Dr. Asha Rajvanshiar@wii.gov.in

Professor & Head, EIA CellWildlife Institute of India, Dehradun

Review of Millennium Development Goals: Exploring the Connect between Biodiversity and Human Well-being

Pre-meeting training course IAIA ’11 Puebla, Mexico

What are MDGs

► The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty.

► The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of states and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

► The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges.

(Source: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/index.htm)

What are MDGs…

► The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty.

► The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of states and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

(Source: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/index.htm)

• Progress in achieving goals defined in terms of targets

• Monitoring progress through target-specific indicators

MDG: Goals & Targets

Baseline Year= 1990Target Year= 2015

8 goals, 18 targets, 48 indicators

The Millennium Development Goals

Goal 1 - Targets

i. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day

ii. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

An estimated 82 million people in the developing world affected by chronic hunger in 2003.

Source: THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT 2010

Goal 2 - Targets

i. Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

UK is providing bilateral support to education programmes in over 30 developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.

EU’s Education For All and Sweden’s Fast Track Initiative are aimed at providing universal primary education

Globally, more than one in five girls of primary-school age are not in school, compared to about one in six boys.

Gender gap is most evident in Oceania, Western Asia and Southern

Goal 3 - Targets

i. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015

A one-year increase in the schooling of all adult females in a country is associated with:

$700 increase in GDP per capita, 1.4 percent reduction in children’s labor force participation, 3.7 percent increase in access to safe water and 5.4 percent to sanitation.(Source: World Bank)

Swedish Government launched a special gender equality (2006) initiative focuses on gender mainstreaming, health, and reproductive health

DFID’s Gender Equality Action Plan (2007) sets out to development assistance programmes more effectively for women and girls.

Improvement of the status of women and promotion of gender equality as a human right are two key objectives identified by the EU

Source: http://ictlogy.net/20061117-millennium-development-goals-indicators-dashboard/

Women in parliamentary seats

Goal 4 - Targets

i. Reduce, by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

20% of child deaths in developing countries are caused by preventable acute respiratory infections. Source: www.anausa.org

A World Fit for Children, adopted at the Special Session of the UNGeneral Assembly on Children in May 2002.

Via the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation Sweden is directly contributing to the reduction of child mortality due to most common forms of disease.

Goal 5 - Targets

i. Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

Deaths attributable to environmental causes (1.5 million people per year worldwide

Indoor smoke from solid fuels

Urban air pollution

Unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene

(Source: WHO World Health Report 2002)

Male Female

UN is promoting Safe Motherhood and National Maternal Health programmes,

Goal 6 - Targets

i. Stop and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDSii. Stop and reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

by 2015 Tuberculosis is the leading infectious killer of adults and kills almost 2 million people a year; malaria kills more than 1 million people a year.

Source: www.anausa.org

The EU (EC and Member States) is the main contributor to the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria

Source: MDG report, 2010

Goal 7 - Targets

i. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources

ii. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

Six to seven billion tons of carbon dioxide produced by human activity is released into the atmosphere each year.

Total forest land shrank by 94 million hectares (232 million acres) in the last decade and now covers only about 30% of all land.

2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation.

Source: www.anausa.org

Sweden and China are currently engaged in a joint project entitled The Sustainable City – aiming for sustainable urban development

DFID will support at least 30 million more people with improved sanitation in South Asia by 2011 and additionally provide £30 million over next three years to improve water management in Asia and Africa, in response to impacts of climate change.

Goal 8 - Targets

i. Develop an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system ( for good governance development and poverty reduction)

ii. Address the special needs of the least developed countries iii. Address special needs of landlocked countries and small island statesiv. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries

through national and international measuresv. Make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and

communications technologies

The Department for International Development (DFID) has made the MDGs the main focus of all its work.

Sweden is one of the first countries in the world to formulate policy for development in December 2003 with the explicit objective of contributing to equitable and sustainable global development

MDG: Essential Values

Freedom Equality Solidarity Tolerance Respect for nature Shared responsibility

MDGs: Why do they matter?

► They are the first set of quantitative and time-bound goals shared by developing and developed countries.

