WRI Stories

Was It "The Green Olympics?"

Deborah Seligsohn — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 11:05:19 -0400

Are the Beijing Olympics a signal that China can pursue both economic growth and a cleaner environment?

When we look back at the Beijing Olympics, great sporting moments will stay with us. Watching Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt break world records made all the air quality concerns leading into the Olympics seem like distant memories. But before the world bids “zaijian” to Beijing, it’s worth reflecting on what this Olympics meant and could mean for China. This, after all, was designed to be China’s great moment on the world stage, and the Beijing Olympic Committee set the lofty goals of delivering Green Olympics, High-Tech Olympics, and People’s Olympics. So how did Beijing score in those events?

Was this a Green Olympics? Fortunately, the oppressive weather and smog that marked the run-up to the games dissipated quickly, and Beijing enjoyed the best August air quality in many years. In the end, there were no reports of withdrawals from endurance events. In fact, never before has a city come so far environmentally in the lead up to an Olympic games. Beijing raised emissions standards, closed factories, placed emissions controls on all power plants, and removed half of its private cars from the road. Probably most important and little noted, the city increased wastewater treatment from 22% in 1998 to over 90% this year.

Hopping on the subway from the Bird’s Nest, it is clear mass transit has been a triumph. Let’s call it the Mass Transit Olympics. Beijing’s three new subway lines have worked incredibly well. The city planned intelligently for the huge crowds, with free entry and good crowd control. Visitors filtered far more easily through the impressive red gate station entrance at the Olympic Green than at baseball games I have been to in the U.S.

What about a High-Tech Olympics? Without question the main venues—especially the “bird’s nest” and the “water cube”—are extraordinary. Technology enhanced the ambiance, had some environmental benefits and produced optimal conditions for record-breaking swims and runs. But these Games are indeed of Beijing, the capital of a developing country, albeit the world’s fastest growing one. What we saw both at the Games and all over the city was the marrying of high tech with low. When the softball field got wet, volunteers dried it off with sponges and buckets. Rain on the javelin runway—wipe it with a towel. Unclear entrances and exits—man them with volunteers. The logistics that many visitors praised were actually a successful marriage of good systems with lots of people support (which of course, China has plenty of).

What about a People’s Olympics? The Chinese people embraced the games, and the lines for the last tranche of tickets continued for days. The entire women’s marathon route was lined by a cross-section of Beijing’s populace. But unique to the Beijing games was the number and enthusiasm of the young volunteers working every venue and information booth from the airport to downtown to the university district. This is one of the quiet victories of this Olympics. Volunteerism used to be suspect in China, a result of many people being “volunteered” for major construction projects in the 1950s and 1960s. But in the last few years, genuine volunteerism has started to flower, often inspired by crises like the Asian tsunami and the Sichuan earthquake. Even so, this Olympics is unprecedented in both the number of volunteers and the time they have dedicated.

Beijing promised an Olympics that would make it proud, and judging from the smiling faces I saw at every event, I think they succeeded. The biggest criticism seems to have been a shortage of souvenirs and concessions (although it’s worth noting that making a profit was not among the city’s goals). It is unrealistic to think that Olympian glamour could solve every social and political challenge that a country like China faces. But this Olympics has accelerated China’s environmental efforts, and encouraged a spirit of civic pride and volunteerism in a way that no other public undertaking could hope to achieve.

So will Beijing’s Olympian efforts have a lasting effect? We are still in the middle of China’s efforts to make drastic environmental improvements, and many daunting challenges have yet to be addressed. But the Games already have Beijing officials talking about about next steps, including monitoring and reporting a more complete set of air pollutants—crucially small particulates (PM 2.5) and ozone. Hopefully, we will see more comprehensive air and water quality standards in China’s next 5-year plan, to begin in 2011. And the best part of Beijing’s “Green Olympics” goal is that it wasn’t just about Beijing. China’s environmental reforms are all national. New mass transit systems are under development in over a dozen cities. Energy efficient building standards are in force nationwide. Power plants now have both emissions control equipment and the monitoring equipment to ensure proper use.

China’s ambitions to become a fully developed country encompass everything from setting a new standard as a world-class Olympic host, to developing clean, attractive cities and a promoting a healthy populace. As a country with income levels around 1/10th of those in the U.S., China clearly wants and will continue to grow. But as the Olympics have shown, it is indeed possible for China to aggressively pursue economic growth and a cleaner environment at the same time.

