Pressroom

Belize’s Reefs and Mangroves Tagged with High Economic Value

Paul Mackie — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Three key services provided by coral reefs and mangroves in Belize are worth an estimated US$395 million to US$559 million per year, according to a report released today by the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund.

Annual Economic Contribution of Coral Reefs and Mangroves in Belize“Putting a dollar value on the goods and services provided by reefs and mangroves helps to translate them into a language that everyone speaks,” said Lauretta Burke, a senior associate at WRI. “Hopefully, these findings will contribute to well-informed decisions regarding the management of these critical resources.”

The report, Coastal Capital: Belize, estimates the annual economic value of coral reef- and mangrove-associated tourism in Belize at between US$150 million and US$196 million, accounting for between 12 and 15 percent of the Caribbean nation’s GDP. Benefits from reef- and mangrove-dependent fisheries contribute a further US$14 million to US$16 million to the economy.

Reefs and mangroves also protect coastal properties from erosion and wave-induced damage. WRI estimates that Belize’s coral reefs provide an estimated US$120 million to US$180 million in avoided damages per year. Mangroves protect the coastline from both waves and storm surge, providing an additional US$111 million to US$167 million in protection annually.

Despite growing recognition of the economic importance of coastal resources, reefs and mangroves face growing threats from unchecked coastal development, over-fishing, and pressures from tourism. Climate-related changes such as warming seas and fiercer storms will compound these impacts in the future.

“The goods and services offered by coral reefs and mangroves are frequently overlooked or underappreciated in coastal investment and policy decisions,” said Emily Cooper, a research associate at WRI and lead author of the study. “The amount currently invested in protecting Belize’s coral reefs and mangroves is very small when compared to the contribution of these resources to the national economy.”

Belize’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) system is widely hailed as an example of forward-thinking in marine conservation. Consisting of 18 protected areas managed primarily by the country’s fisheries and forestry departments in collaboration with local NGOs, the MPAs are an important draw for divers, snorkelers and sport fishermen, and contain no-fishing areas that help to maintain stocks of key commercial species. The system, however, is under-funded, and staff, fuel, and equipment limitations make it difficult to curb illegal fishing and monitor visitation in most of the reserves.

“Belize’s reefs and mangroves offer crucial socio-economic benefits but are already threatened by overuse, degradation and fragmentation. Climate change will undoubtedly compound these through increased frequency of impacts from mass bleaching and storm occurrences, as well as coastal erosion and sedimentation,” said Nadia Bood, Mesoamerican reef scientist and climate change officer for WWF Central America. “This makes urgent the need to act now to alleviate human threats and increase the resilience potential of these very important ecosystems.”

WRI’s Coastal Capital project receives key financial support from the Oak Foundation, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SwedBio, the Campbell Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. The full report can be accessed on WRI’s website at http://www.wri.org/publication/coastal-capital-belize .

Latin American Cities Get Physical in Fight Against Obesity and Chronic Disease

Nate Kommers — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:44:59 -0400

Mexico City, Mexico; Londrina, Brazil; and Tulancingo, Mexico won top awards in a contest here today for urban renewal projects designed to promote physical activity and cut down on local obesity rates and other diseases related to inactive lifestyles.

“We hope that celebrating the achievements of these projects will inspire other cities in Latin America to begin to address the growing prevalence of physical inactivity, obesity, and chronic disease within their citizenries,” said World Health Organization (WHO) expert and head of the contest jury, Dr. Carlos Dora.

The awards, presented at the IV International Congress on Sustainable Transport, were part of the 2008 “Active Cities, Healthy Cities” contest, an initiative designed to recognize the efforts of municipal authorities, civil society, and the private sector in Latin American cities to develop initiatives that promote healthier, more active lifestyles.

Cities were awarded for their efforts in three separate categories: Physical Activity and Recreation; Public Space, Safety, and Civic Culture; and Sustainable Transport and the Environment.

