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SAC’s Alistair delivers Caribbean workshop

As home to half of the world’s tropical forests, the second biggest coral barrier reef and an amazing diversity of species, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is a ‘biodiversity Super Power’. But how can these, often poor, countries harvest social and economic benefits from their remarkable biodiversity without over-exploiting their rich resources?

Salman Hussein and Alistair McVittie from SAC’s Resource Economics Team have been involved in answering this question through their part in the major international TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) study. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the study highlights the potential benefits of policies to conserve the world’s natural assets - and the losses we could suffer if action is not taken.

Salman and Alistair have already undertaken an economic analysis of the value of global conservation policies. As a follow-up, Alistair recently flew to Trinidad and Tobago for a workshop aimed at using TEEB’s findings to help countries in the region value their own ecosystems and biodiversity.

Alistair explained: “In Latin America and the Caribbean, decision makers at all levels now recognise nature’s contribution to human livelihoods, health, security, and culture. They need, however, to build their capacity to benefit from the sustainable use of that biodiversity to promote social and economic growth and equality.

“As an invited lecturer at the UNEP workshop, my role was to provide training in how to value biodiversity for the ‘services’ it provides. It’s easy to quantify the value of timber, for example, as it has a market price but there are a range of other ecosystem services that are much harder to quantify, such as the way ecosystems can buffer environmental shocks such as extreme weather or help mitigate the effects of climate change.”

Held at the University of the West Indies in Port of Spain, the workshop involved representatives from the ministries of environment, finance, planning and economy of 13 Caribbean and Latin American countries.

Alistair said: “The capacity of these countries to undertake economic studies of their environments is much lower than in the UK – I found many of those at the workshop were the only people in their country dedicated to working on the issue.  So it was a great opportunity to pass on the knowledge and methods that I’ve gained over the years at SAC to an enthusiastic new audience. Hopefully the outcomes from TEEB will be mainstreamed into decision making in the Caribbean to sustain and gain wider benefits from their biodiversity.”

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