Developing Corporate Capacity to Respond to Ecosystem Degradation

John Finisdore — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:27:03 -0400

Many companies lack the capacity to deal with natural resource constraints, according to a survey by the consultancy McKinsey & Company. This September, WRI will help fill that gap through its first-ever training sessions on the ecosystem services review.

Environmental trends will be critically important to businesses over the next five years, according to McKinsey’s global survey of corporate executives. Among fourteen global trends, “increasing constraints on supply or usage of natural resources” jumped from seventh to second place in the annual survey. Thirty-four percent of respondents now believe natural resource constraints are likely to have “a negative impact on profits over the next five years.”

Despite the recognized salience of environmental issues on the bottom line, the survey found that barely one-third of companies have taken actions to address this and other critical trends. Moreover, only seventeen percent report significant benefits from the actions they take. McKinsey believes that companies are not making the right strategic moves, as respondents noted “a lack of skills and resources.”

The World Resources Institute has shown that this can be improved with more appropriate tools and corporate systems.

Until recently, companies had no systematic way of understanding the threats and opportunities stemming from one part of this growing natural resource supply constraint – the degradation of ecosystems and the benefits or “ecosystem services” they provide. Ecosystems—like forests—supply wood, purify water, protect against natural disasters, and provide other ecosystem services. Over sixty percent of them are degraded. Left unchecked, this degradation threatens corporate performance.

But many companies are not fully aware of the extent and ramifications of their dependence and impact on ecosystems. Environmental management systems and due diligence tools are often not fully attuned to the risks and opportunities arising from the degradation and use of ecosystem services. For instance, many tools are more suited to handle “traditional” issues of pollution and natural resource consumption. Most focus on environmental impacts, not dependence. Furthermore, they typically focus on risks, not business opportunities.

The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) is designed to address these gaps. It consists of a structured methodology that helps managers proactively develop strategies to manage business risks and opportunities arising from their company’s dependence and impact on ecosystems. It is a tool for strategy development, not just for environmental assessment. Businesses can either conduct an Ecosystem Services Review as a stand-alone process or integrate it into their existing environmental management systems. In both cases, the methodology can complement and augment the environmental due diligence tools companies already use.

Since the ESR’s launch in March, over thirty companies have used the methodology to do some of the following: identify new risks that their existing processes missed, develop strategies related to their dependence on natural resources and reduce their supply chain risk. A few examples:

Mondi: Europe’s largest producer of office paper used the ESR to develop several new strategies for dealing with the ecosystem service challenges to their FSC certified South African plantations. Mondi is improving water efficiency by more aggressively clearing invasive species. They are also developing efforts to better match tree species to site conditions, utilize more water-efficient tree strains as they become available, and conduct prescribed burns more often.
Syngenta: The global agribusiness company chose one of its growing customer segments, farmers in southern India, as the scope for its road test. The company identified a number of possible opportunities to help farmers either reduce their impacts on ecosystems or adapt to ecosystem change. Examples include: increasing pollinators in the region by selling natural seed mixes, selling bees, or offering assistance through extension services; using the company’s in-depth knowledge of plants to offer farmers an improved integrated pest management system; and engaging the company’s foundation and external research institutions to fill gaps in information about the status and trends of ecosystem services critical to agriculture.

Scores of other companies are gearing-up to conduct ESRs, integrate the ESR into their product development and environmental management systems, and use the ESR as a corporate-level benchmarking tool.

In response, a number of consulting firms are weaving the ESR into their products and services. Det Norske Veritas (DNV), for one, has immersed itself in the methodology and is working with clients to find effective ways to deliver the Review. ERM Group is preparing to launch a multiyear effort to integrate the ESR into its environmental impact assessments. In addition, numerous small consulting companies are conducting ESRs with their clients.

In order to speed the adoption of these ecosystem service-based strategies and spur innovation, WRI is encouraging more environmental consultants, auditors, assessors and certifiers to respond to this rising demand.

As part of this push, WRI is holding a consultant training event on September 24th and 25th in Washington, DC with select video conferencing off-site. The training will provide attendees with a deep understanding of the methodology, how it is being applied, and where innovation is currently occurring.

