A presentation given at the WLE Ganges Focal Region writeshop in 2014 on the Ecosystem Services and Resilience Framework (ESR). Put together and presented by Sarah Jones of Bioversity International.

1. Ecosystem
Services
and
Resilience
Framework
(ESR)
Sarah
Jones,
Bioversity
Interna=onal

2. What are ecosystem services?

3. Ecosystem service based approaches

4. Ecosystem service flows
Haines-Young & Potschin (2010)

5. Framework for Ecosystem Services and Resilience in Agriculture

6. 1. Meeting the needs of poor people is fundamental

7. 2. People use, modify, and care for nature which provides material and
immaterial benefits to their livelihoods

8. 3. Cross-scale and cross-level interactions of ecosystem services in agricultural
landscapes can be managed to positively impact development outcomes.

9. 4. Governance mechanisms are vital tools for achieving equitable access to
and provision of ecosystem services.

10. 5. Building resilience is about enhancing the capacity of communities to
sustainably develop in an uncertain world.
Shocks and
disturbances
Novelty,
renewal,
innovation

11. 5. Resilience
The challenge in a nutshell:
How far can a system be perturbed before a regime shift happens?
How much shock can a system absorb before it becomes something
fundamentally different?
How can active transformations from an undesirable social-ecological state into a
better one be orchestrated?
(Folke 2010, Seeds magazine)

12. 5. Resilience
Some ways of applying resilience thinking:
1. Seven principles for applying resilience to ecosystem
services (Biggs et al. 2012)
2. Resilience assessments (www.resiliencealliance.org)
3. Adaptive management and governance (Biggs and Roger, 2003)
4. Detecting early warning signs
5. Metrics and indicators for measuring resilience (Béné 2013)

13. Informing decisions through research
Stakeholder
engagement
Definition of
landscape goals
Stakeholder
analysis
ES assessment
and valuation
Capacity
assessment
Create an
enabling
environment
Decide on best
management
approachDesign and implement
planning / policy changes and
create incentive mechanisms
Monitor impacts and
outcomes
Review and adapt
management
approach

14. U N I T I N G A G R I C U LT U R E A N D N AT U R E F O R P O V E R T Y R E D U C T I O N
Theory of Change

15. Entry points for the ESR approach
• Improve farming practices to integrate flow of
ES to and from agriculture
• Landscape management for multiple services
• Minimizing waste of ES
• Managing for trade-offs across and between
sectors and scales
• Managing for increasing variability and shocks
• Scaling up farm-level ES-based approaches
• Identifying effective governance approaches for
creating resilient systems and managing
common pool resources
All require improved understanding of how to manage the
stocks and flows of ES in the landscape.

16. Case Study: Assessment of ES in biological corridor, Costa RicaCase study: Beels of Bangladesh
http://wle.cgiar.org/blog/2014/08/05/small-
fish-big-benefits/

17. What it means for projects in the Ganges
Assessment
and
planning
to
iden=fy
priority
ES,
understand
their
flow
and
the
op=ons,
trade-­‐offs
and
synergies
for
their
management
Valuing
ES
–
who
benefits
from
them
and
who
loses
if
they
are
degraded.
Evalua=ng
poten3al
and
actual
impact
of
different
management
op=ons
on,
not
only
agricultural
produc=vity,
but
on
the
suite
of
connected
ES
Con=nual
engagement
with
decision-­‐makers
to
encourage
and
facilitate
considera=on
of
ES
context
and
ES-­‐based
solu3ons
in
the
decisions
that
they
make.

18. Some points to consider as you prepare your projects
§ What initiatives have you seen that are a good example of ESR?
§ What entry points do see in your projects for an ESR approach ?
§ What are the opportunities and challenges for incorporating such an
approach?

19. Case Study: Assessment of ES in biological corridor, Costa Rica
THANK YOU
wle.cgiar.org

20. How can we achieve development outcomes through ES?
1. Direct and sustainable supply of goods and services
2. Reduced risk and severity of impacts from system shocks
3. New and alternative sources of income

21. And health outcomes emerging from research…
Myers et al. 2013

22. Spatial and temporal lags in ES supply and delivery
Fremier et al., 2013

23. Governance mechanisms in ES management
(i) public policies and laws;
(ii) customary laws and traditions;
(iii) incentive mechanisms; and
(iv) institutions, capacity development and empowerment.

