Side Event

The Ecosystem Approach – Practical application experience

Organizer
The World Conservation Union - IUCN

Date and Time
2 July 2007 13:15 - 14:45

Meeting
Twelfth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 12)

The IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management will present its experience as well as that of partners in applying the Ecosystem Approach. Experience has been gained in protected areas contexts and in multifunctional landscapes, looking at ecosystems not only through the conservation lens but equally through the development lens. The Ecosystem Approach has mainly so far been used as a review or evaluation tool, but as its usefulness becomes more widely understood it will also come to be used more often for ecosystem identification and analysis before interventions are embarked upon. The Ecosystem Approach will only be able to reach its full potential once it is commonly used as a baseline in this way. The Ecosystem Approach has to take its place not only in harmony with other natural resource assessment methodologies (such as criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, or integrated water resource management) but also with the long experience in rural development of bilateral aid projects. This harmonization has only just begun, and must form the main thrust of what happens next in the evolution of the Ecosystem Approach.