Physical Activity and Recreation: Mexico City’s “Muevete en Bici” (“Get on Your Bicycle”) program was named the winner in the Physical Activity and Recreation category. Each Sunday the initiative closes 10km of major thoroughfares to car traffic, temporarily transforming normally traffic-clogged streets into a gigantic public park enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of residents.
Sustainable Transport and the Environment: In the Sustainable Transport and the Environment category, Tulancingo, Mexico took home first place for the conversion of an old railroad line into a safe, clean, and accessible walking and biking path. Complete with safety signage, an all-weather surface, and attractive landscaping, the path serves 2,500 people each day.
Public Space , Security, and Civic Culture: The “Calzada para Todos” (“Sidewalks for Everyone”) project in Londrina, Brasil was the winner in the Public Space, Security, and Civic Culture division. The innovative program has worked to ensure that well-constructed, handicap-accessible sidewalks are available throughout the city, where over one-third of daily trips are on foot.

“These programs show that when cities can be designed for people - not just cars - leaders can significantly improve public health, the environment, and overall quality of life in their cities,” said Nancy Kete, director of EMBARQ - the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport, one of the co-sponsors of the event.

Between 40 percent and 60 percent of Latin American adults fail to engage in the recommended amount of physical activity, increasing their risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

“The urban sprawl typical in many U.S. cities is still not the dominant urban form in Latin America, but it is rapidly gaining ground. Latin American cities must act now if they hope to safeguard the health of both their cities and their populations,” said Dr. Enrique Jacoby, an official at the Pan American Health Organization and one of the organizers of the event.

The ‘Active Cities, Healthy Cities Contest’ has taken place every three years since 2002. This year’s competition was sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), EMBARQ - the World Resources Center for Sustainable Transport, the Center for Sustainable Transport-Mexico (CTS-Mexico), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Center for Sustainable Transport-Brasil (CTS-Brasil), the Avina Foundation, and the Fundación Ciudad Humana.

In addition to the three first place winners, several cities’ projects received honorable mention nods, including: Lima, Peru, for the construction of a series of public sports facilities; Tulancingo, Mexico, for a community dancing program; Durango, Mexico, for a recreation, sports and cultural park; and Mexico City, for the creation of an innovative “vertical garden” that covers the façade of a parking garage in the Mexican capital’s historic downtown, helping revitalize the area.

The EMBARQ website has a special section with videos, a photo slide show, and other resources.

EPA Partners With WRI to Heighten Awareness of Ecosystem Services

Paul Mackie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:13:15 -0400

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a collaboration to deliver improved science and practical tools to help companies and governments protect ecosystems and address climate change.

“This is an important collaboration in bringing research on ecosystem services into the mainstream of science, business and public policy,” said Rick Linthurst, national program director of the EPA’s Ecological Research Program.

WRI’s ecosystem services brochureEcosystem services are the benefits people obtain from forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems. A forest, for example, not only provides wood for timber and paper but also controls erosion, purifies water, stores carbon dioxide, and offers recreation.

The partnership will bring a greater recognition and understanding of the importance of ecosystems to economic development and human well-being. It will also help planners better determine development options that allow affected natural resources to continue to produce services that meet the needs of current and future generations.

Craig Hanson, acting director of WRI’s People and Ecosystems Program, added, “This collaboration will link EPA’s quality scientific research on ecosystem services with WRI’s work to help private- and public-sector leaders make the connection between healthy ecosystems and the attainment of their economic goals. This partnership will make our Corporate Ecosystem Services Review, mapping of ecosystem services, and economic valuation efforts even more powerful.”

Businesses, local and state governments, researchers, and international organizations - which are increasingly retooling their environmental-management systems to address ecosystem services - will benefit from the partnership.

As part of the collaboration, Dr. Suzanne Marcy, lead for outreach and education in the Ecological Research Program of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, will be based at WRI’s headquarters. She will focus on linking emerging scientific data about the health and economic value of ecosystem services with WRI’s various projects on water quality, biofuels, coral reefs, and business sustainability, among others.

