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Sustainable Development Update Issue 4, Volume 8, 2008 The Sustainable Development Update (SDU) focuses on the links between ecology, society and the economy. It is produced by Albaeco, an independent non-profit organisation. SDU is produced with support from Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Environment Policy Division. Dr. Fredrik Moberg, Editor Click the miniature below to download in pdf-format: 
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| Editorial | ||
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Summer holidays, green olympics and the toxic e-waste trade The 29th Summer Olympic Games took place in Beijing earlier this summer. In case you missed it. Guess no one have... But did you know that the environment has been declared the third pillar of Olympism by the International Olympic Committee, alongside sport and culture? Along this line United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, has been working with the Beijing Olympic Committee since year 2005 to make the Summer Games more environmentally sustainable. Altogether, the Chinese government claims to have spent no less than US$17 billion on “greening the games”. Moreover, basketball megastar Yao Ming, who is a professional player in USA, was announced UNEP’s first-ever Environmental Champion ahead of the games. Ming is no less than a national icon in China and carried his country’s flag at the Opening Ceremony. In a press release Ming says he is greatly honored and wants to work with young people across the world to inspire them to plant trees, use energy efficient light bulbs, harvest rain water and to become environmental champions in their own communities. With millions of fans across the world he could actually help raise public awareness on the environment and Climate Change issues. I hope. The most pressing issue now is what will happen when Beijing opens the factories they had to shut down to minimize pollution before the games? What will it take to keep Bejing on the sustainable track when the Olympics have come to an end and the international community is no longer scrutinizing its efforts? Except watching the Olympics and being in the beautiful Stockholm archipelago, I have spent a lot of time reading during my holiday. One of the most interesting books I read has not been published yet. It is a novel written by an old friend dealing with the export of toxic e-waste from the developed to the developing world. It is a story about love, corruption and the environment that takes the reader on a journey from Stockholm to the ‘toxic city’ of Guiyu, in the southern province of Guangdong. It shows how the North’s discarded mobile phones and other forms of e-waste too often end up in a developing country. Here the local poor pass circuit boards through red-hot kilns or acid baths to dissolve lead, silver and other metals from the digital debris. Although mainland China banned the import of e-waste in 2000, it is still arriving in Guiyu, which remains the main centre of e-waste scrapping in China. When Greenpeace International tested streams in Guiyu the streams had pH readings of 1 or 2 rendering them so acid “to disintegrate a penny after a few hours”. UNEP said in a report ahead of the olympics that Beijing had improved the environmental conditions of the city in many respects, but that air quality remains a concern and that only long-term planning and the enforcement of measures over time will show significant results. Greenpeace International, who recently evaluated the Olympics, came to a similar conclusion. Surprisingly, Greenpeace actually thinks Beijing did okay, but also notes that the city missed many crucial opportunities to kick start really ambitious long-term environmental initiatives. Clearly, there is still a long road to travel for both China and the world to achieve a truly sustainable development. Hopefully, 226 cm basketball star Ming is a good jump start! /Fredrik Moberg, Editor
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| SDU - Feature | ||
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World Resources 2008: unlocking the wealth potential of ecosystems to build rural livelihoods and resilience This year’s version of World Resources Institute’s biennial publication, the World Resources Report, deals with poverty, ecosystem services and resilience. The report argues that properly designed ecosystem-based enterprises can create economic, social, and environmental resilience that cushion the impacts of climate change, and deliver continuing benefits to the poor.  “World Resources
2008: Roots of Resilience: Growing the Wealth of the Poor”, charts a path for rural
poor to get out of poverty. Although half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, three quarters of the 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 a day, live in rural areas. and live more or less directly off the land. In other words, their enterprises
are nature-based and often so called “community driven nature based enterprises”.
The preceding volume of World Resources (2006) focused on the tight linkages between the poor and their ecosystems. As a next step this volume explores three essential conditions for ecosystem-based and poor-friendly enterprises: 1) a sense of ownership, 2) local capacity for resource management and entrepreneurship, and 3) dynamic networks and connections. With these elements poor rural communities can become more resilient against climate change and other economic, social and environmental challenges, according to the report. Increasing the resilience of people who are living off the land in rural areas is key to global sustainability. The world’s cities are simply not large or wealthy enough to absorb the resulting migration flows if rural livelihoods cannot support the rural population.
