“Valuing, Assessing, and Integrating Ecosystem Services into Development Planning” is the theme of a workshop held by the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE) in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ). The workshop, opened in Hanoi, aimed to introduce a global ecosystem service assessment and valuation tool to planners and decision makers.
The workshop was part of the Project “Enhancing Capacity for Implementing Rio Conventions in Vietnam” funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP from 2015 to 2017. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is the lead agency and ISPONRE is the executor.
Ecosystem services are nature’s benefits to people. The tool for ecosystem service valuation (ValuES) has been considered as a useful tool to calculate visible and invisible benefits of ecosystem as well as visualise consequent of ecosystem loss and degradation. The tool provides decision makers and planners with better information on the values of biodiversity and different types of ecosystem services.
However, the tools has not been widely introduced and applied for development planning, at national and local levels. Practical guideline for application and implementation has not been available in Vietnamese either.
Up to now, the value of ecosystem services was invisible in planning and investment decisions. Nature’s services were often considered as “free of charge” or “public goods”.
Mr Dao Xuan Lai, Head of UNDP Sustainable Development Cluster, said, there has been limited appreciation and integration of the economic values of ecosystem services into development planning, budgeting, and decision making processes. He stressed the importance of valuation of ecosystem services, which help enhance the understanding and trigger local actions on preservation and restoration of ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems provide high profits in terms of public health and public savings and achievement of broad objectives of overcoming poverty and achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Mr Michael Wahl, Chief Technical Advisor of the Project "Strategic Mainstreaming of Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Vietnam (EbA), GIZ Vietnam," said, valuing ecosystem services helps support cognitive and assessment processes and simultaneously capture economic values of ecosystems. Therefore, valuing ecosystem services helps determine economic - social relationship in the use of ecosystems. Economic valuation of ecosystem services also helps identify deserved rewards for local people who are contributing to ecosystem protection. He stressed that, in the context of implementing the Vietnam Green Growth Strategy, GIZ continues to support ministries to better integrate ecosystem services into policies.
On this occasion, a three-day training course was also organised for practitioners, who will carry out the valuation of ecosystem service in practice once national and local Government decide to mainstream the tool in their decision making process.
Quynh Anh
Vietnamese
