By Pavan Sukhdev, president, WWF International
Several years has passed since the world’s governments agreed on the sustainable development goals (SDGs). But as the theoretical rubber of their targets and indicators meets the road of practical policy reform to implement them, we are hearing a discordant sound.
In 2014 the GEF approved funding for a sorely needed project to protect the ecosystem surrounding tropical seagrass. Seagrass ecosystems span several countries and offer various environmental benefits to the areas they belong to. Given its mandate, the GEF was uniquely placed to finance this project at the global level with over $5 million invested in 8 different countries. The dugong, also known as the "sea cow", was chosen as a flagship animal for this project since it feeds and relies on the seagrass ecosystem.
By Nigel Topping, CEO, We Mean Business
The world economy is in a transition to a low-carbon one that respects the planet’s climate and its other vital global commons. But will it be just, or unjust?
Just transitions happen when a failing sector or business is helped to move towards a new, low-carbon growth area. Some quite widespread examples are already under way. The former steel city of Pittsburgh, for example, is reinventing itself as a leading centre for developing self-driving autonomous cars.
By Carlos Nobre and Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio
Andean ecosystems are under threat from unsustainable agricultural and rangeland management practices, fire, deforestation, and overexploitation of natural resources. To overcome this challenge, Peru and Ecuador have put in place Conservation agreements to help stem damage to the Andean region’s globally significant carbon stocks and biodiversity.
This is one of the main achievements of a 2014-2018 GEF project led by UN Environment (UNEP) at three sites in Ecuador and two in Peru.
The artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector exposes miners to toxic mercury when they use the chemical to extract gold from ore. However, with the right policies and market incentives, ASGM presents an opportunity to fight mercury use and contamination, protecting miners' health and the environment at the same time.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is looking to do just that through the Global Opportunities for Long-term Development (GOLD) program.
Mercury use in ASGM
By Kathy Calvin, president and CEO, the UN Foundation
By Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment
For ages, our safety, security and prosperity meant mining - literally and figuratively - the resources around us.
Our impact on the commons - our oceans, our atmosphere, biodiversity, and other complex global systems - was rarely noticed. For many, damaging something like our atmosphere was simply too abstract.
Forty-five minutes from vibrant and busy Marrakesh, in the province of Al Haouz, a breath-taking scenery of green terraces takes over the landscape to reveal the lush of High Atlas Mountains. The mountains serve as a barrier between the northern Mediterranean climates and southern desert climates of the Sahara. The ecosystem represents a consistent landscape and is home to rich forest biodiversity with endemic tree species, abundant flora and aromatic plants.
By Peter Bakker, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
For decades, the “tragedy of the commons” has been a useful tool for understanding and explaining the risks of undervaluing shared resources. Today such issues – those of the “global commons” – touch upon almost every aspect of our daily lives.
What was once a hypothetical theory is now a global reality – and it’s our responsibility to do whatever we can to address it.
