Highlights from the People, Planet, Prosperity Project Country Pilots

Background

Despite growing recognition that healthy, functioning ecosystems are fundamental to achieving food, water and nutrition security, poverty reduction, and sustainable development, the values provided by nature are not widely integrated into policy and investment decisions. Mechanisms that facilitate this integration and resources for nature protection and restoration are a critical component of effective human development programs.

As part of the People, Planet, Prosperity Project (3Ps), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) worked with the Stanford Natural Capital Project to co-develop natural capital approaches in ADB developing member countries to directly inform policy and investment decisions and help secure each country’s natural capital in support of their development goals. Natural capital approaches make explicit nature’s benefits to people so that they can be incorporated into decisions and motivate investments in ecosystems, improving the well-being of both people and nature. These approaches were piloted in five Asia Pacific countries – Armenia, the People’s Republic of China, the Cook Islands, the Philippines and Sri Lanka – involving multilateral development bank leaders, local government partners, and local experts to inform specific, priority policy or finance decisions.

The pilot countries, supported by the project teams, are further developing technical and policy capacity across their governments and other relevant institutions for implementing natural capital approaches in future work. This four-part Natural Capital webinar series is part of the effort to share lessons learned across these countries and beyond, with the goal of scaling up these approaches around the world. ADB is planning to institutionalize natural capital assessments as crucial, upstream work to inform downstream planning, policy, and investments. ADB is further developing operational support and finance opportunities for mainstreaming natural capital approaches within member countries.

Armenia: Mainstreaming Natural Capital in River Basin Management

The Armenia pilot analyzed and quantified the economic dependence of water users on upstream watersheds in the Ararat Basin. This approach aims to inform legally-binding river basin management planning in the Ararat Basin and across the country, creating more comprehensive, ecosystem-based approaches to water management. This could include potential designation of protected areas that contribute significant water-related value for downstream users in the future. The economic valuation examined water usage across three key sectors – agriculture, fish farming, and hydropower – and showed where investing in forested or protected areas could help minimize the impacts of climate change on water availability.

Objectives

The webinar aims to:

• Provide an understanding of how natural capital approaches can be mainstreamed as an important upstream component of development planning.
• Illustrate how a natural capital assessment was developed within the Armenia pilot to yield policy relevant information.
• Share highlights and lessons learned from both the analytical and capacity development components of the project.
• Discuss integration of natural capital approaches within ADB and across member countries.

Target Participants

The webinar invites representatives from the following organizations engaged in agriculture, food security, natural resources, and rural development:

• government and intergovernmental organizations
• multilateral and bilateral development institutions
• private firms engaged in the agriculture and food business
• research and development institutions, think tanks, and centers of excellence
• NGOs, civil society and advocacy organizations, other individuals and organizations interested and/or engaged in agriculture and natural resources