Handbook for development This new report could be regarded as a handbook in modern development cooperation. Instead of focusing on material aid it is emphasising different ways to enhance processes that will give local people the opportunities for creating their own resilient livelihoods and promote sustainable development. Community driven enterprises are a product of the local context so there might, at first glance, seem like there are no best practices to be spread and used. However, with a macro-perspective common denominators among successful enterprises can be found. A sense of ownership A sense of ownership does not necessarily refer to private ownership, but more commonly community-based ownership. It is about giving people rights to resources that are secure enough enabling risk taking and commitment. Property rights can be customary, i.e. not formally codified or titled; or they can be state sanctioned tenure systems. However, customary and state sanctioned tenure systems are often overlapping which provides a potential conflict.
Developing capacity There are several types of capacities that might need to be developed in the process of creating resilient nature-based enterprises. Local organizations often have the knowledge and skills to manage their local social and ecological systems and they tend to be very effective as they stem from the community’s own social order. On the other hand, they can also be undemocratic, narrow-focused and non inclusive of women and the poor. In this context, World Resources 2008 identify “intermediary support organizations” as being key catalysts for capacity building. Those ISOs are typically NGOs or other civil society groups.They can both help to build technical capacity in local organizations and focus on “upward” capacity – e.g. teaching governments to be more open to local institutions. ISOs also contribute by improving access to markets; facilitating finance; and increasing equity and transparency.  One of the case studies in World Resources 2008 is the Pred Nai community forest in Thailand. Here, crab catches and incomes have doubled as villagers came together to replant mangrove trees (photo), prohibit large-scale shrimp farming and implement crab and shellfish harvest regulations and monitoring. Photo: Bent Christensen/azote.se. Connection Formal and informal networks are also identified as key ingredients in successful cases that grow the wealth of the poor. They create the opportunity to make connections both vertically and horizontally. Formal networks, or associations, give small local enterprises several benefits that they cannot achieve on their own. When many small enterprises pool their resources they can achieve economies of scale. Associations can make better deals with larger suppliers and retailers, which also may involve product standards and quality control. This is good for those who are in the association although it might well exclude others. Associations can, just as ISOs, help the poor get access to financing and credits, as well as speaking up in political processes. Associations also constitute a platform for knowledge sharing. Success stories and recommendations There are numerous examples throughout the World Resources report, as well as three case studies with different resource dependence: a co-management program for fisheries in Bangladesh; a forestry concession in Guatemala; and Niger farmers who have created livelihood through transformation of agricultural practices (see also SDU 1/2008 for article on Niger). Drawing from those examples the critical issues for scaling up is found out and a number of recommendations for different stakeholders are listed. Support to and communication of pilot projects and successes are one important factor in scaling up. Another is increased focus and support from national level to create an enabling environment for rural enterprises. "Roots of Resilience" manages to mainstream the somewhat theoretical concept of resilience. It shows how community management can diversify, build social cohesion, and expand learning: all important aspects “in a world where unforseen challenges are likely.” /Louise Hård af Segerstad
Download report at:http://pdf.wri.org/world_resources_2008_roots_of_resilience.pdf More about resilience: http://www.stockholmresilience.org http://www.resalliance.org http://resilience2008.org | ||
| Sustainability School | ||
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"Permaculture": farming like nature for sustainability Permaculture is short for permanent culture and implies a technique of farming that mimics natural relationships and patterns by using polycultures of perennial crops. The concept was developed already in the 1970s and is now gaining more and more interest.  The modern permaculture concept was invented in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It is about designing and maintaining agricultural systems with similar diversity, stability and resilience as natural ecosystems. Whereas industrial agriculture has long depended on annual monocultures – fields of one type of short lived crops – permaculture do the opposite by mimicing natural ecosystems. Permaculture is the integration of food production and ecosystem services. Preservation and restoration of soils through the use of perennial crops and no-till techniques of cultivation are key aspects. Even though these systems tend to be much less productive than intensive agriculture, in terms of output of food per area, multiple yields are possible from the same area and a multitude of ecosystem services can be combined with productive uses.
