ecosystem-based approach

The development objective of this activity is to raise awareness among staff in ministries of finance and other sector ministries of WB client countries and among international financial sector stakeholders of the importance and opportunity of investing in biodiversity and ecosystem services sustainable management.

CHALLENGE

Biodiversity and ecosystems are being lost at an alarming rate. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), recently warned that the health of ecosystems on which humans and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. Around 1 million animal and plant species (out of an estimated 8 million in total) are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. This is more than ever before in human history.

This will eventually translate in impacts to economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide. Current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress towards 80 percent (35 out of 44) of the assessed targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14 and 15). Loss of biodiversity has therefore shown to be not only an environmental issue, but also a developmental, economic, security, social and moral one.

The process for a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, under the auspices of the CBD, is now underway. In 2020 the CBD will adopt a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, post-2020 framework for short, as a stepping stone towards the 2050 Vision of "Living in harmony with nature".

A successful post-2020 global biodiversity framework will require doing things differently. Transformative action slowing down the rate of biodiversity loss will require a shift in production and consumption patterns. It will also call for adopting an ecosystem lens when planning infrastructure, and adaptation to climate change. While the public sector has historically played and continue to play a major role in conservation, the bulk of the actions going forward will need to come from the private sector. Private sector behavior will shift as a result of: (i) changing market preferences, and (ii) public policies that bring materiality to biodiversity considerations in private sector decisions. The latter will include a mix of: (a) regulatory instruments; (b) pricing instruments and market-based instruments; (c) information instruments. In addition, it will require public finance and public investments to be designed in a way compatible with Nature. These in turn will require the engagement of high-level decision makers including in Ministries of Finance, Planning and Central Banks.

This activity feeds into the broader objective of the Knowledge Product “The Road to Kunming” (P170709) which aims to (i) inform the World Bank’s efforts to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services in its analytic and operation work; (ii) support CBD parties in the preparation of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework; and (iii) harness the interest of decision makers, including Ministries of Finance, of CBD parties, G7 countries and G20 countries.

APPROACH

Task 1. Event on “Invet in Nature” at IMF-WBG Annual Meetings 2019.

The World Bank and IMF Annual and Spring Meetings will serve as a key moment to engage Ministers of Finance in discussing the relevance of biodiversity and ecosystem services to development. Under the KP, an event titled “Invest in Nature: Uncovering the Hidden Value of Biodiversity” will be organized as part of the October 2019 IMF-WBG Annual Meetings. The event will highlight the intrinsic value of nature to economies, people and the planet and underscore the urgency for action to preserve this natural capital via a compelling presentation from the scientist that has led the latest IPBES global assessment. It will also provide an opportunity for innovators to showcase “Green and Blue” solutions to address the biodiversity crisis and create momentum ahead of the CBD COP 15 in China. A high-level panel will round out the event.

Task 2. China-WB workshop on “Maximizing private finance for biodiversity and ecosystem services”.

With the goal of informing the post-2020 process, including the thematic consultation on resource mobilization, with particular emphasis on the role of the private sector and the role of financial sector policies, a workshop will be co-organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China and the World Bank on this topic. The workshop will be in the form of an invitation only event and it will bring together a selected number of CBD parties, top thinkers and key stakeholders from China and the international community including from the public sector, private sector, financial sector, think tanks, NGOs and academia to assess lessons learned, analyze bottlenecks and identify opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of scarce public sector finance to leverage better biodiversity outcomes.

The workshop will aim at identifying what policy reforms are most needed to maximize private conservation finance. Two key set of policies exist: (i) real sector policies (e.g. fiscal, command and control, market creation, governance, trade); (ii) financial sector policies. The workshop will hinge particularly on financial sector policies. Financial regulators, the banking sector and investors around the world are increasingly developing instruments to take into account the risks associated with poor environmental performance. Going forward the tools need to be broadened to take into consideration the positive impacts investments in nature could have, shifting the focus away from traditional “green washing” and towards “real impacts”. In this context, key enabling factors are the capacity to measure impact through private sector level accounting (e.g. Natural Capital Protocol) and national level natural capital accounting.

RESULTS

Event on “Invest in Nature” at IMF-WBG Annual Meetings 2019. The event was attended in person by ~200 people in the room, including ministers, international organizations and Bank leadership, and online by 575 people (of which 41.3 percent women). Most people who engaged online were 25-34 years old. Almost 18,000 people visited the event page. The event was the fourth most livestreamed event at the 2019 Annual Meetings (out of 19 livestreamed events). The event hashtag #InvestInNature reached more than 5 million Twitter users, generating 23.5 million impressions worldwide, and trending in DC area during the live event. On live engagement/comments, the event was rated 2nd out of 19 live-streamed events. Online, the event attracted strong engagement from key influencers, including Alok Sharna, UK, Zac Goldsmith, UK, Inger Andersen, UN Environment, IPBES, CBD.

China-WB workshop on “Maximizing private finance for biodiversity and ecosystem services”. Over the course of the two days, the workshop was attended by 67 (of which 26 women) representatives of the Chinese Government, notably from the Ministry of Finance and the MEE, and several other CBD Parties and the Secretariat, the European Commission, the financial sector, multilateral and bilateral development agencies, NGOs and academic experts. The workshop was attended at high level with two Director Generals (from Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Ecology and Environment). On the World Bank side, the event was attended by the ENB Global Director and by the EAP Regional Director.

