SCIENCE SOLUTIONS
research, tools, & metrics to ensure human well-being and sustain nature Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science + Oceans
2014
For 27 years, Conservation International has delivered innovative research and sciencebased solutions to transform the global conservation agenda. MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS INCLUDE Biodiversity hotspots mapping and research have guided an estimated US$1 billion in conservation funding through private and public entities, including the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Global Conservation Fund.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species was expanded in geographic and taxonomic scope through the first-ever global assessments of amphibians and mammals. This effort was a collaboration between Conservation International, the IUCN Species Survival Commission, the University of Rome, and Texas A&M.
The Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) led to the discovery of 1,300 species new to science and the improved protection of 16 million hectares (39.5 million acres) of land and water in little studied regions.
The Marine Managed Area Science study, funded by the Moore Foundation and involving 23 countries, 53 partners, and 73 marine protected areas (MPAs), demonstrated the links between MPAs and an increase in human well-being, including income, food stability, and quality of life.
The Ocean Health Index was launched with the publication of its methodology in Nature. The Index is the first global measure of ocean health; it secured early adoption by China, Colombia, and the World Economic Forum.
Vital Signs was launched in five African countries to guide sustainable agricultural development and ensure healthy and resilient livelihoods and ecosystems. With a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Conservation International has lead this effort in collaboration with the Earth Institute, Colombia University, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa.
Collectively, Conservation International scientists have published approximately 800 peer-reviewed papers1 in journals including Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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As of April 2014. An updated bibliography and copies of individual papers are available upon request.
What we have done in the past is essential for what we need to do in the future. Our relationships, our expertise, and our experiences form the foundation upon which we will solve today’s greatest challenges to human well-being.
Humanity can no longer afford to make isolated decisions about conservation and development. Business as usual has set us on a trajectory where the natural ecosystems humanity depends upon - our reservoirs of natural capital - are rapidly disappearing. Fish populations are overexploited or collapsed, making food supplies more uncertain. Entire species are being lost at the fastest rate since the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. An area of forest the size of Oregon2 is lost each year, fueling climate change. And half of humanity will face the risk of freshwater shortages in the next 25 years. While the world’s poor feel these impacts most immediately, they affect all of us profoundly. And as long as nature is seen as a barrier to economic growth, these trends will continue.
A 94,461 km2/year lost since 2000. Hansen et. al., 2014. High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest. loss. Science.
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Today we must deliver innovative and actionable science to disrupt and transform the global development agenda. Development decisions must be made in the context of a whole, interconnected, big picture. To make smart decisions, we need systems-level data, systems-level analyses, and systems-level solutions. Recent decades have seen technology and information revolutionize nearly every sector of human endeavor, yet such transformation has been shockingly absent for one of the world’s most pressing issues–environmental sustainability. Conservation International and partners are providing the right knowledge, to the right people, at the right scales, so they can achieve economic growth and improve lives while sustaining natural capital. Heads of state need nature to feed their people and grow their economies. CEOs want to secure a steady supply of high-quality raw materials. Farmers rely upon fertile soil, abundant pollinators, and freshwater to feed the world. And we all want to live in a world free from the conflicts and challenges of natural resource scarcity.
SCIENCE SOLUTIONS Our aspiration is that through scientific innovation humanity will have the unbiased and transparent science, tools, and data needed to value the critical links between nature and human well-being, to measure the boundaries of sustainability, and to design solutions that sustain nature and its benefits to people.
VALUE Maps and valuation tools that incorporate the location and value of a country’s reservoirs of natural capital into traditional economic accounts and indicators
MEASURE Near-real-time metrics and indicators on the status of human well-being, the health of ecosystems, and the benefits we derive from Earth’s life suppport systems ocean, tropical forest, freshwater, and agricultural systems - at global, national, and local scales
DESIGN Tools that reconcile trade-offs and synergies between development decisions so that nature and its key commodities - water, energy, fisheries, food crops, oil palm, sugar, soy, etc. - are sustained and managed in the most efficient way
VALUE Where are the places that provide the most important natural resources - our reservoirs of natural capital - and what are they worth? Businesses account for profits and losses. Governments calculate gross domestic product, or GDP. But today, we fail to account for the value of the natural world that makes our economies possible. If humanity is to thrive, we need to change this way of thinking. And Conservation International scientists and partners are demonstrating how we can do it.
