Strengthening Capacity to Alleviate Poverty through Ecosystem Services (SCAPES): Putting methodological developments into practice

在整个南亚，特别是在印度，四分之一以上的人口依靠来自不同生态系统的服务维持生计，但处于贫困线以下，其特点是福祉水平较低。传统的公共政策决策是在没有承认人与生态系统之间联系的情况下做出的。这就造成了生态系统提供这些服务的条件和能力受到不利影响的情况。气候变化和生物多样性丧失等一些变化驱动因素与人口动态和该地区迅速扩大的贸易和投资等驱动因素有关。有足够广泛和有力的科学证据表明，该区域生态系统服务的提供正在发生变化，这种变化正在影响该区域穷人的社会福祉和物质层面，但将生态系统变化的关切及其对减贫的影响纳入主导公共政策的能力有限。不断增长的社会压力以及千年生态系统评估(MA)和政府间气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)等可信科学证据的可获得性，使决策者接受生态系统服务在改善穷人物质条件方面的作用。印度政府最近在流域管理、国家气候变化和荒漠化行动计划、荒地评估、新的森林政策、老虎工作队和生物圈保护区方案方面采取的一些举措清楚地表明了这种接受程度。然而，使生态系统各方面成为主流规划和政策的组成部分的机制需要采取更加协调一致和重点突出的办法。决策者分析社会作出的选择可能影响生态系统功能的能力不足。在根据ESPA为南亚进行的情况分析期间查明的能力方面的重大差距之一是，能够获取人们从生态系统中获得的惠益。由于主流市场不考虑收益，决策工具选择忽略生态系统服务的收益和生态系统退化的成本。人们依赖这些服务，但从比例上讲，穷人的依赖程度高于富人。在这方面，拟议的研究将侧重于两个组成部分：1.制定支持政策设计的方法；2.能力建设和需求。构成部分1将综合关于支持决策进程的最新方法的现有信息，促进在该区域内开发这些方法和开发“工具包”，如评估监管服务的工具包和决策支持系统。构成部分2将在区域内进行能力建设，方法是在省一级吸引主要利益攸关方和决策者传播构成部分1的调查结果，促进区域对这一领域未来工作的需求，发展区域能力和区域研究界的认识，并为未来的协作发展网络。该项目力求在过去和正在进行的工作的基础上，利用利益攸关方和关键决策者的反馈，在一个跨学科和不断重复的框架内开展工作。

In South Asia in general and India in particular, more than one fourth of the population depends for their livelihood upon the services from different ecosystems but are below the poverty line and are characterised as having a low level of well-being. Conventional decisions of public policy are taken without acknowledging the people-ecosystem linkages. This creates situations where the condition and the ability of ecosystems to deliver those services are affected adversely. Some of the drivers of change, like climatic variations and loss of biodiversity, are linked with drivers like demographic dynamics and rapidly expanding trade and investment in the region. The scientific evidence base is sufficiently broad and strong to suggest that ecosystem service delivery in the region is changing and this change is impacting the societal well-being and material dimension of the poor in the region, but the capacity to internalise the concerns of changing ecosystems and its implications for poverty alleviation in dominant public policy is limited. Growing societal pressures and the availability of credible scientific evidence like Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and Inter Government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have made decision-makers receptive to the role ecosystem services in improving the material condition of the poor. Some of the recent initiatives by the Government of India on watershed management, national action plan on climate change and desertification, assessment of wasteland, new forest policies, task force on Tiger and biosphere reserve programme clearly demonstrate this level of this receptivity. However, the mechanisms through which the aspects of ecosystem can be made integral part of mainstream planning and policies need a more concerted and focussed approach. The capacity of the decision makers to analyse the way choices made by society might impact the functioning of ecosystem is not adequate. One of the significant gaps in the capacity identified during Situation Analysis conducted for South Asia under ESPA is the ability to capture the benefits people derive from ecosystems. Since the prevailing market does not account the benefits, the decision making tool chooses to ignore the benefits of ecosystem services and the costs of ecosystem degradation. People depend on those services but the level of dependence is proportionately more for the poor than the rich. In this context, the proposed research will focus on two components: 1. Methodological development to support policy design; and 2. Building capacity and demand. Component 1 will synthesise available information on state-of-the-art methods to support the decision-making process, facilitating the development of these methods within the region and the development of 'toolkits', such as a toolkit for the valuation of regulating services, and decision support systems. Component 2 will build capacity within the region through engaging key stakeholders and decision makers at province level to disseminate the findings of component 1, fostering regional demand for future work within this area, developing regional capacity and awareness amongst the regional research community and developing networks for future collaborations. The project strives to build upon the past and on-going work with the feedback from the stakeholders and key decision-makers in a trans-disciplinary and reiterative framework.