7 October 2015: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has released the results of a four-year project to develop ecosystem assessment tools and products that decision makers can use to integrate the value of ecosystem services into policy, investment decisions and macro-economic models. The ‘ProEcoServe’ project assessed ecosystem services such as the provision of soil retention, shoreline protection, carbon sequestration and pollination, identifying almost US$1 billion of benefits in the four pilot countries of Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa and Viet Nam.

Project results published in the report, titled ‘Success Stories in Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services into Macro-economic Policy and Land Use Planning: Evidence from Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa and Viet Nam,’ show that ecosystems are critical to sustainable development. Speaking on the project’s outcomes, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said that the true value of ecosystems is often misrepresented in markets and economic decision making. He highlighted the multiple health, scientific and aesthetic benefits that ecosystems provide and urged enhancing capacity so that their value to national and local communities can be properly reflected.

The project report relays a number of ecosystem services and their value to focus countries, including, inter alia: soil retention services worth US$622 million and coral reefs providing up to US$49.6 million of shoreline protection services annually in Trinidad and Tobago; US$166 million in savings through an ecosystem service-based disaster risk approach and the creation of 400,000 jobs from ecosystem restoration services in South Africa; 
45,523 hectares of mangroves generating ecosystem services worth up to US$1,560 to US$2,985 per hectare, per year in the Ca Mau province of Viet Nam; and information 
on water and ecotourism benefits in Chile based on data from an earth observation system and tourism data flows from internet-based platforms.

Project findings have already been used to support policy making in the pilot countries. For example, in South Africa, ecosystem services are now recognized as a part of the National Infrastructure Development Plan. In Viet Nam, the project’s findings were used in the National Green Growth Strategy to 2020 and the National Strategy for Environmental Protection to 2020, while in Chile, a tourism development plan recognizes the role of ecosystem services in sustainable land and tourism management in the Municipality of San Pedro de Atacama, one of the driest landscapes in the world. [UNEP Press Release] [Publication: Success Stories in Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services into Macro-economic Policy and Land Use Planning: Evidence from Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa and Viet Nam]