Functional Value of Biodiversity Project Overview September 2002

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Functional Value of Biodiversity
ProjectOverviewSeptember 2002
The Bank - Netherlands Partnership Program
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Outline

• Goals
• Results to date
• Phase II plans
• Current and expected impacts

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Motivation

• Can biodiversity conservation pay for itself by
  providing functional values? such as flood
  prevention, climate mitigation, forest products,
  etc.
• If so, can poor people benefit
• As providers of these functional values?
• As beneficiaries?
• Hydrological services appear to be potentially
  among the most saleable -- but most poorly
  understood -- forest values.

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Assertions

• Upland-dwelling poor people are the agents of
  deforestation that results in upland biodiversity
  loss and downslope flooding, sedimentation,
  drought, landslides.
• If downslope populations pay upland dwellers to
  alter behavior, the result can be higher economic
  output, poverty reduction, and biodiversity
  conservation.
• Is this assertion valid? Where? To what extent?

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General Objective

• Provide a sound basis for identifying and
  designing policies and projects that use forest
  conservation as a tool for maintaining the level,
  quality, and regularity of water flows.
• Conventional wisdom can result in both missed
  opportunities and inappropriate policies

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Goals for mainstreaming influence

• Bankwide priority-setting, agenda-setting
• Where are forest conservation/hydrology
  connections important?
• CAS, PRSP for selected countries What kinds of
  connections are important? For what subregions?
  Is there a poverty link?
• Environmental services project design

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At what scale does land use change affect
hydrological functions?
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Predicting local impacts of land use change based
on topography
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4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
log (Topographic index)
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1.5
1
0.5
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Global significance of forest-hydrology-biodiversi
ty interface

• Where is the interface between agriculture and
  forested slopes? the place where deforestation
  might affect water flows.
• Who lives there, worldwide? 20 million people?
  100 million? 200 million?
• Where is the interface crucial to biodiversity?

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165 million in developing countries at the
forested-slope interface
Restrictive definition
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165 million in developing countries at the
forested-slope interface
Restrictive definition
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Interface zones Overwhelmingly In areas of high
Biological Distinctiveness (based on WWF Global
200) Note data missing for China
Buffer zones falling within areas of High
Biological
Distinctiveness (km2)
Indonesia
Mexico
Colombia
Peru
India
Philippines
Malaysia
Myanmar
Brazil
Algeria
Morocco
Papua New Guinea
Thailand
Venezuela
Bolivia
Nepal
Honduras
Madagascar
Ecuador
Ethiopia
Area of high BDI
Zaire
Non-BDI
Guatemala
Tanzania
-
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
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Extent of basins includingtropical forests
Source Hydro1k USGS EDC 2001 Terrain type A.
Nelson World Bank (2001). Note The shading
differentiates between the upper and lower
catchments of the basins.
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Regional studies
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Central Americacombine data on forests and
slopes
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..with info on population
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poverty
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...and watersheds
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Guatemala critical watershedswhere the
interface gt 20 of area
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Guatemala poor people/km2by watershed
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Guatemala poverty rateby watershed
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Guatemala poverty ratewith critical watersheds
highlighted
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Nicaragua few critical watersheds (at this
scale and definition)
Lambert Equal Area Projection Centered at 85 W
and 13 N
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Panama few critical watersheds (at this scale
and definition)
Lambert Equal Area Projection Centered at 85 W
and 13 N
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Laos High-poverty provinces have the most
rugged terrain.
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Impacts to date inputs to

• WDR 2003
• Millennium Ecosystem assessment
• RUPES IFAD-funded project on environment
  services payments for upland poor of Asia
• World Bank Poverty-environment study for SE Asia
  and Laos PRSP process

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Expected impacts by project end

• Inputs into PRSPs and CASs
• Inputs into forest policy implementation
• Inputs into design of possible environmental
  services projects
• Analytic tools and policy conclusions resources
  for future policy and project design

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Phase II plans

• Detailed hydrological modeling at three scales
• Global
• Regional (Central America, SE Asia)
• Watershed (Thailand, Indonesia possible Central
  America)
• Providing info on hydrological hotspots and
  affected areas and populations
• Link to micro-level understanding of land use
  options