The Minister of Environment of Costa Rica, Edgar Gutiérrez-Espeleta, said that understanding ecosystem services is critical for enhancing resilience, in his opening address to the 7th Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) Conference.
12 September 2014: In his opening address to the 7th Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) Conference, the Minister of Environment of Costa Rica, Edgar Gutiérrez-Espeleta, said that understanding ecosystem services is critical for enhancing resilience.
The Conference convened under the theme, ‘local action for the common good,’ and saw keynote presentations emphasizing the links between ecosystem services and the well-being of indigenous peoples and local communities, and on the role of payments for ecosystem services (PES) in biodiversity conservation.
In its core programme, the Conference considered global issues such as the integration of ecosystem services into land management systems, as well as progress on project implementation, especially EU funded projects on community based ecosystem management.
The conference also launched an updated Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA) developed by BirdLife International and the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in collaboration with a number of partners. The tool supports the identification and evaluation of ecosystem services and is intended to strengthen decision-making on land use. According to UNEP-WCMC, TESSA targets non-experts and addresses a current gap in the availability of simple evaluation tools.
The 7th ESP Conference convened from 8-12 September 2014, in Costa Rica. [ESP Conference 2014 Website] [UNEP-WCMC Press Release] [TESSA Website] [Global Mechanism Press Release]