuring unity amongst the people around the world to consider sustainability as a driving force for human welfare), equity (sharing the resources equally between the haves and the have-nots), and lessening material welfare by the people must be addressed and this can be done only through a holistic approach of inclusive social and economic development, environmental sustainability, peace and security supported by a great amount of policy coherence at all the levels (global, regional, national and sub-national).
5. Conclusion
This paper talks about how and why the focus area 17’s two key issues namely, promoting sustainable forest management and slowing, halting, and reversing deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands must receive greater importance than other key issues. It emphasizes on how critical the earth would be if these two very important factors of biodiversity conservation and sustainable forestry are not taken care of.
This analysis also identifies a few actions as to how the goal of sustainability could be achieved by mainstreaming it in the development goals and provides means of implementation through the schemes such as PES, REDD, etc., and looks at the factors that will be crucial in ensuring the central aim of embedding sustainability within the development agenda.
6. References
Brockington, D. (2011) ‘Ecosystem services and fictitious commodities’. Environ. Conserv. (4): 367-369.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP 10 Decision X/2: Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Nagoya, Japan, 2010. Available at: http://www.cbd.int/ (Accessed 1 March 2014).
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP 11 Decision XI/22: Biodiversity for Poverty Eradication and Development, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Hyderabad, India, 2012. Available at: https://www.cbd.int/ (Accessed 8 February 2014).
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP 6 Decision VI/26: Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity: The Hague, The Netherlands, 2002.
Farley, J. and Costanza, R. (2010) ‘Payments for ecosystem services: from local to global’. Ecol. Econ., 69 (11): 2060-2068.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2006) ‘Global forest resources assessment 2005’. Rome, FAO.
Lucas, P. L., Kok, M. T. J., Nilson, M. and Alkemade, R. (2014) ‘Integrating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Goal Structure, Target Areas and Means of Implementation’. Sustainability, 6: 193-216
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis; Island Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2005.
Muradian, R., Arsenal, M., Pellegrini, L., et al. (2013) ‘Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win-win solutions’. Conserv. Lett., 6 (4): 274-279.
Muradian, R., Corbera, E., Pascual, U., Kosoy, N., and May, P.H. (2010) ‘Reconciling theory and practice: an alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services’. Ecol. Econ., 69 (6): 1202-1208.
Realizing the Future We Want for All, Report to the Secretary-General–UN System task team on the post-2015 UN Development Agenda (nd). Available at: http://www.un.org/ (Accessed 3 March 2014)
Tacconi, L. (2012) ‘Redefining payments for environmental services’. Ecol. Econ., 73: 29-36.
Towards sustainable forest (2011). Available at: http://www.fao.org/ (Accessed 8 March 2014).
United Nations Environment Programme (2013) ‘Embedding the Environment in Sustainable Development Goals’ UNEP: Nairobi, Kenya.
United Nations Environment Programme (2005) First-Ever UNEP ‘Champions of the Earth’ Presented to Seven Environmental Leaders. Available at: http://www.unep.org/ (Accessed 15 March 2014).
United Nations. Keeping the Promise: United to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, A/65/L.1. Presented at the Sixty-fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, NY, USA, 17 September 2010.
United Nations. The Future We Want, A/RES/66/288. In Proceedings of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20–22 June 2012.
United Nations. Outcome Document of the Special Event to Follow Up Efforts Made Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, A/68/L.4. In Proceedings of the Sixty-Eight Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, NY, USA, 1 October 2013.
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) The earth summit. Available at: http://www.un.org/ (Assessed 2 March 2014).
This paper talks about how and why the focus area 17’s two key issues namely, promoting sustainable forest management and slowing, halting, and reversing deforestation and conversion of forests to croplands must receive greater importance than other key issues. It emphasizes on how critical the earth would be if these two very important factors of biodiversity conservation and sustainable forestry are not taken care of.
This analysis also identifies a few actions as to how the goal of sustainability could be achieved by mainstreaming it in the development goals and provides means of implementation through the schemes such as PES, REDD, etc., and looks at the factors that will be crucial in ensuring the central aim of embedding sustainability within the development agenda.
In rural Bhutan, natural resources such as Paris polyphylla are considered a good source of income for people's development.
Brockington, D. (2011) ‘Ecosystem services and fictitious commodities’. Environ. Conserv. (4): 367-369.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP 10 Decision X/2: Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Nagoya, Japan, 2010. Available at: http://www.cbd.int/ (Accessed 1 March 2014).
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP 11 Decision XI/22: Biodiversity for Poverty Eradication and Development, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Hyderabad, India, 2012. Available at: https://www.cbd.int/ (Accessed 8 February 2014).
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP 6 Decision VI/26: Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity: The Hague, The Netherlands, 2002.
Farley, J. and Costanza, R. (2010) ‘Payments for ecosystem services: from local to global’. Ecol. Econ., 69 (11): 2060-2068.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2006) ‘Global forest resources assessment 2005’. Rome, FAO.
Lucas, P. L., Kok, M. T. J., Nilson, M. and Alkemade, R. (2014) ‘Integrating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Goal Structure, Target Areas and Means of Implementation’. Sustainability, 6: 193-216
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis; Island Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2005.
Muradian, R., Arsenal, M., Pellegrini, L., et al. (2013) ‘Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win-win solutions’. Conserv. Lett., 6 (4): 274-279.
Muradian, R., Corbera, E., Pascual, U., Kosoy, N., and May, P.H. (2010) ‘Reconciling theory and practice: an alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services’. Ecol. Econ., 69 (6): 1202-1208.
Realizing the Future We Want for All, Report to the Secretary-General–UN System task team on the post-2015 UN Development Agenda (nd). Available at: http://www.un.org/ (Accessed 3 March 2014)
Tacconi, L. (2012) ‘Redefining payments for environmental services’. Ecol. Econ., 73: 29-36.
Towards sustainable forest (2011). Available at: http://www.fao.org/ (Accessed 8 March 2014).
United Nations Environment Programme (2013) ‘Embedding the Environment in Sustainable Development Goals’ UNEP: Nairobi, Kenya.
United Nations Environment Programme (2005) First-Ever UNEP ‘Champions of the Earth’ Presented to Seven Environmental Leaders. Available at: http://www.unep.org/ (Accessed 15 March 2014).
United Nations. Keeping the Promise: United to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, A/65/L.1. Presented at the Sixty-fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, NY, USA, 17 September 2010.
United Nations. The Future We Want, A/RES/66/288. In Proceedings of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20–22 June 2012.
United Nations. Outcome Document of the Special Event to Follow Up Efforts Made Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, A/68/L.4. In Proceedings of the Sixty-Eight Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, NY, USA, 1 October 2013.
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) The earth summit. Available at: http://www.un.org/ (Assessed 2 March 2014).
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