In addition, WRI’s research will inform the EPA Ecological Research Program’s initiatives in the Coastal Carolinas, the Willamette Valley in Oregon, Tampa Bay, the upper-Midwest, and the Southwest.

Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstrations Should Start Now, Say Technical Experts

Nate Kommers — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:15:38 -0400

Sufficient technical knowledge exists to begin large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstrations in the United States, according to guidelines released today by a coalition of business, environmental, academic and government groups.

The product of more than two years of research, Guidelines for CO2 Carbon, Capture, Transport and Storage was developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in conjunction with CCS experts from 88 organizations. Directed at policymakers and players in the emerging U.S. CCS industry, the guidelines are intended to guide full-scale demonstration, and provide recommendations for ensuring that projects are conducted responsibly.

“We have known for a long time that renewable energy and energy efficiency are critical to solving the climate crisis. The question has been what role can CCS play?” said Jonathan Pershing, director of WRI’s Climate and Energy Program. “Today’s report offers Congress and regulators a strong technical roadmap to help answer that question.”

WRI convened expert stakeholders for more than two years to develop the guidelines, soliciting expert input from federal and state government, business and civil society organizations ranging from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National Resources Defense Council and the American Petroleum Institute.

“This group is a brain trust of CCS experts from all sectors, and their perspectives helped make the guidelines as comprehensive, detailed, and thorough as any work to date,” said Dr. S. Julio Friedmann of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, a contributing author to the guidelines.

“These guidelines should be considered essential reading for anyone needing to grasp how risks should be managed in geologic sequestration projects,” added Scott Anderson, senior policy advisor at Environmental Defense Fund. “Those who have studied CCS know that we can really do this.”

For the budding U.S. CCS industry, the guidelines are a significant development. They can help developers, insurers and financers determine that investments can be made with a much higher level of certainty. For a public with questions about storing carbon underground, they provide a set of rules to ensure that CCS projects are safe and effective. For government policymakers and agencies like the EPA, they confirm that large demonstrations can begin, and that regulatory and investment frameworks can move to facilitate deployment of the technology into the U.S. economy.

The guidelines address concerns about CCS projects like:

How to handle the environmental impacts of capturing carbon dioxide from a power plant or industrial facility.
How to ensure a carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure meets operational standards and environmental requirements.
How to select a site; conduct a CO2 injection operation; and measure, monitor and verify that the storage of carbon dioxide underground is safe, and that questions about long-term stewardship are addressed.

The authors of the guidelines identify areas where additional research should be pursued, but conclude that large-scale demonstrations of CCS, as part of an assessment of moving to commercial operations, should begin as soon as possible.

“It is past time for the technology to mature. Polluting smokestacks should be a relic of the 20th century,” said Sarah Forbes, lead author of the report and a senior associate at WRI.

New WRI Board Members Highlight Importance of China, Energy Investment

Nate Kommers — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:43:34 -0400

The World Resources Institute’s (WRI) board of directors welcomed two new members last month by electing Chen Jining, a professor and executive vice president at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Daniel Weiss, co-founder and manager of the Angeleno Group, an energy-focused private equity firm.

“These newest board members bring valuable expertise to WRI as the world can expect a growing role for China in facing environmental challenges, and an approaching surge in renewable energy investments,” said Jonathan Lash, president of WRI.

Professor Chen Jining is an executive vice president at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and was formerly chairman of the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. His research areas include environmental systems analysis, water resources and environmental policy, integrated river basin planning and management, non-point sources pollution control, and sustainable cities.

Professor Chen serves as a specialist member of the International Task Force in Forecasting Environmental Change and director of the Environmental Technology Branch of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. He is also a member of the International Water Association.

In 2005, he won the First-Grade Huaxia Science-Tech Prize awarded by the Ministry of Construction for his distinguished work.

