Apr 13 - Dr. Rosimeiry Portela
Conservation International, Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Human Dimensions Program

Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation

The advent of the ecosystem services (ES) concept has drawn great attention to the public debate of the importance of the functioning of complex ecosystems and its relevance to humans. It is now widely accepted that measures to ensure biodiversity conservation yield sustainable benefits for human populations in the form of ES. In many cases, economic values have been successfully attached to some of these ES and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) have been established, rising expectations on markets as important mechanisms to enhance conservation and development.

Conservation International (CI) and its many field programs and partner organizations are engaged in numerous projects -- involving research, direct actions and policy -- to protect and restore ecosystem services. In this presentation, we highlight some of these experiences and discuss the way forward in terms of conservation solutions that are based on innovative science, economic, policy and community participation with the ultimate goal of conserving the global biodiversity while demonstrating that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.

Rosimeiry Portela is a Senior Advisor for the Human Dimensions Program (HDP) of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) at Conservation International (CI). Dr. Portela supports the development and implementation of CI's institutional research and action agenda on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). She coordinates research and supports collaboration between CI and other recognized experts on PES schemes that highlight the shared agenda of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services.

Dr. Portela has extensive experience with natural resources management in the southern Amazon, where she worked for the Mato Grosso state environmental agency. She has a Master?s degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she worked on modeling techniques to improve the understanding of complex ecosystems and their relevance to humans. Her academic research focused on the provision of ecosystem goods and services in the Amazon forest and their contribution to human economy and welfare. Prior to joining CABS, Dr. Portela worked for the World Bank Institute to advance understanding of how market mechanisms can be used to conserve biodiversity and support the provision of ecosystem services while generating livelihood income.

Suggested Readings:

Landell-Mills, N., Porras, I.T. (2002). Silver Bullet or Fool's Gold? A Global Review of Markets for Forest Environmental Services and Their Impact on the Poor. Institutes for Sustainable Private Sector Forestry Series. International Institute for Environment and Development, London.

Wunder, S., 2005. Payments for Environmental Services: Some Nuts and Bolts, CIFOR Occasional Paper No. 42.

Wunder, S. 2007. The Efficiency of Payments for Environmental Services in Tropical Conservation. Conservation Biology 21 (1), 48-58.

Costanza, R., D'Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O'Neill, R.V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R.G., Sutton, P., van den Belt, M. (1997). The Value of the World?s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital. Nature 387, 253-260.