Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Seminar on
Leveraging Sustainable Development for
Community and Economic Development
Weitz Center, session Monday 31.1
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Time layout
Topic
Introduction – getting to know each other
Presentation – sustainable development and
economic development
Group work – Leveraging sustainability for
Economic Development
Group Presentations
Presentation – sustainable development and
economic development
Brake
Presentation + group discussion - Community
development (by Ofir Avigad)
Conclusions Presentation
Group discussion
Total
Time (minites)
15
15
25
25
15
15
30
10
15
2h.45min
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Session Aim
Inspire promotion of environmental and economic
change
Build awareness to the opportunities the environment
represents for economic development
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Increasing Problems
• Mass species extinction rates, currently approaching 1000 times the normal
rate
• Human-induced climate change
• Extreme inequality of human societies:
– “Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries
account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures—the poorest
20% a minuscule 1.3%”
– Approximately 1 billion people suffer from hunger and. Yet, some 1.2
billion suffer from obesity
– One billion people live on less than a dollar a day. Yet, just a few
hundred millionaires own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5
billion people.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Times of Change
• The number of nonprofit organizations dedicated to conservation and the
environment rose faster than the number of nonprofit groups overall since
1995, growing by 4.6 percent per year
• Green politics and environmental policy are major issues on the political
agendas of both developed and developing countries
• Environmental claims have now:
– Extensive media coverage
– Increased financial resources
– A global network of activists
• The environmental movement can also claim important successes in the
legislative and regulatory arenas
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Solution: Sustainable Development
Definition OECD: Sustainable development refers to
development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs It assumes the
conservation of natural assets for future growth and
development.
Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs
and aspirations of the present without compromising
the ability to meet those of the future. Far from
requiring the cessation of economic growth, it
recognizes that the problems of poverty and
underdevelopment cannot be solved unless we have a
new era of growth in which developing countries play
a large role and reap large benefits.
(Our Common Future, Chapter 1: A Threatened Future, section 49)
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Sustainable Development
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
The quest for Sustainable Development
•
•
•
The dominant discourse of ecological concern
Growing recognition that it is a necessity
The advantage of the first to implement
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Economy and sustainable development
• Lack of accounted Externalities:
– The benefits of natural or social capital depletion can usually be
privatized, however the costs are often externalized
– The environmental costs of economic activities are often
scattered and displaced from where the economic activity is
been taking place
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Economy and sustainable development
• Displacement in time:
– the depletion of natural and social capital may have non-linear
consequences. Consumption of natural and social capital may have no
observable impact until a certain threshold is reached. A lake can, for
example, absorb nutrients for a long time while actually increasing its
productivity. However, once a certain level of algae is reached lack of
oxygen causes the lake’s ecosystem to break down suddenly.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Economy and sustainable development
• The real value of the environment:
– Natural capital is often undervalued by society. Markets do not
incorporate the real cost of the damage to eco-system services
such as desertification prevention, or the climate stabilizing
function of the Amazonian forest
– Multi-functionality of many natural resources. Forests, for
example, not only provide the raw material for paper (which can
be substituted quite easily), but they also maintain biodiversity,
regulate water flow, and absorb CO2
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Major methods for valuing ecosystem
services in monetary terms
• Avoided cost - Services allow society to avoid costs that would have
been incurred in the absence of those services (e.g. waste treatment
by wetland habitats avoids health costs)
• Replacement cost - Services allow society to replace costs that
otherwise need to be mitigated by man-made systems (e.g.