24. Tools for ES assessment and valuation

25. Case Study: Assessment of ES in biological corridor, Costa Rica

26. Estradada-Carmona,DeClerck,2011
Case Study: Assessment of ES in biological corridor, Costa Rica
Erosion
control
services

27. Estradada-Carmona,DeClerck,2011
Case Study: Assessment of ES in biological corridor, Costa Rica
Pest control
services

28. Estradada-Carmona,DeClerck,2011
Case Study: Assessment of ES in biological corridor, Costa Rica
Targeted
restoration

29. Reventazon
Case Study: Targeting soil conservation in the Reventazon watershed

30. Case study: Targeting soil conservation in the Reventazon watershed

31. Case study: Targeting soil conservation in the Reventazon watershed

32. 32
Moving Beyond Ideology to Close Yield Gaps and “Nature Gaps” in 21st Century
Agriculture:
A Review of the Multi-Functionality of Five Systems of Agroecological
Intensification
Jeffrey C. Milder1,2*†, Kelly Garbach3*, Fabrice A.J. DeClerck4*, Laura Driscoll5, Maywa Montenegro5, and
Barbara Herren6

33. Based on Kellerman et al, 2008; Karp et al, 2013

34. Six key elements for research in the focal regions
1. Co-design and co-develop research with stakeholders
2. Apply ESR framework to all projects
3. Develop and apply methodologies for baseline assessments
4. Develop a landscape planning methodology
5. Develop a framework for WLE metrics, success indicators, and
knowledge base (e.g. for sustainability intensification practices)
6. Advance a WLE basin scale modelling and synthesis platform

35. Dealing with complexity

36. ES based approaches
§ Water quality: an ecosystem service based approach to water quality would include the
protection of a watershed through the protection of riparian buffers and wetlands for example. A
non-ecosystem service based approach would be the construction of a water treatment plant.
New York City’s protection of the Catskills watershed is an example of an ecosystem service
based approach. CIAT’s work in South America is a good example of an ecosystem service
based approach to water quality. Similarly Bioversity has been working with the dam operators in
Costa Rica to target payments for ecosystem services and land use change in Costa Rican
watersheds to reduce erosion, improve water quality, and reduce costs of hydropower.
§
§ Hazard Mitigation: For example, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 sparked a debate regarding
using an ecosystem service based approach (construction of reef, mangrove, sea grass or other
forms of green infrastructure) versus the construction of a system of dams and levies (grey
infrastructure). Both provide the same service through very different approaches and active
debate as to the effectiveness and resilience of each. IMWI’s work on the role of wetlands in
regulating hydrological flows and impacts on flood reduction is a good example of an ecosystem
service based approach to hazard mitigation.
§
§ Pest Control: an ecosystem serviced based approach would focus on biological control of pests
and diseases. This recognizes the multiple ecological processes that drive pest and disease
regulation from increasing field level genetic diversity (work by IFPRI, CIAT and Bioversity
amongst others), supporting gene flow in agricultural landscapes, increasing habitat for natural
predators, and supporting the movement of these predators and parasites in agricultural
landscapes, while reducing the habitat quality, and dispersal ability of pests and diseases by
altering landscape composition and configuration. This differs from approaches that use
agrochemicals, or sanitation measures for the same impact.

37. A vision for integrated agroecology
Minimum goals for 2050
Adapted
from
Foley
et
al,
2011

38. Steffen et al. 2004
Changing
preconditions
in the
Anthropocene
• Rapid environmental
change
• Altered and new
disturbance regimes
• How to ensure
capacity to cope,
adapt and transform?

39. 5. Resilience
Why worry about regime shifts?
Suprising, sudden shifts of stability domains/
development trajectories
Often leads to unintended shifts in
bundles of ecosystem services
Once a threshold is crossed it is difficult to go back
(assymetry and/or hysteresis)
Management practices will need to adapt,
or try to transform