For more information, please call Suzanne Ozment (+1 202-729-7835, sozment@wri.org) or learn more at the Ecosystems Services Review site.

Building Resilience to Climate Change in Niger

Lauren Withey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:57:54 -0400

Climate change poses a major threat to the world’s 2 billion rural poor, but sustainable natural resource management can help developing countries like Niger adapt to the threat. (See World Resources Report 2008.)

Droughts and desertification associated with climate change will hit Africa hard. Already, more than 300 million (out of 930 million) Africans live in drought or drought-prone areas. And a 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report found that by 2020, climate change will expose an additional 75-250 million on the continent to water shortages.

In Niger, the Sahara desert has been moving further south into the country’s semi-arid Sahel region, overtaking farm plots and displacing Niger’s rapidly growing population. Rakia, a 35-year-old mother from the region, said of the worsening conditions: “In the past there was water in the watering hole for six or seven months, but now the watering hole is not enough.” (Watch a video of Rakia’s story here.)

Many of Niger’s citizens–60 percent of whom live on less on less than $1 a day—will face similar challenges as they struggle to grow crops in the Sahel’s sandy, nutrient poor soils, made less productive by the increasingly scarce and erratic rainfall predicted under changing climate.

Niger: An Unlikely Success Story

Trends in Vegetation Index in Niger: 1982-1999But in the face of overwhelming adversity, Niger has experienced an unprecedented, farmer-led “re-greening” movement that has reversed desertification and brought increased crop production, income, food security, and self-reliance to impoverished rural producers. (Read the full World Resources Report 2008 case study on Niger (PDF, 2.3 Mb).)

Along with other soil and water conservation programs, the key vehicle for this remarkable transformation was farmer-managed natural regeneration, or FMNR–the adoption of simple, low-cost techniques for managing the natural regeneration of trees and shrubs.

Over many decades, Nigerien farmers had cleared their fields of vegetation, leaving what turned out to be an “underground forest” of living stumps and roots. FMNR is based on the regeneration of native trees and shrubs from these mature root systems, which promote surprisingly fast re-growth and allow trees to be trimmed and pruned to maximize harvests. The farmers use the tree branches for firewood, while the fruits and bark go toward food and medicine. The trees’ roots minimize soil erosion while their leaves fertilize garden plots. A number of international donors and NGOs began testing the concept with Niger’s farmers in the 1980s—the soil productivity in the original plots visibly improved, and the farmers had a consistent source of firewood for cooking.

Following FMNR’s visible initial successes, farmers throughout Niger’s Sahel region began to experiment with tree regeneration. As thousands of households made impressive gains in crop yields and incomes in a short time period, the practice spread from farmer to farmer and from district to district, driven by self-interest. Because regenerating trees requires no financial outlays for materials or equipment by poor, risk-averse farmers, FMNR was well suited to such spontaneous self-scaling. (Read more about the importance of scaling.)

The simple and cost-effective practice of farmer-managed natural regeneration has provided an impressively wide range of benefits for Niger’s impoverished rural communities. By 2007, between a quarter and half of all the country’s farmers were involved, and estimates suggest that at least 4.5 million people were reaping the benefits. The results over the last 20 years speak for themselves:

About 200 million trees have been protected and managed by farmers.
At least 250,000 hectares of degraded land have been restored to crop production.
Vast expanses of savanna devoid of vegetation in the early 1980s are now densely studded by trees, shrubs, and crops.

With trees now carpeting land that was barren within the last ten to twenty years, Niger’s farmers have produced one of the most visibly successful examples of natural resource management in the world today.

A Cushion Against Climate Change

FMNR and other land management techniques have made many of Niger’s farmers far more resilient in the face of population growth, desertification, and climate change.

This progress can extend beyond Niger. For other Sahelian countries facing the same future, FMNR offers a cheap and effective model to improve farm productivity and reclaim land from the dunes.

Development experts and NGOs are hopeful that region-wide expansion of FMNR and other proven land management programs will help Sub-Saharan Africa adapt to the rainfall shifts anticipated under climate change.

A Better Way for the U.S. Government to Clean Our Water

Mindy Selman — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:09:45 -0400

When it comes to allocating money for conservation, reverse auctions can help governments get the biggest bang for their buck.

Reverse auctions are auctions with many sellers but only one buyer. They are often used in the private-sector to procure services inexpensively, but reverse auctions can also be used to cost-effectively allocate public conservation dollars.