► They offer an integrated, goal-oriented framework for poverty reduction.

► They form the basis on which to mobilize resources for investing in human development.

► At the country level they provide a platform for discussion and advocacy.

What do MDGs offer ?

i. An unparalleled opportunity to make the world a better place.

ii. A formal recognition that poverty can be solved when both the rich and poor work together.

iii.A practical and achievable set of targets for human development up to 2015.

“a once-in-a generation chance to bring about historic, fundamental change...”

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General United Nations

Relating the MDGs to:

Human Development

Environment

Biodiversity

Two aspects-Process of widening people’s choices-Level of their achieved well-being

Two sides-Capabilities: Formation of human capabilities -Opportunities: Use of the acquired capabilities

Human development and MDGs

Dimensions• Long and healthy life• Knowledge• Decent standard of living• Participation or exclusion

Human beings are the participants in the development process (concept of human development) and not just …beneficiaries (human welfare approach)

Measures and concepts

Environment & the MDGs

• Environmental sustainabilityDevelopment cannot be sustained for long at the cost of environmental degradation

• One specifically stated goal that cuts across all goals

Essential ingredient for achieving all the other MDGs

How biodiversity can contribute to the MDGs

Dimensions of poverty

Development goalsExample of biodiversity factors

Elements of well-being

Enhanced livelihood security

Reduced health risk

Reduced vulnerability

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Achieve universal primary education

Promote gender equality

Reduce child mortality

Improve maternal health

Combat major diseases

Global partnership for development

(Source: IIED, 2004)

Ensure environment sustainability

Ecological integrity

Ecosystem approach to conservation

Access to resources

Benefit sharing

In-situ conservation

Sustainable use

Environmental management

Vulnerability to biodiversity loss (incl. food and

nutritional securities)

Access to income and resources

Life insurance policy for life

Health, sanitation,

energy, water and governance

Food security

Biodiversity is the foundation for human well-being

Linking biodiversity, poverty and the MDGs

Millennium Development Goals are targeted to eradicate extreme poverty

Poverty is about deprivation in human well-being

Human well-being is “Freedom of choice and action based on improved security, health, good social relations, and basic material for a good life” (Source: Ash and Jenkins, 2007)

MDGs contribute in improving

economic capabilities human capabilities political capabilities (rights, influence and freedom), socio-cultural capabilities (status and dignity), protective capabilities (to address security, risk and

vulnerability).

How environment and poverty nexus affect biodiversity?

Environmental degradation

Degradation of biodiversity resources

Poverty

Degraded resource pool limits choices (affecting resource availability, nutrition, income and vulnerability)

Poverty forces over exploitation of natural resources (accelerating the process of ecological degradation)

Revisiting the goals

Goal

Poor people’s livelihoods, food and health security often depend on ecosystems goods and diversity of services they provide

Intensive use of ecosystems can erode ecosystems through soil degradation, water depletion, contamination, collapse of fisheries, or biodiversity loss.

http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/monmag/issue18- 2006/assets/images/africans.jpg

Investments in ecosystem service maintenance and restoration can enhance rural livelihoods and be a stepping stone out of poverty

sitemaker.umich.edu/356.cho/files/hunger.jpg

Goal

Education will improve the human resources capital, encourage alternative income options and thereby reduce dependence on biodiversity resource based subsistence

Increased dependence on biodiversity for sustenance leads to increased physical burden.

Decline in biodiversity resources limits options of livelihood for the poor.

Natural disasters linked to biodiversity loss and impairment of ecosystem services reduce children’s available time and access to education opportunities.

www.unops.org/.../AFO/Africa-No.-2-041.jpg

Goal

Securing women’s rights and access to natural resources, giving a fair share of the benefits from their knowledge and providing them with capacity-building support can help empowering women

www.reformsnetwork.org/women/documents/GAWE%2

In Chad and Nigeria, children of educated mothers are two to four times more likely to be vaccinated than children of uneducated mothers

Higher household incomes and education for mothers doubles child survival

The increased time spent in attending to household chores limits their opportunities for education, literacy and income generating activities.