VALUE MAPPING RESERVOIRS OF NATURAL CAPITAL Creating global resource mapping of the land and water most essential to human well-being
Which forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and other natural systems are most essential for food, water, and energy; who depends on them; and how much? We know from mapping biodiversity hotspots that the greatest return on investment is found by focusing on the right places. We will provide the same insights about our reservoirs of natural capital – the places that provide our food, water, and energy – in order to determine where actions to conserve nature will deliver the greatest impact. Conservation International will combine leading-edge technology and data with our extensive experience in stakeholder engagement to map priority areas that are globally consistent and locally supported.
In 2012 Conservation International partnered with the Government of Botswana, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Rob Walton to convene a summit during which 10 African nations agreed to identify their critical natural capital and incorporate the value of these resources into their decision-making and accounting.
Outputs
Impact
• A set of maps that indentify the places that underpin food, water, and energy production; • A country-level rapid assessment tool; and • A publicly available data set that is both globally consistent and locally supported.
When governments know where the reservoirs of natural capital are, what services and sectors they support, which communities they serve and the status of those lands and waters over time, they have the single most important data set for tracking sustainability.
ACCOUNTING FOR THE TRUE VALUE OF NATURE Integrating natural capital into economic accounts and indicators
How can governments and the private sector incorporate the quantitative value of the reservoirs of natural capital and ecosystem service benefits into their traditional accounting systems? If governments are able to base decisions on a complete picture that includes nature’s goods (e.g. water, timber, and fisheries) and services (e.g. flood regulation and erosion control), then leaders can make decisions based on a complete economic picture, which will compel us to produce without destroying. Conservation International is creating and applying an accounting framework for ecosystems, which includes measurement of the area they cover, characteristics of ecosystem conditions (e.g. vegetation, biodiversity, soil, and water), as well as current and expected physical flows of ecosystem services at the end of an accounting period.
In collaboration with the World Bank and the Peruvian government, we are incorporating nature’s value into Peru’s System of National Accounts.
Output
Impact
An economic account that can incorporate the value of nature into sustainable development plans, national systems of accounts, green growth strategies, and corporate profit and loss statements.
Creating consistent and reliable information on ecosystems and their benefits provides a better understanding of natural resource availability, use, depletion, and degradation to support the promotion of sustainable economic activities, the management of risk, and opportunities for increased efficiency.
MEASURE What is the status and trend of the ecosystems upon which we depend? How can we evaluate the impacts of our actions on nature and human well-being? Conservation International is creating a way to monitor the Earth’s life support system. When NASA sends astronauts into space, they have a life support system that includes a set of lifecritical measurements and real-time decision-making tools to manage an astronaut’s supply of clean air, fresh water and food. We have to start managing the planet as a system – whether we are talking about a household, a farm plot, a seascape, a country, or the globe.
MEASURE TRACKING LIFE-CRITICAL ECOSYSTEMS Monitoring the status and future trend of the ecosystems that support food, freshwater, and energy production When ecosystems are healthy, do people receive more benefits, and are they healthier too? How will we know if we are sustainably maximizing productivity of the oceans, tropical forests, freshwater systems, and agricultural lands that underpin our food, freshwater and energy supply without compromising other essential services from nature? Governments, businesses and farmers will be able to manage their impact on our oceans, forests, and agricultural systems if they have a reliable and actionable set of near-realtime tools that track trends and relationships between the management and health of production systems, the health of ecosystems, and human well-being. Conservation International is monitoring the systems that underpin food, freshwater, and energy production by developing transparent and immediately accessible monitoring systems through the targeted integration of big data (both existing and new), and remote sensing and mobile technologies.
In 2012 Conservation International received a groundbreaking grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch Vital Signs, to provide what Bill Gates refers to as the “vital statistics for development.”
Outputs
Impact
• • • •
These indices are credible, scalable, and consistent indicators of near realtime-ecosystem health and sustainable supplies of benefits to human wellbeing. These tracking systems will put development on a sustainable trajectory and minimize unintended consequences.
The Freshwater Health Index; The Tropical Forest Health Indices (TEAM); The Ocean Health Index; and Vital Signs.
MONITORING + EVALUATING IMPACT ON PEOPLE Visualizing the state of natural systems, the sustainability of production systems and government policies, and human well-being
How do we know we are making a positive impact on human well-being in the places where we work? Conservation International maintains that a healthy, sustainable society - one that enhances social capital and equity and improves human well-being - requires the integrity, resilience and productivity of natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. Conservation International and its partners are creating country dashboards that measure the complete state of natural capital within a country including the stock and flows of services from ecosystems (e.g. freshwater, carbon sequestration and pollination) and how much these benefits contribute to human well-being.
We are proposing that the government of Cambodia utilize a national dashboard to inform and monitor its Green Growth Policy and Strategy.