In 2005, WRI, together with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and other partners, conducted a pilot reverse auction in the agriculture-heavy Conestoga watershed of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The goal was to pay farmers to implement best-management practices that reduce phosphorus, a leading cause of water pollution in the watershed.

The Conestoga WatershedWe held two reverse auctions that resulted in allocations of $486,000 to farmers who showed that they reduced the most phosphorus for the least amount of money. Farmers first selected the best management practices that they wished to propose. Next, phosphorus reductions from each proposal were estimated using WRI’s NutrientNet software. Farmers then placed competitive bids indicating the payment they would accept to implement each proposal. Bids with the lowest prices per pound of phosphorus reduced were funded; those with the highest prices were not.

As a result, an estimated 92,000 pounds of phosphorus are expected to be reduced over the lifespan of the best-management practices implemented through the reverse auction. Results showed that the allocation method resulted in seven times more phosphorus reductions per program dollar spent than traditional government-subsidy allocation methods within the watershed.

The federal government even has an in-house example of this method of award allocation. In July 2006, a wetlands reserve program pilot used reverse auctions to reduce the acquisition costs of program easements in several areas across the country. It was a huge success, enrolling 3,500 acres and reducing acquisition costs by 14 percent, or $820,000.

Reverse auctions can maximize the effectiveness of federal and state dollars because they combine performance measures with cost. Many conservation programs do not currently consider cost as a factor when allocating funding. Furthermore, reverse auctions allow for competitive bidding—which encourages applicants to reveal the “true cost” of adoption—and do not rely on fixed payment schedules.

In the face of rising concerns about climate change and water quality, it is critical that governments become more effective at allocating money to achieve environmental objectives. One way for them to do it is to formally adopt reverse auctions for agricultural conservation programs, but also for programs that aim to protect and restore wetlands, species, and habitats.

Energy Policy for the Next Administration

Tim Herzog — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:47:08 -0400

For those who missed it: here are the video transcripts for last week’s Energy Forum panel on energy policy for the next (U.S.) Administration, sponsored by BP and the Atlantic.

Panelists

David Sandalow: Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Clive Crook: Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Andrew Kartner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Jonathan Lash, President, WRI

Hong Kong Adopts GHG Protocol for Building Sector

Angel Hsu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:43:40 -0400

Hong Kong’s government adopts guidelines for GHG accounting in its building sectors, and announces a “carbon audit” of 10 of its buildings.

On July 24th, Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department unveiled its Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for Buildings in Hong Kong. The launch ceremony was attended by 37 major organizations, including all of Hong Kong’s major property developers. The attendees signed on to a Carbon Reduction Charter, which requires organizations to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from building energy use and to take specific actions to reduce their carbon footprint.

The guidelines use the accounting framework in the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol’s Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard as its foundation. The Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard provides a systematic and scientific approach to account and report greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. WRI’s GHG Protocol team provided technical advice to the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department in developing these guidelines to assist in ensuring their consistency with international standards.

Hong Kong is the first Asian city to develop a national green buildings program based on the GHG Protocol; it is a major step forward in understanding and controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

Additionally, the Hong Kong government will be one of the first governments in Asia to conduct a carbon audit of 10 of its buildings this year. Carbon audits of more than additional 100 public- and private-sector buildings are also planned for this year. According to the International Energy Agency, building use accounted for 72 percent of Hong Kong’s GHG emissions, and 89 percent of its electricity use in 2004.

“Reducing the level of electricity consumed for operation of buildings is crucial to reducing our GHG emissions,” said Secretary of Environment Edward Yau. Yau further noted the importance of private sector involvement in this initiative.

Yau also emphasized that the green buildings program will help Hong Kong’s overall environmental protection efforts. “Many GHG reduction measures can, in fact, help reduce air pollutant emissions and at the same time improve our air quality.”

In his 2007-08 policy address, Chief Executive Donald Tsang pledged to reduce the energy intensity of Hong Kong by at least 25 percent between 2005 and 2030. Since the building sector accounts for the majority of Hong Kong’s electricity consumption, it will have a significant role in meeting this target.

