6 February 2012: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP)-UN Development Programme (UNDP) Poverty-Environment Initiative and the World Resources Institute (WRI) have launched a primer seeking to assist development practitioners in communicating to policy makers about the potential for positive poverty and environmental outcomes at the local level, when environmental mainstreaming efforts at the national and sectoral levels succeed.

Titled “Enabling Local Success: A Primer on Mainstreaming Local Ecosystem-based Solutions to Poverty-Environment Challenges,” the primer draws on lessons learned by the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative and other initiatives and projects. The publication: describes features of local ecosystem-based initiatives; discusses economic, social and environmental benefits, as well as resilience and adaptation benefits; outlines enabling conditions for local ecosystem-based solutions; provides guidance on identifying supportive policy, legal and regulatory frameworks; and introduces a programmatic approach to scaling up impacts.

According to the primer, it is meant as a basic tool that can help national and local officials to focus poverty-environment mainstreaming efforts on scaling up the multiple benefits that local ecosystem-based initiatives can produce. The primer also could serve as a useful reference for local groups, and provide a reminder about experiences with ecosystem-based initiatives that already exist in many communities. [Publication: Enabling Local Success: A Primer on Mainstreaming Local Ecosystem-Based Solutions to Poverty-Environment Challenges]