Self-fertilising and self-weeding The Land Institute in Kansas, USA, is one of the leading permaculture research centres in the world. Wes Jackson, the Institute’s Director, says we must “embrace the arrangements that have shaken down in the long evolutionary process and try to mimic them... essentially we need to farm the way nature farms”. The Land Institute tries to apply the local prairie ecosystem’s principles while still producing desired crops. This is done by creating a prairie-like mix of plants including perennial grasses, legumes, sunflowers, grain crops and plants with natural insecticides grown together in one field. This “polyculture” benefit from e.g. the natural nitrogen-fixing of legumes with roots that attract symbiotic soil bacteria. In monoculture farming, on the other hand, this natural nitrogen-fertilising process is replaced by chemical fertilisers requiring extensive use of energy (often in the form of fossil fuels). Another advantage of such polycultures is that the root systems of perennial, or multiple season plants, tend to be able to use the soil fertility more efficiently because various plant species have different root depths in which to capture nutrients. In addition, almost a third of the roots die and decay each year adding additional “free” fertilizer in the form of organic matter to the soil. Moreover, a mix of different plants constitutes a natural defense against weeds and predators. In this sense, diversity might be the cheapest and best form of pest control. Available space is used and divided up by the various plants leaving no open spaces for weeds to inhabit. In monocultures, on the other hand, plants are placed in rows with cleared spaces of open soil in between, which get the same sun and fertilizer as the desired crop plants. Consequently, these monocultures needs herbicides or labor to control weeds that would otherwise compete for nutrients and waters. In the prairie this tends not to be a problem, as partitioning of the resources occur through blooming at different times and having root systems of varying depths. /Fredrik Moberg
More athttp://www.landinstitute.org/ | ||
| In Brief | ||
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Human vulnerability to climate change hazards mapped A new report, commissioned by CARE International and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), identifies Afghanistan, India, Indonesia and Pakistan as countries particularly vulnerable to climate change.  World map showing overall human vulnerability to climate change. The report looks into the humanitarian impacts of floods, cyclones and droughts and identify Africa, Central and South Asia, and Southeast Asia as having the highest levels of human vulnerability to hazards for the next 20-30 year period. Climate change is making floods, cyclones and droughts more intense, more frequent, less predictable and/or longer lasting. This increases the risk of “disasters” everywhere, but regions where there are already high levels of human vulnerability are much more at risk, the report concludes. Moreover, the current situation with skyrocketing food prices, rapidly degrading ecosystems and profound social inequity is making the situation even worse for many people in the least developed countries. Central Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel are most at risk in Africa. In Central and South Asia, Afghanistan, the Caspian region, India, Iran and Pakistan are identified as hotspots, while Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar are identified as the most vulnerable nations in the Southeast Asian region. The authors have used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to map both climate change hazards and factors influencing vulnerability, including access to and control over natural, human, social, physical, political and financial resources. They call on policymakers to improve services such as health and education in climate change hotspots, in order to boost the population’s resilience to hazardous events. /Fredrik Moberg
More at:http://www.careclimatechange.org/careclimatechange.org/events__activities/new_report Pro-poor conservation holds great promise… but must become much better att proving its efficiency More and more people around the world argue that there are strong links between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. However, a recent article in the science journal PNAS says that conservation groups must become much better at delivering data that provide evidence of such links. An increasing number of scientists, NGOs, aid organisations and politicians around the world argue that there are strong links between conservation of biodiversity and poverty alleviation. This newsletter is one of the proponents of this view that the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity are key to development efforts that aim to reduce rural poverty. However, a recent analysis of World Bank projects with objectives of both combating poverty and protecting biodiversity revealed that, so far, only 16 % has made major progress on both objectives. This is the starting point of an article in a recent issue of PNAS, the American Academy of Science’s weekly scientific publication. Here, Stanford ecologist Heather Tallis and her colleagues analyze pro-poor conservation projects and propose a framework for anticipating and improving their outcomes. The article goes through a number of win-win, lose-win and lose-lose projects and concludes that “the enthusiasm for ecosystem services as a strategy for enhancing conservation support is far outpacing credible evidence of what is possible and how to best achieve the much desired win-win outcomes”. Hence, the authors conclude that conservation groups must become much better at delivering data that provide evidence of a link between their actions and any improvement in the status of social well-being and biodiversity or ecosystem services. “Conservation that is justified on the basis of enhanced ecosystem services cannot afford to neglect rigorous evaluation of both ecology and social well-being”, they write.  