Event details

Healthy and functioning ecosystems are fundamental for life on earth. Human beings all over the world depend fully on vital ecosystems, directly or indirectly. Nevertheless, the planet cannot support the current manner in which the global economy has developed.

In international cooperation policies, maintaining healthy, robust, and productive ecosystems is acknowledged but in practice this still is a side-issue. The central goal of international cooperation remains the transfer of old economic models based on human engineering and the linear exploitation of natural resources for economic growth. To support this model, natural areas are converted and species that form the backbone of functioning ecosystems are over-exploited.

The recently published study The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity shows that society should start understanding the real value of ecosystems. This study adds a financial dimension to what in 2005 became known as the loss of essential services due to ecosystem degradation in the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment.

Time for “the Great Escape.”

In the next 50 years, planet earth will need to support more than 9 billion inhabitants. 9 billion individuals need to eat, need to support their livelihood, and want to have a high quality of life. There is no Planet B. Smart ecosystems that have evolved over billions of years will be a crucial partner in providing those needs.

The conference

The two-day conference ‘The Great Escape’ held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands aims to provide clarity amongst policy-makers on the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems to achieve economic development goals.

Participants are invited to debate the proposition above, as well as dilemma’s in the following areas:

1) Ecosystems and Human Well-being: An Introduction Where or what do we need to escape from? During this session, the importance of ecosystems for human well-being will be explored. We will do so by revisiting the conclusions of the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment, the lessons learned from the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2008, and the conclusions from the The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.

2) The Biobased Economy: Escaping the Land-use Reality. Dutch industry is moving towards a biobased economy. How to frame sustainable sourcing of biomass, and how to organize it, control it and promote it? These will be central questions during this session.

3) Escaping the Impact of Emergency Aid Relief Operations on Long Term Environmental Security. The urgency of maintaining healthy ecosystems (forests that provide wood for shelter and energy, soil or river systems that provide food and water) is not always considered a high priority. Yet, after the first needs are met, the affected people will need to have access to resources to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. The central question during this session will be how to integrate sustainable resource management in emergency aid relief operations.

4) Payments for Ecosystem Services Escaping the monetary stronghold: REDD, and other financial instruments that put a value on the protection of ecosystems. The loss of value as calculated by the study “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” is based on what value “should” be given to ecosystem services. How to set up a system where the value of ecosystem services is included in economic decision making will be the central question in this subject area.

Proposed programme of the plenary event:

26 April 2010

10:00 to 13:00 Opening. General discussion on Ecosystems and Human Well Being.

13:00 to 14:00 Lunch

14:00 to 17:00 The Biobased Economy

17:00 to 18:30 Reception

27 April 2010

10:00 to 13:00 Emergency Aid Relief Operations and Ecosystems

13:00 to 14:00 Lunch

14:00 to 17:00 Payments for Ecosystem Services

17:00 to 17:30 Closing

17:30 to 19:00 Drinks

Registration

You can register free of charge on www.iucn.nl/about_us/conference_the_great_escape/ until the 19th of April. Without a registration, participation will not be possible.

For more information, please contact Aukje ter Horst: 020-6261732 or aukje.terhorst@iucn.nl