To implement integrated ecosystem management, funding streams have to be aligned with efforts to reconcile different demands on ecosystems. Public sector economic decision-making can account for 15-60 per cent of a country’s GDP and provides an opportunity to address the negative drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Such planning and decision-making also presents opportunities to incentivize holistic and collaborative approaches to ecosystem management. To deliver the Sustainable Development Goals we need an integrated approach that incorporates economic, social and environmental dimensions into national planning and budgeting processes.
How will UN Environment Programme (UNEP) support mobilization of resources for healthy and productive ecosystems?
UNEP will support countries by:
- Assessing data needs for building the causal linkages between economic decision-making and ecosystem impacts;
- Designing of algorithms and modelling of causal linkages between economic decision-making and ecosystem change, focusing on thresholds and minimum requirements for sustaining critical natural capital;
- Raising awareness on the role of public sector economic decision-making in meeting ecosystem-related goals and targets (best practice case studies, targeted awareness raising);
- Providing technical assistance to build tools and test spatially disaggregated national ecosystems accounts, to better inform economic decision-making. For example: national and sectoral policy and planning; budget tagging and coding; updated assessment methodologies for budget allocation and monitoring; and budget guidance notes, expenditure reviews, auditing, institutional frameworks, public budget sector working groups.