Springbok in Namibia, Africa, have increased in numbers as a consequence of the institutional change associated with Namibia’s Nature Conservation Act in 1996. Such examples of successful projects with objectives of both combating poverty and protecting biodiversity are rare, according to a new study in PNAS, the American Academy of Science’s publication. Photo: Bent Christensen/azote.se More rhinos and springbok means more jobs The clearing of coastal mangrove forests for shrimp aquaculture in coastal regions of Asia is mentioned as an example of a lose-lose situation, meaning that neither people nor nature benefited from a well-intentioned project. Among the projects that the authors consider as really successful on both social and ecological fronts is the institutional change associated with Namibia’s Nature Conservation Act in 1996. It is one of the largest-scale demonstrations of the benefits of so-called “community-based natural resource management” and state-sanctioned empowerment of local communities. Namibia now houses the world’s largest free-roaming black rhino population and elephants, zebra, oryx, and springbok have increased 600 % in some places. Local incomes have increased by more than $2.5 million and overall, 3,250 part-time and 547 fulltime jobs were created. Moreover, the majority of these jobs were obtained by women. After a detailed examination of several case studies, the authors come to the conclusion that there is indeed a potentially bright future of jointly advancing ecosystem services, conservation, and human well-being. However, for pro-poor conservation projects to become truly successful, the authors claim that, the natural science, social science, and practitioner communities jointly must “establish a standard set of measures and approaches for quantifying and monitoring ecosystem service levels and values”. /Fredrik Moberg
More at:http://www.pnas.org/content/105/28/9457.full.pdf Half of the water used to grow food globally is lost or wasted Throwing food away is like leaving the tap running. As much as half of the water used to grow food in the world may actually be lost or wasted, says a new report. Cutting these losses provides win-win opportunities for farmers, ecosystems and the global hungry.  As much as half the water used to grow food worldwide is lost due to waste. This is a major contributor to global water shortages and as much as 30 percent of food, worth some USD 48.3 billion, is thrown away only in the USA.
It is like “leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion litres of water into the garbage can - enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people”, according to a new report entitled “Saving Water: From Field to Fork – Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain”. The report, jointly published by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), was released recently during the so-called World Water Week in Stockholm. It calls on governments to reduce by half, by 2025, the amount of food that is wasted after it is grown and outlines attainable steps for this be achieved. – Improving water productivity and reducing the quantity of food that is wasted can enable us to provide a better diet for the poor and enough food for growing populations, says Professor Jan Lundqvist of SIWI in a press release. In developing countries, an estimated 15 to 35 percent of food may be lost in the field. Another 10 to15 percent is discarded during processing, transport and storage, the brief states. In richer countries, production is on the other hand more efficient but waste is greater, the report says. As people toss the food they buy, all the resources used to grow, ship and produce the food are thrown along with it. Virtual water concept The new report is based on the concept of “virtual water”, a measurement of how water is embedded in the production and trade of food and consumer products. Professor Tony Allan of the King’s College in London, who introduced the “virtual water” concept, was awarded the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize, during this year’s World Water Week hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute. /Fredrik Moberg
More at:http://www.siwi.org/documents/Press_Releases/ General/PR_Release_Field_to_Fork_at_WWW_2008.pdf Report on ecosystem services-based sustainable farming in Ethiopia  Albaeco is together with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) involved in a project on sustainable faming in the North and South. The project’s first report deals with Ethiopia where local knowledge and scientific findings on ecosystem services and resilience have been combined to produce very promising results.
