Mini Project 3

1
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Ecosystems and Human Well-Being Opportunities
and Challenges for Business and Industry

• Mini Project 3
• Presented by
• Sara Maamoun
• 900-02-0922

2
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

• What is it?
• International scientific assessment of
  consequences of ecosystem change for human
  well-being
• When was it launched?
• July 12th, 2005
• Who developed it?
• A multisectoral board of directors of senior
  representatives from government, business, NGOs,
  U.N. agencies and academic experts
• What is its content?
• Key findings of assessment
• Interpretation of significance of findings for
  business and industry

3
Benefits of the Assessment

• Benchmark over next 10 years for
• Public policy
• Public awareness
• Investments
• Regulatory climate
• Companies informed by best available scientific
  info
• Ability to plan accordingly for companies to be
  innovators and market leaders
• Competitive advantage, brand reputation, license
  to operate, innovate and grow

4
Ecosystems and their Services

• Ecosystems
• Dynamic complex of plants, animals, microbes and
  physical environment that interact with one
  another
• Ecosystem Services
• Benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems
• Effect on humans
• Food
• Shelter
• Individual health
• Security
• Good social relations
• Freedom of choice and action

5
Ecosystem Services and the Effect of their Change
on Human Well-being
6
Key Trends in Ecosystems and their Services

• Past 50 years
• To meet fast-growing demands for food, fresh
  water, timber, fiber and fuel
• Humans changing ecosystems more rapidly,
  unexpectedly and extensively than any comparable
  period in history
• This contributed to substantial gains in human
  well-being and economic development
• On expense of degrading ecosystem services,
  increased risks of abrupt and harmful changes in
  ecosystems and harm to some groups of people

7
Importance of MA for Business Industry

• License to operate
• Corporate Image
• Cost of capital and Investor Risk
• Access to Raw Materials
• New Technologies Business Opportunities

8
Scenario Assessment
9
To Wrap Up...

• Past success in Ecosystem management may not
  apply to current or future conditions
• 2/3 of Ecosystem services are degraded or used
  unsustainably, which affect business in
• A. Freely available services cease to be
  available and become more costly in the future
• B. Loss of Ecosystem will change business
  operations customer preferences, stockholder
  expectations, regulatory regimes, government
  policies, employee well being and availability of
  finance and insurance
• C. New business opportunities by developing more
  efficient ways to use ecosystem services
• Still time to lessen impact by making decision
  makers factor this information in their strategic
  plans

10
Changing Policy Making

• Integrating ecosystem management goals within
  governments, civil society and private sector
• Enhancing human and institutional capacity for
  assessing consequences of ecosystem change and
  acting on those assessments
• Improving communication education with respect to
  sustainable management and use of ecosystems
• Shifting emphasis from efforts designed to
  further increase production of ecosystem services
  to efforts designed to increase efficiency of
  production
• Eliminating subsidies that promote excessive use
  of ecosystem services
• Promoting new technologies along with their
  careful assessment

11
Thank You?

• Questions?