Connecting poverty & ecosystem services

Division of Policy Development and Law (DPDL) The objective of DPDL, a division within UNEP, is to enable members of the international community to develop integrated and coherent policy responses to environmental problems and to strengthen environmental law as well as to improve com- pliance with and enforcement of legal instruments. [...] All of the papers are available online at 1 The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was a four-year study requested by the United Nations Secretary General in 2001 to pro- vide an overview of the state of the global ecosystems and the consequences of ecosystem changes on human well-being. [...] The importance of the com- forests, housing 10 mangrove species and seven sea- position of the species is determined by how much a grass species and has 57 genera of scleractina coral, loss in the ecosystem service is experienced when one nine of which are protected (World Resources or more of the species is lost. [...] Another confounding factor is the prevalence of tsetse fly infestation in 60 per cent of the grazing land, thus Fibre production (cash crops) concentrating livestock in the semi-arid centre and north of the country in Arusha, Shinyanga and A wide range of commercial and cash crops are also Mwanza regions (PLDPT 1984 in Sawatt and Mollel grown, providing an important source of income for 2000; Tanz [...] Currently, the majority of farm- sufficiency ratio” measured as a percentage, is used to ers in high altitudes, such as those in Arumeru District, calculate the ability of food produced to meet Arusha Region, cannot support sufficient numbers of demand for food and other food-related requirements cattle and goats, and are usually limited to two per in a particular area5 (Tanzania Minstry of Agricu