Publication
Guidance for the assessment of ecosystem services in African Biosphere Reserves: a way forward to sustainable development
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)鈥 2020 鈥淕lobal assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services鈥 states that nature and its contributions to people play an important role not only for the health of the planet, but also to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It highlighted notably the need for improved understanding of the interactions between ecosystem services and the goals and targets to end poverty and hunger and to enhance people鈥檚 well-being.
Ecosystem services, we know, encompass all of nature鈥檚 contributions to people. It can be raw materials such as water or wood, but also actual services like pollination of crops or carbon sequestration. Being able to assess these ecosystem services is, for communities, another step in understanding the area in which they live and how to live sustainably, in harmony with their direct environment.
For the first time, a specific, user-friendly manual dedicated to assess ecosystem services was created for biosphere reserve managers and decision-makers, and adapted to the African biosphere reserve context. Filling a gap in the Man and the Biosphere community and beyond, this manual will provide its readers with the necessary tools and knowledge to engage their communities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