Daniel Weiss is co-founder and managing partner of the Angeleno Group (AG), a private equity firm focused on high-growth investments in the energy sector. Mr. Weiss oversees AG’s investment activities in the areas of emissions reduction, transmission and distribution infrastructure and power quality and reliability.

Prior to the formation of AG, Mr. Weiss was an attorney at O’Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles, working in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions, international and high technology practice groups. He represented multiple Global 1000 clients, including utilities and energy related companies, in a wide array of private equity and corporate finance transactions.

Mr. Weiss also has a significant history of involvement in government, regulatory and public policy entities that deal with the energy sector including work experience in the White House and the United States Congress. He serves on Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee. Additionally, Mr. Weiss has taught, lectured and published articles on the topics of law, business and public policy. He has lectured at Stanford University, Stanford Law School and U.C.L.A.

Mr. Weiss holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, an M.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. with high honors from U.C. Berkeley.

These two members join a board that includes: Chairman James A. Harmon, Vice Chair Harriet (Hattie) Babbitt, Chairman Emeritus William D. Ruckelshaus, Vice-Chair Emeritus Alice (Tish) F. Emerson, Roberto Artavia, Gay Barclay, Frances Beinecke, Afsaneh Beschloss, Antony Burgmans, Fernando Henrique Carsdoso, Jessica Catto, Leslie Dach, Jamshyd N. Godrej, Al Gore, Denis Hayes, Aditi Kapoor, Jonathan Lash, Preston R. Miller, Jr., Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, James W. Owens, Michael Polsky, C.K. Prahalad, Qian Yi, Theodore Roosevelt IV, Stephen M. Ross, Alison Sander, José Sarukhan, James Gustave Speth, Ralph Taylor, Lee M. Thomas, Todd S. Thomson, and Diana H. Wall.

Nature-Based Enterprises Can Help Rural Poor Adapt to Environmental Threats

Paul Mackie — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Expanding nature-based enterprises can increase income for the world’s rural poor. This approach, as outlined in the latest World Resources Report 2008, can also develop the rural poor’s resilience to social and environmental threats such as climate change.

Chen and Ravallion, World Bank, 2008.Three-quarters of the 2.6 billion people who live on less than $2 a day are dependent upon local natural resources for their livelihoods. Threats such as climate change and ecosystem degradation are beginning to strain those livelihoods, and it will be necessary to shape development strategies that build resilience against such threats and ensure stable and prosperous communities.

World Resources 2008: Roots of Resilience - released here today as part of the IUCN World Conservation Congress - closely examines existing community-based efforts. The report argues that properly fostered nature-based enterprises can improve rural livelihoods and, in the process, create resilience to economic, social, and environmental threats.

Achim Steiner, under-secretary general of the United Nations and executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said, “Poverty will never be made history unless we invest in more intelligent management of the world’s nature-based assets. There are now countless models and case studies of how ecosystems can be managed to boost rural livelihoods and incomes while meeting the goal of environmental sustainability.

“Mainstreaming and making these models and blueprints more commonplace and widespread is now a matter of great urgency in a world challenged by climate change, in a world where we are pushing, if not pushing past the regenerative limits of the planet’s life support systems,” Steiner added.

Roots of Resilience concludes that expanding the scale of already successful models requires an emphasis on three critical elements:

Ownership: A groundwork of good governance must both transfer to the poor legal authority over local resources and elicit local demand for better management of resources.
Capacity: Local communities must have the ability to manage ecosystems competently, carry out ecosystem-based enterprises, and distribute the income from these enterprises fairly.
Connection: Establishing adaptive networks that connect and strengthen nature-based enterprises will give them the ability to adapt, learn, link to markets, and mature into businesses that can sustain themselves and enter the economic mainstream.