Attendees at the signing ceremony for the Carbon Reduction Charter

WRI’s China Climate, Energy and Pollution Program Director Deborah Seligsohn signed the Charter on behalf of WRI, which uses the GHG Protocol to track and control its own emissions. She highlighted the excellent partnership between the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department and WRI and expressed the hope that the Hong Kong audit, methodology and charter program could become a model for other cities in the region.

Food or Fuel? The Bioenergy Dilemma

Karen Bennett — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:04:21 -0400

The cost of grain-based staples–such as tortillas in Mexico, beef noodles in western China, and bread in the United States–has increased around the world. There are several reasons why prices have jumped, but there’s one getting a lot of attention: the global rush for bioenergy.

Crops can be used as a food or fuel; both are important ecosystem services that nature provides to people. But as countries set aside more corn and other agricultural products for use as fuel, fewer crops are available to produce food and world-wide prices increase.

Over the past few years, industrialized countries have set increasingly higher mandates for the use of bioenergy, which has been touted as a clean, sustainable alternative to fossil fuels and a way to combat global climate change.

Europe has mandated that biofuels make up 10 percent of its transport power by 2020. Similarly, in 2005, the United States federal government passed legislation requiring that the corn-based ethanol supply increase from 2.3 billion to 7.5 billion gallons per year by 2012. This year alone, the US will dedicate 30 million more tons of corn– half of the global grain stock–to ethanol production.

Meanwhile, global food prices are up nearly 50 percent in the past year. The price of basic staples, such as corn, oilseed, wheat, and cassava, is predicted to increase 26 to 135 percent by 2020.

Rising food prices deeply affect the world’s poor, who spend up to 80 percent of their household income on food. The impact can be especially acute in urban areas. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 37 countries are now facing a food security crisis. Food riots have erupted in many developing countries, including Bangladesh, Haiti, and Egypt.

While the benefits of bioenergy range from reduced greenhouse gas emissions to renewability and energy independence, increased biofuel production can lead to tradeoffs across other ecosystem services. Besides decreased food supply, other tradeoffs include poor water quality associated with increases in aggregate fertilizer use, nutrient runoff and erosion. Further research is needed to assess the tradeoffs among ecosystem services related to biofuels and other emerging sources of bioenergy, such as cellulosic technology.

Even though many of the economic, social and environmental effects of the recent biofuel push are not yet fully understood, many countries continue to dedicate more of their agriculture output to biofuels.

Given that globally many ecosystem services are already degraded, it is important to reduce demand for energy through energy efficiency measures, while managing land in ways that do not impinge on nature’s ability to provide ecosystem services–including food, an already scarce commodity in a majority of the world.

Swallowed by Sand: China's Billion-Dollar Battle Against Desertification

Karen Bennett — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:51:23 -0400

It is estimated that desertification, a process of land degradation that occurs in dryland ecosystems due to overexploitation and land mismanagement, now costs China about $2-3 billion each year. China’s experience is not unique. In Africa, for example, worsening soil conditions could mean that the continent could only feed a quarter of its inhabitants by 2025.

Minqin County is one of the driest places in China, and it stands on the front line of China’s battle against desertification. Up until recently, Minqin acted as a natural barrier between the deserts and the rest of the country. But within the next decade, the Tengger and Badain Jaran deserts are expected to swallow Minqin county.

In Minqin’s “lake district” (named after a lake that dried up in 1957), 70% of the land has been lost to desertification or destroyed by the saline-alkaline soils that are produced by the overexploitation of groundwater. Additionally, violent sandstorms are a common occurrence, covering homes and roads in their wake. These sandstorms often spread to North and South Korea and have been linked to respiratory problems in California. At a rate of 10m per year, the encroachment of desert upon Minqin is fearsome, and government-led cultivation, deforestation, irrigation and reclamation are all being blamed.

Historically, Minqin County depended on the Shiyang River for its water needs. But in the late 1950s, government officials diverted the Shiyang river to construct the Hongyashan Reservoir in an effort to boost food production. As a result, Minqin County is now forced to rely on groundwater and water from the reservoir.

In 2004, the Hongyashan went completely dry and had to be refilled by emergency water diversions from the Yellow River. Groundwater resources are also drying up from overuse, wrecking the natural systems ability to provide ecosystem services such as soil formation. Groundwater levels are dropping by up to a meter each year, and best estimates predict that at this rate, groundwater will completely run out in 17 years. This overexploitation of groundwater, along with the insufficient re-supplying of surface water, has led to such serious water quality problems that the majority of water in Minqin is undrinkable. More than a million people are now facing a drinking water crisis.

