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WASHINGTON DC, July
12, 2005 -- Launched today, the fourth Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)
report, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Opportunities and Challenges
for Business and Industry, synthesizes and integrates findings related
to both small and large businesses throughout the industrial and developing
world. The 34-page report connects the dots between environmental changes and
the private sector. The report highlights ways in which businesses depend on
services provided by ecosystems, how those ecosystem services are changing,
and the ramifications for business and industry.
“The Millennium
Assessment is a user’s guide to the planet for long-term thinkers,” said Jane Lubchenco, distinguished professor at Oregon
State University and co-chair of the Synthesis Team. “It is an invaluable
resource for business leaders who think long term and seek to understand the
threats and opportunities that will shape the economies of the future.”
Business and
industry are dependent upon services provided by ecosystems. Ecosystem
services include the provision of water and food, control of pests and
pathogens, renewal of fertile soil, control of floods, and more. The MA’s
findings that two-thirds of these services are being degraded presents real
challenges as well as opportunities for business.
"DuPont
believes that the comprehensive information contained in the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment provides important guidance for not only how we look at
our current business, but more importantly, how we seek new business
opportunities associated with our mission of sustainable growth," said
Linda Fisher, vice president and chief sustainability officer, DuPont.
“The solutions of
the past are often not robust enough under the conditions of global change
and need to be re-thought and re-implemented,” said Antony Burgmans,
chairman, Unilever N.V.
“All businesses will
be more competitive if they create their strategies with the current and
projected condition of ecosystems and ecosystem services in mind, and the MA
provides an excellent source of information on the trends and linkages
important to business,” said Steve Percy, retired CEO of BP America and co-chair of the Synthesis Team.
The key
findings in this report are:
1. Businesses
interact with ecosystems and ecosystem services in two important ways: they
use services and they contribute to ecosystem change. The MA discovered that
two thirds of the ecosystem services it examined are being degraded or used
unsustainably.
2. If current trends
continue, ecosystem services that are freely available today will cease to be
available or become more costly in the near future. The higher costs that
primary users may face will be passed downstream to secondary and tertiary
industries and will transform the operating environment of all businesses.
3. Loss of ecosystem
services will also affect the framework conditions within which businesses
operate, influencing customer preferences, stockholder expectations,
regulatory regimes, governmental policies, employee well-being, and the
availability of finance and insurance.
4. New business
opportunities will emerge as demand grows for more efficient or different
ways to use ecosystem services, mitigate impacts, or to track or trade
ecosystem services. Innovation and new technologies can play a key role in
the creation of these new business opportunities. Many leading companies are
already capitalizing on these needs and trends.
5. Business cannot
assume that there will be ample warning of a change in the availability of
key services. Ecosystems often change in abrupt, unpredictable ways. Most
ecosystems are being altered by human actions in unprecedented ways.
Consequently, it is difficult to predict the future state of an ecosystem or
the availability of an ecosystem service.
6. Even though
Earth’s natural capital is being eroded at a rapid rate, there is still time
to lessen the impact and preserve options by building on a growing number of
examples of good practice. The MA is designed to help decision-makers factor
information about changes in ecosystems into their strategic planning.
About the MA
reports
The MA reports will
include a total of seven synthesis and summary reports, and four technical
volumes. An additional set of about 16 sub-global assessments will be
released separately.
A series of seven
synthesis reports are designed to meet the needs of the international
conventions (Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and
the Convention on Migratory Species) and also designed to meet the needs of other stakeholders, including business,
civil society, and indigenous peoples.
On March 30, 2005,
the first synthesis report, the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report and a statement by the
MA board of directors entitled “Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and
Human Well-being” were launched in London, Washington DC, Beijing, Brasilia,
Cairo, Delhi, Lisbon, Rome, Stockholm and Tokyo.
About the MA
Involving some 1,360
of the world’s leading experts, the MA is a partnership among several
international organizations, including the Convention on Biological
Diversity, UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands, Convention on Migratory Species, five UN agencies (WHO, FAO, UNESCO,
UNEP, UNDP), the World Bank, and IUCN. It is supported by 22 of the world’s
leading scientific bodies, including The Royal Society of the U.K. and the
Third World Academy of Sciences.
The MA’s work is
overseen by a 45-member board of directors, co-chaired by Dr. Robert Watson,
chief scientist of The World Bank, and Dr. A. H. Zakri, director of the
United Nations University’s Institute of Advanced Studies. The multi-stakeholder board is composed
of the international organizations plus government officials, the private
sector, NGOs and indigenous peoples.
The Assessment
Panel, which oversees the technical work of the MA, includes 13 of the
world’s leading social and natural scientists. It is co-chaired by Ms. Angela
Cropper of the Cropper Foundation, and Prof. Harold Mooney of Stanford
University. Dr. Walter Reid is the director of the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment. Major funding was provided by the Global Environment Facility,
the United Nations Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and
The World Bank. The MA Secretariat is coordinated by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP).
See http://www.maweb.org/documents/PrivateSectorFinal.pdf
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