It had been envisaged that the activities would contribute to inform the preparation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and in particular the policy mainstreaming and the resource mobilization dimensions of the framework. Through the dialogue in these activities the team was able to inform the preparation of the zero draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The participation of the UK at the Annual Meetings event was instrumental in engaging with that country on follow up action such as a possible collaboration with DEFRA on ecosystem policy modelling. On the finance side, the activity allowed to inform the work of the expert panel on resource mobilization for the post-2020 framework.

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Last Updated : 06-09-2020

Keywords

Sri Lanka, land slides, disaster risk management, ecosystem-based approach

Forest-based Landslide Risk Management in Sri Lanka

CHALLENGE

Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to natural hazards, including floods, droughts, and landslides, which are exacerbated by population growth, urbanization, uncontrolled land-use change, and deforestation. The World Bank is implementing several programs to improve the government’s resilience to such natural risks. Notably, the Climate Resilience Improvement Project (CRIP) aims to reduce the immediate physical risks, such as by stabilizing hillsides with concrete, nets and drainage pipes, and to improve the understanding of disaster risks so that future investments are effectively targeted. Under CRIP-II (in preparation), basin investment plans will be developed and published on an online platform and co-financed by the Bank and other donors. There is also an ongoing technical assistance (TA) program that is supporting the National Building Research Organization (NBRO), the main organization responsible for landslide risk management in the country, on assessing landslide hazard and exposure and analyzing mitigation measures.

Even though it is recognized that deforestation and uncontrolled land-use change contribute significantly to landslide risks, forest-based solutions are generally not applied in Sri Lanka because of the government’s limited experience and expertise in such solutions. Therefore, to ensure the best results of the programs being invested in Sri Lanka, PROFOR’s activity seeks to build the NBRO’s capacity to understand and apply forest-based solutions.

APPROACH

This activity will support the Government of Sri Lanka in piloting and potentially scaling-up the use of forest-based solutions for landslide risk management, through the following tasks and outputs:

Development of a capacity building program for NBRO to understand and apply forest-based solutions to mitigate landslide risk in selected regions of Sri Lanka. This will include a training (and the production of relevant training materials); a study tour; and a South-South knowledge exchange.
Assessment of legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks for the application of forest-based solutions for landslide risk management in Sri Lanka. This assessment will result in the identification of opportunities and possible bottlenecks.
Development of a comprehensive forest-based landslide risk management plan for 1-2 selected areas.
Preparation of a guidance document on the potential use of forest-based solutions for landslide risk management in developing countries.

The above activities will leverage the lessons learned from and connect to the ongoing World Bank projects: CRIP, CRIPII (in preparation), and the TA on landslide risk management in order to contribute to the overall disaster risk management investment planning in Sri Lanka. The activity will also be linked to the PROFOR-funded Global Knowledge Management Program on Forest and Disaster Risk Management.

RESULTS

In selecting appropriate landslide stabilization measures, three dominant factors need to be considered: cost, constructability, and safety. As landslides are very localized phenomena, site specific mitigation measures are needed for slope stabilization such as geotechnical structural measures that include soil reinforcement, soil nailing, rock bolting, surface protection, slope modification, retaining walls, gabion walls, breast walls, soil removal works, steel pile works, etc. The structural measures require sophisticated designs and the costs are very high. The NBSs are an attractive option as they are low cost and can be applied to large areas.

Almost all landslide mitigation measures in Sri Lanka have used engineered solutions, and NSBs generally have not been used in Sri Lanka until recently. The main reason for this is that the counterpart has limited experience and expertise in such solutions and therefore has relied on engineered solutions. Therefore, the NBRO capacity building program provided them with the knowledge about what plants are suitable for NBSs and how these can be applied together with engineering solutions or as stand-alone practices. NBRO now have used the hybrid solutions to improve the performance of the engineering solution in the road failures along the Kandy Mahiyangana road. Applying NBSs on top of an engineering solution will stabilize the solution more and will provide additional safety and sustainability of the structure. The NBRO engineers now work with landscape architects, botanists and other non-engineering experts to design the hybrid and integrated solutions.

The NSBs are more suitable as a mitigation measures for shallow landslides and the hybrid solutions, where the NBSs are used in combination with structural and technological measures, are more appropriate to mitigate the deep-seated landslides. The hybrid solutions will bring down the cost significantly when compared to the structural measures that are used alone. It is useful to recognize Nature Based interventions as a cost-effective option and get more confidence in application of the same as a standalone practice or as a practice with other engineering measures. It is essential to establish a separate unit at NBRO for undertaking research and demonstration activities on nature-based solutions that will enhance the knowledge base significantly.

The manual on “Nature Based Solutions for mitigation of Landslide risk” is serving as a guidance manual on application of nature based as well as hybrid solutions. to the manual is used by practitioners and engineers in NBRO, relevant local authorities, other practitioners to design, implement and monitor nature-based solutions for landslide and erosion risk reduction under a range of physical conditions. The nature based and especially hybrid solutions presented in this guide are chosen specifically to Sri Lanka’s need for landslide risk reduction. In addition, it is expected that the vegetation cover may make the appearance of slopes as natural as possible, and help in creating not only safer but also more visually acceptable and ecologically sustainable slopes.

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Last Updated : 06-09-2020

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