Environmental Security for Poverty Alleviation

Methodology

A major proportion of the world's ecosystems and related services is being degraded or used unsustainably. This process affects human wellbeing in several ways: the growing scarcity of natural resources creates a growing risk for human and political conflicts and hinders sustainable development and the poverty alleviation that depends on it.

The overall objective of the IES science programme is to secure the natural resource livelihood basis of local communities. IES pursues this objective along two, mutually related lines:

1. the conservation of ecosystems and their related services; and
2. the implementation of the international legal order.

The graph below summarises the problem analysis (left) and the project goals (right):

The first project objective is to generate and provide reliable and relevant information about selected ecosystems.

With respect to the original 3 IES EnviroSecurity Assessments the goal is to ensure that information and information-based knowledge for each case stays up-to-date and to make any necessary adjustments to the prototype methodology.

The integrated methodology developed and employed can be replicated to produce EnviroSecurity Assessments in other eco-regions and eventually lead to Comprehensive EnviroSecurity Plans.

The choice of 3 to 5 additional eco-regions for studies to be launched in 2007, 2008 and 2009 will be determined in consultation with existing and new partners in developing countries. Possible eco-regions for attention are shown below. In each case we will aim to clearly identify the interdependency between conservation of eco-system services and poverty alleviation.

Eco-regions for possible Second Phase EnviroSecurity Assessments

The Guiana Shield covers an area of 2,5 million km2 of mostly intact tropical rainforest, which provides for 15% of the world's fresh water reserves and a very high, endemic biodiversity. W. Veening is currently coordinating the IUCN 'Guiana Shield Initiative' a project aiming to set up a financial mechanism to provide payment to countries and local communities for sustaining the ecosystem services provided by the region. Monitoring (remote sensing) is required for the functioning of the mechanism as an important verification tool. The major countries of focus are Suriname, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana. See also www.guianashield.org

Sudan is strategically located on the Nile, an international basin with a fixed quantity of water and fast-growing demand for it. Ecologically, economically and socially unsustainable policies in the Northern more arid lands have pushed people to the wetter areas in the South, creating conflicts over land and water…There is consensus that an important factor leading to the tragedy in Darfur has been the fight over scarce land and water resources.

With increasing population and increasing risk of droughts resulting from on-going climate change, one has to fear that amongst the many other causes for conflict in Africa, the relative weight of environmental security will also increase. In January 2005 tribal conflict caused by drought was reported in various places in Kenya.

Using the extensive scientific network of the IUCN on environment and security the programme will distil best practices on how to deal with environmental scarcity and share these with the relevant donor community and other stakeholders.

Also the urgency of adequate drought monitoring and forecasting will be put forward to the remote sensing and earth observation community to give this the priority the African continent needs.

The Congo basin (stretching to the west of the Great Lakes Region, to Gabon on the west coast) contains the world's second largest area of tropical rainforests, but is threatened by (illegal) logging, bush meat and wildlife trades, Ebola, poaching, climate change, and population growth. Proper monitoring could greatly help the conservation efforts currently underway.

The "Horn of Africa". Loss of fertile land by deforestation and erosion and unbalanced demographics ("youth bulge") create growing tensions in a country like Ethiopia. If Ethiopia would indeed go forward with diverting water from the Blue Nile for irrigated agriculture, this will increase tensions with the downstream countries in the Nile Basin, Sudan and Egypt. The programme would assist with monitoring and mapping the ecological risk situation in (selected parts of) the region, support on-going diplomatic and legal efforts, f.e. the Nile Basin Initiative, by involving its partners in The Hague, and promote payment to Ethiopian farmers for their efforts to keep the unique agro-biodiversity of the country intact as an alternative source of income.

The Mekong Delta. The environmental and closely related water and food security of Vietnam, partner country of the Dutch Development Cooperation, is highly dependent upon the management of the Mekong basin as a whole.

Lying at the mouth of the Mekong with the densely populated delta as main area of rice production and of fisheries, the impact of upstream development of the river and its tributaries upon the quantity, quality and variability of the water Vietnam receives and upon the migratory fish species, are of great concern.

Building upon the experiences of the current case-studies in Kalimantan, Great Lakes region and Colombia, the programme will, depending on the eventual choices between the possible candidate regions, also focus on the Mekong delta, but within the context of the larger basin.

Using the satellite data of JAXSA, deforestation and infrastructure will be monitored and mapped, and analysed as to its potential impact on the ecology and food security of the delta. The situation will also be interpreted in terms of applicable international (environmental) law and the relevant institutional setting, and recommendations on how to achieve sustainable solutions will be formulated in close consultation with donors and local stakeholders.

Related Links

Environment and Security Initiative
- UNDP, UNEP, OSCE and NATO

Peacefully resolving the overriding political, economic and social concerns of our time requires a multifaceted approach, including mechanisms to address the links between the natural environment and human security. UNDP, UNEP, OSCE and NATO have joined forces in the Environment and Security (ENVSEC) Initiative to offer countries their combined pool of expertise and resources towards that aim.
Read more...

Investing in Prevention: an international strategy to manage risks of instability and improve crisis response (February 2005)
- UK Prime Minister's Strategy Unit

The UK Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit to lead a cross-Whitehall programme team to analyse the challenges raised by countries at risk of instability (CRI) and recommend how the UK should improve its strategic response to them. The project team developed process manuals for performing risk assessment and strategic analysis of countries at risk of instability.
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