“Local communities clearly have an interest to sustain the ecosystems on which they depend,” added Manish Bapna, executive vice president, World Resources Institute (WRI). “But all too often, they face a disabling, not an enabling environment. Governments and donors have a crucial role to play in constructing the right policies and institutions necessary to protect ecosystems and grow the wealth and resilience of the poor.”

One of dozens of examples from the report is an effort in Bangladesh to help villagers sustainably manage fisheries and wetlands. Before the program was implemented fishing was difficult, waterfowl had been eliminated and fierce competition for fishing rights had disrupted the lives of villagers that depended on the ecosystem for their income. Once the pilot program was implemented, however, villagers were granted new fishing rights that included responsibility for managing the fisheries. They were also trained to manage fisheries and supported with micro-loans to start new businesses. The results, over the past eight years, included a reversal of the degraded bird and fish habitat, a 140 percent increase in fish catches, and a 33 percent rise in local income.

The report includes recommendations for national governments, donors, and the private sector to help create enabling environments that nurture rural enterprises and the resilience that can come with their growth.

“The international community must fast-track this model to the center stage of development policy. By doing so, countries can bring a new level of commitment and creativity to the poverty- and environment-related Millennium Development Goals,” said Veerle Vandeweerd, director of the Environment and Energy Group at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

World Bank President Robert Zoellick writes in the foreword to the report, “Increased resilience must be part of the response to the risks of climate change. The efforts that foster resilience chart the first steps on the path out of poverty.”

World Resources 2008 is a joint effort produced by WRI, UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank. It is free to download at www.wri.org.

Decisions about Nature and Development Must Be Made at Same Table, WRI Report Finds

Paul Mackie — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Development and the environment have traditionally been managed separately, but a new report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) guides decision makers in how this can be reconciled to increase prosperity and protect the planet.

“Development and nature have traditionally been handled by separate academic disciplines, separate government agencies, and separate laws and policies,” said Janet Ranganathan, lead author of the book and vice president for science and research at WRI.

She added, “Development planners too often assume that the natural assets that development depends upon will always be there. Conservationists, on the other hand, are often preoccupied with minimizing the negative impacts of development on nature or putting it off limits to people.”

Ecosystem Services: A Guide for Decision Makers, released here today at the opening of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, uses ecosystem services - the benefits of nature - to make the link between nature and development.

“Global climate is changing and, at the same time, our natural assets are dwindling. These two trends are on a collision course,” wrote Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, and William Ruckelshaus, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in the foreword of the report.

Economic development often goes forward at the expense of nature’s ability to provide people with goods and services. Twenty percent of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested by loggers, farmers, and ranchers, threatening the capacity of the “Lungs of our Planet” to recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen, clean our air, and regulate regional and global climate. The Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington faces environmental challenges such as water pollution and toxic-laden sentiments, which jeopardize recreation activities for humans as well as the habitat of the iconic Pacific salmon.

Like the guidance in this report, both regions are pioneering ways to reconcile development and environment goals - not just for the sake of nature, but also for the sake of people.

The report also takes a novel approach by telling a fictional story about a city grappling with preventing flood protection and providing clean water while helping the country raise and sell biofuels. The story illustrates the difficult trade-offs that policymakers face in many parts of the world: how to provide cleaner energy and jobs but avoid increasing food and land prices and endangering forests and clean water.

Within the report, five steps are detailed on how decision makers can proceed. Step one is to identify the ecosystem services in play. Step two is to screen the ecosystem services for relevance. Next is assessing the conditions and trends of the relevant ecosystem services. Step four is to access the need for an economic evaluation of services. Finally, step five is to identify ecosystem service risks and opportunities.

For more information or to download the report for free, please visit www.wri.org.

Nation's First Green Roof and Labyrinth Opens

Paul Mackie — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:52:43 -0400

The nation’s first green roof and labyrinth in this ever-greener city opened today at the top of an eight-story office building one block northwest of Union Station.>

The labyrinth surrounded by sedum plantsThe green roof – on top of a building at 10 G Street, NE owned by the American Psychological Association (APA) – will be open to the public as a peaceful respite from the busy city and nearby Capitol Hill.