Output
Impact
Twenty-six country dashboards that visually represent the state of three interdependent and mutually reinforcing dimensions - natural capital, effective governance, and sustainable production and thier relationship to key indicators of human well-being.
Information is powerful, but it is how we use it that will define us. These dashboards provide consistent metrics that define success, track progress, guide decisions, and communicate results.
DESIGN What actions, practices, policies, and investments are needed to secure natural capital and ensure its benefits are distributed equitably? Nature is a public good. As a result, it is used and managed in conflicting ways without an understanding of trade-offs or repercussions. We must align actions across sectors and industries by designing and using integrated approaches. Conservation International and partners will advance data-driven models to guide land use, sustainable development, and conservation.
DESIGN INTEGRATED SEA + LANDSCAPE PLANNING A framework and metrics for supporting the development of green economies
Can development pathways integrate the needs of private and public stakeholders and sustain natural capital? People genuinely want sustainability. It isn’t natural or easy to achieve, and the pathway is unclear. We need science to lead the way. By providing tools to evaluate trade-offs and synergies among development and production decisions and assess the risks to natural capital and flows of ecosystem services, we can change the way the private and public sectors prioritize nature. Conservation International has expertise in mapping natural capital analyzing dependencies and impacts of multiple stakeholders on natural capital. We have strength in finance. And we can connect this information to supply chains, trade, policy, and communities. We are working with public and private partners to make these connections and provide models that light a new development pathway.
Conservation International, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Walton Family Foundation founded the public-private Sustainable Landscapes Partnership to convene government, business, and NGOs to develop low-emission business models at the landscape scale.
Output A framework and metrics that breaks down silos between sectors (finance, agriculture, energy, fisheries, water, biodiversity) and academic disciplines.
Impact Conservation International is redefining success in a way that conservation and development actors can agree on. We are breaking down the barriers between conservation and development so that we can manage the planet as a system.
AGRICULTURE BY DESIGN Creating a blueprint to feed 9.6 billion people and sustain nature
How and where can we increase food production in order to feed 9.6 billion people in 2050 and where are the places that we need to set aside for nature to ensure resilient healthy societies? The choices we make in the next few decades will determine whether humanity will thrive or perish. We need a new framework to integrate agriculture, aquaculture, and conservation. Despite recognition of the need for an integrated approach to feeding the planet and sustaining nature, both research and decision-making in agriculture and conservation largely proceed independently. The world’s leading experts will convene to develop a blueprint to feed 9.6 billion people and sustain nature. The blueprint will identify concrete and spatially explicit scenarios for sustainable agricultural intensification that will galvanize attention, catalyze and prioritize investments, and provide global benchmarks.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) have provided seed funding to convene a working group of international experts in support of Agriculture by Design.
Output A global map and integrated strategy that guides investments in food production and nature conservation.
Impact Simply knowing where biodiversity is and creating protected areas is no longer sufficient. A map that simultaneously shows where we can grow more food and which places must be set aside for nature, we will guide investments in the same way that Conservation International’s hotspots model has done for the last two decades.
A VIRTUAL CENTER OF SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE Conservation International can not do this alone. Our science team partners with a dynamic, diverse, and multi-scale network of international science leaders with experience and knowledge that crosses geographic and organizational boundaries to deliver innovative, yet practical, solutions. Governing Leadership – Scientists, economists, and engineers from Conservation International’s Board of Directors are deeply engaged in the Center and its work, including engineer Wes Bush, geographer Dr. Jared Diamond, political scientist Dirk Messner, and economist Pavan Sukhdev.
Moore Center for Science and Oceans – The core science team is an interdisciplinary group of about 45 scientists based in Washington D.C.
Regional Science Hubs – Regional centers in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, and Africa serve as nerve centers where we leverage and connect intellectual capital from experts and partners in each region.
Working Groups – Working groups are time-bound, small, and interdisciplinary teams of scientists and policymakers that collaborate to produce novel research on a specific problem.
Fellows – The Moore Center Fellows program leverages knowledge and expertise into new areas and strengthens our partnerships with academic and research institutions institutions.
OUR COMPREHENSIVE MULTI-SCALE APPROACH FOR IMPACT Conservation International’s science informs critical decisions across sectors and scales
Images from front to back cover, from left to right: © Benjamin Drummond, © Benjamin Drummond, © Trond Larsen, © Benjamin Drummond, © Benjamin Drummond, © Conservation International/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn, © Benjamin Drummond, © Laszlo Novak/Wild Wonders of Europe, © NTsOMZ, Russian Weather Satellite Elektro-L No.1, © Benjamin Drummond
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