TEEB for Agriculture and Food: Interim Report

The Interim Report introduces the key questions, issues and arguments to be addressed by TEEBAgriFood.

Interim results are presented from five exploratory sector studies (on livestock, rice, agroforestry, inland fisheries and palm oil), while the development of a ‘valuation framework’ provides a common lens for ensuring that the full range of impacts and dependencies can be examined under different applications (i.e. by sector, system or practice).

Finally, the Report examines the way forward for this study by identifying economic and policy drivers and incentives that influence land-use decisions and management techniques within production systems around the world.

The contribution of nature to agricultural productivity throughout the globe has not received the recognition it deserves. Global and national economic policies and programmes have for many years failed to fully acknowledge the contribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the global and national economies.

Rarely do we see the invaluable contributions of nutrient cycling, pollination, pest control and water flow from catchment areas reflected in national agricultural production accounts. This may be attributed to a wide range of reasons including the complexity of attaching monetary values to natural goods and services among others.

This initiative led by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) office of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is a very welcome step towards influencing global and national perspectives on the complex interrelationship between agricultural productivity and availability of healthy biodiversity and ecosystems. It will also bring to the fore some of the challenges increasing agricultural productivity poses to the environment, such as climate change and pollution and their attendant impacts on global and national economic and human well being.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a global initiative focused on “making nature’s values visible”. Its principal objective is to mainstream the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services into decision-making at all levels. It aims to achieve this goal by following a structured approach to valuation that helps decision-makers recognize the wide range of benefits provided by ecosystems and biodiversity, demonstrate their values in economic terms and, where appropriate, capture those values in decision-making.

Keywordshuman health impacts, biodiversity