Improving Decisions with Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Information: A Theory-based Practical Context Diagnostic for Conservation

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment – the most comprehensive assessment to date of the status and trends of Earth’s ecological systems – warned us that 60% of the benefits nature provides to people (‘ecosystem services’) are being degraded or used unsustainably. This triggered widespread efforts, by research groups, conservation organizations and think tanks, to design and use ecosystem services assessments and tools around the world. These efforts aim to integrate the ‘value of nature’ in decision-making, policies, business operations and ultimately to change society’s development trajectory to be sustainable.Yet, recent studies point out that not all new tools and scientific knowledge on ecosystem services are effectively used as a basis for decision and action leading to positive social and environmental outcomes. To create change, new scientific and expert knowledge, even when worrying, robust and empirically grounded, is not enough. It needs to be mobilized by leaders and change agents – researchers, conservation NGO practitioners, motivated policy makers or business – who use the information systems and knowledge as part of a strategy of communication, advocacy and action.Context matters. A good understanding of the context for biodiversity and ecosystem services approaches often determines whether a project has impact or not. Such understanding can be gathered quickly and easily using ‘context diagnostic1’ tools. These can be used by practitioners who are agents of change in real world situations.This report introduces such a context diagnostic tool for conservation and Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Assessment and Valuation (BESAV) practitioners. The tool includes five approaches based on well-established social science theories. Each approach gives a contrasting perspective and raises a set of thought-provoking questions on social, organizational, institutional and political aspects of context. The tool is illustrated throughout by examples inspired by real- world case studies, gathered through interviews and participatory workshops. The tool can be used at different stages of BESAV projects (scoping, implementation, evaluation and debriefing).We have grounded this context diagnostic method on well-established social science theory to build on their rich insights and empirical studies. The five theories were chosen for their relevance to the management of ecosystems:• institutionalizing treatment of new environmental issues• strategic analysis and strategy development• knowledge and innovation as a lever of change• the mobilization and articulation of multiple values•the well-being of local communities who use the natural environment and the role of institutions and rules in enabling them to do soThese theoretical frameworks can enrich the way practitioners reflect on and understand the dynamics of change that they are part of

Creating successful valuing nature initiatives: A guide to analysing local context and developing strong theories of change

The guide aims to help practitioners understand local context and external pressures – the formal and informal institutional, political, legal, economic and social setting of conservation – to guide action for better ecosystem management

GLOBE climate legislation study

The Climate Legislation Study covers over 850 national laws and policies directly related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Launched in 2010 covering only 16 countries, the study currently covers 99 jurisdictions, which, taken together, produce 93 per cent of global emissions and are home to 90 per cent of the world’s forests. The database includes 46 of the world’s top 50 emitters

Note – L’usage de la cartographie des services écosystémiques pour faciliter les débats et les arbitrages dans les politiques d’aménagement du territoire : l’exemple de Bordeaux Métropole

Depuis quelques années, la notion de service écosystémique émerge du domaine scientifique vers les domaines politiques et opérationnels. À partir de l'expérience menée sur le territoire de Bordeaux Métropole, cette note nous démontre comment ce concept peut faciliter les débats et les arbitrages dans les politiques d'aménagement du territoire, en soulignant les interactions positives possibles entre dynamiques écologiques et enjeux de développement économique

Introduction to the context diagnostic method for conservation

Vidéo de présentationThis series of seven videos contributes to the development and communication of a context diagnostic method for biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation practitioners. This method includes five approaches based on well-established social science theories. Each approach gives a contrasting perspective and raises a set of thought-provoking questions on social, organizational, institutional and political aspects of conservation intervention contexts. These videos give a brief overview of the general method as well as of the five distinct approaches developed for context analysis. The videos should be watched as an introduction or a complement to the Technical Background Paper on which they are based: "Feger, C., Mermet, L., McKenzie, E, Vira, B. Improving Decisions with Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Information: A Theory-Based Practical Context Diagnostic for Conservation. Technical Background Paper. March 2017". They can also be used as training material to the context diagnostic method. These videos were produced as part of the GAMES project (Governance and Accounting for the Management of Ecological Systems), which is developing new approaches and tools for the sound governance of ecological systems. The project is a partnership of the Luc Hoffmann Institute, WWF and the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute

Assessing funding needs for biodiversity: Critical issues

International audienceThe academic and grey literatures regularly point out the existence of a biodiversity conservation “funding gap”: available financial resources lag well behind the needs. This issue was addressed at the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP-10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that took place in October 2010 in Nagoya, where negotiations resulted in an agreement on a new Strategic Plan to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2020. This is in line with the recent recognition by the CBD Secretariat that the 2010 Biodiversity Targets were missed be- cause of the funding gap. Parties have now collectively decided that concrete initiatives are necessary to implement the “Strategy for Re- source Mobilization” (SRM) that was initially adopted in 2008. COP-10 has thus so far agreed on a series of indicators to measure the cur- rent national and international trends in biodiversity financing and to monitor progress in the mobilization of resources during 2011-2012

The Economics of Nature

International audienceOver the last 20 years, the Indian economy, driven by a reforms programme that has focused on building industry and infrastructure, has grown at an enviable pace. Progress, however, has come at the expense of the environment; thereby rendering the growth phenomenon an unsustainable one. In India, and in many other countries, environmental concerns are often regarded as an issue that can be tackled in the future, once growth has borne all of its fruit and poverty is eradicated. By and large, ecosystem degradation is considered a rich country’s burden with the developing countries taking the view that scarce resources must first be invested in industry, infrastructure and technology, rather than in environment protection. This approach needs to be reviewed on two counts. For one, the environment has a large role to play in sustainable growth, which is the avowed objective of all nations and, second, not factoring in the cost of ecological degradation leads to growth figures that are unrealistic and inflated. We believe that keeping the environment subordinate to overall economic success does not pay in the long run. Likewise, countries in pursuit of sustainable development will find that it is impossible to maintain growth while the environment threatens to collapse

A blueprint towards accounting for the management of ecosystems

International audienceThe purpose of this paper is to propose a new ecological-issues-centered accounting research agenda, at the crossroads of accounting research and conservation science. Based on a case study of the Natural Capital Project, the research examines the efforts and challenges of conservation practitioners regarding the use of evaluative information systems for conservation (EISC) in complex social and ecological contexts. It discusses why and how, to address these challenges, EISC promoters would benefit from theoretical and empirical insights coming from accounting research. The paper suggests that the use of new information systems centered on organized collective action for biodiversity conservation should be regarded as a new type of accounting for the management of ecosystems, complementary to organization-centered biodiversity accounting and to ecosystem accounting at the national scale. A research agenda inspired by critical accounting should be developed for EISC design and use by: critically analyzing the organizational models currently underlying the use of new calculative practices for ecosystems; and developing new analytical and practical avenues on the basis of more explicit and powerful theories adapted to collective action for conservation perimeters. The paper shows the importance of combining three domains of research and practice that are usually disconnected: the design and use of innovative information systems in biodiversity conservation research and practice; accounting research; and theories and conceptual models of collective action to resolve ecological challenges

New Accounting for the Management of Ecosystems - Introduction

International audienceAfter the recent development of accounting for biodiversity and ecosystems at the business level and at the national level, a third construction site in accounting research is necessary at the scale of inter-organizational ecosystem management. This calls for a constructive dialogue between conservationists who design and use new information systems on ecosystems in multiple contexts but face challenges in obtaining the political and social changes they expect, and critical accounting researchers who can provide deep knowledge on the connections between information, accounts exchange, accountabilities, values and all forms of collective organized action. The workshop will build on the presence of a strong community of conservation research and practice in Cambridge (notably based at the University of Cambridge's Conservation Research Institute and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative), and will provide them for the first time with a space to engage with critical and social and environmental accounting researchers. We hope that this new interdisciplinary bridge will set off theoretical elaborations, as well as concrete working relationships and future experimentations of accounting for the management of ecosystems innovations that can ultimately lead to better achievement of ecological and social results. The new path of research that this workshop will discuss will provide a critical, theoretical and practical alternative to the already well-established collaborations of conservation research with the field of economics. The conference will combine intensive closed workshop sessions with two public events on the topic