Background
To emphasize on the key role of forests in achieving sustainable development, the United Nations declared the year 2011 as the International Year of Forests. The UN resolution recognizes “that forests and sustainable forest management can contribute significantly to sustainable development, poverty eradication and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals”. It also emphasizes on “the need for sustainable management of all types of forests, including fragile forest ecosystems”. Forest ecosystems worldwide shelter most of the terrestrial biodiversity and generate a substantial number of goods and services that benefit people. They contribute to water and air purification; climate regulation; carbon storage; prevention of erosion, floods and desertification; conservation of biodiversity among many others. Forest ecosystems are claimed to be of great economic value and their services are likely to fetch higher values than forest products or alternative land uses.
At the same time, the worldwide degradation and depletion of forest ecosystem services and biodiversity can incur significant economic costs and losses – especially for the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the population – and involves imminent risks such as impacts on human health, accelerated climate change, increased watershed disruption, loss of water quality, and loss of biodiversity among others. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation each year.
The continued loss and degradation of forests is partly due to rapid population changes, forest fires, climate change, but also due to the fact that many important forest ecosystems have no markets, and hence, no apparent economic value, justifying the use of forest land for other purposes. Maintaining forest ecosystems requires the explicit recognition of their benefits, proper valuation of their goods and services, as well as consideration of the costs of biodiversity degradation.
Mediterranean forests, including those in the MENA region, have specific features which make them a unique world natural heritage. Additionally, they provide a wide array of benefits that have a high potential to contribute to local economies. Higher pressure on natural resources, combined with a lack of information on many of their benefits has contributed in increasing forest degradation leading to a decrease of ecosystem service provision. “Their future is seriously endangered by rapid and drastic climate and land-use changes, which add to long-lasting problems related to forest fires, forest over-exploitation and the advance of desertification in the region” (EFIMED, webpage). Thus, there is a need to raise awareness on the value of Mediterranean forests, especially those of the MENA region, and a necessity to implement Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) mechanisms.
Sustainable management of Mediterranean forest ecosystems requires the explicit recognition of their benefits, proper valuation of their goods and services, as well as the consideration of the costs of forest degradation. A variety of economic tools, mechanisms and policies have been developed to support sound forest ecosystem use and management, by better integrating biodiversity and ecosystem values into individual, household, corporate and public sector decision-making.
The event will highlight the importance of Mediterranean forest ecosystems for livelihoods and economic development in the MENA region. It will discuss how to proper valuate forest goods and services as well as how to take the cost of forest degradation into account when making decisions. Additionally, it will discuss the challenges and opportunities for developing concrete initiatives and development policies in the region which will recognize forest ecosystems as a source of improved, more sustainable and equitable development and economic growth. This will include the presentation of a variety of economic mechanisms for supporting sound forest ecosystem use and management, including: environmental fiscal reform, access and benefit sharing, environmental funds, as well as the potential of various types of payments for ecosystem services for the MENA-region.
Because of all the links between forest, water, tourism, agriculture, climate, etc...which imply costs and benefits for the MENA society, the event will also be the place for an inter-sectoral dialogue.
Main Objectives of the conference:
- Introduce main concepts, elements and strategies related to the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity with a focus on forest ecosystems
- Increase the awareness on the importance of forest ecosystem services (FES) in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, in particular in regard to adaptation and mitigation to Climate Change
- Exchange experiences from existing initiatives on economic valuation and finance mechanisms for forest ecosystems and biodiversity protection in the MENA region, and
- Identify opportunities and concrete initiatives for integrating FES and biodiversity into development planning in MENA countries and for the design of sustainable finance mechanisms for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)
- Conference participants understand the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity-related concepts, elements and approaches and their relevance to forest ecosystems in the MENA region.
- Experiences, knowledge, methodologies and lessons learned on forest ecosystem valuation and sustainable finance mechanisms are shared between countries.
- Orientations and recommendations are designed for decision-makers in the MENA region in order to consider the value of FES and to take into account the design of adapted finance mechanisms