Impacts of environmental degradation often fall more on women and girls who are more exposed to indoor air pollution from burning of fuel wood and other biomass and carry heavy loads of fuel wood and water

An average household spends 1 hour and 40 minutes each day for collecting water in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.. (Source: IIED 2002).

Average time spent on collecting fuelwood and fodder by women in the hill areas in India is about 4 to 6 hours per day respectively. (Source: Saksena et al., 1995).

Percentage of the population who must travel more than 30 minutes to fetch water

(Source: WHO World Data Table)

Goal

Many diseases (e.g. malaria) are known to flare up in ecological systems which have their regulation component altered by irrigation projects ,dams, construction sites, standing water and poorly drained areas.

New biodiversity-derived medicines hold promise for fighting major diseases!

Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan and Tunisia are the highest-ranking countries, where approx.90 mothers die per 100 000 live births.

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2006/MDGReport2006.pdf

flickr.com/photos/mickyates/35146744/

As the strongest link between people and nature is for medicinal plants, these resources need to be carefully managed

Goal

Ecosystem services such as food production, water purification, and disease regulation are vital in reducing child mortality.

Degradation of ecosystems can influence the abundance of human pathogens resulting in outbreaks of diseases such as malaria and cholera, and the emergence of new diseases.

Scientists have identified more than 2,000 tropical plants as having anti-cancer properties (GEF).

Some 80 per cent of the world’s people rely on traditional health care systems that use 50,000 of the world’s plant species for traditional medicines (Source; WHO 2005).

http://www.indexmundi.com/mexico/infant_mortality_rate.html

Goal

Preventing emerging diseases through biodiversity conservation is far more cost effective than developing vaccines to combat them later.

Biodiversity buffers humans from organisms and agents that cause disease.

By diluting the pool of virus targets and hosts, biodiversity reduces their impact on humans and provides a form of global health insurance.

At the same time, intrusion into the world’s areas of high biodiversity disturbs these biological reservoirs and exposes people to new forms of more virulent disease organisms including SARS, Ebola, malaria, and the HIV pandemic.

http://www.unaids.org/unaids_resources/2006GRimages/GR06-C2147-06.jpg

Prevalence of HIV (%population age 15-49) Source: The World Bank Group ( 2004)

Goal

Drought-resistant crops are known to reduce the likelihood of famines triggered by lack of rainfall.

Mangroves provide shelter against an increasing number of typhoons and floods.

Biodiversity and healthy ecosystem services increase resilience to economic shocks and environmental changes and provide a natural defenses against environmental disasters.

Ecosystem depletion and species extinction reduce the capacity to respond to future environmental stresses including water scarcity and climate change.

South America continues to show the largest net losses of forests among all regions, 4 million hectares per year over the period 2000-2010.

Goal

Conserving habitats which support biodiversity is necessary for strengthening the capacity of governments to eradicate poverty, improve maternal health, and reduce child mortality.

The complex interactions between human well-being, ecosystem services and biodiversity requires an integrated approach including partnerships between rich and poor countries.

In 2009, only half of the world’s 821 terrestrial eco-regions—large areas with characteristic combinations of habitats, species, soils and landforms—had more than 10 per cent of their area protected.

Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, one tenth of the areas of all these ecoregions should have been under protection by 2010.

GoalProgress by goal

Ecuador Cameroon Brazil Mexico Russia Federation

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Achieve universal primary education

Promote gender equality and empower women

Reduce child mortality

Improve maternal health

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Ensure environmental sustainability

Develop a global partnership for development

- Achieved - Very likely to be achieved, on track - Possible to achieve if some changes are made - Off track - Insufficient information

Looking ahead…

PROMOTE upstreaming of biodiversity in development actions for economically and environmentally secure and peaceful world.

USE MDGs as an opportunity to translate the recognition of the importance of biodiversity into tangible and visible outcome for sustainable development.

CONTRIBUTE to the capacity building efforts to identify critical links between biodiversity and human actions to harmonize development goals with the human well being.

“For everyone on Earth, the Millennium Development Goals are a linchpin in the quest for a more secure and peaceful world...”

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director Millennium Project

Thank you all…