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The International Day for Biodiversity is an opportunity to remind ourselves of how important biodiversity and the ecosystem goods and services it provides to society are for sustainable development, and that resources allocated to manage biodiversity should not be considered an expenditure, but rather an investment in sustainable development and human well-being.
This is a message that is increasingly being emphasized by countries around the world. For example, in Namibia, through the Strengthening the Protected Area Network (SPAN) project, we supported the protected area authority to conduct a comprehensive economic analysis of the contribution of the protected areas to the national economy. The study concluded that protected areas contributed 3.1-6.3 percent of the GDP through park based tourism only, without including other ecosystem services values, and the economic rate of return on the government investment over 20 years was as much as 23 percent if the tourism concession potential is fully realized. Using these study results, the Government increased the annual budget for park management and development by 300 percent. The Ministry of Finance also agreed to ear-mark 25 percent of the park entrance revenue to be reinvested in park and wildlife management through a trust fund, providing up to $2 million in additional sustainable financing per year.
Building on this and many other experiences in our portfolio, we have developed a program area within our 2014-2018 biodiversity strategy that will assist countries to integrate the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services into development and finance policy and decision-making through a multi-sectoral analysis that goes beyond the traditional environment sector.
Only when the economic value of biodiversity and ecosystem services is demonstrated to finance ministries and the private sector will it become apparent that biodiversity underpins the sustainability of our economic systems. This perspective is integral to the GEF’s investment strategy for biodiversity management and our support to implement the CBD Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2010-2020.
The time for piecemeal measures is over, and the window remaining for transformative and impactful actions is growing ever smaller. The loss of biodiversity has a negative impact on all people as the ongoing degradation of biodiversity will threaten the functioning of the Earth as a life-support system. As the international community is expected to agree on the Sustainable Development Goals later this year, we should not miss the opportunity to reconfirm that sustainable management of biodiversity is critical to achieving the SDGs.
Together, we must all work toward making IDB 2015 a turning point for the realization--through concrete actions-- that sustainable development is underpinned by the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides to society. Please join us.
Read more on the GEF 6 Biodiversity Strategy here.