Recently, the Chinese government has taken action to halt desertification in Minqin. Since 2001, they have spent nearly $9 billion trying to restore ecosystem services by planting forests, establishing desert vegetation and creating a 330-km belt of trees to manage the advancing desert. Unfortunately, a large portion of the vegetation has died, the belt of trees lays stranded by sand, and the desert now extends over 40,000 hectares of the county. The government has also been funding more than 30,000 farmers to leave their ancestral homes due to the encroaching desert. In Northern Minqin, entire villages have been abandoned.

Still, some people see reason for hope. Shi Shuzu, a resident of Songhe Village who is over 70 years old, has discovered methods to enable trees to survive in Minqin. After more than half a century of experimentation, Shi has established a patch of green land in Songhe Village - Minqin’s first in 10 years.

Beijing's Air Pollution: It Isn't The Cars

Deborah Seligsohn — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:27:23 -0400

Even with half of private cars off the road, Beijing remains wrapped in a haze of smog. The real causes of Beijing’s air quality woes lie elsewhere.

This story originally posted to HuffingtonPost.com.

On July 20, half of private cars in Beijing went off the road in a sweeping attempt to improve air quality in advance of the Olympic games. Commercial and governmental vehicles, taxis and buses are all running as usual, but traffic is moving noticeably faster. I’ve been watching the plates, and drivers really are obeying the regulations. Furthermore, the Chinese have suspended tourism and visas for anyone not attending the Olympics, which is improving traffic even more. There are noticeably fewer tour groups, taxis, rental cars and minibuses. At the same time, a new subway line and the light rail to the airport opened, and more people are taking mass transit.

But guess what? Beijing’s air pollution doesn’t appear to have changed. In fact, visibility outside my window the last few days has been worse than it was in the week before the car regulations came into place.

This should come as no surprise. Beijing’s air pollution varies a great deal from day to day. The fact that it seems worse is probably due to unfortunate weather conditions-high temperature and humidity, and low winds that would otherwise dissipate the smog.

Contrary to popular perception both inside and outside China, Beijing’s air pollution problem is not primarily due to increases in personal vehicle use. Granted, there have been dozens of press reports about the surging numbers of vehicles that Beijingers are buying. These reports are true, but also misleading. In contrast to the experience in the U.S., Beijing’s boom in vehicle ownership has not yet invaded its surrounding areas. It is mainly China’s wealthiest cities that are participating in the car boom; smaller cities and towns have seen more modest growth in vehicle ownership.

The real causes of Beijing’s air quality woes lie elsewhere. An article last year suggested the key component to Beijing’s ozone problem (the stuff that makes your eyes itch, causes shortness of breath and reduces visibility) is actually volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from small factories in neighboring Hebei province. A sniff test suggests that there are plenty of these factories operating in and around Beijing. Many are small (and possibly illegal), and they operate only at night to avoid the scrutiny of environmental inspectors. So the Beijing government has several problems: first, it must locate these hidden factories. Then they must shut them down—and convince neighboring provinces to do the same.

Beijing’s other major problem is particulates, which come from several sources. One is construction: Beijing is still rushing to complete non-Olympic buildings before the big day. Another is coal-fired power plants and factory boilers. China’s largest coal-mining province, Shanxi, is directly up wind of Beijing. Shanxi ships much coal to other provinces, but it also has mine-mouth power plants and coking plants that contribute to regional pollution.

A final source is trucks. As with the VOCs from small factories, emissions from heavy vehicles are worst during the night, since trucks are banned from the city during the day. Studies have shown that Beijing’s pollution levels are highest in the early morning. This would not be the case if most of the pollution came from passenger cars, which operate mainly during the day. But it is good evidence that the chief sources of pollution are the VOC-producing factories and trucks operating at night.

The international focus on Beijing’s car problem, when the true problem lies more with industrial emissions, suggests we often apply lessons from one place a little too readily to another. China’s air pollution problem—like its greenhouse gas emissions—is primarily connected to industry. There is no question that smart transportation planning would help China avoid vehicle-caused smog and global warming in the future. But for the here and now, the real challenges are in industry, and the real efforts need to be in strengthening local enforcement of existing pollution and energy efficiency standards and with developing new multipollutant standards that address issues like VOCs.