restoration of a watershed vs. construction of a water treatment
plant)
• Factor income - Services provide for the enhancement of incomes
(e.g. improved water quality increases the commercial take of a
fishery and improves the income of fishers)
• Social value – Ecosystem services have social value (e.g. value of
ecotourism experience, or organic agriculture)
• Hedonic pricing - Service demand may be reflected in the prices
people will pay for associated goods (e.g. real-estate pricing in the
vicinity to nature)
Adapted from: Farber, S.C., R. Costanza and M.A. Wilson. 2002. Economic and ecological concepts for
valuing ecosystem services. Ecological Economics 41: 375-392
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
The opportunity
• Reflecting the real value of the environment in commodity and
service pricing
• Innovative economics – traditionally, ecosystem services are not
included in business plans. Including of ecosystem services value
creates stronger business proposals
• The multi-factuality of ecosystem services can leverage new
programs, public support, and funding
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director:
"In the past only traditional sectors such as manufacturing, mining, retailing, construction and energy generation
were uppermost in the minds of economic planners and ministers of finance, development and trade. TEEB has
brought to the world’s attention that nature's goods and services are equal, if not far more central, to the wealth of
nations including the poor--a fact that will be increasingly the case on a planet of finite resources with a population
set to rise to nine billion people by 2050,”
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Asia
Group work
Northern Europe
Cambodia
Ms. Thak Socheat
Myanmar
Ms. Aung Sandar
Myanmar
Ms. Naing Cho Myint
Belarus
Ms. Makarevich Iryna
Philippines
Ms. Corneby Norlie
Belarus
Ms. Makarevich Tatsiana
Philippines
Mr. Pineda Mark
Russia
Ms. Minnigaleeva Gulnara
Thailand
Ms. Kiattikul Chaemchan
Russia
Ms. Zhuykova Yulia
Ukraine
Ms. Mamutova Vasfiye
Georgia
Ms. Khubulava Tatia
South America
Brasil
Ms. Fortoura Rosane
Brasil
Ms. Lisboa Daise de Magalhaes
Colombia
Ms. Martinez Hernandez Yuli
Beatriz
Colombia
Ms. Moyano Ortiz Sonia Judith
Ecuador
Mr. Alban Flores Klever Santiago
East Africa
Tanzania
Mr. Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah
Tanzania
Ms. Mbata Santina Eliot
Kenya
Ms. Oduor Anne Achieng Aseey
Kenya
Mr. Korir Simon Kipnengo
Kenya
Mr. Langat David
Kenya
Mr. Rotich David
West Africa
Nigeria
Ms. Abayomi-Oluwole Christiana
Aderonke
Nigeria
Ms. Uruetse Emamakpo Catherine
Middle East
Senegal
Ms. Diasse Fatou Gueye
Jordan
Cameroon
Ms. Majack Kamtchouang Carine
Cameroon
Mr. Zingui Messomo
Mr. Al-Shiyyab Adham Mahmoud Ali
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Group work
Task
Present an idea for a local economic development program that
incorporates the ecosystem services perspective. The program may
be a new initiative or fresh dimension/component of an existing
program.
Time
25 minutes
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Conclusions
1.
Multidimensional Benefits:
–
Programmers for sustainable development may have several
positive impacts – generating income and enhancing
ecosystem services. Understanding of this multidimensionality
may be used as a leverage for economic development. For
example: Forestation and tree planting can prevent soil
erosion, provide a resource – timber, and marketed as carbon
credits.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
1. Multidimensional Benefits - Fundraising
• Mission investment – traditional investment that seek to create profit. These
investments are focused on a defined purpose.
• Grantmaking – receiving funds from a philanthropic source. No monetary
returns are expected
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
2.
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Inter-country alliance
–
Maintaining ecosystem services may be a good common
ground to create alliances and cross border cooperation, e.g.
Africa’s Great Green Wall
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
2. Inter- country alliance - The Great Green Wall
The Great Green Wall (GGW) is a strip
of multi-specie Vegetation linking
Dakar to Djibouti over a
length of 7000 km with a width of 15
km, linear and continuous as much as
possible.
Desertification yearly damages:
• 20 million Tons of grins
• 42 $ billion
• about 2 billion people effected
The great green wall – from Djibouti to Senegal
passing through Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Chad,
Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, and
Mauritania.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
3. Utilizing the social value of ecosystem services
– The price tag of commodities and services are reflected by their
economic value and their social value. For example: Organic
agriculture, fair trade, locally made, ecotourism, etc’. The
understanding of this link can be used as a factor for greater
economic returns.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
4. The true value of resources
– Incorporating the price of ecosystem services may change
commodity pricing. It may raise prices of basic commodities as
sugar, coffee, cacao, etc’.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Second session
Ofir Avigad
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Third session
some examples from Israel
Economic progress is of little value unless it
has a positive impact on people’s lives and is
not based on long term damage to the
environment
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Local food – Kfar Manda
Buying local food is a growing trend.
This initiative offers a weekly service of fruit and vegetable home delivery
to residence of the city of Karmiel. The produce in grown by local farmers
in traditional methods. A strong link is been established between the
consumer and the producer
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Community Composting
A locally initiated project collecting organic wastes from the
residence of Kerem Maharal (535 people). The organic waste is
about 35% of total home waste production. The local council
participates in funding the project. This saves yearly 100 ton of
landfill waste. The compost generated is used in local agriculture.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
The Good Energy Initiative
An NGO committed to reduce Greenhouse Gas source production,
and to support Israeli energy independence by means of energy
efficiency and alternative technologies. The GEI is a social venture
investing revenues in non-profit social/environmental activities, and
it is the only active voluntary carbon offsetting body in Israel.
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant
Useful links
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http://www.teebweb.org/Home/tabid/924/Default.aspx
http://bankofnaturalcapital.com/
http://triplecrisis.com/
http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/
http://www.uvm.edu/giee/publications/Nature_Paper.pdf
• From Israel
• http://www.goodenergy.org.il/language/en-US/En/Home.aspx
• Keeping in contact
• http://sustainabilityconsulting.co.il/
• http://groups.google.com/group/sustainable-developmentnetwork
Jeremy Ben-Shalom
Thank you
Environment and Sustainable Development Consultant