The report "Ecological in Ethiopia" is produced by Albaeco on the commission of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC). It presents an agricultural project in northern Ethiopia that has succeeded in reversing the developments in an area formerly severely affected by problems such as soil erosion and hunger. Here, poor subsistence farmers, researchers, local advisors, agricultural experts, and a local NGO, have together devised a cropping system which is based on local inputs, biological diversity and ecosystem services.  The Tigray project in northern Ethiopia is a successful example showing how farmers and agricultural experts can work together to develop an agriculture based on local inputs, biological diversity and ecosystem services. Photo: Jakob Lundberg The project has produced a range of positive results such as higher yields, higher groundwater levels, better soil fertility, decreased susceptibility to drought, increased income and better opportunities to make a living. Now, the Ethiopian government has adopted the approach used in the Tigray project to prevent soil destruction and combat poverty in 165 different districts in the grain-producing regions of the country. Brazil next This is the first report in a series that will highlight positive examples of how agriculture can be structured so as to contribute to sustainable development, with the focus on securing both access to food for the world’s growing population and the environment. The next report in the series will be published later this fall and deal with the organisation Centro Ecológico’s work to promote sustainable farming in Brazil. /Fredrik Moberg More at: http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/upload/ Foreningsdokument/Rapporter/engelska/ Report_international_Ethiopia.pdf New UNDP-movie shows the inequality and urgency of climate change A movie might be worth a thousands reports. UNDP launches a movie and exhibition to get the message from the Human Development Report across. A new movie called One Planet, One Chance claims that the world must focus much more on the development impact of climate change. Now. If not, we will all face unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction, nutrition and health. It is a strong movie with solid messages based on the Human Development Report 2007/2008. The movie is part of an exhibit that was inaugurated 9 September in the United Nations General Assembly’s Visitors Lobby. The exhibition is open during all of September and aims to reach out to the Heads of State gathering in New York for the General Assembly proceedings. The movie and exhibit “provides a visual display of the shared but differentiated responsibility for the current levels of CO2 in our atmosphere”, writes United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a press release. 
Both mitigation and adaption needed The movie, that is actually more of an advanced slide show with animations, calls for a “twin track” approach with both mitigation to limit warming to less than 2°C and strengthened cooperation on adaptation. The movie repeats the message of the latest Human Development Report, which claims that developed nations must demonstrate leadership and cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 % of 1990 levels by 2050. By watching the movie or visiting the exhibition UNDP wants Heads of State to really understand the urgency and inequality of climate change through the various visual embodiments of CO2 data. Turning to adaptation, the movie, exhibition and the report warn that inequalities in ability to cope with climate change are emerging as an increasingly powerful driver of wider inequalities between and within countries. Rich countries carry overwhelming historic responsibility, have far deeper carbon footprints, and have the financial and technological capabilities to act. – If people in the developing world had generated per capita CO2 emissions at the same level as people in North America, we would need the atmosphere of nine planets to deal with the consequences, says Mr. Watkins, Administrator of the UNDP in the press release. /Fredrik Moberg Watch the movie at: http://www.mimlab.com/mim/one-planet-one-chance_preview_080908.mov Think globally radio: listen to experts on sustainability and poverty alleviation  Think Globally Radio is a debate/discussion style radio program intended to help spread awareness and deeper understanding on issues of sustainable development. We at SDU-newsletter have on several occassions collaborated with Think Globally and recommended interesting guests for the program. Each episode focuses on one important environmental issue, and experts on the topic at hand are invited to the studio to provide insight and expertise. One of the most recent episodes features Brian Walker from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Australia, and the former Program Director of the Resilience Alliance. He explains why thinking in terms of the resilience of ecosystems and social structures is vital in a world that is becoming increasingly vulnerable to passing catastrophic thresholds.
Among the many other interesting guests and topics found in Think Globally’s extensive online-archive are: Food security and poverty reduction in the developing world (with Kostas Stamoulis and Christina Engfeldt of FAO); Climate change negotiations from Kyoto to Copenhagen (Bo Kjellen); Surviving the Anthropocene (Will Steffen, Australian National University); Environmental politics and climate change (Anders Wijkman, Member of the European Parliament); and Geopolitical implications of climate change (Peter Haldén, Swedish Defense Research Agency). http://www.thinkgloballyradio.org
The quote: "Altogether Brown calculates that his Plan B would cost the world an additional $190 billion a year. That might seem high, until he compares the price tag to the global military budget, which stands at more than $1.2 trillion." Time Magazine on Lester Brown’s book “Plan B 3.0” where he outlines a survival strategy for our civilization: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1700189,00.html |