Strengthening the Poor's Roots of Resilience

Phil Angell — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:22:00 -0400

The newly-released World Resources Report 2008 charts a path for how sustainable, nature-based enterprise can help the world’s 2 billion rural poor escape the cycle of poverty.

Today, 2.6 billion people live on less than $2 a day. 75 percent of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid live in rural areas and are dependent on natural resources for some or all of their subsistence. The rural poor face even tougher challenges ahead, as climate change threatens to destroy the ecosystems and natural resources on which they depend.

But the World Resources Report 2008 finds that well-designed, community-based sustainable enterprises can improve the way the rural poor draw from their area’s natural resources. Ultimately, these programs can make their communities more resilient against climate change and the other economic, social, environmental challenges they will face.

Resilience In Action: Bangladesh’s MACH Program

Bangladesh’s innovative pilot program in people-led wetland management demonstrates how sustainable enterprise can lift people out of poverty, and protect the environment in the process. Read more about the case study in Chapter 3 (PDF, 2.3 Mb) of the report.

A decade ago, many of Bangladesh’s wetlands were devastated–an exploding population, poor government policy, increased deforestation and pollution had taken their toll on these ecosystems.

But when the government changed how it grants access to freshwater fisheries in three major watersheds, the fisheries were restored along with the rural communities surrounding them.

The turnaround shows how community-based natural resource management can nurture enterprise, generate income and improve the state of local ecosystems.

Based on the “co-management” of wetlands by new community institutions and local government, the Management of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry (MACH) program has revived fisheries in three degraded wetlands. The MACH program, funded by the government of Bangladesh and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has improved the lives of 184,000 of Bangladesh’s poorest citizens.

The MACH program’s success is rooted in community self-interest and ownership. In return for adopting conservation measures and sustainable fishing practices, community organizations (each representing several adjacent villages) receive 10-year leases to manage local waterways as well as grants to excavate silted beels and create wetland sanctuaries. To offset the hardships caused by fishing restrictions, poor households also receive skills training and micro-loans to start new enterprises.

The nine-year program had tangible, positive results. From 1999 to 2006, the project produced the following benefits for the villages:

A 140 percent rise in fish catches;
A 52 percent increase in fish consumption;
A 33 percent increase in average daily household income.

Overall, MACH communities earned US$4.7 million more from local fish sales in 2004 than they did in 1999 due to the revival of wetland habitats and fish stocks.

There were ecological benefits as well. Wetland diversity expanded, as threatened fish species successfully reestablished, migrating birds returned, and aquatic plants recovered.

While the long-term sustainability of these benefits remains to be seen, community-led wetlands management has improved the ability of some of Bangladesh’s poorest inhabitants to survive economic downturns, environmental disruption, and the potential impacts of climate change on the country’s low-lying floodplains.

The MACH program and similar projects have provided a promising national road map for protecting natural resources while enhancing livelihoods.

By protecting wetlands from further overexploitation and degradation, communities have also improved the environmental resilience of the resources on which their lives and livelihoods depend.

“Before, we were nothing,” one Bangladeshi said of the MACH program, “but now our dignity has increased so that we can shake hands with all kinds of people.”

How Do We “Scale-Up” Success?

The report found three common elements that MACH and other nature-based enterprises needed to be successful:

Community ownership and self-interest: Legitimate ownership of local resources and a sense of self-interest must be granted to the community.
Help from intermediary organizations: Governments and development agencies need to provide the rural poor with the technical and business skills they need to become more resilient.
Formation of formal and informal networks: Support networks among communities and the organizations working with them must be present for the rural poor to sustainably manage natural resources and generate income.

Scaling Up Community-Driven Ecosystem EnterpriseWhen these three elements are present, communities can begin to unlock the wealth potential of ecosystems in ways that actually reach the poor. In so doing, they can build a base of competencies that extends beyond nature-based enterprises and supports rural economic growth in general, including the gradual transition beyond reliance on natural resource income alone.

To effectively fight global poverty, successful programs such as MACH in Bangladesh need to be “scaled-up” geographically, economically and politically. Expanding these efforts can provide the world’s rural poor with ways to derive more sustainable income from nature-based enterprises, while at the same time developing their resilience to emerging new environmental threats such as climate change.

The World Resources Report is a joint effort by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.