“This collaborative effort is part of our overall mission to create open spaces that heal the body, mind, and spirit,” said Mary Wyatt, executive director of TKF Foundation, the lead funder for the project. “We are gratified to be a leader in providing this innovative green space to all those who wish to have a place for reflection during the course of a work day.”

The roof was formally opened today during a book-release party for Open Spaces, Sacred Places, co- authored by TKF Foundation President Tom Stoner and Carolyn Rapp. The book chronicles the evolution of 12 sites from among the more than 120 spaces that the foundation has helped renew through funding and support.

Small plants called sedum and the labyrinth—an ancient tool for meditation that has in recent years seen a resurgence in popularity – cover 3,600 square feet of the building’s roof. The $170,000 project received additional funding from the APA, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), and the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“The green roof fits with our mission to protect the Earth and improve people’s lives,” said Nancy Kiefer, facility director at WRI, whose offices occupy the top two floors in the building. “Our staff was so excited about the possibility of a green roof that many of them made personal contributions to the project.”

The idea sprouted a few years ago when CBF approached APA about applying for a grant to construct a green roof on one of its buildings. The building at 10 G Street was a perfect candidate since WRI is such a major tenant.

Architect rendering of the green roof by Farrand & English

Dr. Norman B. Anderson, CEO of APA, said, “In addition to helping APA become a more green organization, this green roof project is consistent with our ongoing commitment to being a ‘healthy company,’ both physically and psychologically. I am personally a big fan of walking a labyrinth as a mindfulness meditation tool.”

William Baker, president and CEO of CBF, added, “Green roofs like this can significantly protect storm sewers from being overloaded during heavy storms. That, in turn, protects local rivers and the Chesapeake Bay from becoming more polluted with the runoff.”

More than 55,000 square feet of green roofs were installed in Washington D.C. in 2007, helping place it seventh in rankings by Greenroofs.com for cities with the most green-roof square footage in the country. Last year, 30 percent more green roofs were installed in North America representing a 5 percent increase over the 25 percent growth of 2006.

Green roofs provide a host of psychological and financial benefits, including cleaner air, cooler cities, reduced energy consumption, cleaner rivers and streams, and more beautiful urban landscapes.

Statement from WRI President Jonathan Lash on the First Day of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) Trading

Jonathan Lash — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:00:00 -0400

“Today, ten states are taking a major step forward in the fight against global warming as they begin operations of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the country’s first mandatory GHG emissions market. These Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have been pioneers at a time when federal action has been egregiously lacking. Their accomplishments have proven that emissions markets are effective and politically possible.

Significantly, RGGI primarily distributes permits via auctioning — as opposed to ‘grandfathering,’ which virtually eliminates the possibility for windfall profits at taxpayer expense.

RGGI will soon be joined by the Western Climate Initiative, which released its market design plan yesterday, and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. Together these three markets will cover over half the U.S. population and 80 percent of Canada’s population, and are excellent examples of how a national emissions market could work.

WRI is proud to have participated in the design of all three agreements, and congratulates the governors, state legislators, and stakeholders in the RGGI states on their outstanding accomplishment.”

Jonathan Lash's Statement on Vice President Gore's "Repower America" Challenge

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:28:48 -0400

This morning, Vice President Al Gore challenged the United States to achieve a carbon-free electricity supply within the next 10 years. Here is the statement of WRI President Jonathan Lash on Gore’s challenge:

“Climate change and energy security are not just threats—they are opportunities. Vice President Gore has issued an audacious and timely challenge: imagine our future and our children’s future if we seize the moment. We need to change the debate in this country from what we can’t do to what we can do. America has led every major technological shift in the last 100 years, and we can lead the next one as well. The problem is not technology, it is political will.”